[Intro] To Breathe Life Into Old Love

[smashabun]

Hello, you humans of the Internet! It is with great curiosity that I joined PC. There are several additional Pokemon forums available these days, but PC stands out. The atmosphere is friendly, and I'm excited to be a part of the community!

So, who exactly am I? Well, my mobile notifications are largely Pokemon-related, I spend much too much money on Pokemon cards, and I can't sleep unless an episode of Pokemon is playing in the background. Besides that, I am a pretty normal 21 y/o with a passion for black coffee and everything fluffy.

My very first encounter with Pokemon was fifteen years ago, and I remember it vividly. A student in another class had brought his Pokémon card collection to school. Every single youngster, including myself, surrounded him as he showed off his stunning collection. I instantly became obsessed with the lovely pictures but didn't care much about what was done with them at the time. Another boy later that day brought a carton of figures. I remember Castform and Glalie in particular since they were given to me at the end of the school day by the boy who brought them. I was ecstatic, and a few months later, an older girl approached me in the schoolyard carrying a large stack of Pokemon cards. She must have picked up on my new interest.

My affection faded away over time as we, who used to play and have fun grew older. Then I met the love of my life. He showed me his boyhood collection, and we rekindled our passion for Pokémon. The next day, we boarded the commuter train to the next-door suburb and went wild in the toy store. We were as pleased as children when we arrived at his place a little later and opened the cards we had purchased. Since then, we've increased our collections and now buy fresh booster packs every now and then to open in front of a Pokemon episode on the TV.

Enough about me. Now I'm looking forward to hearing from you! Do you have a similar experience? What drew you to Pokemon? I'm dying to find out!

 

[Fact Checking Gardevoir]

Hello, you humans of the Internet! It is with great curiosity that I joined PC. There are several additional Pokemon forums available these days, but PC stands out. The atmosphere is friendly, and I'm excited to be a part of the community!

Hello Smashabun, and welcome to the forums! You will find that not all users here are humans! PokéCommunity is certainly a special place, with lots of very nice people, and plenty of things to discuss and share, on the official games, fan made games, the anime, art, ... as well as fun forum games, and off-topic threads.
We are happy to have you join us!

So, who exactly am I? Well, my mobile notifications are largely Pokemon-related, I spend much too much money on Pokemon cards, and I can't sleep unless an episode of Pokemon is playing in the background. Besides that, I am a pretty normal 21 y/o with a passion for black coffee and everything fluffy.

One could say there cannot be too much of Pokémon! ^^

My very first encounter with Pokemon was fifteen years ago, and I remember it vividly. A student in another class had brought his Pokémon card collection to school. Every single youngster, including myself, surrounded him as he showed off his stunning collection. I instantly became obsessed with the lovely pictures but didn't care much about what was done with them at the time. Another boy later that day brought a carton of figures. I remember Castform and Glalie in particular since they were given to me at the end of the school day by the boy who brought them. I was ecstatic, and a few months later, an older girl approached me in the schoolyard carrying a large stack of Pokemon cards. She must have picked up on my new interest.

I can relate! The nostalgia of the days Pokémon arrived!

My affection faded away over time as we, who used to play and have fun grew older. Then I met the love of my life. He showed me his boyhood collection, and we rekindled our passion for Pokémon. The next day, we boarded the commuter train to the next-door suburb and went wild in the toy store. We were as pleased as children when we arrived at his place a little later and opened the cards we had purchased. Since then, we've increased our collections and now buy fresh booster packs every now and then to open in front of a Pokemon episode on the TV.

I can relate, again. As the third generation arrived, my interest for Pokémon's games, anime, ... faded. But only partly, as I kept enjoying playing here and there, watching an episode featuring Charizard being badass (my top favourite pokémon since Red!), and now, here I am!
What is your favourite pokémon ?

Enough about me. Now I'm looking forward to hearing from you! Do you have a similar experience? What drew you to Pokemon? I'm dying to find out!

