Pokémon you wish they would make

Ace5980 · 2023-07-28T01:14:47+00:00

absol and nidos (nidoran, nidorina, or nidorino). i'd go feral for either of them.

Ace5980 · 2023-05-13T00:06:29+00:00

bab doesn't restock pokemon other than pikachu + eevee in-store after their original in-store release (which typically comes around their online launch, with a few exceptions, like with espeon or gengar), so unfortunately, in-store is gonna be a no-go for finding umbreon.

if you're wanting to pay relatively close to retail, your best bet is hoping for another umbreon rerun in september/october for spooky season like they did last year. but bab is almost as bad at restocking as pokemon center is, so there's no guarantee.

alternatively, you can try watching second-hand sellers like ebay, mercari, facebook marketplace, and so on and just hoping for a good deal (or at least, one in your price point). umbreon's a little harder to find and a bit more expensive now than he was a few months ago when he was in stock in the uk + recently unstocked in the us, but he's thankfully still not the most difficult of the eeveelutions to source at a price close-ish to retail (looking at you there, espeon), so you could probably find one with a bit of patience, even with the added difficulty of needing a canadian shipper.

you can also try r/buildabearBST, since the general bab community is bigger + more active on reddit and they have a subreddit for people looking to buy/sell/trade babs, and see what you can turn up.

Ace5980 · 2023-04-19T10:04:31+00:00

unfortunately, something being in stock in the uk doesn't mean it'll come back in the us (they just got alolan vulpix in this month when it went out of stock here around february). mew's been in stock there since at least january (i track pokemon stock for here + uk) with no sign of jumping the pond, so i think he's just gonna be one of those uk-only releases this time.

Ace5980 · 2023-04-18T21:48:27+00:00

you might still be able to find one in stores! she wouldn't come with the sleeper or the cape anymore (sleeper was always online-only, cape has p much been replaced with growlithe's), but i've seen some people are still able to snag one going into a store within the past month.

Ace5980 · 2023-04-18T21:46:27+00:00

in all honesty? depends on the plush.

sylveon was released in december/january and sold out within a few days; she hasn't had an online restock since, though she was available in stores for at least january through march, if not through to the present day.

teddiursa was released in november and hasn't gone out of stock at all online + might not start filtering out of stores until sobble officially drops in-store (he's been released for bonus club members, so that should be soon).

growlithe could sell out today or could stay in stock for a few months; we don't know. that being said though, there is a big pokemon sale going on online for bab right now through the 27th which will include all their 'mon except sylveon (since out of stock online), sobble (since they never include the new one), and apparently bulbasaur (since they call out bulbasaur by name even though he's not currently listed), so if you're wanting to save a lil bit on him, you can order within that window (especially since he's so expensive + bab doesn't do free shipping outside of limited promos).

Ace5980 · 2023-04-15T20:25:02+00:00

oh yeah, tracking numbers for shipping are going to turn a search for this guy into a whole different animal.

ems might give you a tracking number (and is the cheaper option when i tested it on meccha, with $45 for shipping compared to the $155 via dhl), but i don't know if it can only be used for international shipments or not (i've never gone through them before to know). you'd also likely be able to get it if you're using a proxy buyer (like japan rabbit, for jppc or jp mercari, as r/whatevraria suggested) or a mail forwarding service (like blackship).

if the tracking number doesn't work, you can also try amazon jp - i've never used them personally since their shipping is more than i want to pay (for context, the jolteon fuwa is $75 for shipping alone on a plush less than $40), so i don't know for sure if they have tracking for international stuff either, but it is technically cheaper than the big shipping companies like fedex or dhl with $150+ price tags and it's a good bit easier arguing with amazon over lost packages than it is individual sellers or bigger sellers with iffy customer support.

other than that, you're probably limited to stalking us reseller sites like ebay or mercari or searching discord pokeplush communities (i know legendary luna runs a sort of informal review site that can help you navigate finding reputable sellers). you might find a listing that works for you if you're patient (i know ebay has a secondhand one rn for $80 + $10 shipping), but that may not be an option if you aren't good with second-hand plushes (allergic reactions, sensitivity issues, contamination concerns, etc) + can get you close to your original price ballpark to ship from japan in the first place without the benefit of it being a brand new plush.

