Pikachu (deformed)
Image: whimsy (@whimsycottt)

Ever since the birth of Pikachu back in 1996, the little yellow rabbit-mouse has become as much of a mascot of the Pokémon series as Kermit is for The Muppets, the fat cow is for Harvest Moon, and Missile is for Ace Attorney.

Pikachu Artwork For Pokémon Red And Blue
Image: Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, Creatures Inc.

It's Pikachu's recognisable form that makes it so easy to deduce when something isn't... quite... right. Much like that horrifying Sonic ice cream with the bleeding green eyes, the uncanny valley effect of a Pikachu-that-isn't-Pikachu could be scary - but instead, the Pika incarnations that depict the little guy as a chunky, bug-eyed, over-stuffed monster are actually our favourites.

We all remember when Fat Pikachu was the canonical one, right? The large boi was so popular, and so well-loved, that the "Fat Pikachu card" from the trading card game sells for far above its original asking price, and Sword and Shield even featured him as a terrifying Gigantamax version that yells "PEE".

As reported by Polygon, Twitter is currently having a wonderful time, with people from all over the world sharing their deformed, lovely Pikachus bought from less-than-reputable sources. It all began with the Twitter account Out of Context Pokémon, which shared screenshots from "Miss Shapen's Electric Home for Misfit Pikachus", which appears to be an eBay page that no longer exists, asking people to identify which one they were.

Here's a gallery of our favourites:

We have a history with less-than-perfect Pikachus, having spotted this one below - which we lovingly nicknamed "Defective Pikachu" - in a shop in England. He was six feet tall, and they would not let us buy him.

Defective Pikachu
Who would win in a fight: weedy Sherlock Holmes, or One Large Boi? — Image: Kate Gray (@hownottodraw)

As we said in the title: EVERYONE has one of these. Tell us about (or better yet, show us) the ones that you still have in your home.

[source twitter.com, via polygon.com]