This week in Pokémon news, Japan have established a taskforce to tackle scalping, adorable exclusive plushies will be available at Pokémon Worlds, Uniqlo launch a new Pokémon t-shirt range, the JLeague in Japan have collaborated with Pokémon, and more!
PokémonXP and the 2026 Pokémon World Championships take place August 28 to 30 in San Francisco, California. The Pokémon Center store pop up has announced a variety of adorable exclusive merchandise, including four plushies featuring a pair of Pikachu as well as Charizard and Kirlia.
The 2026 Worlds Pikachu plush features a male Pikachu in a champion’s cape and elaborate crown, and the female Pikachu plush for PokémonXP wears a space jacket and helmet.
The PokémonXP Charizard plush wears protective goggles and a backpack that looks like a rocket. The PokémonXP Kirlia plush is posable. It dons a pink hat with a Butterfree charm and a bag with a matching Butterfree silhouette. Kirlia is one the girlies will love!
The exclusive Worlds and PokémonXP plushies are always incredibly popular, so we hope limits will be in place at the Pokémon Center to ensure every trainer can buy one if they wish to.
JLeague x Pokémon Collaboration
A really fun collaboration is taking place, with the J.League in Japan teaming up with Pokémon, to assign a Pokémon mascot to each of Japan’s professional football (soccer) teams! As shared with IGN, “The featured Pokémon were picked to match each of Japan’s pro soccer teams. For example, Roasso Kumamoto is getting Ponyta as its partner Pokémon, which matches up with the club’s horse logo and mascot. Akita Blaublitz gets seahorse Pokémon Horsea, which as Pokémon fans will know, has Water/Dragon-type Pokémon Kingdra as its final form. This meshes with Blaublitz’s mascot, which is a blue dragon called Blaugon.”
The top 3 leagues have all taken part in this collaboration, and over one million EVO BAGs will be given out at home games. Each reusable bag features Pikachu alongside the home club’s official Pokémon and club badge as a stadium-exclusive collectable. These bags won’t be available for sale, so the only way to obtain one is to attend a home fixture in person.
Additional themed merchandise will be for sale during this collaboration, and for Pokémon GO trainers, there are also in-game adventures to be had! Starting from one of the following dates, August 8th, August 14th , August 21st, August 29th, September 2nd and September 12th (match dependent), special PokéStops will appear at the stadiums for the 60 clubs across Japan. You can obtain a Timed Research to get a J-League T-Shirt avatar item, as well as items and an encounter with Cinderace.
“I Love Ducklett” POKÉTOON Short
An adorable new POKÉTOON Short is up on the Pokémon YouTube channel, starring Ducklett! The POKÉTOON Shorts are really adorable quick watches and we highly recommend checking them out.
Uniqlo x Pokémon T-Shirt Designs
As part of Pokémon’s ongoing 30th anniversary celebrations, Pokémon has teamed up with Uniqlo once again, and has now launched its second collection of t-shirt designs.
The collection features moments from the original Pokémon series, and has game pixel art inspired by the first Pokémon games. The designs include the Game Boy title’s start screen, Mewtwo, Raichu and a variety of Pokémon from the Kanto region. Initially these were only released in Japan, but they are now available on the UK Uniqlo website, so expect them to be sold more globally.
Pokémon Café ReMix Sneasel’s Traditional Hospitality Event
The Sneasel’s Traditional Hospitality event is now live in Pokémon Café ReMix. This is a Points based event that focuses around the Pokémon Sneasl’s, and gives a way to obtain the Sneasel Tranquil Teahouse outfit, as well as power it up. The event runs until August 1st 2026.
Japan Create Scalping Taskforce
Scalping has gotten so bad in Japan, that a new Taskforce is being created to combat the issue. Pokémon is not the only brand affected, with Yu-Gi-Oh fans also suffering due to scalpers.
Kyodo News reports that the Japan Liberal Democratic Party has announced that a parliamentary group devoted to the country’s trading card industry will be established. The group intends to hear from industry officials and the Ministry of Economy regarding the biggest problems with the trading card industry, with a particular focus on scalping and counterfeit cards. They will discuss potential ways to make it safer to buy and sell trading cards, as scalping has also led to a rise in crime associated with trading card games. They will also investigate the possibility of high-value trading cards being used as a means of money laundering.
Scalping is a major issue for Pokémon fans globally, with many fans struggling to get hold of new releases because scalpers have been able to purchase all the stock before they can even attempt to purchase it. The Pokémon Center attempts to restrict this with purchase limits, pre-orders via the mailing list and more, but sadly too often scalpers find ways to circumvent these extra security measures. Many shops in the USA now have purchase limits to prevent bulk buyers, with independent stores trying to find ways to focus on sales to legitimate fans and regulars only to prevent scalping.
