The Pokémon Center has recognized everyone’s current levels of Pokopia fever, and filled its new release pages with plushies of Ditto in the form of so very many different Pokémon. We’re seeing the cheeky beast take on pocket monsters it’s never attempted in cuddly form before, and I dare you not to spend way too much money.
It was fun, as Pokopia got nearer to release, watching people realize that the human-looking character you’re playing in this Animal Crossing–meets–Viva Pinata game is in fact a Ditto in disguise. There’s something peculiarly creepy about that, especially given the ambiguity about what might have happened to Kanto ahead of this game. And being a Ditto, you can also transform into all manner of other things, including other Pokémon, and indeed objects. So it’s only appropriate for this to be the moment when the Pokémon Center unleashes a whole new range of Ditto plushies, cunningly disguised as your favorite monster.
This is actually a slightly peculiar collection, because a few of these Ditto plushies have been sold before—I know this because I own a whole bunch of them. However, this new, far broader range has those same Pokémon included, but with new SKUs, and new photographs. They look pretty much identical, but the older ones remain listed as sold out, and the newer ones available. Which makes the stupidest part of my brain think: “Should I therefore get another Ditto Mimikyu?” before the smart part of my brain points out what my wife would say.
This means that joining the likes of Magikarp, Lucario, Gengar and Dragonite, with those suspicious dotty eyes and straight-line mouth, are Squirtle, Furret, Absol and Misdreavus. In total, 44 Ditto plushies have been added or re-added to the store, meaning there’s a really good chance a Pokémon that you like has received the treatment. And they’re all completely gorgeous. They range from five to nine inches and all cost $20, which is pricey for a small cuddly toy, but they do tend to be of a really decent quality.
(Well, actually they’re $19.99, making them a penny below free shipping, which really sucks. And the old trick of adding a single pack of Pokémon cards to push it over is a faint memory of more beautiful times, given you cannot buy a single damn TCG-related thing.)