I would say yes! I was a teen when I saw all of my friends, well, everyone around with Game Boys and Red or Blue versions! It was not long before I got my own, and I will always cherish my first run of Pokémon Red! Then, I got Gold, then Ruby, ...
As to how I came to PokéCommunity ? Well, I played, over a year ago, a fan game called Reborn (excellent fan game, with great story, characters, areas, one of the best adventures, ... also standing out with its top level battles and hairpulling puzzles). And one of its characters, in particular, inspired me to look for Pokémon forums on which to post some short stories about fact-checking Pokédex entries. And thus, I discovered PokéCommunity! To think about how one thing can lead to another... ^^

 

[stringzzz]

Welcome to PC! :D

In answer to your questions, I've had an off-and-on interest, first starting when I was 8 and got into the show, games, and cards. While it seemed nobody I personally knew actually knew how to play the TCG, I did, and my Mom took me to various card shops to play in tournaments and the leagues. By the 6th grade, I became ashamed of my nerdiness and essentially dropped the whole thing. Then, when I was like 13, I spent the night at a friends house before we ended up staying a week at another friends house that lived a couple of hours away. That night, I bought a Ruby version from said friend on a whim, and ended up proceeding to play it practically non-stop that whole week.

Then, when I was around 16, I picked up a Diamond version, again on a whim, and got back into it. It was around that time that I became a member of these forums for the first time, and found this place was awesome! This kind of continued in a similar fashion of me getting into and out of it, still feeling kind of ashamed of my nerd side. One day, though, I finally embraced that part of me completely, realizing that was my true self, and the rest is history.

As you mentioned, yeah, opening up a booster pack is great! That whole 'not knowing what you're getting' part of it can really elevate a mood. When I have money available again, I plan on getting a booster box of Paldea Evolved, and then buying the remainder of cards I didn't get in it to build a more modern deck. The main players of the deck will be Chien-Pao for attacking, Baxcaliber for its ability to let you attach as many water energy as you want, and (Superior) Energy Retrieval to bring back in the ones discarded by Chien-Pao's attack. I only moved to where I live a few years ago, and I have yet to go to the local card shop, but it's something I really want to do when I have that deck ready.

So...

What is your favorite card you own?

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

Hello there Smashabun! Great to see so much enthusiasm for Pokemon! (and welcome to the PC by the way!)

Since others have used this as an opportunity relive their first experiences with Pokemon, I don't see why I should break the trend, soooo.
My first experience with the series happened when I was very little, my cousin had outgrown his old Game Boy Advanced, and gave it, along with his small list of games, to me as a gift. Two of those games turned out to be Pokemon Yellow and Pokemon Crystal! But I was like 3/4 at the time and never even made it past the first Gym in either of them. I even thought that stat lowering effects (like Tail Whip and Growl) were permanent! So I would always walk around with a party full of level 3 Rattatas just so I could release them when they got their stats lowered too far lol! Anyway, I wasn't really a fan of RPG games in general when I was that young, so a few years later I got scammed sold them to some guy along with a couple of other games I never really played and never looked back...
And then I became obsessed with RPG games, (thanks mostly to Paper Mario 64 lol) and a few years later got it in my head to give 'Pokemon' another look, 'Hey, it's pretty popular right? Maybe I'll give it a look some time.' and the next day I find a super lucky Pokemon Fire Red game at a local pawn shop! I now have almost every main series game, a great site to talk to other game lovers such as myself, and an absolutely wonderful new friend! So that was my first experience with Pokemon!

Now, enough about me. Do you have a favorite Generation of Pokemon?

 

[ReKoil]

Hello!

My first interaction with Pokemon was the TCG as well as the Anime at the time. I never continued the anime past Indigo League though as I lost interest.
The TCG faded out as well though I did somewhat recently get a bunch of newer cards just to check them out.
I discovered the games after that, starting with Blue, and those are what have been keeping me in the franchise. I'd never really actively seek out information on new Pokemon games, but sooner or later I'd find out there were new ones and get them =3 though I did miss out on GSC at the time due to not having a GBC.

Do you also play the games or are you just into the Anime and TCG ?
Do you have any Pokemon merch like clothing, plushes or figures?

 

[dewitlykefire]

Hello, Shashabun! Welcome to the Pokemon Community!

I would say that my first encounter was during the American release of the Red/Blue versions.

I'm also an avid coffee drinker, too.

I'm also currently going back into the Pokemon TCG scene, too, so we'll probably catch each other in the threads sometime.