You know, I thought poliwhirl was too awkward for a mascot but honestly? That promo material looks good. Maybe it'd make a better secondary/supporting mascot since Pikachu's cuteness feels more fitting, but honestly. He's a fun goofy guy
I think it was a good representative for the range of what pokemon designs there are when you look at it and the surrounding pokemon. You had your cool monsters like the starter trio or Mewtwo, your cute little pet things a la pikachu and jigglypuff, and then there's poliwhirl. A representative for the goofier, more silly designs. Three different points on the pokemon creature design pyramid.
I think back in the days.. it was food they did not use poliwhirl. Religion groups told everyone that pokemon was a sin and children got hypnotic by it. So this would have added fuell to the oill.
I'm surprised you didn't dive deeper into Eevee being a Pokemon mascot too. It's so popular that it has several staring roles in the anime, a spin-off game, and has it's own separate merchandise. If I had to equate this to something, Eevee and it's Eevee-lutions are like the Disney Princesses to Ninendo. Mickey Mouse maybe the first thing you think of when Disney, but the next or second to next you think of are the Princesses. I'd love to see you expand on this topic in a future video Lockstin!
Yeah, but Eevee didn't really have much of a presence until recently (in official material). It would be odd to jump from the beggining of the franchise and the 90s to the DS era or even after and the 2010s. Before that, it was always the last of the secondary mons, like Jigglypuff but beyond gen 1.
Eevee is kind of a mascot only recently tho, and almost by accident. Let's Go (which is not a spin-off, what does GF need to do for people to keep saying that about it and LA ) was originally going to star Pikachu and Psyduck but both were yellow so they decided against it. It was after getting the Let's Go role that they actually started pushing Eevee as a mascot.
@@gokunenn4243That might be true but by the same token, Eevee was always there. First it was a gift Pokemon given to you by the guy who runs the PC so that made it more relevant to the story. Then you've got it as the literal Evo stone representative. Finally, you've got Eevee carrying the flag for new types, Umbreon and Sylveon respectively. Maybe not a mascot but hardly a background character.
it seems like you forgot, Misty DID catch a poliwag which became a poliwhirl and she did use it a lot in battle though it did become a politoed eventually....
To be fair, by the time Poliwhirl evolved it was the time when it started to fall out of mascot level pushing from TPC. Plus with the new Gen 2 games being released and it being a trade evolution it was a perfect choice to show off the new form
But, when it was on screen prior to its evolution it was a pretty good fighter. Shame the anime didnt give it more time to shine, or have a manga adaption for it to have gained more traction. ands lets not forget, it was a poliwrath that got charizard to listen to ash
True, though that was later on in the Orange Island arc, and even then it was kind of a minor character compared to Pikachu, Meowth and even Misty's other Pokemon like Psyduck and Togepi. I'm not sure Poliwhirl even had much of a personality compared to them. Most certainly it was a response to Poliwhirl's status in marketing but still just a formality at this point, since Pikachu had obviously won by then.
I remember being told that and looking it up in the dictionary, appearantly a pokeman (no accent mark, literally just poke man) was one of the devils imps in hell tasked with poking, prodding and stabbing people for their eternal punishment.
Poliwhirl I think is still synonymous with Pokemon in a lot of ways. He's one of the very few designs that just bespeaks this monster thing far removed from it's inspiration that was classic to early mons
The pokémon centre showing Pikachu, Charmander, and Polywhirl makes a lot of sense to me: Pikachu for the Anime, Charmander for the Games and Polywhirl for the Manga
I've read recently that Japanese has the same word for breasts/pecs/chest (Japanese speakers please let me know how accurate this is!), so in the interview with Mr. Ishihara he was actually saying that Nintendo US redesigned Pikachu to be buff. I think he reiterated this in another interview as well, saying that they made Pikachu muscular.
this actually makes more sense, nintendo of america may be unhinged but big boob tiger is still way too crazy. a buff tiger would actually fit more with popular mascots back in the 90s
Honestly, it's not even uniquely a Japanese thing. For most of history, "breast" was pretty much synonymous with chest. That's why armor worn over the chest is called a BREASTPLATE, and no I don't mean the rather ridiculous fantasy armor with sculpted boob cups. It's really a much more modern linguistic evolution that has seen the word "breast" narrowed down to refer only to female anatomy, and even there it's more a matter of casual colloquialism, as many scientific or medical texts will still use the word breast regardless for both men and women.
