Feature: Joponnes Grimer Collection

We all have our favourite Pokémon, and for many of us we like to collect items and merchandise of them. Perhaps you love that adorable little electric mouse Pokémon, Pikachu? Or one of the many Eevee evolutions? Well, move aside as Joponnes’s slime army is here! This Pokémon fan tells us all about his Grimer and Muk items, and why these often overlooked Pokémon became a focus of his collection.

Joponnes has amassed quite the collection of Grimer and Muk items over the years, with multiple shelves dedicated to these slimy creatures, featuring figures, charms, coins, trading cards, and more

Joponnes:

Hi, I'm Joponnes! I collect a lot of things regarding Pokémon, my passion got started as a kid and after the childhood Pokémon phase, Pokémon Go brought me back as an adult. My main collection and the one I'm most passionate about is my Grimer and Muk collection, or as a like to call it: my slime army. I don't remember the exact time when I started collecting them but Grimer and Muk have always been in my top Pokémon. They aren't exactly the most popular ones out of my top picks but I have a lot of sympathy for the rejected ones so eventually they became my number one favourites. It started with English cards but slowly goals like Japanese cards or stickers were added and as the photos show now it's basically anything with Grimer or Muk on it!

I'm in a lucky position that I have already acquired my most cherished items. The two cards that I want to mention are my Topps Chrome Sparkle-Chrome Muk and my cosmos foil Fossil [expansion] Muk as both of them and the process of getting them is something i'll remember for the rest of my life. Topps Chrome Chrome-Sparkle Muk was my first true big hunt regarding slime cards and it took multiple years of daily searches and numerous amount of contacted people to get my copy. With cosmos foil Fossil [expansion] Muk it wasn't that much about searches but instead gathering funds and waiting for an opportunity to buy the card. I do have some big items that I'm missing but many of those are stretch goals, [the] biggest of them being a trash can Grimer that's being used in some Japanese Pokémon exhibitions and museums, but I think it's very uncertain if one ever becomes available for public and in that case if it would anyway ever be affordable.

Cosmos foil Fossil [expansion] Muk, a test print for the new holofoil pattern with only a handful of known copies

Joponnes:

Outside [of my] slime army, the collections I cherish the most are my Wizards of the Coast set collection and my topps collection since those I started as a kid and got to finish as an adult. Topps cards were the first Pokémon product I got as a kid and finding the last pieces for that collection was a wild ride, so finishing especially that collection was huge for me. And naturally the first sets of TCG cards are special for me like they are for so many others. [The] Pokémon Company makes absolutely gorgeous cards in the modern sets we have lately gotten and I have multiple side collections where i can include those too, but it's anyway these old cards that mean the most to me and bring a ton of nostalgy.

I'm proud of how much I've managed to collect during all these years, some people have even said that [my] slime army has inspired them in species collecting and things like that always make me somewhat flabbergasted. But I hope people keep getting joy when they see my collection and overall from Pokémon!

Additional photographs

Topps Movie 2000 First Appearance cards, featuring Lugia, Slowking, Bellossom, Elekid, Ledyba and Hoothoot

Topps Johto Series 1 hologram cards featuring some of the toughest cards to find for Joponnes

Topps Chrome promotional uncut sheet featuring a selection of first generation Pokémon

A poster that says “Join the 10th Anniversary Celebration” to promote an unreleased set of Topps Pokémon cards

Every different variant of Grimer Topps cards

Every different variant of Muk Topps cards

A jumbo Bandai carddass animation card, featuring Grimer and Muk, with Pikachu, Magnemite and Magneton

A huge thank you to Joponnes for taking the time to educate us on his incredible collection! It’s great to see some underappreciated Pokémon get some love, and we wish you the best of luck with finding even more cool items in the future!