Today marks Pikachu’s 17th consecutive appearance in the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! And although seventeen isn’t an especially exciting or important number, I thought we could take a look back at the parade and Pikachu’s multiple appearances! also because #newsdrought
The Parade: A Brief History
The roarin’ twenties were a rather glamorous time in America’s history: flappers were a plenty, speakeasies were open for business, and Macy’s was beginning to become the house hold name it is today with all time high profits. It was 1924 when Macy’s president Herbert Straus realized how big the department store had become, and how it deserved an even larger event to celebrate it. You see, at this point, Macy’s had officially taken over an entire New York City block becoming the biggest store in the world, so Straus’ promise of a “holiday event like nothing the city had seen before” didn’t seem that Farfetch’d. Planned and executed only two weeks before the holiday, the first ever Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was born! Over the years the parade has evolved and undergone several changes: TV gained interest, broadcasting the annual celebration to millions every year, and massive character balloons slowly became the focus. Watch it or not, you can’t deny the parade has become an American institution and tradition; and reaching close to it’s 100th anniversary, it doesn’t look like it’ll be stopping anytime soon. Fast forward to 2001, and we see Pikachu’s first appearance in the parade…
Flying Pikachu, 2001-2005
Fresh off the “Pokémania” craze of thd late 90’s and early 2000’s, Pikachu made it’s debut at Macy’s 75th Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade! Preceded by a Pokémon themed Volkswagen Beetle, the balloon’s design had the TV audience more in mind with it’s belly down and friendly face shooting straight to the city’s horizon. In the balloon’s first year, due to Pokémon’s crazy popularity, Pikachu had the honor of having a walk-around style mascot costume appearance on the 75th Parade SuperStars float – one usually reserved to showcase characters and properties from retired balloons of parade’s past. The Pokémon themed VW Bug was moved to follow the Flying Pikachu balloon from 2002-2004 until it’s sudden disappearance in 2005 to make room for…
Pikachu & the Pokéball, 2006-2013
Come 2006 a new design of the Pikachu balloon was unveiled! This new balloon featured a more spectator-friendly design (with it facing slightly downwards in a more bipedal position) with light-up cheeks, and an additional Pokéball balloon. Although the Pokéball almost always came before Pikachu, this era had the most “variations” among the three: To celebrate 10 consecutive years in the parade and the upcoming release of Pokémon Black & White in 2010, floats carrying larger-than-life size statues of game mascots Zekrom and Reshiram guided the main balloons along the parade route. And although it’s more of a mistake, Pikachu’s ears weren’t inflated properly in 2012, causing it’s ears to be deflated for most of the parade.
Holiday Pikachu, 2014-Present
Inspired by the facelift Generation VI gave to the main series games, the balloon got another re-design in 2014 bringing Pikachu to its current iteration. This new balloon features a much more cartoon-y style, and is explicitly holiday with its scarf and little Pikachu snowman in hand. With 17 consecutive parades under its belt Pikachu rounds out the the top 5 most appearances by a single balloon character in the last 40 years of the parade – only behind much older brand and character juggernauts like Ronald McDonald (McDonalds), Snoopy (Peanuts), Big Bird (Sesame Street), and Spider-Man (Marvel).
As time has gone on I’m admittedly less and less interested in the parade; What started as me watching godzilla-size versions of all my favorite characters fly by on TV as my parents prepared a turkey turned into the parade passively being on in the background as I checked social media on my phone. Nowadays I tend to just specifically look up the Pikachu balloon up every year to keep my nostalgia in check. Either way, I see our favorite yellow mascot being a parade regular for the past two decades (and the changes it’s undergone) as a testament of Pokémon’s permanent stamp on the past, it’s current influence, and it’s continued evolution as a brand that will forever withstand the test of time.
Anybody else have memories of watching the parade? Which iteration of the balloon is your favorite?
Happy (American) Thanksgiving fellow American users! I hope you have a hearty feast and can deliciously devour down those delectable turkeys! May Turkey be ever pardoned. Oh, I meant the animal. From a Canadian, who celebrated Thanksgiving a month earlier!
Yoooooo the shiny wormhole thing works! I got a shiny sigilyph!
Congrats!
Thanks! I actually thought the shiny trick wouldn’t work at first lol. Glad to know even without a shiny charm the odds are ridiculously high!
Yup! I caught so many shinies this way, it’s really fun! Even though I get lotsa repeat shinies, I love getting them anyhow!
It’s a shame the selection is so limited tho. But I really am glad to find something I like. Not sure what I might get next.
I know, but hey, at least we can still get shinies pretty easily!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it 🙂
I’m incredibly thankful to have been part of this wonderful community for over 4 years and the moderator team for just about 3. I’ve met some incredible people here over the years and with every new member, I am reminded why my passion for this site and for Pokemon lingers. I am hopeful that we will continue to speculate and enjoy one another’s company for years to come!