Japanese speaker here: It's probably big boobs since pecs is pronounced and written differently(even though both breast and pecs share a kanji). "Mune"(breast) can be used to describe a man's chest but like in english they don't use it when referring to buff pecs, rather they use it for phrases like "holding it close to my breast". NoA probably wanted Pikachu to look like the slightly muscular Cheetara from Thundercats.
My love of poliwhirl is almost entirely due to how much it appeared on merchandise. Especially poptarts and cereal. Will always have love for my tadpole buddy
The poliwag line might actually be my favorites out of the first gen because of the red blue and green manga, i even have a poliwag bootleg plushie to this day
I still remember reading the manga and being surprised that Red's first mon was Poliwhirl over Pikachu or a Starter. It caught my interest back then and is probably why I still have some fond memories of it even to this day. I kind of wish it stuck around as another secondary mascot of sorts, even if it was behind the obvious Pikachu and Charizard.
4:20 I love this cover because Poliwhirl looks so happy to be on it. I mean, Charizard and Pikachu couldn't care less about this, they have bi-weekly photoshoots. Couldn't be Poliwhirl, though. He's enjoying every second of it, look how excited he is! This is hype af for him.
I remember Poliwhirl was Red’s first Pokemon back when I read the manga. At least Bulbasaur was chosen by him as well. Man, I miss these Pokemon themed foods.
Anyone else want a battle based on this? Like they just referenced this by making a trainer with all mascot Pokémon. Or perhaps a group of them. Pikachu, eevee, clefairy, poliwhirl, rhydon and the starter strong against yours. Maybe have a group of trainers that each have a team of mascots for each gen
Wow, I knew about Poliwhirl on the gold card, Time Magazine, cereal, and manga, plus being Tajiri's favorite, but I didn't know it was THIS propped up.
6:38 I knew that the fabric my grandma used to make me pokemon pillow covers was gen 1 from the copyright date (and pokemon depicted), but I had no idea it was the first, or that they were originally sold as bedsheets rather than fabric. I wonder how she got them in the 2010s when my pokemon special interest started.
This vid unlocked a memory. When I was a kid, it took awhile for Pokemon to reach Eastern Europe, so the first times I had ever heard of the franchise was through commercials I'd see on some german cartoon channels that we had on cable back then. Now, mind you, I didn't know german, so I could only pick up things through context. And me and all of the friends I had, who had seen said commercials, were convinced that Poliwhirl was the Boss of the Pokemons. We imagined them to be a group of super-powered animals going on adventures and it was clear to us that Poliwhirl was the leader (with hipnotic powers). All of the poses and animations just made Poliwhirl look as if it was the one calling the shots. And he was the only one that we couldn't figure out the animal basis on, so we just figured he must be an alien.
This is really surreal I never noticed poliwhirl until this video. It’s weird how no one in the west batted an eye at this Pokemon. I knew about Clefairy but Poliwhirl is never talked about. Great vid Lockstin
I think it was because of Poliwhirl's prevalent appearance on products in the 90's and early 2000's was what drew me to the frog. They're still one of my top 3 favorite water types.
You know, I've never really thought about how prevalent Poliwhirl was during the height of Pokemania. But it was EVERYWHERE. I had that Poliwrath toy from the Poptarts promotion. I always thought the Poli line were cool as hell.
6:38 oh my god when I was younger I had that exact bed sheet and it also had a blanket and one of the big Pokemon on the blanket was Poliwhirl 7:02 and I also had literally all of those gold Pokemon cards, I wish I still had them today because they probably would be worth a lot of money.
Poliwhirl is my homeboy. I made a trash Poliwhirl costume for Halloween one year primarily with mattress foam. Who wouldn’t like a weird humanoid hypno-toad, that eventually turns into what Incineroar wishes it were.
Eh, *Toxicroak* is what Poliwrath wishes it could be. Sorry, but it's just an angry Poliwhirl. The longer arms don't exactly equal Fighting and it could've tried to emphasize its amphibious inspiration. Thank goodness then for Politoed, which seems like an answer to that, but honestly Poliwrath should've been a fusion of itself with Politoed.
@@MrRuePine Poliwrath also bulks up when he evolves. Perhaps the simplicity that touches most of generation 1 is just more aesthetically pleasing to me. Incineroar and toxicroak both to me feel sort of like someone was “trying to hard,” and churned out an unappealing, gaudy design on both fronts, as often is the case after generation 2.
@@blasterbrain1443 It's only the arms that make you say that, because if you look past them, Poliwrath has almost the same rotund body shape as Poliwhirl. And doesn't even try to emphasize its amphibious inspiration. Something Politoed excelled at.
