Wanted to take the time to wish everyone a HAPPY Pokemon Day!
Feel free to share what you love most about the franchise (and your favorite Pokemon) below.
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As for me, it’s the sheer childhood nostalgia and the iconic characters that make me smile.
And my all-time favorite Pokemon is Oddish.
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Happy Pokémon Day! It’s hard for me to pick any one part I love most, but I can say having the opportunity to travel and make friends and volunteer at events has impacted my life so positively in every way. I can thank Pokemon for almost every good thing I’ve had in my life, including my job (the company I work for is Japanese and picked out my resume due to the Pokémon volunteer work).
Thank you all for being as excited about Pokémon as I am and making it a lively community! It feels good to be a part of something.
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Happy Pokemon Day!
What do I love the MOST? Well, everything! Less general answer: It helps to keep me happy and healthy.
How? Well, as a teen/young adult (and even prior) I developed a lot of mental health issues as well as struggled heavily with addiction (I mention this way back on another thread about losing cards or having them stolen, which happened to me due to these matters). Through it all, I always held Pokemon close to me as an escape and motivator. When youre engaged with those sort of matters, emotions are quite void as the whole point of me even getting into my addiction was to be completely numb. Yet, Pokemon always was that one thing that brought me back to reality in ways. I could watch the anime and feel joy and motivation, while also having those sad moments which brought me back to feeling like myself again. I could play the games and experience reward and success, as well as healthy frustration and aggravation (Looking at you Whitney), and my plushies always were something around as well which brought a smile to my face. When I kicked those ill habits a while back now, it continued to be my most favored and healthy release, which led to me coming back to collecting the cards again last September because by far playing and collecting held some of the best memories in the hobby for me.
Now Pokemon continues to shine in my life by allowing me to meet great people (everyone here), find new aspects of Pokemon I never once before knew of, and by showing me the aspects of true joy when I see others just as happy and enamored with it as I and we are. Nothing beats seeing the kids at the local Tournaments I go to get the new chase cards in their packs, or when I get to hear older folks talk about the good old days and how much they still enjoy replaying Red/Blue. It all is such an amazing thing, and ill always be grateful for it and all else who share that same love.
For today, I think ill celebrate by playing a little Pokemon Pinball (thats been my downtime joy lately haha) 
PS: @danthedoozy Oddish I think is awesome as well! My gf and I have a little plushie of one which sits with my Cyndaquils
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What it does for people. It can’t be overstated how hobbies motivate and give people purpose. Over the years I have met people from every country, race, gender, religion, occupation, etc. The variety of interests creates a dynamic hobby. It doesn’t matter how much you are spending; the interest and value is the universal core.
Btw Pokemon Instagram is posting clips from every game! Pretty cool nostalgia trip. Next year will be a big one, 25th anniversary! It will be exciting to see if we will get any unique promos. Its surreal its already been 24 years, I still feel like the 90s was a few years ago.
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For me Pokemon is much like sports. Like Scott said, it brings people together from all over enjoying the same thing. The nostalgia from it is also a huge factor.
Scyther is my favorite Pokémon!
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It’s been there all my life and given me nothing but happy memories
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Smpratte time sure does fly! I love everything about Pokemon from the games to the cards to the plushies I buy my girlfriend but really love myself haha. I heard news of a new Mythical Pokemon which is always exciting! And yes I hope they come out with a amazing promo for the 24th and 25th anniversary. I hope the next game is better than the last. I loved the Ultra Wormhole from Ultra Sun and Moon and Sos chaining for shiny Pokemon. I wish they would bring that back and integrate it with the new games mechanics but I know that probably won’t happen. I’m really liking how the Pokemon cards have changed over the generations!! I’m having fun collecting all the old Wotc cards again in 1st edition which is mind blowing how cheap they still are and how available. I figured after 24 years there would be enough true collectors to actually keep their cards long term. There shouldn’t be many 1st editions on the market. But at the same time as a buyer that makes me very happy. I do believe it’s a buyer’s market right now. But I’m just a little new Pikachu don’t mind me. I just go off what I see first hand 
it’s real nice all the different styles of new cards but I really wish Pokemon company would adjust some things to not have so much saturation and priced should adjust more. For example it makes zero sense that a rainbow rare which is 1 out of every 2 or 3 boxes generally goes for $50 or less with tons of them being only $5-$20. But again as a buyer this works for me I just hope Pokemon goes back to its roots more with some things. Yes it’s a brand new era but some old things should still be in play. There is so many good things happening in the hobby but Pokemon also seems like a drunk driver with their development of cards lately. There is zero incentive to buy new product fast. We have the luxury of waiting for things to get cheaper instead of go up in value as far as new product. And opening boxes is now a joke. No matter how good your pulls are you instantly lose at least 50 percent of box cost. Even the rarest new cards aren’t worth much at all which is somewhat a sad thing if you do enjoy opening which many of us always did. But at a certain point a lot of us realized this and stopped opening packs. O well Happy Pokemon Day I do truly love this hobby even for its flaws :-). P.s I loved the Detective Pikachu movie and the graphics I can’t wait for another movie like this!!!
