Christmas Trade Party: Gengar and Scizor

It’s the festive season! What are your plans for the holidays? If you’re from the English-speaking world, they probably involve spending time with family, giving and receiving presents, perhaps even making gingerbread houses or baking cookies. Well, in Japan things are a little bit different, for Christmas is seen as less of a familial holiday and is marketed more towards couples and friends wanting to spend one-on-one time with each other. One might even say it’s a perfect opportunity to visit a PokéCenter and eh, trade some Pokémon!

Scanned flyer distributed at Pokémon Center Tokyo. Source: asami-1120.

Christmas Party Plans

On December 6, 2013, the official Pokémon website uploaded an article detailing a “Christmas Trade Party” (クリスマス交換会) to be held later that month. Specifically, during the week of Christmas. Talk about a good way to spend the holidays! Well, what is a trade party? You’d be trading, naturally, but with whom? And for what? Let’s find out below.

This Christmas Trade Party was to be held at certain locations all over Japan. As of the time of this event, the country counted eight official Pokémon Center locations: Sapporo, Tohoku, Tokyo, Tokyo Bay, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka. All eight PokéCen participated in this event, and each day from December 21-26, the promotion lasted from 10am to 5pm. To accommodate fans living in remote(r) areas far away from their nearest PokéCenter, toystore chain Toys R Us co-hosted this event. At 45 select Toys R Us (TRU) locations across the country, between 11am and 6pm daily, even more Pokéfans had the opportunity to experience what awaited them at this event. A total of 45 locations is quite a particular number, though. Aren’t there 47 prefectures of Japan? One TRU location was selected per prefecture, somehow leaving out two: To anyone who lived in Shimane or Tokushima prefectures, we’re sorry there were no closer locations for you!

Players who brought a copy of either Pokémon Black, White, Black 2, White 2, X or Y games (download or physical) were eligible to receive a serial code for a present redeemable in Pokémon X or Y. Namely… A Lucky Egg!¹ Rakki! A Lucky Egg without its Chansey? Blasphemy!

As you’ll know, Lucky Eggs are traditionally tricky to obtain, and Pokémon XY were no exception. Two somewhat convoluted methods were available to players. First was to show a Pokémon with max friendship to a girl in Coumarine City’s hotel, who would compliment its affection towards you. Second was through the Friend Safari system, access to which required beating the game. On top of that, you’d need sufficient good fortune to have a Chansey-unlocking 3DS’ friend code added to one’s system. Even then, wild Chansey only had a 5% chance of holding a Lucky Egg.² Considering the availability of these methods, was a singular gifted Lucky Egg thus useless? I wouldn’t say so. December 2013 was still early days for XY – the game had come out mid-October – and this freebie could certainly help players bypass trouble. Regardless, this egg was not the focal point of the trade party.

Handout that contains a serial code for the Lucky Egg by opening the front of the packet. Source: Pika Peka via their blog here.

Nor were Mega Evolutions. Or were they? Freshly introduced in Kalos, The Pokémon Company marketed Megas as “Evolution Beyond Evolution” as various previous generation Pokémon received entirely new, ultra-powerful temporary forms. Considering the incredible hype surrounding Megas – see also CoroCoro Garchomp – it made oodles of sense to tie in a prospective trade party with the latest generational concept. The event flyer distributed at Pokémon Center Tokyo (and possibly all other PokéCenters) was explicit about this dual aim, bearing a message that read: “Mega Evolution in your hands!” How? Why, by conferring upon the player two Pokémon… Gengar and Scizor. Or, perhaps more accurately, Haunter and Scyther – this was primarily a trade party after all.

Gengar and Scizor were logical choices. Both their Mega Stones were available in XY – Gengarite in Laverre City and a Scizorite in Frost Cavern. Obviously, acquiring a Mega Stone is only one piece of a Mega Evolution puzzle – to see giant Gengar and steely Scizor in action, you would need to, uhh, own the actual Pokémon first. As trade evolutions, this was understandably a difficult task for the group of players lacking access to a second 3DS system or an online environment to perform a tradeback evolution. Thus enter the trade party. But before we look at the Pokémon the event produced, let’s quickly examine its logistics first.