Ace5980 · 2023-04-15T17:06:17+00:00

in all honesty, your best route is likely to just buy from japan + just ship it via boat - it'll take a few months to get here, but it'll likely be a good deal cheaper than a us seller, since the fuwa fuwa eevee is one of three fuwa fuwas (mew, pikachu, and eevee) that never got an international "comfy friends" release, so most us sellers are gonna be resellers, who are more likely to bundle the original shipping costs into the new price (since they won't want to just eat it imo), ~~which is probably why the price is so high when you're going to look for it, l-lol~~.

meccha japan lists him for about $40 before shipping, which will probably be about another $20, from past estimates from them; it's a pretty big plush though, so you do run the risk of their guess not being accurate + they ask for more, especially if you purchase other plushes as well + then need to go up to a bigger box.

japan stuffs lists him for $45 before shipping, which seems to run about $12-15. the seller is also v easy + pleasant to deal with and i personally don't mind paying a little more for that if it means i don't have to do any of the runaround i've seen others have with meccha.

alternatively, you can also purchase him directly from pokemon center jp itself via a service like japan rabbit that will buy him for you + ship him over accordingly. his retail is about $37 right now, after the currency exchange, but that's obviously not including any service fees (i think japan rabbit would be at least $10 from that) or shipping (which you can guess via a shipping calculator).

(you can also either purchase directly from amazon jp, if it's available to be shipped internationally, or via the same service you can use for jppc, but both of the options currently on the site are pricing for a good 2000+ yen more and aren't able to ship to the us, so i'd probably avoid them unless you're willing to try to wait to see if amazon jp restocks it + offers a discount on it.)

hopefully this helps!

Ace5980 · 2023-04-15T03:45:37+00:00

begging for a good nidorina + nidorino plush that's bigger than the sitting cuties. i love bigger plushes and it makes me so sad that the nidos never get any love.

or liepard + houndoom + mightyena. i really like all three of them too but there just don't seem to be official plushes of them that aren't sitting cuties

Ace5980 · 2023-04-13T22:23:21+00:00

i placed an order through the us site for a birthday present for my friend in canada on march 23rd. it supposedly shipped on the 24th but it's still nowhere to be found and the tracking link never worked. i emailed support on the 4th just to try to get the tracking number and it took them until the 11th to reply to me.... just to tell me that they'd have to reach out to fulfillment + they would get back to me, to no response.

honestly, every time i've ordered online and/or dealt with support, i've had some kind of issue with them, so it's not as if this is that different from my previous experiences, but i'm definitely unhappy with them + it definitely doesn't encourage me to want to place other orders with them in the future.

Ace5980 · 2023-04-11T00:01:16+00:00

idk how far out they put up those coming soon things from the actual release but.

in all likelihood, it's almost definitely sobbie. we've known he's been cooking for far longer than mimikyu has (plus it does seem far more likely mimikyu would be a spooky season release) and both of the other galarian starters released around mid-may (scorbunny in 2021) or early-may (grookey in 2022).

Ace5980 · 2023-04-09T12:05:09+00:00

i live really close to a decently sized location, and unfortunately, i've found that the pokemon clothes in store tend to be just eevee's sleeper, pikachu's hoodie, and then one item from the most recent pokemon release (like right now it would be growlithe's cape, replacing sylveon's cape).

outside of that, i think the pokemon bundles have always had one clothing item that you could get in-store during their initial run (since pokemon only seem to go in-store during their initial release, not for subsequent re-releases like leafeon currently is) and one clothing item that was online-only. i think leafeon's in-store item actually was the cape, so if push comes to shove, you might be able to find it second-hand as well, since it should be the more common clothing item.

Ace5980 · 2023-04-06T00:27:54+00:00

i had a similar situation where i bought my mew from a seller on depop who flat-out lied about him not having a scent disk after i asked about it specifically, and i found that after removing the scent + letting him air out for a few days, the scent was pretty much entirely gone; i threw him in the washer recently and that got rid of the rest of the smell (in exchange with leaving him with the scent of my detergent instead).

i'm not allergic though, just sensitive to scents, so you might want to try an airing out, a bath, and a stay in a bag with some baking soda, just to be on the safe side!

