The popular fan-ran retail site known as Pokemon Center seems primed to take advantage of the upcoming stream of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl promotions. After months of silence on the two titles, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company announced today that they plan to host a Pokemon Presents for them next week on August 18, and Pokemon Center capitalized on the announcement with one of its own: a new piece of merchandise based on a core aspect of the games.
Being the water-starter of the Sinnoh region, Piplup acts as one of the headliners for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. As such, it makes sense to announce merchandise based on the Pokemon close to the release date of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. So that's what Pokemon Center did. In a tweet from its official Twitter account, the retailer claimed that Piplup fans can now buy a jumbo-sized plush toy of the penguin Pokemon. However, for those interested in the plush, there's unfortunately a catch.
The new Piplup Pokemon plush costs a whopping 350 dollars. Not only that, but it's also not technically available yet. Interested buyers can pay for it now, but Pokemon Center doesn't expect to ship the plush out until April of next year — a full nine months from now. The price likely stems from the plush standing 31 inches tall — making it nearly twice as big as a regular Piplup — while the early announcement works to take advantage of the Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl hype.
For those that want a Piplup plushie but don't have money burning holes in their pockets or the patience to wait nearly a whole year, Pokemon Center does have an alternative. It has another Piplup for sale, one that, while not nearly as big, is currently available now and nowhere near as expensive; it's 15 dollars. The site also has Piplup's fire and grass counterparts available in Chimchar and Torterra, respectively. It doesn't have Torterra's starting form, Turtwig, though.
Maybe next week's Pokemon Presents will introduce new plushie ideas for all of the Sinnoh starters. At the moment, it's unclear if mega-evolution will return in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but if it does, fans will get to see brand new forms for all the Sinnoh's starters final evolutions, those being Empoleon, Infernape, and Torterra. If not, the remakes technically occur during Pokemon's eighth-generation time frame, so instead, they may receive Dyna- and Gigantamax forms.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl release on November 19th, 2021 for the Nintendo Switch.