It's amazing what you can find in the bottom of a bin sometimes, right? Not that we frequently go scurrying around in trash, you understand... But y'know, there are definitely occasions when something rare and potentially very valuable has been unknowingly thrown away.
Case in point, Redditor ElbowDeepInElmo (lovely...) has posted images of a Pikachu statue that they state was rescued from the trash by a printing company responsible for the early runs of Pokémon cards (thanks, Automaton).
According to the poster, it's not just any statue, but rather a piece of promotional material that was used for Pokémon: The First Movie when the film had its premiere at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in 1999.
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The Pikachu is sadly missing its tail, which was likely thrown away at the same time as the main statue itself, but the poster is hoping to have a replacement tail 3D printed to make the statue complete once again.
It's also been made clear that the statue is not currently for sale or trade at the time of writing. We reckon it might be worth quite a bit at this point, mind you, even if it is missing its tail.
You can just about see the statue in the archival footage from the premiere below, which in itself is a wild trip down memory lane, even if you weren't there yourself. Ah, those were the days...
What do you make of this extraordinary find? Have you got any rare or interesting Pokémon merchandise or promotional material from back in the day? Let us know with a comment.
[source reddit.com, via automaton-media.com]
Comments 21
Some people are just heartless. I'm not a Pokémon fan, but you can't bin Pikachu.
One trainer's trash...
Why would anyone look at something like this and say “yeah trash it”? Even if you don’t care about Pokémon at all surely you’d realise there’s money in things like that? Or at least just donate it or something?
It’s as baffling as GameStop making employees break games etc. that are going to be discarded so they can’t be taken home or sold. Or Nintendo sending out people to physically break demo kiosks at stores when they’re no longer intended to be in use.
This wouldn't have happend if it had just evolved in Raichu.
<---------- My reaction to binning Pikachu
Great heavens... if I saw that statue in real life I would bin it too...
Yeah, have no clue either how someone would ever think to trash such a thing instead of selling it, donating it or something... good thing it was rescued in the end!
While I understand not wanting some stuff to take up space anymore, I try to sell or donate it if possible. Then I'll bin it. This was clearly good enough to pass onto someone else.
@1UP-HUSKY judging by the difference in popularity, I would expect Raichus to be more commonly found in trash, which is a shame because Raichu is honestly cute and underrated
@larryisaman I worked at a Blockbuster and was shocked when they told me to take garbage bags of unsold merchandise into the bin because they had to clear it for the new-season stuff.
It does kind of look like it's sat on the loo though
Reminds me of that story where they found gen 1 Pokemon costumes in an old theatre. Seems to be a lot of abandoned Pokemon promotional material out there.
@romevi Did they at least let you take any of it if you wanted to? It’s the refusal to allow even employees to take things that really baffles and annoys me, like if it’s just going to get scrapped anyway then who does it affect 🥴
Clearly he's gone crazy
(the guy who yeeted it)
Careful about digging in the trash, there could be an electric door lock switch inside.
@larryisaman I suppose at least GameStop's explanation for locking their bin makes sense. That will it does suck that they would just throw away boxes and instructions (now worth a lot of money, at least a little bit because of them), I believe they stated that they throw out broken merchandise that they didn't want people to take and do scammy things with.
Anyone with that kind of disgusting name associated with a character for children is never a good person.
Surprised anyone would look like something like that of a clearly well known and famous character and just bin it. I imagine it would fetch a good price on ebay.
@Dee123 Oh lighten up, I'm sure Elmo doesn't mind.
Totally understandable. I threw away my master ball in Pokemon Red the first time I played because it wasn't worth in the shop and I assumed it was worthless (oh to be nine again).
@larryisaman If I remember correctly, I asked my manager whether I can take a stuffed Horton from the Horton Hears a Who movie, but my manager said no. One garbage bag was filled with a bunch of stuffed Hortons, tags still on 'em.
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