Starbucks Japan Introduces 1st Pokémon Collaboration
Starbucks Japan and Pokémon announced a new, and apparently first ever, collaboration on Thursday. The collaboration will begin with tumblers on September 30.
Also coming to your corner shop(s) is a new Pikachu Honey Cream Latté and a series of Pokémon x Starbucks merchandise items: tumblers (including one with a Pokéball-shaped lid), bottles, mugs, drip coffee maker pots, kettles, ceramic canisters, milk foamers, aprons, keychains, stickers, postcards, posters, tote bags, and cup pouches. The Pikachu Honey Cream Latté is priced at 690 yen (about US$4.50) and merchandise items between 1,500 yen and 6,600 yen (about US$10 to US$42).
As of press time, Pokémon and Starbucks have not announced when the collaboration will end.
Pokémon is no stranger to tie-ins with fast food restaurants and food product collaborations. Recently the franchise has partnered with American doughnut chain Krispy Kreme for a line of Pokémon-inspired doughnuts in celebration of Pokémon's 30th anniversary. Pokémon has also partnered with South Korean Spam distributor CJ CheilJedang, under license from Hormel Foods, for Pokémon Spam sets for the Chuseok harvest festival on September 24-26.
Life-Sized Golden Pikachu Goes on Display
Along with the Pokémon x Starbucks collaboration, Japanese gold and gold product retailer SGC announced it has created a life-sized golden Pikachu statue for its Yokohama Dai Ōgon Ten (Yokohama Grand Gold Exhibition). The statue stands at 50cm (about 20 inches) tall and was made using nearly 200 pieces of gold leaf.
SGC is also exhibiting and selling 24K gold Gholdengo statuettes. The Gholdengo statuette stands around 6 centimeters tall (about 2.5 inches) and weigh nearly 15 grams (about 0.5 ounces) and retails for 1,540,000 yen (about US$9,730).
The Yokohama Dai Ōgon Ten will take place at the Yokohama Takashimaya 8th Floor Exhibition Area between September 30 and October 5. The exhibition will be open between 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. and entrance is free of charge.
Sources: Pokémon's X/Twitter account, Starbucks Japan's X/Twitter account (link 2), Starbucks Japan's website, SGC's website, PR Times via Nijimen
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