Receiving a Ticket

As you may know, Japan’s Pokémon Centers have a dedicated section on the official Pokémon website called Staff Voice where each location can post announcements or details about promotions they’re hosting. Back in 2013, as the days grew closer to the party, each PokéCen posted details on how to prepare and attend the party to receive your choice of Gengar or Scizor. Most locations posted generally the same details: Line up before 9:30am, and at that time the staff will hand out tickets for 15-20 minutes. The tickets offered a choice to trade for either Gengar or Scizor, and also allotted a 30-minute timeslot for the day. This ticket in hand, attendees were to return to the store during their specified timeslot in order to get a mano-a-mano with a staff member wearing a blue apron. The kicker: only 420 tickets were prepared for each Pokémon Center per day, which made early queueing a necessity. (Or, you know, you could simply luck out and walk in casually on an under-attended day to request a leftover ticket at closing time – as we’ll see later.) TRU distributions across the country worked the same way, except there were 450 tickets available per person per day as opposed to the 420 at Pokémon Centers.³

Example ticket on the day of December 22 for the 30-minute time slot of 3:30 pm to receive Scizor. Source: http://okirakuokayama.blog69.fc2.com/blog-entry-316.html

Pokémon Center Tokyo had a different plan on how to distribute the tickets. It’s possible they expected a large influx of visitors, or that they expected more than 420 participants per day, but it wouldn’t be surprising as the location is in the middle of a very large metropolitan area. The plan PC Tokyo made for anyone attending was to line up between 9am and 9:30am. Anyone who entered the line during that time was entered in a mini lottery, where an entry would give you a chance to receive a ticket on that day. If there were more than 420 people in line, you were not guaranteed a ticket, but if there were less than 420 people in line, there would still be a lottery and you would be guaranteed for a ticket, but if you were attending with friends or family, you might not have had the same time slot as them.

Although this was designated as a trade party, there were limitations on what Pokémon you could send to staff. Due to how the distribution was designed, any Pokémon sent were not returned, and would be overwritten the next day to generate more Haunter and Scyther for the next batch of participants. As a rule, Pokémon that knew weather moves, Black Kyurem and White Kyurem could not be traded, as well as any high-leveled Pokémon, legendary Pokémon or Pokémon with held items.⁴ It was recommended to send staffers a common Pokémon such as Fletchling to avoid losing anything with value, either sentimental or unique.

As is customary, the Haunter that players received (which came at level 25), evolved into Gengar automatically. It had the Trainer Name クリスマス (Christmas), the ability Levitate and the moveset Psychic, Confuse Ray, Sucker Punch and Shadow Punch. The Scyther, on the other hand, held a Metal Coat, had the same “Christmas” Trainer Name as Haunter, the ability Technician and came with the moves Aerial Ace, False Swipe, Agility and Fury Cutter. Once received in trade, these were prepared to evolve for you on screen. If you had a Gengarite or Scizorite (not provided), PokéCen and/or TRU staff encouraged you to Mega-evolve them! (See below.)

Let’s Get This Party Started!

On the day(s) of the event, several avid Pokéfans blogged about their experiences. Some of these reviews have very detailed and interesting insights. Let’s look through them, starting with a video recording by one Mr. Chiharu Ogata:⁵

Mr. Ogata attended the Christmas Trade Party with his two children at the Fukuoka Toys R Us location. One kid received a Scizor, the other a Gengar. As we look through this video, there are a few interesting points. For example, we can see that the staff member’s trainer name is エックス, ie. the pronunciation of the letter X, which is the game that Haunter originates from. The staffer’s boxes are on screen for a little bit and we can tell that there are boxes upon boxes of generated Haunters ready to trade. The staff member selected the next Haunter in his boxes for the kid’s Shelmet, and both evolve upon trade. Once the evolution was finalized, the staff member emphasized that Gengar can Mega Evolve with a Mega Stone. Thanks to a picture from Okiraku’s blog here, we also know that the Pokémon Y game used to distribute Scyther had the trainer name of ワイ, the pronounciation for the letter Y.

Source: http://okirakuokayama.blog69.fc2.com/blog-entry-316.html

Active blogger Kirieru from Sapporo also took high interest in this event; her closest location was only a few minutes from her house. She went to the Toys R Us in Sapporo for all six days, so let’s take a look at her extensive documentation:

Dec 21:⁶

The only two stores in Hokkaido where it is being held are Toys”R”Us Sapporo Hassamu store and Pokemon Center Sapporo. I was prepared for it to be packed with people, and sure enough, it was overflowing with people wanting to exchange. I lined up early in the morning, but was put in a 30-minute wait line. You can only exchange one of Gengar or Scizor. (Even if you own several copies of the software, it’s not allowed, only one per person) […] Today I chose Gengar for now, and tomorrow I’ll get Scizor.

