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Having been to the Pokémon Center Pop-Up in London all the way back in 2019, I was really excited to do it again. I’d had such a fantastic time back then, and I was eager to see what this one had to offer. I’d heard it was considerably bigger than the previous one, and they certainly weren’t exaggerating. The place was huge! Seeing as entry is so limited, I know that many of you unfortunately won’t be able to go. Still, I wanted to give you the opportunity to live vicariously through me. So, here’s my Pokemon Center London 2022 experience!

The Venue

So, the reason this pop-up Pokémon Center is here in the first place is that the Worlds Championship event is being held in London this year. This is where the top Pokémon players from around the world compete to see who’s the greatest. There are separate tournaments for the TCG as well as several different video games. It’s a huge event, and needed a venue large enough to accommodate it. As such, the Excel Centre was the perfect choice.

I’d been there several times in the past when attending MCM conventions, but it looked completely different this time. There were Pokémon decorations everywhere with the special design made for London 2022. It was beautiful, and really created a fun and exciting atmosphere. There were different sections for various games and demos, as well as the halls where the matches themselves were taking place.

The Pokémon Center itself was taking part downstairs, in an area I don’t think I’d ever been to before. The layout was brilliant, with signs hanging down showing the specific areas. They were all puns based on London stations, such as Custsnom House (Custom House) and my personal favourite, ‘Blazikensington Station’ (Kensington Station). It gave it so much personality, and I really loved the venue choice.

The Different Items

As you would probably expect, there was a huge range of products available. Sadly, not as many as I would’ve liked, but this seems to be because things sold out pretty quickly. Still, the range that was there was pretty impressive, and there were plenty of shirts and other apparel, decorations like heal balls, and practical items like bags, notepads, and umbrellas.

There were also items that were collaborations with certain companies, and were rather unique to what you may have expected to find. There were skateboard decks featuring the Eeveelutions, in collaboration with Bear Walker. I don’t skate, and these were pretty expensive (I believe they were £199.99, but I could be misremembering). But if there were any Pokémon fans who also loved skating, I’ll bet that was a dream come true.

Other collaborations included a gym-wear company called Craft, apparel by OMOCAT, and more. Naturally, there were also plenty of card packs, but seeing as I don’t play the TCG, these weren’t of interest to me. I’d have loved to have seen the other items that I missed out on, as I remember the 2019 one had cool items like card sleeves and water bottles.

The Plushies

Now, if there’s one thing that was abundant there, it’s plushies. I was already expecting them to have a lot, but because I arrived in the afternoon, it meant a lot of the other products had disappeared. So instead of leaving empty spaces on the shelves, everything had been restocked… With plushies. And considering about half the items had sold out, you can picture what that looked like. Pretty much everywhere I turned displayed an eclectic array of all kinds of pokémon from across the generations.

I didn’t count them, but I reckon there were at least 200 different pokémon there, and whilst there were some notable exceptions (I really wanted Klefki, Sudowoodo, or Vanillice, and they didn’t even have Mewtwo), there were plenty of more unusual ones. Some of the ones I least expected were random choices like Xatu, Swanna, and Eiscue. You were definitely spoiled for choice, and from what I can tell, all of them are available online if you missed out on going.

At one point I saw an absolutely enormous Arcanine plushie. It was almost the size of me! It had an equally hefty price tag, at £399.99. Thankfully, there were more affordable choices, and the prices started at £8.99 for a plushie on a keyring. I wasn’t a big fan of some of the smaller ones, as many of them had open mouths. There was something disconcerting about seeing usually cute pokémon with their teeth bared.

The Exclusives

Sadly, I missed out on most of the exclusive items, but there were still some when I got there. The main exclusive (and presumably the most sought after) were the Worlds 2022 plushies. There were unique Pikachu and Roserade designs, both of which were long gone. There were also pin sets, which I would have loved as I’m an avid pin collector, but they’d gone as well. The other thing I was sad to have missed out on were the hand-painted Pikachu figurines designed for the event.

One exclusive item which was still available, though, was the coin and marker set. I don’t play the TCG, and I don’t collect coins, but I was still intrigued by this one. There were 4 different designs, and each featured not only different box art, but a separate coin. They also contained a V-Star marker (no idea what that does), and damage counters which I think are meant to track HP.

Other exclusives which I encountered were:

• A backpack
• An umbrella
• A waist bag
• A laptop bag
• A cap
• A notepad
• A messenger bag
• Crew socks

My Experience

The time slot was at 1, and I arrived a while beforehand just so I could explore the venue. They had a section dedicated to Pokémon Go, where you could spin the Pokéstop and get an exclusive t-shirt for your character. Unfortunately the signal was appalling, presumably due to how many hundreds of people were trying to use the app there, and despite trying for several minutes, I wasn’t able to get it to load. I did like the decorations they’d put up for it though. There was also a Pokémon Arceus section with a game demo, but as I already own the game, I didn’t bother with it. I did quickly stop by there to get some free card hats, though.

There was a huge queue to get in the Pokémon Center, as so many people had showed up on the day hoping to go in. The organisers were actually letting in quite a few at a time, though, so it moved relatively quickly. Thankfully, as I had a slot, I didn’t need to queue. Instead, I simply went to the attendant once it hit 1, and she let me through.

Inside the shop, I was overwhelmed by choice. You’re given a big yellow bag when you enter (it’s how they track their one-in, one-out policy). I can totally understand how some people would be able to fill it to the brim, as there’s just so many excellent items. I think I spent about an hour inside in total, milling around and deciding what to buy. It was so exciting to be surrounded by so much Pokémon merch!

My Haul

Narrowing down my selection was a painful process. I’d set myself a strict £50 limit before I came, but I ended up breaking that very quickly! The items in the shop were just so expensive that it’d have been almost impossible to stay under it. Even as it was, I had to make some tough choices and turn down some items I’d really wanted.

I debated about getting a pink t-shirt featuring Pikachu, but decided I already own a lot of t-shirts, and it’s not worth £25. I also had a Grookey plushie and an Altaria plushie in my bag for most of my time around the shop. It wasn’t until the end that I did the maths on what I was planning to purchase, and realised something had to give. So, with a heavy heart, I returned those two to their respective shelves.

In the end, I decided to buy one of the exclusive coin and marker packs that I mentioned earlier. I also got a Wooloo plushie, as he’s probably my favourite pokémon of gen 8. I picked up an adorable Chikorita plushie that was only £9.99. It’s pretty small, but I think it’ll look sweet on my shelf. And then my most pricy purchase was a fantastic exclusive backpack. It’s really high quality with a gorgeous design, and honestly I’m so hyped to start using it. You can see everything I got in my haul video down below!

Conclusion

Overall, I had an awesome Pokemon Center London 2022 experience. I was really glad that I got to go to such a limited time event. Even though it would have been nice to have had access to more exclusives, I was still able to buy some fun items that will look great in my home. It was also great to be surrounded by so many other Pokémon fans, and I loved seeing the themed apparel many of them were wearing. Although I didn’t follow the Worlds events myself, I’m sure it was special for the competitors to be in such an amazing environment, and I offer my heartfelt congratulations to the winners of the respective tournaments.

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