Friday 18th – The opening day of Pokémon Center London! Being the first day, there were definitely queues, but they were a lot longer than we thought they’d be.
To give you an idea, we arrived at about 09:30AM, so 30 minutes before the store opened. That gave us a 4 hour (that’s right, four actual hours) wait to get in to the store. We’re big Pokémon fans, so it wasn’t really a huge enough deal for us to head home, but was it worth it?
What’s in there?
The Eye’s been to a Pokémon Centre in Japan. I haven’t, so I didn’t know what to expect. Inside, it was mostly Pokémon plushies (what I’m going to call Poképlushies because, why not!) but there were some T-Shirts, some stickers, blankets, and pretty much anything else you can think of putting a Pokémon on. Most of the store was set up for the Pikachu dressed in “London attire” (with a 1 product per-person limit)
They’re open up until the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield (November 15th.) That means Poképlushies of Grookey, Scorbunny (way cooler) and Sobble is also there (sorry.)
The Poképlushies of the new starters were a lot softer and fluffier than their Gen 1 counterparts. Why? We’re not sure, maybe they wanted to make sure they sold? Surprisingly, they also stocked Switch and Switch Lite consoles, the Let’s Go games and the Pokéball Plus. Whilst this isn’t anything new, it’s nice to know you could be Pokemon Sword and Shield ready by the time you leave the store. For the first few days, maybe they should’ve used this for more unique items. Most of the super fans in on days 1-3 will already have a Switch, right? We spotted a few in the crowds anyway!
As a pop-up store and not a permanent fixture (please make it permanent!) it was a small-ish space. The area with stuff to buy was basically 2 rooms. Crowd control was well managed – it was busy in the store once we got in, but it didn’t feel overcrowded. We were still able to look at everything we wanted to at our own pace.
The selection felt surprisingly limited. We only needed to stay in the store for about 30 minutes total. Majority of stock seemed to focus on the London Pikachu line. Clothing, Poképlushies, and stickers were available with London Pikachu. They had unique pins but by the time we arrived these had already been caught. The new starters had a similar level of variety, except for clothing.
As an extra bonus, you could get some creepy looking Psyduck. You know, from Detective Pikachu. These might appeal to someone out there but weren’t for us. What was missing, however, were smaller plastic figures – you know, like Pokémon Figma and miniatures. Posable little figurines would’ve been great to bring back. (I could’ve posed them with my Game Boy!)
Pokémon Sword and Shield Demo!
You know what’s great? Being able to play a demo without needing to go to a paid gaming expo. As well as having a shop, you can play 5 minutes of Pokémon on the Switch! You’re able to play with a team of 6 new Pokémon – all the starters, and a few extras. If you haven’t been able to get some hands on time, this is quite a good way to get it.
Surprisingly, as much as there was a line for the store, we only had to wait 2-3 minutes for the game upstairs. A member of staff let us up as we were walking out.
5 minutes of a game is short, granted, but it seems perfectly fair. We both got to play our own 5 minutes next to each other (it was a great day :D) and it felt long enough to see things we liked. We got to try out Dynamax, see some of the starters moves, and most importantly see what the game looks like.
Long story short – the game looks great. This definitely isn’t a full review (you’ll need to wait later for that) but everything looks like what you (and probably the Pokémon Company) would have wanted Pokémon Sun to look like.
The Eye liked the clothes that the characters had – they were very much symbolic of the location. (We should know, we’re from the UK!) The school uniforms and football (ok, soccer) clothes look like things we’d see around here. And one of the jumpers with the collared shirts we saw are basically what she would wear. Maybe the Pokémon Center should’ve sold those!
Animations are smooth, depth of field effects look brilliant. In battle, the moves animation starts just before the text goes away. It’s a small change, but it adds a really slick feeling to battles. You know the battles in Pokémon Generations? It starts to feel as cool as that.
Was it worth 4 hours?
Ermm……no. Sorry Pokémon fans. It’s not that it was disappointing or bad, because it was great! It’s definitely worth a visit, but maybe a quieter day is a bit of a better option. There is talk of stock rotation so that there’s still stuff for you to get if you come in later on, so if you’re worried about completely missing out, I don’t think that’s going to happen.
In our opinion the merchandise was cool, but wasn’t as varied as we’d hoped. And there were bits The Eye expected to see from her Japanese visit that weren’t here. If you’re going to visit the store, the Sword and Shield demo’s a great bonus! If you’re only going for the demo, the queues aren’t really worth it (at least, for now). We’ll likely make an impressions video later if you need to know. Or, you know, wait until November 15th (only a month left!)
If you are going to visit over either the opening weekend like we did, or over any of the other days, bring a thermos with you. And a book, or your Switch (Fully charged!) If you are still playing Pokémon Go there are even some more frequent or unique spawns. Maybe get to Westfield for something like 08:30AM or 09:00AM so that you don’t need to wait too long. Also, bring someone with you. Why? You’ll need snacks.
EDIT: Prices
Just to give you an idea on prices, this is based off of what we got and saw:
- London Pikachu Plush – £24 (one per person)
- Galar Starter Plush – £18 per plush
- T-Shirts – £20-£25 per shirt
- Hoodies – About £65 per hoodie
- London Pikachu Stickers – £6.50 (4 stickers in a pack)
- Mugs – About £30 per mug (they were very good mugs though)