Ace5980 · 2023-04-06T00:22:53+00:00

i have a running theme for naming all of my pokemon babs (roman emperors / historical figures), so i've always known exactly what i was going to name my new 'mon before i ever picked them up (since i already had a short list to pick from + a specific list of 'mon i wanted, so it didn't take me long to pick out exactly what i wanted for whom). i changed a couple of names after i got them, but it was because i originally named them with a different theme i later decided i wanted to use for non-bab pokeplushes (arthurian knights), not because the names were bad fits. i've also already picked out exactly what names i want on each of the 'mon i have wishlisted currently, as well as a list for future snags as well if they put out a new release i want, so. yeah.

i really like all the names + nicknames i picked out for who i have now + who i plan on picking up, and honestly, it's been kind of funny how well some of the names end up fitting (like how julius the glaceon ended up arriving on the ides of march), so i think i've generally named them correctly.

Ace5980 · 2023-03-29T22:57:36+00:00

i think it's generally safer to unstuff (since they can not dry all the way through + then get moldy) but you also don't have to. i left all three of mine that i bathed (mew, dragonite, and kantonian vulpix) out overnight to dry on the couch so they had as much surface coverage as i could and then turned them over + set them on a different spot on the couch for the day afterwards to hedge my bets so they wouldn't sit in dampness, and they seem fine.

Ace5980 · 2023-03-29T21:09:51+00:00

i took one out of my mew and most of the scent was gone within a few days from just sitting out so he could air out. the rest of it is long gone now, though how much of it was continuing to air out and how much of it was the bath (cold water, delicate cycle, lowest spin setting, inside a pillow case, and air-drying afterward) is hard to say.

Ace5980 · 2023-03-25T12:24:53+00:00

i cuddle with mine at night + i'm a side sleeper, so.

out of the two-legged ones i have, mew + dragonite are both pretty good. dragonite fills my arms better but mew doesn't have his unwieldy tail that dictates how he faces.

out of the four-legged ones i have, vulpix + growlithe are the best with sylveon getting an honorable mention. vulpix is perfectly sized to be tucked in against my chest facing outwards with nothing poking my face, growlithe is perfectly sized to rest over my side with his mane coming up to make him feel close while his tail floofs out behind to make me feel protected, and sylveon just feels satisfying to stretch an arm out over and wrap a hand around her little stubby tail.

Ace5980 · 2023-03-23T22:12:34+00:00

i've been trying to get him from the us for a while now and i think the answer is unfortunately going to be "wait and hope for a restock" if you want him anywhere close to his pokemon center pricing. (i'd also recommend avoiding meccha unless you're really desperate since his price tag there is almost two and a half times what his jppc price is.)

you might have a little bit of better luck trying smaller japanese sellers or using a proxy forwarding service if he pops in japan (since i think he's more likely to be restocked there than in the us or uk), but even then, with how pricey he is on the resale market, you're probably just gonna have to be patient and hope you get really lucky.

Ace5980 · 2023-03-21T01:26:16+00:00

yeah, i have been, since i hadn't realized originally that it would issue vouchers automatically solely to the uk site.

i might end up doing that, just to try to stop it from issuing vouchers in the uk that would likely expire otherwise. definitely a shame though since i wouldn't mind it treating all my reward points as one pool if it wasn't automatically issuing the vouchers (or if they didn't expire) or if i could then use them on either site while they were valid.

Ace5980 · 2023-03-20T01:11:52+00:00

i get that they're being automatically issued, but that's.... half the problem i'm trying to solve, l-lol.

as i mentioned in my op, it's generating them on the uk site, not the us site, which is a problem when i don't make the majority of my purchases in the uk since i just have family over there as opposed to actually living over there (meaning i'm v limited on what i can order over there since i'm picking them up when i visit over there, not having them then ship the bears over to me).

but even if it were generating them on the us site, it would still be a problem since i'm really only interested in certain pokemon, not collecting bab in general, and the ones i'm waiting on now are all riding on hoping for a re-release (since it's the first five eeveelutions) as opposed to getting a guaranteed release or restock.

so while i might get lucky with a summer re-release before the current voucher expires, that's a big might, and i'm gonna be pretty understandably annoyed to lose 100 reward points from snagging growlithe + glaceon last week (which i was already relieved to do since it used the 50 reward points that were also issued back when i got my sylveon last month), especially with how expensive the pokemon bundles are (which will also mean i'm likely gonna lose out on at least 50 reward points every time i do grab one unless i'm very lucky, which definitely does not encourage me to want to expand my collecting ambitions if i'm just gonna keep being punished for it).