Dec 23:⁷

I went to the Christmas trading event again today☆ The Pokemon Center started handing out numbered tickets at 9:30 and finished by 9:31, which seems like an awful lot, so I avoided the crowds and went to the local Toys”R”Us…[…]The Gengars given out at the Christmas trading event are [T]imid, while Scizor is [Adamant] and fixed. Also, there’s one more thing that bothered me… The Gengar I received today (the 23rd). The Gengar I received on the first day (the 21st). The Scizor I received yesterday (the 22nd). The date I met them all is listed as December 21, 2013 (I haven’t changed the date on the 3DS itself). I wonder if this is fixed as December 21, 2013? I received all three at Toys R Us Sapporo Hassamu store, but I wonder what happens if I receive them at another store.

Kirieru’s Christmas Gengar received on December 23 showing Trainer ID Number 12213 and obtain date of December 21, 2013.

Right. Even at the start of the notoriously brutal Hokkaido Winter, the event was still packed with people seeking Scizor or Gengar. There are some interesting tidbits I would like to point out here. Although you could only choose either Gengar or Scizor with one ticket, if you went to the location the next day and receive another ticket, you could get the one you didn’t receive previously. You could also receive extras if you went on more days. Next, Kirieru listed a very important detail about the date. She had received a Gengar on December 21, Scizor on December 22, and a Gengar on December 23. When she looked at the summary screen, all three of them said they were obtained on December 21. We can thus infer that the distribution devices the staff used all generated Haunter and Scyther with the obtain date December 21, 2013. When staff generated Pokémon for the following day, their software both overwrote Pokémon that had been traded the previous day and generated Haunter in X locked to Timid nature and Scyther in Y locked to Adamant nature, all with the met date of December 21. The stats and gender would change with each Pokémon generated, as well as hidden values such as PID and Encryption Constant to make them all unique.

Dec 24:⁸

I went to Toys”R” Us again today. I got a numbered ticket for Scizor. There were very few people there today. There were only about 10 people there when they started handing out the tickets… Since there were so few people and I had some time to spare, I talked to the guy at Toys”R”Us and he taught me a lot of things. […] It seems that most people choose Scizor. […] The date we met is also fixed as December 21st, 2013. Pokemon Center Sapporo stopped handing out tickets around noon. Apparently there were still tickets left at Toys”R”Us around 6pm. What was the point of getting up early and waiting in line in the blizzard like that?

Christmas Eve! I’m not surprised that few people were in the store compared to the crowd on the first day. And most people opted to trade for Scizor… Intriguing, isn’t it? Fans might have tired of Gengar distributions, or perhaps they were crestfallen that Gengar didn’t come in its shiny form so as to marvel at Mega Gengar’s beautiful white color. PC Sapporo seemed to be the hub for this trading event in the island of Hokkaido, so opting to visit the local TRU instead for a speedier, non-queueing service was definitely the right call. Imagine battling a blizzard to stand in line for this event! Brr!

An empty booth with four Nintendo 3DS lined up ready to trade.

Source: irurei at the Toys R Us Ichikawa location via the blog here.

Ticket distribution has ended at Pokemon Center Osaka

Pokémon Center Osaka ran out of tickets for the day. Source: http://167hirona.blog98.fc2.com/blog-entry-388.html

The observations of “Hirona” rhyme with those of Kirieru, writing: “I went to the Pokémon Center Osaka yesterday around noon to try and get one myself, but the numbered tickets had already been distributed…”⁹ This, unfortunately for Hirona, made perfect sense: PokéCens seem to have been the obvious choice to enter this distribution, with fans opting to visit them over (or flat-out forgetting about) Toys R Us locations. If the above testimonials are any indication, TRUs generally saw far less Pokémon-seeking foot traffic than Pokémon Centers. Luckily for Hirona, one Osaka TRU store was very close to PC Osaka, so Hirona was able to snag a last-minute ticket for Scizor. They also noted Scizor seemed to be the more popular choice over Gengar.