Thank you!
Gotta say after researching everything, the current design of the Pikachu balloon is my least favorite. I just find it way too cartoon-y and not a good representation of the brand as a whole? I know the style in which Pikachu is drawn in these days is vastly different from even five years ago, but the cartoon-y style you see in a lot of merchandise just doesn’t translate super well onto the balloon.
Also, i couldn’t really find a way to include this in the article, but Nintendo/Game Freak/TPCi spends around $600,000 USD each year on the parade (cost of spot in the parade, volunteer guide outfits, helium, etc.). Like, damn.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who’s celebrating today!
SHINY DRAPION…..What utter nonsense is the Ultra Wormholes
I hate Furfrou and any trainer who carries one. Especially the old lady in the Akala cemetery. I hope Giratina tortures what’s left of her soul.
Why?
Her baby doll eyes + Leer + bite combo is evil
Ah.
Or the URS they killed my whole team with it… three times
“I miss the days when flappers roam the streets”
-A melancholic statement of someone who clams to be of prepubescent age in the 1920s.
Shiny….Stunfisk
……pfft. Next.
Surf’s up, deers~
I just beat all 4 of the high scores on the mantine surf, it took me 5 hours.
So Adamant or Brave for the Totem that requires 40 Stickers in UM?
Nice article, wish as had something as cool as thanksgiving in the UK :/
Second balloon is the best one imo, but I can see why they’d want to constantly change it
From all of us here at PJN, we hope you all have a safe Thanksgiving surrounded by those you love!
https://media.giphy.com/media/10lTIIiWxwSULe/giphy.gif
Thank you! The Shopping the next day is painful though
great unique articles like these are why i’ve been a reader here since 2012
and leave it to ozy to always leave a funny hidden message to find in his articles lol
What ball for Noivern? i was thinking Beast altho Dusk goes well with its color palette too
Beautiful article that evokes a sense of elation at knowing how widely loved Pokemon is and I agree, it’s one of those works of ART that will stand the test of time. I know the way things are going now with USUM seems bleak, but I will always remain hopeful, and so I have a feeling we’re going to be blown away by what’s coming for us. #PokeSwitch
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0c66bb92511c8282597679cde40723c50d26c0e5ab9f6a903a2c78b52c3ac628.jpg
Congrats!
Guys I’m going through news archives and remembering the time when GF and TPC actually had great marketing campaigns (during the pre XY phase) and the leaks were exciting. Remember the Trevenant drawings
I got up at 3:00 to go Black Friday Shopping
Now I want to just sit down with a hot cup of cider (I also hinted to my mom that I want Kirby Squeak Squad)
Oh and I took like 15 pictures of the Baloon, but here’s the edited version https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/53e6d0a2f6f14006b7d35dfbbe0eea83f70f9db588c94c320ddbdc1c1b88421e.jpg
Black Friday is worthless to me, I never have the guts to splurge on anything I truly want
All I can honestly think of is a petty upgrade to the tv in the basement, other than that I got nothing, I buy pretty much everything myself, I could buy new N64 controllers but I realize the lack of friends or the desire to let anybody in my house kinda makes it a unnecessary purchase
Better get used to it now since the last couple of Christmases I really didn’t want anything
You know you’re an adult when you don’t have to wait till Christmas to get what you want…
Well bad news for some of you guys theories
Ash of what it looks like won’t be fighting Totem Kommo-o so I assume Jangmo-o won’t be joining Ash
I just saw Blacephalon’s shiny…….Maybe I really should have gone with Ultra Sun instead of Ultra Moon……It’s so fire!!! Now I’m jealous of everyone that can SR for it………. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59c29f6430118bdfd0e5b7f7dc41aca99a7b8b652e2c69376b872eec32d710c7.gif
I swear to effing Christ, they must’ve rigged the ultra warp to stop giving out rings
I’ve been so close to hitting 6.4k only for either the lack of rings or a spark to graze me slowing me down
Is there a time limit for how long you can go before it kicks you out or something? Like after a minute it kicks you back to the real world or something?
NO! You start losing velocity and thus getting you sucked into the nearest portal
I’ve been trying tooth and nail to break Govnah’s record and the only way to do that is to get 6.4k
Ah gotcha. I was wondering how they would end up stopping someone from endlessly staying in the warp ride.
https://gonintendo.com/stories/296270-new-nintendo-direct-speculation-picks-up-once-again
Well, maybe we will get a December Direct for 2018 games after all? Or will this be a Breath of the Wild Direct for the new DLC? I doubt that because I think it will be featured at the Game Awards. Yesterday there was an interesting post on /v/ where someone talked about Pikmin 4 in great detail, which seemed somewhat believable. I could definitely see that being a featured game.
Anyone want a Adamant Pancham or Impish Wimpod before I WT em
Ughhhh the first month of WT is nothing but route 1 fodder