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For me it’s about the people. There have been times where I have considered quitting collecting or selling my collection for financial reasons. However, time and time again, it’s the people in this community that have kept me going. Seeing people in person also makes a huge difference. The last event I attended occurred within a year when I was considering selling my entire collection - but the interactions I had with other members, new people who shared their collections - all of it - made me realize I needed to stop being so damn wishy-washy and just appreciate my collection for what it was. It helped me fine tune my needs, my financial goals, etc. Even when collecting has been at its worst, the people here on E4 have made it so much the better. I love my Gyarados collection, but if I didn’t have this hobby to share with, it wouldn’t mean half as much to me.
As for talking about my favorite Pokemon… Let’s avoid that for the sake of all readers and the text limit on a single post.
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@azulryu, Do you still have that card from E4? That was a pleasant memory.
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I do!
I keep it with the rest of my collection! I was informed years ago not to post a picture of the inside due to certain people wanting to remain anonymous with their contribution. I’m not sure if I touched on the subject, but Christmas was always a hard holiday for my family growing up, so the holiday tends to bring a lot of heavy emotions. That year was especially hard after losing my job near around that time. That Christmas was the best memory I had in over 15 years so I definitely was a weeping wreck of a human being for the sheer gratitude of it all. Thank you all again who were a part of that memory. 
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Happy Pokémon Day, everyone!
My favorite thing about Pokémon is the sense of adventure it incites (and all that comes along with it, like personal development, companionship, and just plain fun). Whether you’re playing the Game Boy game on the couch, collecting cards in a variety of capacities, or out traveling for different purposes, you can always maintain that original spirit of adventure.
Friends and I often pretended our town was a part of the Pokémon world when exploring around back in middle and high school. We even talked about setting out on our own journeys one day. After college, I made that happen when I moved to the other side of the world for almost a decade, and that choice has directly led to where I am today (researching East Asian religion and philosophy).
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If I had to pick a favorite pokemon, it would definitely be tranquil. I collect all of his toys. 
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It’s hard to pick a favorite Pokemon but I have so many good memories winning battle after battle online with Xerneas. Mimikyu and Primal Groudon on Ultra Moon. Xerneas move Geometry is super OP some games I even would purposely do Geometry two or three times before attacking just to do plus 6 special attack and speed for no apparent reason. On my Xerneas that’s Modest nature and max hp and special attack IVs. The Pokemon is a tank and so powerful even in doubles it whipes whole teams. Mimikyu was fun to swords dance on the first turn than start sweeping. Sometimes even two swords dance in a row. Mimikyu was a 3 hit ko Pokemon with a focus sash. 1 for mask. 1 to get Mimikyu to 1 hp. And 1 to finally kill it. By that time I swept your whole team! also shadow sneak was a very handy move. Groudon is a perfect closer for harder battles sometimes I also subbed him for Dialga. God there is so many really kool one of a kind Pokemon. But if I had to pick one I’m going Rayquaza! Rayquazas attack in game was outrageously high! I also use him a ton. Watch out for that tailwind on the first turn :-). Tailwind= Double speed for three turns. =You go last and never get a chance to attack while I sweep your team I love great strategy’s for online competition
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For me, the strong personal attachment started with my sons. From day one we collected, traded, socialized…pretty much all we did was Pokémon related:) In 1999 we even drove from state to state, trying to catch them all.
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Favorite thing about Pokémon is the community in general. I love collecting, and I’ve collected many things in the past, but only the ones for which I’m part of a great community like here I’ve continued collecting for the longest time. Mostly because it’s nice to share your enjoyment with others, and also feel their enjoyment in return. In addition, I love to learn and share my knowledge about my hobbies (as can be seen by some of the articles I wrote thus far 
).
As for favorite Pokémon: Seviper. Snakes have always been my favorite animals (I have 13 snake posters hanging in my room from a calendar I once bought, haha), and although Ekans and Arbok are pretty cool as well, the design of Seviper is just perfect in my eyes. Right now I only need three more cards to fully complete my Seviper collection in all languages and variations, which I hope I will do one day. (If anyone has a Spanish Hidden Fates Shiny Seviper, or Japanese unlimited edition World Champions Pack Seviper or Battle Frontier trainer card, let me know please. Especially those last two.)
Greetz,
Quuador
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Pretty much echoing Quuador. I am a collector at heart, and Pokemon offers an endless supply of new things to collect (too much sometimes) but I love always being on the hunt and adding things to my collections, it is very rewarding and helps me focus on the positives in life when other things get hard.
Pairing collecting with the maximum nostalgia that is Pokemon makes for the perfect community and hobby for me.
And my all time favorite Pokemon is Pikachu. Always has been since I first picked up Pokemon Yellow as a kid, and I doubt that will ever change. Honorable mentions to Golem and Steelix.
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Happy Day!
What I love most is how pervasive it is in our culture. You could probably ask random people from nearly every country in the world and a large majority of them will have heard of Pokémon. Favorite Pokémon is Squirtle.
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