Now that April 2024 has rolled round, the time has come to make another commute to the ExCeL London venue we love so much, to check out the 2024 Pokémon Europe International Championships (EUIC). Of course, no EUIC trip would be complete without taking in the sights of a pop-up Pokémon Center and although we were unable to book an appointment slot in time, fortune was still on our side.
Thanks to the unsung hero that is Liam, we managed to acquire his 1pm appointment slot and with very little time to wait, we quickly hopped to it. The wait to get in passed the first door was quite a long one as 1pm came and went, but eventually the queue began to move and the time had come to waltz past the giant inflatable Pikachu and get the next loading screen.
From the second hall, we followed the crowd round an assortment of photo opportunitys until at long last, the likes of a Pikachu and Eevee were either side of us and it was time to walk underneath the large Pokémon Center banner and take in the wonderous sights of many fantastic products that if I was to try and buy them all, I’d soon rack up a hefty credit card bill I would not be able to pay off in this decade. But, why merely tell you about some of the products on show, when we can simply show you?
Pokémon: Let’s Go to the Pokémon Center!
Compared to last year, the Pokémon Center felt much larger and occupied more space than before, but instead of being overly cluttered, there was plenty of space to walk around and take it all in. Of course, as appealing as many of the goodies were, the true show stealers were the event exclusive Champion merchandise, depicting Armarouge and Ceruledge. From card sleeves to an assortment of t-shirts, hoodies, postcards, a baseball cap, a mug, a Champion playmat, deck boxes, notebooks, pens, badges, a stylish backpack and even a lanyard, the Pokémon Center certainly had us pegged!
@miketendo64gaming Having attended #Pokemon #EUIC #2024 at the #London #ExCeL last week, of course we had to pick up some of the exclusive items limited to the PokemonCenter. Here’s some of our favourite purchases!
It was not enough to compel us to walk away with one of each exclusive item, although the temptation to do just that was certainly great, but we were all overjoyed with the items we did pick up and for a look at all items on show, we have that right here:
Exclusive Merchandise: (Champion Edition)
Of course, you can’t just pay a visit to a Pokémon Center and not check out the many plushes and squishmallows that were on show, so we made sure to pick up a couple of them also and for the ones we couldn’t purchase, plenty of photos were taken of them too:
Living the Plush Life:
Nevertheless, as tempting as it is to want to remain at the Pokémon Center, all things come to an end and once all purchases have been made, before one walks out of the Pokémon Center, unable to come back in, no Pokémon Center visit is ever complete without stopping by the display cases to look at the upcoming items that are coming soon to the Pokémon Center. So, without further ado, here’s a closer look at the Pikachu TCG Deck Box, both the Marill and Dragonite Squishmallows Plush (12 inches), Hearthflame Mask and Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon Plushes and so much more:
Coming Soon to the Pokémon Center:
Now, we don’t know about you, but the Ho-Oh & Lugia Bookends (2-Piece) is an absolute show stealer and something we can easily see ourselves picking up on our next Pokémon Center visit and given how good all the Champion products looked, we can’t wait to see what this year’s Worlds has to offer!
