POKÉMON COLLECTIBLES / AUTHOR: LISA COURTNEY / PUBLISHER: AMBERLEY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

For those of us who were kids in the nineties, it was hard to not be taken in with the mania that was Pokémon, which launched in Japan as two games: Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green and soon turned into a global phenomenon.

Pokémon Collectables, by Lisa Courtney, is a guide to the vast array of Pokémon merchandise that has been released over the years, including some of the more bizarre items, for example, a Slowbro Christmas tree tail decoration. Heinz got into the Pokémon mania by promoting Pokémon 2000 with Pokémon-shaped pasta and there was also Calypso berry blast drink, figures, marbles, and plush toys. There is literally something for everyone who collects the little critters. One of the highlights of the book for this writer was seeing the Micro Machines playsets that were released, which you could connect together with small bridges.

The book serves the nostalgia market especially well, especially those who have been with the series for the beginning. One of the only omissions here is that in the UK in the late nineties you could buy Pokémon sweets from any corner shop that included a Pokémon figure inside, what made these special was that they came in a hard plastic Pokéball. The toy you would get inside was random, with no way of being able to tell what was inside. The book does mention the sweets, but doesn’t mention the ones that came in the Pokéball.

This will cater to anyone who wants to take a trip down memory lane or to see what over kinds of merchandise was released. The only downside is that it caters specifically to the long-time fans of the show and not so much the new fans as a lot of the merchandise is now vintage. However, it serves as a good history lesson to those just getting into the series be it video game, trading cards, anime.

For the collectors out there that gotta catch’em all.