Pokemon player’s genius Shiny idea goes viral
The Pokemon CompanyThe Pokemon community was blown away by a player’s incredible idea of how to make Pokemon plushies more exciting. Some fans, however, argue that scalpers would ruin the viral concept.
In 2019, Pokemon became the highest-grossing media franchise of all-time, even beating out entertainment giants such as Disney and Marvel. From cards to merchandising, the popular Japanese games offer players a variety of ways to celebrate them.
One fan went viral online after they user shared their genius idea on how to make Pokemon plushies more fun to collect. Would the Shiny concept immediately get ruined by greedy scalpers, though?
The Pokemon CompanyPokemon Shiny plush idea goes viral
Pokemon fan JustinFunNL shared their concept on the r/Pokemon subreddit where they argued that Game Freak should use a popular game mechanic to make plush merchandise more interesting.
“Petition for official Pokemon plush sellers to make 1 of 4000 plushes Shiny,” they wrote. According to the user, one out of every 4,000 plushies made would sport the character’s incredibly rare Shiny color palette.
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Many in the community praised the idea as it would mimic the in-game lore. Plus those who manage to score a Shiny version of their favorite ‘mon would covet the doll compared to regular plushes.
Despite many users being on board with the idea, just as many were not sold on the concept and argued that scalpers would not only immediately destroy it, but would ruin plushes in general by buying stock in the hopes of scoring the rare Shiny variants.
“Already seeing the s**t storms that would cause,” one user wrote. Another agreed and explained, “Some rich a**holes will buy the entire stock trying to get the shiny ones. If you buy 4000 normal ones per shiny and own basically all the stock, then you can also resell the normal ones for 10x their worth, and the shiny ones for 4000+ x their worth.”
One fan even described the situation as being chaos. “It’s an interesting idea, but would be a scalper clusterf**k of chaos. The chances of a customer seeing one, let alone buying one is very slim.”
Fans skeptical of the Shiny plushies idea isn’t exactly unwarranted as scalpers have already been targeting Pokemon Center merchandise. In April, a giant plushy of Gen 8 Dragon-type Appletun sold out almost instantly. The $70 doll is now being sold on auctions sites like eBay for $400, which is nearly a 500% mark up.
EbayWhile Shiny collectibles would be a great way to bring the game’s most popular mechanic to the series’ merchandising, it’s hard not to imagine the absolute nightmare it would cause from scalpers trying to cash-in on the limited-time items.
In February, greedy adults ruined McDonald’s Happy Meals for kids after buying hundreds of the food product to hoard the 25th anniversary cards inside. Desperate sellers were even willing to tear open cereal boxes in stores, so we can only imagine the mayhem a Shiny plush would cause.