Some pokemon are still side mascots, like how Monster Rancher had Suezo as its main mascot and Mochi as a secondary and Yo-Kai Watch had Whisper and Jibanyan as the co-mascots, and Komasan as a secondary mascot (as well as a few others I can't currently recall). They seemingly tried making USApyon a tertiary mascot with the third game but it didn't really pan out.
I like poliwhirl! It’s just so simple. It’s humanoid in shape but also still clearly monster and while its frag elements are subtle they’re really cute. Plus water is a strong type and politoad is a big part of competitive pokemon.
The guy with the swirl was very iconic tho. I remember not knowing what pokemon really was but knowing there was a blue guy with a swirl on its belly and a blank face trying to hypnotize you
10:25 It's funny how Ash is technically also Red but everyone always considers him a completely different character even though the two old manga Reds were also completely different in characterization and both of them were also inconsistent with the nonverbal (by choice according to Pokemon Masters, also he apparently does talk to Copycat and in the Spanish localization of HGSS, he will announce when he uses a Full Restore in the Mt Silver cave battle) and incredibly stoic version from the games.
Misty had a Poliwhirl in the anime, and it stayed like that until it evolved into Politoed in Johto. At that point they probably realized that Poliwhirl wasn’t the major player they wanted it to be and gave up.
I remember having a coloring book from the anime that also had quite a few pages of poliwhirl. That and a marble are a few reason he's still my favorite
I also wanna mention, Pikachu may have also been chosen just to appeal to the players. As the only electric type available until right before the 4th gym, many players ended up using Pikachu on their team, so seeing such a familiar face in the anime made it resonate more with them.
I remember in the 90’s just how prevalent and collectable poliwhirl was. It did seem like such a random choice when compared to the other mascot options, but I’ll admit, it worked on me. There was usually plenty of poliwhirl merch left at stores and I would get them so often that he eventually became one of my favorite Pokémon even to this day
It's pretty interesting to think about how prominent Poliwhirl was back in the early years of Pokémon. Seriously, what a pretty well done video this is!
Fun fact Pikachu is voiced by Ikue Ōtani who is also the voice of Chopper from One Piece making her the voice of the mascots from the most popular series from Japan
I remember Poliwhirl being on a lot of merch back when all we had was Gen I and II. Like i remember my little sister had a Poliwhirl plastic straw and a classmate had a Poliwhirl lunchbox
Always found it odd that Poliwag is Satoshi Tajiri’s favorite Pokémon but Poliwhirl got all the merchandise. Also it’s crazy that Poliwhirl is on the cover of Time magazine
I have honestly always thought that the fact that Satoshi Tajiri's favourite mon being a not-very-popular one was very fitting for the franchise; every pokémon is someone's favourite.
Learning about the importance of rhyhorn, poliwhirl, and clefairy to the history of pokemon several years ago honestly made me love and appreciate those pokemon so much more. I actually think poliwhirl is a great mascot pokemon choice and is a great design, it's honestly one of my favourites now
Poliwhirl is probably my favourite pokemon. To me he’s just the most pokemon pokemon. Especially after pikachu’s skinny redesign, poliwhirl is just so classic.
Hasn't something happened with Psyduck too? Just blown up in popularity compared to earlier days? Especially after how much of a joke it was treated as in the anime.
@Tea-Stance no? Id say its the opposite, it became popular in Gen 1 due to Misty's, became even moreso during the Gen 2 era, then has been steadily dropping in relevance over the years afterwards. They don't release anywhere CLOSE to the amount of Psyduck merch as they did back in those days.
Poliwhirl was one of the first Pokemon I remember seeing before discovering Pokemon as a franchise A blue spherical creature with a spiral on it’s tummy body Also despite fire type being my favourite type, I think Poliwrath is my favourite gen 1 Pokemon
Feel like if Poliwag wasn't just enough of a faff to get, Poliwhirl would have been way more popular. Whereas, as mentioned, Pikachu's status as early, accessible, but rare enough to feel special made it perfect for kids to rally around.
If Poliwhirl was chosen, then the American parental panic about Pokemon corrupting children would've been even worse considering it's most defining feature is representative of hypnosis.
As a kid, I always wondered why I kept seeing Poliwhirl in all the advertisement and merchandise when it had basically no relevancy in either the show or the games. Now, after two and a half decades, I finally have my answer.