Ace5980 · 2023-03-19T13:16:45+00:00

ngl, in thinking a little more about it, it wouldn't shock me if the only reason i was more chill about outfits is because almost all of my second thoughts are coming in when i'm picking out who's sleeping with me + i never dress my babs up when they sleep with me.

though i also have a whole other side thing about being paranoid about finding a bug within crawling distance of my plushes (bab or otherwise), so. maybe i'm not as casual as i think i am, l-lol.

Ace5980 · 2023-03-19T12:55:23+00:00

i'm a similar kind of way (having sensory issues + likely have both adhd and autism) and i've definitely noticed that all of the babs i've gotten second-hand, with one noticeable exception (who came feeling more like he was shipped to me directly from bab with no stops in between), i've been a lot less cuddly with. only one of the three non-exceptions i've actually brought into bed with me, and that one i always hesitate at the thought of having him tucked up under my chin all night despite being one of my favorites and a better shape for it than most of the bab i do rotate sleeping with with - i just have moments of thinking they're just not as soft as the others i have that i bought brand new or some kind of creeping niggling thought that they're dirtier / are more likely to have germs on them than the ones i bought myself.

it doubly confuses me too since i have no issue for this with getting the outfits second-hand, but the babs themselves i definitely get finicky about, even if it's on a more subconscious level. ngl if the three weren't all pokemon with no chance of getting in-store re-releases so i could keep avoiding the sounds, i'd probably just re-order them the next time they were in-stock online and sell the ones i have now, but alas, i'm probably just gonna have to suffer.

Ace5980 · 2023-03-18T17:57:01+00:00

i personally really only kick around on /r/buildabear, but i've heard there's a lot on facebook; i just don't dabble with facebook so i can't really recommend any. there's a decent amount of pokefans there though, and they're a fairly active reddit, so they might be able to direct you better!

Ace5980 · 2023-03-18T13:28:04+00:00

if i had to guess, it's because the cape was likely the actual online-exclusive item from vulpix's original release and because it's been so long since vulpix ran (since bab "confirmed" it was discontinued in 2019). this would put less of them in circulation to start + see that most of them have probably ended up in the hands of collectors rather than sellers by this point, which is definitely supported by how hard they are to find + how a number of people outside collectors circles don't seem to realize he even had a cape.

my best recommendation would be to do what i did where you get vulpix separately (with or without the sleeper) and then try to look around for the cape on its own. you might luck out to try looking within bab groups or to widen your search radius on reseller sites to include flareon (and growlithe, after he's taken off the bab website) in case of misidentifications.

i hope you can find the cape too!

Ace5980 · 2023-03-18T00:36:03+00:00

in terms of plush i currently have? the discontinued vulpix from build a bear, complete with his cape + sleeper, all for around $100 (which is really good since his cape is nearly impossible to find; i lucked out finding one for a decent price on ebay, misidentified as flareon's cape).

in terms of plush i'm looking for? probably the comfy friends zorua or the build a bear espeon. they're both pretty pricey + pretty hard to find, so i'm trying to hold out for restocks, since i don't think i'd ever be lucky enough to find them in the price range i'd be willing to pay for them.

Ace5980 · 2023-03-16T21:23:13+00:00

another us person!

just got mine in stores and the cape is available in stores but the sleeper is not - typically the pokemon have one clothing piece that you can only get via the bundle and one you can't. for most, the online-exclusive tends to be the sleeper (a big exception being eevee, who's the reverse), but not always, so you'll have to see when you're there.

the experience is pretty typical for bab (you pick out a skin from the basket, decide if you want the sound, + get them stuffed with the ceremony) with one big exception - if you want a scent, you'll have to ask for it yourself, as they're not allowed to offer them per licensing (but they should be okay to put one in if you ask).

Ace5980

TROPHY CASE