HASBRO FIGURE CATEGORIES
(Credit goes to whoever took this photo, thanks for letting me use it!)
A LITTLE HISTORY
It was the late 90's. Pokemon fever had boomed after the release of Pokemon Red and Blue and the american dub of the anime series, so marketers decided to capitalize even more on the franchise's success. At the helm of this was good old Hasbro.
For the first few years, Hasbro, rather than make their own line of figures, simply rebranded the Japanese TOMY figurines with American packaging. These were an instant hit, and although every kid at the time had at least one or two laying around, they're collectors items today that can carry a heavy price tag depending on the figure (Many of the rarest were only sold in Japan and the Pokemon Center in NY, such as Voltorb and Electrode.)
Later, when the franchise was still extremely successful in America (although not as much as years before), Hasbro decided to begin making their own Pokemon action figures. Some of the first were fairly large and almost all had an "action" feature, as well as a shiny counterpart. The shiny figures are much harder to find than the original colors, so be prepared when scouting for them on eBay.
Hasbro also distributed lots of other interesting items, such as electronic Thinkchip and V-trainer figures, and Roller Figures.
By the time the third generation of Pokemon had come out, interest had certainly waned in America. The Pokemon craze had faded away like most other fads of the time, but still had a dedicated fanbase (The 3rd generation games, Ruby and Sapphire, were two of the best-selling Game Boy Advance games of all time). Though interest in the games was still high, the merchandise didn't fare as well, making many of the Hasbro-exclusive items in this era difficult to track down.
Hasbro eventually began losing enough profit from their Pokemon sales that they gave up the license in 2006, leaving it to Jakks Pacific.
A LITTLE HISTORY
It was the late 90's. Pokemon fever had boomed after the release of Pokemon Red and Blue and the american dub of the anime series, so marketers decided to capitalize even more on the franchise's success. At the helm of this was good old Hasbro.
For the first few years, Hasbro, rather than make their own line of figures, simply rebranded the Japanese TOMY figurines with American packaging. These were an instant hit, and although every kid at the time had at least one or two laying around, they're collectors items today that can carry a heavy price tag depending on the figure (Many of the rarest were only sold in Japan and the Pokemon Center in NY, such as Voltorb and Electrode.)
Later, when the franchise was still extremely successful in America (although not as much as years before), Hasbro decided to begin making their own Pokemon action figures. Some of the first were fairly large and almost all had an "action" feature, as well as a shiny counterpart. The shiny figures are much harder to find than the original colors, so be prepared when scouting for them on eBay.
Hasbro also distributed lots of other interesting items, such as electronic Thinkchip and V-trainer figures, and Roller Figures.
By the time the third generation of Pokemon had come out, interest had certainly waned in America. The Pokemon craze had faded away like most other fads of the time, but still had a dedicated fanbase (The 3rd generation games, Ruby and Sapphire, were two of the best-selling Game Boy Advance games of all time). Though interest in the games was still high, the merchandise didn't fare as well, making many of the Hasbro-exclusive items in this era difficult to track down.
Hasbro eventually began losing enough profit from their Pokemon sales that they gave up the license in 2006, leaving it to Jakks Pacific.