Honestly this makes so much sense to me I was recently looking at old OG art of polywhirl and thinking about how iconic he looks and how simple his design is. I could picture him as w the after starter in an alternate world. And I feel like as a kid during the gen 1 days he did kinda stick out as one the more memorable non special middle of the Pokédex guys. It may seem random now but at the time he did feel kinda like one of the more special ones design wise
Pokémon Let's Go Poliwhirl and Clefairy would have been a sight
That actually sounds like an awesome idea.
ngl i have a poliwrath and clefable on my pokemmo kanto team bc i just love those lines
Great idea
A part of me wants that.
Honestly these two would actually be a pretty mascot for pokemon.
It's wild looking back to see how prevalent Poliwhirl was in Pokemon promotions.
Poliwhirl is sugimori’s favorite pokemon if I recall
Poliwhirl is a nepo baby confirmed?
Tajiri not sugimori that’s my mistake
Tajiri liked Poliwhirl; it reminded him of the tadpoles he caught as a kid.
Tajiri not sugimori that’s my mistake
@@stillbuyvhsPoliwhirl is a nepobaby confirmed
Nidorino, Bulbasaur, Clefairy, Poliwhirl, Blastoise, Charizard and Pikachu are the initial faces of the franchise.
You know, I thought poliwhirl was too awkward for a mascot but honestly? That promo material looks good. Maybe it'd make a better secondary/supporting mascot since Pikachu's cuteness feels more fitting, but honestly. He's a fun goofy guy
It was always a secondary mascot during that time in the spotlight, save for the one manga.
I think it was a good representative for the range of what pokemon designs there are when you look at it and the surrounding pokemon. You had your cool monsters like the starter trio or Mewtwo, your cute little pet things a la pikachu and jigglypuff, and then there's poliwhirl. A representative for the goofier, more silly designs. Three different points on the pokemon creature design pyramid.
I think back in the days.. it was food they did not use poliwhirl. Religion groups told everyone that pokemon was a sin and children got hypnotic by it. So this would have added fuell to the oill.
I'm surprised you didn't dive deeper into Eevee being a Pokemon mascot too. It's so popular that it has several staring roles in the anime, a spin-off game, and has it's own separate merchandise. If I had to equate this to something, Eevee and it's Eevee-lutions are like the Disney Princesses to Ninendo. Mickey Mouse maybe the first thing you think of when Disney, but the next or second to next you think of are the Princesses. I'd love to see you expand on this topic in a future video Lockstin!
Comparing the eeveelutions to the Disney princesses is so fitting I can't believe I've never thought of that
Yeah, but Eevee didn't really have much of a presence until recently (in official material). It would be odd to jump from the beggining of the franchise and the 90s to the DS era or even after and the 2010s. Before that, it was always the last of the secondary mons, like Jigglypuff but beyond gen 1.
Well, okay, I'll tackle this challenge.
- Snow White: Espeon
- Cinderella: Umbreon
- Aurora: Eevee
- Belle: Jolteon
- Ariel: Vaporeon
- Mulan: Flareon
- Jasmine: Sylveon
- Rapunzel: Leafeon
- Elsa: Glaceon
Eevee is kind of a mascot only recently tho, and almost by accident. Let's Go (which is not a spin-off, what does GF need to do for people to keep saying that about it and LA ) was originally going to star Pikachu and Psyduck but both were yellow so they decided against it. It was after getting the Let's Go role that they actually started pushing Eevee as a mascot.
@@gokunenn4243That might be true but by the same token, Eevee was always there. First it was a gift Pokemon given to you by the guy who runs the PC so that made it more relevant to the story. Then you've got it as the literal Evo stone representative. Finally, you've got Eevee carrying the flag for new types, Umbreon and Sylveon respectively. Maybe not a mascot but hardly a background character.
it seems like you forgot, Misty DID catch a poliwag which became a poliwhirl and she did use it a lot in battle though it did become a politoed eventually....
To be fair, by the time Poliwhirl evolved it was the time when it started to fall out of mascot level pushing from TPC.
Plus with the new Gen 2 games being released and it being a trade evolution it was a perfect choice to show off the new form
Sure, but it took WAY too long for the anime to do that for it to catch on more.
But, when it was on screen prior to its evolution it was a pretty good fighter. Shame the anime didnt give it more time to shine, or have a manga adaption for it to have gained more traction. ands lets not forget, it was a poliwrath that got charizard to listen to ash
@@pkmntrainermark8881yeah I mean technically Pikablu thanks to Tracy was closer to being a mascot before Poliwhirl.
