Welcome to Rare Candy's "Spotlight On" series, where we feature the history and stories behind some of the rarest and coolest cards and collectibles.
Looking to pick up a cute Poncho Pikachu of your own? Check out Rare Candy's June Premier Auction for a chance to bid on Poncho Pikachus dressed up as Mega Charizard X, Mega Charizard Y, Rayquaza, Shiny Rayquaza and more!
Putting pets in little outfits is an all-time cuteness classic, right up there with baby animals and unlikely cross-species friendships—and of course, it’s even cuter if you end up dressing your pet as another animal altogether, like dogs wearing lion manes and black cats with little bat wings strapped to their backs.
With that in mind, it makes complete sense that trainers would want to dress up their own Pokémon like other Pokémon—it may be a fictional world, but it’s still filled with human beings who like cute things, after all!
Enter: The Poncho-Wearing Pikachu card series, which imagines the already-adorable company mascot wearing various kigurumi-style Pokémon costumes for the ultimate kawaii overload.
Where Did the Poncho Pikachus Come From?
The trend started in December 2014, when the Pokémon Center in Tokyo gave out “Mega Tokyo Pikachu” promotional cards, which depicted Pikachu in a poncho of everyone’s other favorite Pokémon, Charizard — specifically, the Mega Charizard X form that was first introduced in X and Y.
Originally, the promo was meant to attract visitors to Tokyo Pokémon Center’s new location. Once it ended in January 2015, however, a second Mega Charizard Pikachu card was given out during events at Pokémon Centers all across Japan. This one featured Pikachu in a more active pose, lunging at a frightened Dedenne with a cheerful-looking “rawr.”
It’s unclear whether the Pokémon Company realized they’d struck gold and went all-in from there, or if ponchos were always a planned marketing effort from the very beginning — but either way, a new collectible trend was born.
Give Me More Ponchos!
Right after the Mega Charizard cards hit it big, July 2015 saw the arrival of two new poncho cards: Pretend Magikarp and Pretend Gyarados, which were sold in a special commemorative box set at the Pokémon Center in Hiroshima. (For context, the unofficial mascot of the Hiroshima location is a shiny Gyarados — there’s even a giant statue of one in the store!)
Next, illustrator Kouki Saitou put in overtime on a series of individual promo cards that each featured multiple Pikachus in bespoke mega evolution ponchos. Officially considered the first in the “Poncho-Wearing Pikachu” series, these cards were given out at Pokémon Center events over the course of the next year.
The first, from winter 2015, includes costumes based on Mega Lucario, Mega Audino, Mega Slowbro (the puffy shell jacket on this design should earn bonus points); the second and third, from summer 2016, have designs based on on Mega Lopunny, Mega Diancie, Mega Gardevoir, Mega Gallade, Mega Rayquaza, Mega Ampharos and Mega Mawile.
From then on, each Poncho-Wearing Pikachu went back to getting its own moment in the spotlight, starting with Mega Charizard X and Y cards. Each one came in a special commemorative box set, and were only sold in Japan Pokémon Center locations.
Note that despite being the same poncho design as the very first promo card, this is a slightly new, calmer-looking illustration from Kouki Saito. (Our headcanon is that he’s more excited about the new Y costume this time around. Just look at his fierce little face!)
Then in July 2016, another Pokémon Center opened up in Tokyo’s Skytree Town commercial complex, selling a similar special commemorative box that featured Pikachu in regular and shiny Rayquaza outfits. (Rayquaza is the Skytree Town location’s mascot, and there’s also a statue of it in the store — noticing a trend?)
When the Pokémon Center in Tohoku reopened in 2017, their then-unofficial mascot Rowlett also got a Poncho-Wearing Pikachu, the first of its kind to be included in the Sun and Moon promo card set rather than in X and Y. (Tohoku has since changed its mascots, from Victini and Rowlett to Victini and Sprigatito.)
Finally (but hopefully not for long!), The Pokémon Company released another special box to commemorate Sun and Moon, featuring Pikachu in both a regular and Alolan variant Vulpix get-up.
How Big Did the Poncho Pikachus Get?
Of course, the phenomenon didn’t stop at just cards. Heck, it didn’t even stop at just Pikachu — Evee also got to wear some fun ponchos in a 2017 series known as the “Eevee Mega Campaign.”
There was also a lot of contemporaneous merchandise sold at all the participating Japanese Pokémon centers, including plushies, figures, “business cards” (which aren’t playable in a match but can still be graded!), keychains, pins, phone cases, tote bags and even some ponchos Pikachus that weren’t featured in cards, such as this Lugia and Ho-Oh pair.
There were even full-size mascot costumes of the Poncho Pikachus for Pokémon Center events!
And while there’s no definitive proof of this, we can’t help wondering if the poncho trend inspired the creation of Mimikyu, which is essentially an eldritch horror in a badly made Pikachu costume, for Sun and Moon in 2016. Hey, if Pikachu can dress up like other creatures, why can’t this li’l guy?
(Pikachu even wore a poncho-like Mimikyu costume during a Pokémon GO Halloween event in 2019, which is… kind of rude if you think about it? That’s like if someone copied your haircut and then you dressed up as them using a wig. Leave poor Mimikyu alone!)
Where Are They Now?
Eagle-eyed readers will have noted by now that all these cards were only available in Japan, often as part of an in-store purchase or commemorative box set, so suffice it to say that they’re pretty rare these days — especially since they became super popular last year as part of the ongoing Pokémon collecting boom.
“I remember going to comic cons and buying the sealed boxes with the ponchos in for like £30, £35 a box,” card trader Sam Pantellerisco told Dicebreaker. “They're now really heavily priced where some of the PSA 10s are in the $4,000 to $6,000 range currently.”
Nowadays, a card that came as part of a box set can run you anywhere from a few hundred toa few thousand dollars. Just look at how the asking prices have jumped on shiny Rayquazas in particular — from $233 in May 2022 up to $1,175 in May 2024!
Looking to pick up a cute Poncho Pikachu of your own? Check out Rare Candy's June Premier Auction for a chance to bid on Poncho Pikachus dressed up as Mega Charizard X, Mega Charizard Y, Rayquaza, Shiny Rayquaza and more!
