Feature: Steph's Pokémon Memories

Steph was fortunate enough to grow up with Pokémon right at the beginning, during the height of Pokémania. She has many great Pokémon memories, and in this feature, she focuses on her visit to FAO Schwarz in NYC in late 2000. Steph goes on to share more memories and even shared some fantastic photographs with us from those days!

---

A photograph of the "Pokémon-o-rama" display at FAO Schwarz in NYC, around November/December 2000. The photo was taken by Steph while on a field trip when she was in sixth grade.

I first found out about Pokémon during my band class around 1998-1999. I was in 5th grade at the time and I saw other kids trading cards so I eventually started to get into them as well. My older brother saw me with the cards in our house and told me there was also a Pokémon cartoon show that played very early in the mornings on Kids’ WB!. I couldn't wake up early enough to watch in the morning, but I began to watch the show after school around 4pm and after that I was completely obsessed with Pokémon. It wasn't just the next trend for me, since I had already been into Beanie Babies and Sailor Moon; it was my entire life! I still love Pokémon to this day. I began to collect more cards and watched the anime religiously. If I couldn't watch a new episode when it aired on Saturday mornings, I would program our VCR to record them for me and watch later when I got home.

Eventually I got into the Pokémon video games because my friend's younger brother had a Game Boy with the Blue version and he was about 4-5 years younger than me at the time; I think he was in kindergarten or maybe first grade, and he said the game was too hard and asked me if I could beat it for him. When my parents saw me in my room with the Game Boy they absolutely FLIPPED OUT. They refused to believe me when I told them that he gave me the game and asked me to play it for him; they were convinced that I stole it from him and immediately made me go back to my friend's house and apologize to him and his parents. When we went to their house, he was so happy that I was able to get past Lavender Town and the Silph Company for him. My parents did feel bad about the whole ordeal, so for my next birthday they got me my own Game Boy Color in [Kiwi] green and my own version of Pokémon Blue! No more "stealing" from neighbor kids, haha.

Another photo of the "Pokémon-o-rama" display at FAO Schwarz from around November/December 2000

The following year I went on a field trip to see the Radio City Rockettes. I'm from Long Island, so before 9/11 it was really normal for schools to have field trips into NYC. We would usually take the LIRR or sometimes the school would get special jitney buses to bring all the kids and a few parent chaperones. During this trip we also went down to South Street Seaport! It was so fun and exciting to explore the city, since I usually only went in to visit relatives and not to sight-see. We stopped by the FAO Schwarz which is where they had an entire section dedicated to Pokémon! This was before the official Pokémon Center/eventual Nintendo store opened. I don't know if it was a semi-permanent installation or [a] limited time pop-up event, but it was so exciting to see so much Pokémon stuff all in one place. I literally lost my mind in that store! The entrance to the area was a gigantic Pokéball and the first thing you saw when you walked in was the first Pokémon movie playing on a big screen.

I always had a love of drawing, but Pokémon really inspired me to create art and was a gateway into other anime. I now work professionally as a graphic designer and art director in NYC, and it all started from watching and drawing Pokémon in my childhood bedroom. I used to mail my drawings to the address in the back of the Pokémon comics and also to the Kids’ WB! Pokémon website, in hopes that my fanart would appear somewhere. Kids’ WB! never put up my drawings on their site, but years later they did mail me a promotional VHS tape of an "upcoming anime show"... which turned out to be YU-GI-OH!! Lmao

A photograph focused on a giant Pikachu figure hanging from the ceiling, taken at FAO Schwarz from around November/December 2000

We asked Steph what kinds of Pokémon related items she retains all these years later, and any additional memories of Pokémon she has from those days.

I still have all of my holographic cards, any first edition cards and some sentimental promotional ones like from the movies. I also kept my collection of Pokémon comics and some doujinshi from 1998! I still have a bunch of Pokémon CDs too: Pokémon movie soundtracks, [the] 2.B.A. Master CD, [a] Japanese anime soundtrack, and a really odd album called MUSIC INSPIRED BY POKÉMON that unironically slaps?? The music reminds me of Powerline from A Goofy Movie.

My "friend" tricked me into deleting my entire Pokémon Yellow game by telling me you could use it with a GameShark (surprise... you can't). I was so angry that I NEVER talked to her again!

My grandma one time gave me a ziplock bag full of random loose cards that she bought on Canal Street in Chinatown and tried to convince me they were real lol, [and] I wish I still had them! I tried telling her they were fake, but she refused to believe it, saying hers were real and my actual cards were the fake ones. My parents ended up forcing me to APOLOGIZE for being "so ungrateful for the gift". I specifically remember some of them were reverse holographics and printed on really crappy card stock. (This was way before they started releasing actual official reverse holo cards, so I knew they were fake.) Some had the Japanese card design on the back, but English on the front.

My first ever shiny was a Mewtwo! When Gold/Silver came out, I transferred all my Pokémon from my Blue version to my Gold version and some of them were glitched. Their names were messed up and they were holding weird items, but the strangest thing of all was my Mewtwo was green and had sparkles in battle. I was so upset, I thought I ruined my Pokémon. (I had no idea what shinies were!) It wasn't until YEARS later that my friend made me realize it was actually not glitched and my Mewtwo was shiny! Unfortunately by that point my Gold version had that common error with the internal clock where it won't let you save anymore, so my Mewtwo is forever lost to time.

Additional photos:

A photograph of a screen, which played Pokémon: The First Movie, at FAO Schwarz, taken between November/December 2000

A photograph of the Christmas Tree outside of Rockefeller Center, taken by Steph during her visit in November/December 2000

A photograph from Steph of her Pokémon cards and toys taken between 1998 and 2001

Another photograph of Steph’s Pokémon cards taken between 1998 and 2001

A photograph of Steph holding a Pikachu and Jolteon plush with her friend Ally, from Halloween 2000

Steph’s drawing of an Eevee drawn between 1998 and 2001

Steph’s drawing of Lugia & Ho-oh surrounded by Orange Island badges, drawn between 1998 and 2001

A drawing of Jolteon by Steph drawn between 1998 and 2001

A drawing of Ash and Pikachu riding on Lapras by Steph, drawn between 1998 and 2001

Steph’s drawing of Diglett and various bug-type Pokémon, drawn between 1998 and 2001

A photograph of a poster from Steph's bedroom wall, featuring Ash Ketchum, taken between 1998 and 2001

Steph's collection of Pokémon items today, containing plenty of Jolteon, Pikachu, and Eevee merchandise, including some toys from the late 90s, and her original Game Boy games

---

We are thankful to Steph for taking the time to tell us all about her happy memories with Pokémon, and for sharing some fantastic photographs from her visit to New York City. Having these photographs captured on film allows future generations to see what it was like for earlier generations of Pokémon fans, which is why these are so special!

We are sure that Steph will always look back fondly on her early Pokémon memories, and we hope that the series continues to be a positive influence in her life moving forward.