True, though that was later on in the Orange Island arc, and even then it was kind of a minor character compared to Pikachu, Meowth and even Misty's other Pokemon like Psyduck and Togepi. I'm not sure Poliwhirl even had much of a personality compared to them.
Most certainly it was a response to Poliwhirl's status in marketing but still just a formality at this point, since Pikachu had obviously won by then.
I can picture the “Pokémon is demonic” crowd being even more scared that the mascot is literally trying to hypnotize children into buying into it
First thing I thought of too 😂
I remember being told that and looking it up in the dictionary, appearantly a pokeman (no accent mark, literally just poke man) was one of the devils imps in hell tasked with poking, prodding and stabbing people for their eternal punishment.
Iirc some of them did still say that exact thing, even without poliwhirl being a mascot
Poliwhirl I think is still synonymous with Pokemon in a lot of ways. He's one of the very few designs that just bespeaks this monster thing far removed from it's inspiration that was classic to early mons
The pokémon centre showing Pikachu, Charmander, and Polywhirl makes a lot of sense to me: Pikachu for the Anime, Charmander for the Games and Polywhirl for the Manga
The manga Clefairy's trickster-y behaviors are very fitting of what would be one of the 1st Fairy types.
Right. It annoys me how people think about the Fae. They aren't fluffy pink wish granting balls of floofy. Fae creatures are diiiiiiicks.
I've read recently that Japanese has the same word for breasts/pecs/chest (Japanese speakers please let me know how accurate this is!), so in the interview with Mr. Ishihara he was actually saying that Nintendo US redesigned Pikachu to be buff. I think he reiterated this in another interview as well, saying that they made Pikachu muscular.
Makes sense looking at all the buff action heroes in American children's cartoons for that time period
this actually makes more sense, nintendo of america may be unhinged but big boob tiger is still way too crazy. a buff tiger would actually fit more with popular mascots back in the 90s
Honestly, it's not even uniquely a Japanese thing. For most of history, "breast" was pretty much synonymous with chest. That's why armor worn over the chest is called a BREASTPLATE, and no I don't mean the rather ridiculous fantasy armor with sculpted boob cups.
It's really a much more modern linguistic evolution that has seen the word "breast" narrowed down to refer only to female anatomy, and even there it's more a matter of casual colloquialism, as many scientific or medical texts will still use the word breast regardless for both men and women.
Japanese speaker here: It's probably big boobs since pecs is pronounced and written differently(even though both breast and pecs share a kanji). "Mune"(breast) can be used to describe a man's chest but like in english they don't use it when referring to buff pecs, rather they use it for phrases like "holding it close to my breast". NoA probably wanted Pikachu to look like the slightly muscular Cheetara from Thundercats.
So they wanted it to be electric Incineroar.
poliwhirl will always be an icon to me!! i love poliwhirl
My love of poliwhirl is almost entirely due to how much it appeared on merchandise. Especially poptarts and cereal. Will always have love for my tadpole buddy
The poliwag line might actually be my favorites out of the first gen because of the red blue and green manga, i even have a poliwag bootleg plushie to this day
poliwhirl(later poliwrath) was the goat
Lemme guess, does the spiral go backwards?
I still remember reading the manga and being surprised that Red's first mon was Poliwhirl over Pikachu or a Starter. It caught my interest back then and is probably why I still have some fond memories of it even to this day. I kind of wish it stuck around as another secondary mascot of sorts, even if it was behind the obvious Pikachu and Charizard.
Core memory unlocked. There was so much poliwhirl stuff
I’m not even mad. Poliwhirl is a silly guy with every aspect of a mascot.
4:20 I love this cover because Poliwhirl looks so happy to be on it. I mean, Charizard and Pikachu couldn't care less about this, they have bi-weekly photoshoots. Couldn't be Poliwhirl, though. He's enjoying every second of it, look how excited he is! This is hype af for him.
This really unlocked memories. I totally forgot how integral Poliwhirl was to the vibe of 90s Pokemon.
Poliwhirl deserves to be as iconic again
I remember Poliwhirl was Red’s first Pokemon back when I read the manga. At least Bulbasaur was chosen by him as well.
Man, I miss these Pokemon themed foods.
Poliwhirl is my favorite mon, always imagine it would be my partner pokemon if they were real. Glad to hear he got so much love.
Anyone else want a battle based on this? Like they just referenced this by making a trainer with all mascot Pokémon. Or perhaps a group of them. Pikachu, eevee, clefairy, poliwhirl, rhydon and the starter strong against yours. Maybe have a group of trainers that each have a team of mascots for each gen
Poliwhirl was definitely one of the first Pokemon I could recognize, back before I even knew what names they had.
