A few months ago, it was announced that London's Natural History Museum would be hosting a special Pokémon pop-up shop to coincide with the company's 30th Anniversary celebrations. While this has many fans excited, tickets for the event sold out as fast as you'd expect, and now the news has landed that there's an exclusive promo card up for grabs for attendees. Oh dear.
I visited the Pokémon X Van Gogh Museum exhibit in Amsterdam back in 2023, and let me tell you, it was a disaster. The shop was overrun with people panic-buying promo stock that eventually depleted, and museum staff were let go for allegedly embezzling boxes of the valuable 'Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat' promo card.
The announcement from the Natural History Museum yesterday shared that the theme for the exhibit space is Pokécology, and a commemorative oversized Pokémon TCG promo card, titled 'Pikachu at the Museum', will be offered as a free gift with purchase to visitors attending the pop-up.
BUT, the company has said the jumbo-sized Pikachu card will also be available at "select UK retailers" on January 30th, giving more fans the opportunity to get their hands on it without needing to attend the museum (though it won't be available online). This collab will be Pokémon’s first-ever UK museum pop-up shop, running from January 26th until April 19th at the Cranbourne Boutique.
The design of the jumbo card is pretty adorable (though it has nothing on the Van Gogh Pikachu card in my opinion), and features Pikachu with an Aerodactyl skeleton above it and a cool Tyrantrum skeleton next to it. I love fossilised prehistoric Pokémon, and other merchandise from the pop-up event has fan favourites like Aurorus, Kabuto, Omanyte, and Archeops making an appearance.
It's a bold move and certainly interesting that Pokémon decided to opt for a jumbo card this time around, which could arguably make it a harder product to shift for any scalpers due to its size. And, in the world of Pokémon TCG, jumbo cards are better suited for display as opposed to being usable in a deck anyway.
In my experience with the Van Gogh Museum collab, scalpers completely ruined the event, and there was no merchandise left to buy besides postcards by the time we visited the shop. We were given the unique Van Gogh-inspired Pikachu promo card as a reward for completing a fun scavenger hunt, and immediately after leaving the building, we were hounded by people begging to purchase it from us.
I think it was a smart move for Pokémon to announce the promo card long after all of the event tickets had been sold, to discourage anyone other than those who genuinely want to see the exhibit from attending. The museum website states that 'purchase limits will apply' for trainers who have secured their spot, to ensure fair access for fans
I only hope that history won't repeat itself for this event, though it seems that Pokémon learnt a valuable lesson and has taken extra care for this collab, which is great to see.
In other news, who's excited that Fat Pikachu is coming back? Personally, the upcoming Pokopia Switch 2 title is what I'm most excited about this year, but I can't wait to see what the company has in store for its anniversary celebrations.
