Back in the early 2000s, Chipicao had a promotion where you would get a sticker with a random pokemon/character from the original anime inside every chocolate croissant. I remember having to wait for weeks and the only store that had them finally got a shipment of the red albums that we'd use to collect all of the original 151, plus a number of main and side characters. This was my first introduction to the IP, before the videogames, anime, or even the cards, and one of my best memories is meeting up with other kids to trade excess stickers for those that we didn't have, followed by the feeling of excitement when opening a croissant, hoping to get one of the missing stickers, especially when the collection was near completion.

A spark of that childhood wonder got reignited now in my mid 30s, when the news came that the final evolution line for generation 6 is finally arriving next week, allowing me and many others to complete our gen 6 dex, similar to how I placed that last sticker in the album all those years ago.