Wow, I knew about Poliwhirl on the gold card, Time Magazine, cereal, and manga, plus being Tajiri's favorite, but I didn't know it was THIS propped up.
6:38 I knew that the fabric my grandma used to make me pokemon pillow covers was gen 1 from the copyright date (and pokemon depicted), but I had no idea it was the first, or that they were originally sold as bedsheets rather than fabric. I wonder how she got them in the 2010s when my pokemon special interest started.
I was just thinking about how much I loved Poliwhirl back in the day, and how prominent he was back then, so thanks for talking about it!
This vid unlocked a memory. When I was a kid, it took awhile for Pokemon to reach Eastern Europe, so the first times I had ever heard of the franchise was through commercials I'd see on some german cartoon channels that we had on cable back then. Now, mind you, I didn't know german, so I could only pick up things through context. And me and all of the friends I had, who had seen said commercials, were convinced that Poliwhirl was the Boss of the Pokemons. We imagined them to be a group of super-powered animals going on adventures and it was clear to us that Poliwhirl was the leader (with hipnotic powers). All of the poses and animations just made Poliwhirl look as if it was the one calling the shots. And he was the only one that we couldn't figure out the animal basis on, so we just figured he must be an alien.
I still have my poliwhirl plush and poliwhirl backpack from back then. he was everywhere!
This is really surreal I never noticed poliwhirl until this video. It’s weird how no one in the west batted an eye at this Pokemon. I knew about Clefairy but Poliwhirl is never talked about. Great vid Lockstin
Lockstin you gotta warn someone before putting a spiral in the thumbnail, Uzumaki got me quaking in my boots.
Careful you don’t fall into a downwards spiral
It's hard to type with no fingertips
Quaking? Chill out diddy.... 😂
Just be glad he didn't include a Spinda. x0x
(I know it's from gen 3, but it's spiral city!)
I think it was because of Poliwhirl's prevalent appearance on products in the 90's and early 2000's was what drew me to the frog. They're still one of my top 3 favorite water types.
You know, I've never really thought about how prevalent Poliwhirl was during the height of Pokemania. But it was EVERYWHERE. I had that Poliwrath toy from the Poptarts promotion. I always thought the Poli line were cool as hell.
6:38 oh my god when I was younger I had that exact bed sheet and it also had a blanket and one of the big Pokemon on the blanket was Poliwhirl
7:02 and I also had literally all of those gold Pokemon cards, I wish I still had them today because they probably would be worth a lot of money.
My first cards were a base set poliwag and poliwhirl, so has always felt like a true starter.
As a hardcore fan of the Poliwag line, I would've not been upset if Poliwhirl became the mascot :)
At least its not ch*rizard
My favorite pokemon is Venonat, i feel like the purple puffball is underrated 💜
Poliwhirl is my homeboy. I made a trash Poliwhirl costume for Halloween one year primarily with mattress foam. Who wouldn’t like a weird humanoid hypno-toad, that eventually turns into what Incineroar wishes it were.
Eh, *Toxicroak* is what Poliwrath wishes it could be. Sorry, but it's just an angry Poliwhirl. The longer arms don't exactly equal Fighting and it could've tried to emphasize its amphibious inspiration. Thank goodness then for Politoed, which seems like an answer to that, but honestly Poliwrath should've been a fusion of itself with Politoed.
@@MrRuePine Poliwrath also bulks up when he evolves. Perhaps the simplicity that touches most of generation 1 is just more aesthetically pleasing to me. Incineroar and toxicroak both to me feel sort of like someone was “trying to hard,” and churned out an unappealing, gaudy design on both fronts, as often is the case after generation 2.
@@blasterbrain1443 It's only the arms that make you say that, because if you look past them, Poliwrath has almost the same rotund body shape as Poliwhirl. And doesn't even try to emphasize its amphibious inspiration. Something Politoed excelled at.
@@MrRuePine Yes, his arms go from noodles to wraaastler’s, and besides possibly being half an inch taller, he’s unchanged.
@@blasterbrain1443 Politoed is a better Poliwrath. Don't argue, you know it's true.
This video has served to remind me that I begged my mother to get me a Poliwhirl costume back in the early 2000's for Halloween
Some pokemon are still side mascots, like how Monster Rancher had Suezo as its main mascot and Mochi as a secondary and Yo-Kai Watch had Whisper and Jibanyan as the co-mascots, and Komasan as a secondary mascot (as well as a few others I can't currently recall). They seemingly tried making USApyon a tertiary mascot with the third game but it didn't really pan out.
