The Pokémon Trading Card Game has some fantastic merchandise available to make you look slick when you attend Leagues and Tournaments around the country, here’s a look at the best clothing, accessories and bags…

All of us in the Pokémon World office are just drooling over the new Japanese 151 branded Pokémon T-shirts. The ‘Pokémon 151’ brand is aimed primarily at adult Pokémon fans and the T-shirts feature only the first generation of Pokémon, the original 151. Take a look at the pics on this page – they’re really cool.

All that drooling soon made us thirsty and over a cup of tea we got thinking about what other Pokémon goodies, clothing, card accessories, deck boxes and sleeves were available to Pokémon TCG players right now in the UK. What can you wear, use and flaunt at the next Pokémon TCG tournament you go to? Just how can you show your true Pokémon colours?

First of all let us take a look at some the baseball caps that were given as prizes to winners and participants by Pokémon Organized Play. Our favourite is last year’s World Championship attendees baseball cap featuring that loveable yellow chap Pikachu, but Mewtwo comes a close second.

So what else can you wear? Well there are the more exclusive Pokémon Professor baseball caps and the Professor T-shirts and polo shirts. Of course, you could buy a Pokémon branded T-shirt or baseball cap in the shops or even try and get hold of some of the fan produced T-shirts and polo shirts, like the Gamer’s Guild ones that feature a certain Pokémon magazine displayed prominently on their left breast! Of course, if you happened to have won a Pokémon

City Championship in the last three years then you could always wear your ‘bling’ and put on your CC medal. For those without a medal what about your league badges? There are loads of Pokémon TCG League badges to choose from; show how long you have been playing with some old school league badges or your winner’s medals.

Then again you could always casually pull a notepad and pen from your bag and make notes on your game – how about using that notepad you got at a pre-release? What about the one in the winners’ goodies at the city championships? There are even pencils to go with that one. If you are friendly with one of the Pokémon Professors in your area you could always trade them for one of their exclusive Pokémon Professor Program notebooks and Professor Program pens. There is one item that you will not normally get your local Pokémon TCG Professor to trade, if he has one – he will probably not let go of his very exclusive Professor Program watch. The watches were an item that Professors only had available to them for a very limited time and they soon went out of stock. If you ever get a chance to barter or trade for one then you will be extremely lucky.
Well we have covered hats, shirts, watches, pens, notebooks, badges and medals, so what else can you do to show your true Pokémon colours? How about the accessories that help you play the game, or that protect your deck?

What about the coins you use to flips for heads or tails? Yes we know that a lot of the Pokémon TCG Players do not like flipping coins and use dice instead but we like sticking with the true spirit of the game in our office. The rules of the game say to flip a coin and we encourage all players to get practising with one, and again here is a chance to show your true colours. We like to use older coins or Japanese ones yet to be released in the UK to ‘bling’ up
our play table.

Pokémon Organized Play-approved coins are available in any of the Pokémon USA theme decks, Japanese theme and half decks and the Trainer Kits. They come in all sorts of patterns and colours and usually feature Pokémon characters – the Team Aqua and Team Magma coins are the exception here as they feature the Team Symbols, a stylised A on a blue coin and a stylised M on a red coin. Can you spot them in the picture above?

The older-style thin Wizards of the Coast coins are not approved by Pokémon Organized Play for tournament use. So stick to the thicker coins – they look nicer and flip better than the old WotC ones and are sure to liven up your games.

You can go very Japanese on your damage counters and damage counter storage, for the ultimate in showing off at the Pokémon TCG Table. Try the Dialga and Palkia damage counter box – it has two flip lid compartments to store your damage counters, coins and poison and burn markers.

We have some Japanese counters that we keep with ours and the box is small and neat enough to slip into a bag or pocket and not take up much space. You will want to protect your cards and store them safely too, so how about some of those POP Promotional Card Sleeves that get given out at Pre-Releases or the multitude of Pokémon branded deck boxes to keep your decks in. Here are just a few examples from the goodies pile here in our office.

So, now you have something to wear, you have sleeved your deck, found a box to put it in, and got your damage counters and coins, finally you can choose a bag to put it in. We suggest you try one of the City Championship bags. There is a choice of Pikachu, Groudon and Blastoise to choose from; we use the Groudon bag all the time for hauling our paperwork and, of course, copies of Pokémon World around the place.

If you did not win one of the City Championships bags do not despair, there are lots of Pokémon branded bags in all sorts of shapes and sizes that can carry your TCG stuff. We particularly like the old style Pikachu plush backpack that can still be found on eBay
for under £10. Here is our Pikachu plush bag hanging around the office waiting to go home!

However far you want to go when showing your true Pokémon colours is up to you; a discrete League Badge and a nice deck box and sleeves may be all you want to do, or maybe, like a true Pokéfan, you will want to wear, use and display as many Pokémon branded products as you can! Be it a small show or large, remember always wear your Pokécolours with pride. If you’ve got some great PTCG game stuff, send in a photo and you could end up in the monthly magazine!