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Poke me when it's all over
By Deborah Taylor-Hollis
My rug rat is no longer interested in Rugrats. He may still watch Scooby Doo, but it's no longer a mystery, and while he has some beanies, he doesn't want to be a baby anymore. He is now deep into the hottest craze sweeping America since the Hula Hoop. He wants Pokémon. This was a revelation in September--now, its a nightmare we can't get out of.
Pokémon ("pocket monsters"), a Japanese import game, started out as another Game Boy item and caught on so fast that the mass market still hasn't caught up with demand. There's s television show, several video movies--and those cards.
They are just like baseball cards, but they work like a game. You train your 150 (more to come later) monsters to do battle against evil. You play down your cards, add on power, energy, skills, etc. to see which monster will win based on its score at the end of each round. It's something that was aimed right at the 8- to 12-year-olds who jumped on them right away.
What no one foresaw was the wider market--the 4- to 18-year-olds. In May, we didn't even see a Pokémon in kindergarten, and by July every kid in our day care wanted to own and trade the cards.
They couldn't read yet, but they knew that Picachu is very cool and that Charizard (the foil 3-D one) is the most rare and expensive. My own 6-year-old took one look at the poster and was hooked quicker than on heroin. These kids got together at day care and traded cards and information as if they were millionaires talking stock tips.
I went down to Mike's Coliseum (the only place to get comics, cards, and good information) at Lincoln and Malone in September to get a second pack of cards. The first set I stumbled upon at Toys R Us when a shipment came in--and I've been bribing my son about his behavior with them ever since. He'd lick a camel clean if it meant another card in his collection. But they are hard to find. Toys R Us was out of them 10 minutes after they arrived, and wouldn't see more for another 2 weeks.
Mike's has always had a steady supply and lots of information besides. Mike McGill, the owner and proprietor, told me the fad for Pokethings is almost 7 years old since it started overseas, and it was just peaking when they came out with more Pokémon. He first got wind of it all one January day. "I'd only heard that it was very popular in Japan" he explained, "but I had no idea it was gonna be as popular as this.
"It's kinda like that trend in the late 80's--the Garbage Pail Kids? The kids love it because their parents don't know. They aren't involved with it, so it's still a kid thing" he explained while I looked over the individual cards he sells from the display case. "I have lots of items, but I do have to price higher on some things," he advised me when I started looking at all the possible goodies.
There's a poster of all the monsters you can "train," official magazines that Nintendo puts out on players' guides and rules, as well as the official website at Wizards of the Coast (wizards.com/Pokemon). All the rules and information about the card game take up more than 20 printed pages at the wizards' site, but they are fascinating to read . . . sort of like playing Dungeons and Dragons before computer software took all the work out of it.
Mike told me he carries 25 different kinds of items (aside from all the cards), including the comics and video movies. And there is always more coming. "The last expansion series was called Fossil. Some of the new popular characters in it include Dragnite, Muk, and The Legendary 3 Birds."
Right up until Christmastime I still bought into all this as just a kiddie fad, and then I really started looking at all this stuff. The fights, the "quest" to be a great trainer, the way kids are supposed to view these collectible monsters. The bottom line here is that it's animé cockfighting, only you have monsters instead of roosters, and they have a TV series.
So I started backing up on all the goodies. We still have the cards. My son worked hard to earn them. But the movies Santa brought are on a shelf and the clothing is in a box. I no longer want testosterone boy to fixate on fighting things--be they pocket monsters or anyone else.
It's no better than WW Wrestling for children. I wish this marketing blitz at small children had been something less violent. Or that small kids weren't right in the path of adolescent fighting fantasies.
I'm having a big garage sale this spring and should make a fortune on collectible Pokémon stuff. Bring cash. Lots of small bills.
Deborah can be contacted at DTHollis@metronews.com
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