I like poliwhirl! It’s just so simple. It’s humanoid in shape but also still clearly monster and while its frag elements are subtle they’re really cute. Plus water is a strong type and politoad is a big part of competitive pokemon.
I had that Pikachu N64 and the fact that I don't know what happened to it breaks my little heart like legit that part of the video almost made me cry
I can remember all the poliwhirl merchandising when I first got into pokemon, it was even the first Pokemon I drew
The guy with the swirl was very iconic tho. I remember not knowing what pokemon really was but knowing there was a blue guy with a swirl on its belly and a blank face trying to hypnotize you
10:25 It's funny how Ash is technically also Red but everyone always considers him a completely different character even though the two old manga Reds were also completely different in characterization and both of them were also inconsistent with the nonverbal (by choice according to Pokemon Masters, also he apparently does talk to Copycat and in the Spanish localization of HGSS, he will announce when he uses a Full Restore in the Mt Silver cave battle) and incredibly stoic version from the games.
It's an extremely Pokémon-shaped Pokémon.
Noooot the bedsheets! 😱
I remember getting those as kid. I always liked Poliwhirls torpedo launch position lmao
Misty had a Poliwhirl in the anime, and it stayed like that until it evolved into Politoed in Johto. At that point they probably realized that Poliwhirl wasn’t the major player they wanted it to be and gave up.
She also only caught and evolve it, it years after they tried to push it as mascot. Misty's poliwag evolved at episode 150 or something
I remember having a coloring book from the anime that also had quite a few pages of poliwhirl. That and a marble are a few reason he's still my favorite
I also wanna mention, Pikachu may have also been chosen just to appeal to the players. As the only electric type available until right before the 4th gym, many players ended up using Pikachu on their team, so seeing such a familiar face in the anime made it resonate more with them.
Poliwhirl is still the perfect Pokémon imo. It just looks like a mysterious but fun and friendly little monster
I remember in the 90’s just how prevalent and collectable poliwhirl was. It did seem like such a random choice when compared to the other mascot options, but I’ll admit, it worked on me. There was usually plenty of poliwhirl merch left at stores and I would get them so often that he eventually became one of my favorite Pokémon even to this day
I feel like Poliwhirl is kind of a classic example of pokemon in general. I wish Poliwhirl got more spotlight because it's cute and strong
It's pretty interesting to think about how prominent Poliwhirl was back in the early years of Pokémon. Seriously, what a pretty well done video this is!
This video made me love Poliwhirl
Poliwhirl deserves all the love. That was my favorite Pokémon growing up and even now. He’s friend shaped
Fun fact Pikachu is voiced by Ikue Ōtani who is also the voice of Chopper from One Piece making her the voice of the mascots from the most popular series from Japan
she's also Morgana from Persona 5 and Konohamaru from Naruto
Poliwhirl is one of my favorite mons cause of the Pokémon adventures manga. He’s just so silly
I remember Poliwhirl being on a lot of merch back when all we had was Gen I and II. Like i remember my little sister had a Poliwhirl plastic straw and a classmate had a Poliwhirl lunchbox
Always found it odd that Poliwag is Satoshi Tajiri’s favorite Pokémon but Poliwhirl got all the merchandise. Also it’s crazy that Poliwhirl is on the cover of Time magazine
I will never not see the poli line as hypnosis pokemon
The poliwhirl merch in the early days worked on me. It became my favorite pokemon.
Note the thing about "a tiger with huge things" is more like big buff guy like leomon from digimon
Fast forward to 2016 and we have Incineroar.
Not at all. The Japanese wording is specificc. They meant female big breasts.
@@JamesDavy2009 actually....
I have honestly always thought that the fact that Satoshi Tajiri's favourite mon being a not-very-popular one was very fitting for the franchise; every pokémon is someone's favourite.
I agree. My personal favourite Pokemon is Dewgong. Because sea lions are some of my favourite animals and it looks like Casper the Friendly Ghost.
Poliwhirl's design has all the ingredients for a mascot, I actually like the design a lot
Learning about the importance of rhyhorn, poliwhirl, and clefairy to the history of pokemon several years ago honestly made me love and appreciate those pokemon so much more. I actually think poliwhirl is a great mascot pokemon choice and is a great design, it's honestly one of my favourites now
3:17 That Charizard in the bottom-left has 1 horn
Female Charizard were originally gonna have one horn
@@Badjarooni That was gen 4. The original design was going to be one horn
I think I had those pokemon bedsheets as a kid, and I completely forgot until you showed them onscreen
When I was a kid, I had a Poliwhirl plushie, and I loved it. It's awesome to learn that Gamefreak had just as much love for this pokémon.