And for the final account, let’s take a look at one lengthy description by kyoukinosata:¹⁰

Yesterday, during a break at work while I was out and about, I heard there was a Pokémon Center nearby, so I went to the Christmas Exchange event currently happening there. It’s an event where you can get either a Scizor or a Gengar through a trade. The nearest Pokémon Center is in Tohoku, so I headed there right away, but… huh? Something’s off. […] [T]here was no atmosphere suggesting they were holding a trade event. […] I asked a staff member distributing items there, and they said the exchange event was happening on the 2nd floor of ARE. Oh, right—if they did it inside the Pokémon Center, it would get too crowded and cause a huge traffic jam. I moved from the 3rd floor where the Pokémon Center is to the 2nd floor. The event venue was in an open area inside the building, but it felt like outside. I was sure it would be incredibly crowded, but… huh? It wasn’t crowded at all. A lady standing at the entrance asked me, “Pokémon exchange?” I replied, “Ah, yes,” showing my shyness completely. When she asked, “Would you like a Scizor or a Gengar?”, I replied, “Ah, Scizor,” and was handed a numbered ticket with a circle around Scizor. Off to the exchange area I went. I blurted out, “It’s not very crowded, is it?” She replied, “There was a huge line just a little while ago,” and “You’re lucky,” which made me feel a bit excited and start grinning. I headed straight to the exchange area. There were fences set up in a zigzag pattern, but since no one was lined up, I breezed right through. Just as I was about to make the exchange, it somehow threw an error. Turns out, it was because my shy-person settings had me set to “Don’t interact” with “passersby.” I switched the setting back to “Do interact” and tried again. This time it worked!! Scizor! It was 2V. Its parents are registered under Christmas. During the trade, I asked, “Which is more popular, Gengar or Scizor?” According to the person I traded with, it felt like “Scizor was slightly more popular.” They told me, “Kids seem to think it’s cool that it evolves using an item.” Ah, I see. That makes sense. Anyway, I was lucky to get the trade done right away.

Trade party event poster as present at PC Tohoku. Source: blog of kyoukinosata here.

How about that! Kyouki somehow found PC Tohoku deserted. We can see from their account that the explanation lies in the differential setups that the various PokéCen used to control Poké-seeking crowds. With some (smaller) PCs located inside shopping centres, they had to resort to placing booths in open areas and have queues snake around the mall rather congest the limited space inside the PokéCen proper. Interestingly, staff also commented to Kyouki that Scizor was more popular than Gengar, which they notched up to Scyther’s more unique – and perhaps more opaque – held item evolution method.¹¹

Scizor, then, was definitely the fan favorite, but just how desirable was it? Incredibly, we’re able to quantity this relative popularity, for Twitter user @katsuyoshi1114 recorded trade numbers at the Toys R Us store in Hamamatsu for both Scizor and Gengar during the last three days of the trade party. On December 24, only 54 Haunters were traded out and subsequently evolved into Gengar, whereas 161 Scythers were traded out to be evolved into Scizor.¹² That’s a very sharp increase! This would imply that for every one Gengar given out, three Scizors were traded. On December 25, similar numbers were recorded: 84 for Haunter-turned-Gengar and 185 for Scyther-turned-Scizor.¹³ And on December 26, 101 for Gengar and 227 for Scizor.¹⁴

At the end of the event, katsuyoshi provided an interesting note implying that these figures might not have been daily numbers, but cumulative from the start. Suggesting that, by this logic, 54 Gengars were traded out from that Toys R Us Hamamatsu store as of December 24, 84 by December 25, and a total of 101 by December 26. From our understanding of the event, however, that seems unlikely. Although Toys R Us had less foot traffic in general than Pokémon Centers, the implication that only roughly 20 people lined up and chose Gengar in the entire day is improbable. Not least because Hamamatsu in Shizuoka prefecture is a larger city than most and other locations had also noticed a dropoff in traffic during the middle days of the event – comparable to what katsuyoshi’s numbers suggest. It is apparent, though, that not all of the 450 available tickets at the Hamamatsu Toys R Us location were exhausted each day, so to say the amount of Scizors and Gengars that were given out equals the number of tickets available at that store is a fallacy. A theoretical maximum, yes, but there is unfortunately no way to know exactly how many Scizor and Gengar were distributed throughout all stores.

All in all, this looks to have been a smoothly run event. The Christmas Trade Party was well advertised and not confined to a singular Pokémon Center, unlike the Pichu egg obtained in the last staff-player trade event – over five years prior!

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ICanSnake

New Yorker born and raised. Event researcher, specializing in gen 3-4 events and Japanese events.