The very first design for Pokémon mascot Pikachu was a delightfully chubby little fellow. Chunkachu, as it’s lovingly known, was Mitsuhiro Arita’s original drawing for the 1996 Japanese Pokémon card, and it gave the yellow mouse a lot more to love than he has in most modern renditions. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pokémon this year, Takara Tomy is releasing a proper chungus of a plushie in that original design.
It’s going to be a very busy year for Pokémon. 2026 is the 30th anniversary of not only the release of the very first Pokémon games, Japan’s Pocket Monsters Red and Green on February 27 of 1996, but also the very first Japanese Pokémon TCG cards with October 20, 1996’s 1st Starter & Expansion Pack, meaning the celebrations are going to last the whole year. And that’s a very good excuse to remember how Pikachu used to look, both in the game and on the cards, before he got the Mounjaro.
The new plush comes not from The Pokémon Company and isn’t available on its various Pokémon Center stores, but rather is being sold by toy giant Takara Tomy, and currently only in Japan. The extremely cuddle-able stuffed toy is 7,480 yen, or about $47, which isn’t too bad for a 40 cm tall cuddly. At the time of writing it’s sold out on Tomy’s site, though more expensive options for purchase still seem to pop up on Amazon’s Japanese site.
Chunkachu has been celebrated across the decades in Pokémon, not least with the design of the monster’s VMAX incarnation, as well as updated versions of the original artwork appearing during the 25th anniversary celebrations. But for the most part, the far more slimmed-down rendition of Pikachu is the recognizable emblem of the entire franchise. And fair enough—name a beloved cartoon character that didn’t look all kinds of weirdly different in their first form than the version we got used to. Oh my dear god, original Garfield.