Honestly, Poliwhirl is my favorite of it's evolution line
Poliwhirl is probably my favourite pokemon. To me he’s just the most pokemon pokemon. Especially after pikachu’s skinny redesign, poliwhirl is just so classic.
And nowadays, Eevee came out of nowhere and became a secondary mascot for the franchise after being heavily undermarketed for over a decade.
Hasn't something happened with Psyduck too? Just blown up in popularity compared to earlier days? Especially after how much of a joke it was treated as in the anime.
@Tea-Stance no? Id say its the opposite, it became popular in Gen 1 due to Misty's, became even moreso during the Gen 2 era, then has been steadily dropping in relevance over the years afterwards. They don't release anywhere CLOSE to the amount of Psyduck merch as they did back in those days.
I love poliwhirl. My favorite of the line and one of the few pokemon plushies I own
Love how this came out when poliwrath had a great regionals performance
6:35 😢
That's something I haven't seen since the Towers fell.
You brought back an ancient memory.
Thoughts I didn't expect to have today;
"Poliwhirl's a Nepo Baby"
Thanks Lockstin
Imagine if we were all debating the design of the recent Gen 9 Poliwhirl or Clefairy clone
Red in the manga isn't called Satoshi in the original Japanese version. He's still Red (レッド). Only Ash is called Satoshi in Japan.
Poliwhirl was one of the first Pokemon I remember seeing before discovering Pokemon as a franchise
A blue spherical creature with a spiral on it’s tummy body
Also despite fire type being my favourite type, I think Poliwrath is my favourite gen 1 Pokemon
I always loved the Polywag line, I have to guess this was a big part of it
Poliwhirl is like the perfect awkward middle stage. Enough to be awkward without feeling like it is trying too hard or ugly.
Feel like if Poliwag wasn't just enough of a faff to get, Poliwhirl would have been way more popular. Whereas, as mentioned, Pikachu's status as early, accessible, but rare enough to feel special made it perfect for kids to rally around.
If Poliwhirl was chosen, then the American parental panic about Pokemon corrupting children would've been even worse considering it's most defining feature is representative of hypnosis.
Fun fact: I was dressed up as Poliwhirl for Halloween when I was in elementary school.
Poliwhirl was (and still is) my favorite pokemon and i’d always get Poliwhirl at any chance i get
6:36 I STILL SLEEP WITH MY POLIWHIRL/EEVEE/SNORLAX PILLOW!!! It’s very old, but I still like it!
I’m 13 and I sleep with a Poliwhirle squishmallow
As a kid, I always wondered why I kept seeing Poliwhirl in all the advertisement and merchandise when it had basically no relevancy in either the show or the games. Now, after two and a half decades, I finally have my answer.
I watching this video on my bed with that exact Pokemon bedsheet, including the pillowcase.
I remember loving Poliwhirl as a kid, I even had a little poliwhirl plush that I kept with me for years.
Poliwhirrl was the first Pokémon I was ever introduced to and to this day is still my favorite water type pokemon
Poliwhirl has always been my favourite Pokemon for like 20 years
Poliwhirl as always been my favorite Pokémon hands down. So this is nice to know that they could have been the mascot.
I remember in elementary school, one of my friends had a Poliwhirl costume for Halloween.
i almost wish there was a timeline where Poliwhirl was Misty’s prominent anime mascot instead of Psyduck, just see how that would’ve gone
My birthday is September 18th 1998. Ive been a die hard Pokémon fan my entire life.
Liam’s gonna be happy this video exist.
Honestly this makes so much sense to me I was recently looking at old OG art of polywhirl and thinking about how iconic he looks and how simple his design is. I could picture him as w the after starter in an alternate world. And I feel like as a kid during the gen 1 days he did kinda stick out as one the more memorable non special middle of the Pokédex guys. It may seem random now but at the time he did feel kinda like one of the more special ones design wise
I wouldn’t complain. I love Poliwhirl ! It’s one of my favorites from Gen 1
This was an amazing video, fantastic job Lockstin, I hope to see more Pokemon compony history
I remember all my Poliwhirl merch! 🌀🩵🩵
Pokemania veteran, here. Yeah, I remember when Poliwhirl was the "beta mascot" of Pokemon, showing up on almost as much merch as Pikachu.