I had a conversation with a friend of mine the other day on which Pokémon will have the “Charizard Premium” in the future with the current younger generations growing up and experience their own nostalgia for what is currently modern in the Pokémon hobby. So I thought I would bring it here to get some others opinions.
What I mean more specifically by that is what Pokémon within the IP do you think will hold a premium/be the chase solely because they are the Pokémon on the card (art aside, history aside, type of release etc. aside as obviously that has a huge affect on demand/value)
What Pokémon from modern times (Gen 7-9 ish) will follow a similar path to Charizard, Pikachu, eeveelutions (especially umbreon), Lugia, Rayquaza, etc. as being a chase due to nostalgia, coolness, cuteness etc. in sets down the line?
We have already seen this with the likes of a Pokémon like Mimikyu for more “modern” Pokémon and their popularity, but do you think any more “recent” Pokémon will end up joining that upper echelon of popularity and thus, boast a “Charizard Premium” solely due to the Pokémon featured? Or do you think future generations will just stick to the OG favourites and no newer Pokémon will boast premiums just because they are the Pokémon on the card?
Newer Pokémon don’t have enough time to really establish that popularity, and TPC don’t seem willing to really stick the rocket ship behind a new Pokémon to push it to the forefront.
Greninja maybe the last one to get a lot of attention but it died out fairly quickly when they moved onto Gen 7 and has hardly had any exposure since.
My guess is that the kids who grow up with a certain generation will always look back at them the same as people who grew up with Gen 1 or 2 look back at their favourites to some degree. It also just depends on the marketing factors. Charizard or Pikachu and similar are just timeless designs that can be marketed well and always remain popular across multiple generations. They are very important to the Pokemon success/company I would say.
I’m sure that at some point or another certain newer Pokemon could become more elusive or “premium”. At one point or another many Pokemon were not as valuable/sought after and grew in popularity more over time. For example, I feel like Gengar was always popular when I was a kid but I almost feels like he’s a legendary Pokemon these days, lol. I think at times we underestimate just how popular certain Pokemon are or can become which enhances their value to fans over time.
Everything gets better with age. Similar to what @jabby is saying, I think if we made a list of “great and memorable Pokemon designs” and achieved consensus, we’d have a linear relationship between being older and being perceived as better. I don’t think this is due to older Pokemon being inherently better, but just that time allows for things like nostalgia, growing up and having more money to spend, designs percolating through the public consciousness, Pokemon being featured in more games, etc. etc. All this is to say that I think it’s unlikely for any relatively new Pokemon to be perceived as reaching the same level of popularity as older ones, but that’s to be expected. Some Pokemon that I think will reach that level in time (new forms of old Pokemon excluded):
From a 25th anniversary reimagined gold star to a popularly playable Radiant card to the runner-up illustration of last year’s Contest, Greninja is still part of some notable releases. This year’s Greninja ex (ex Start deck) opens up the possibility of a Special Art later down the road, as previous High Class Pack sets have done
When that’s the best Greninja has to offer in recent years, then I stand by my original point. Not a great amount of exposure for what was once looking like becoming a real mascot for the franchise
i agree on dragapult being one of those designs that could do extremely well over time (which is frustrating that it hasn’t had a special art yet )
i think the galarian birds all have potential to only grow over time. i’m skeptical on meme mons like crammorant, but i could see some of these having very popular cards. something like poipole, cosmog for example could be in high demand if they received a special art since they’re so cute and cool.
i think the gen 8 regis are both very strong designs and over time could become the most popular of all of the regis, but they’re still just regis and will never have that big of a following.
gen 9 has huge potential with a lot of really strong designs. the sub legendary quartet is already iconic across VGC and TCG. the paradox mons are all very meme worthy and have a huge fandom already. tatsugiri is personally one of my favorite pokemon designs across any generation and with there being three color variations, it would be a fun mon to collect.
i could see something like roaring moon being extremely popular whenever it gets a special art. maybe not similar level as rayquaza, but i could see it being one of the most popular/desired mons to collect from gen 9.
plus we’ll see what the dlc brings. the paradox concept has so much potential to introduce new fan favorite designs.
When pokemon company still have to feature pikachu together with the 3 new starters (that duck, cat and baby crocodile) in their new promo card, we know they are not going to go far.
When pokemon company still have to revamp/reissue the 151 gen 1 pokemons, we know S&V era is seriously done. Stick a fork in!
So far in this new era, I’m only getting the gold Mew ex card which features Mew in the correct color (not even getting the Mew SAR which I’m having difficulty locating Mew on the card). Skipping all the rest, waifus and the new pokemons. Great for my wallet to take a vacation from SWSH era.
I don’t watch the anime but I feel like that has a major influence on establishing/maintaining popularity because it gives them character.
TPC as a whole needs to learn how to push their characters though. While I don’t particularly like a lot of the recent starter designs, TPC hasn’t given them a chance at all in the TCG when many have gone generations without cards.
And as I’ve said before, if Charizard is actually so popular, then why not make more starters that look like the Gen 1 starters instead of the jobmons we have today?
That said, I am still skeptical of the whole space. How popular is Pokemon really? It cannot sustain itself on ‘Pokeboomers’ forever.
FWIW I see kids of all ages swarming the Pokemon section at every LCS I frequent. Even sports card shows with only a couple TCG booths. Drooling over random modern singles, pointing at “old cards,” and explaining things to their parents in their 30s/40s and surprisingly DGAF about Pokemon. Kinda bizarre tbh. I used to think Pokeboomers were force feeding kids their nostalgia, but a lot of it appears to be organic from what I’ve seen.
)