A Pikachu Hand Puppet

I want to take a bit of a "time trip" with some Pokémon merchandise. The reason it's called a "time trip" is because I'd like to detail merchandise of the past and merchandise of the present. First, I'd like to start with the past, with a piece of merchandise I got before I started to write in this blog.

Some time ago, I purchased a Pikachu hand puppet. The first time I laid my eyes on it, I thought it looked interesting and somewhat well-made, but I wasn't able to purchase it then. The next time I encountered it, I purchased it right away, knowing that I may not have the chance to encounter it once again. It has since become a part of my wonderful collection of Pokémon things. And it's perhaps one of the more unique ones.

It's quite obvious that this is a puppet meant to be operated by someone's hand. To operate, a hand is slipped into the puppet, with the thumb going into one arm and the other four fingers going into the other arm. The fingers then deftly operate the arms to move in different ways. Now, I'm not a master puppeteer, but I'm certain that the head is manipulable through certain ways, including through a tab that I felt in the middle. Further, by my experience, the hand puppet seems to fit well on my left hand, which is my non-dominant hand; I've tried it with my right hand, and it always seems to come out lopsided. A better puppeteer might have a different experience.

Even if I don't exactly have the patience or the skills to operate this particular hand puppet, I can still treat it like a doll, which it is. In fact, I got the hand puppet from a shop that sells decorative items like dolls and image pillows, so it fits right in with the other items that the shop sells. The fact that it's Pikachu is just fine; perhaps if the starters were just as popular, they could have been made into hand puppets as well, but the popularity of Pikachu suits the situation well.

This hand puppet is a fairly intriguing piece of Pokémon merchandise. It was captivating when I first got it, and it's still captivating now. I'm not particularly dexterous at making it function the way it's intended, but at least I can try. But most importantly, it's a neat piece from the past that is still with me today.

That, of course, means the present, which will be for another post.

One year ago: I Claimed My Team