Pokécar story
Some of you may recall seeing pictures of this 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser that was modified to look like the Legendary Pokémon Lugia. Five of these cars were built to tour the United States to promote the then new video games Pokémon Gold and Silver editions. Even if you never saw this car in person, you more than likely saw it in a gaming magazine or in some other kind of promotional media.
Despite living in a small town located near a major city, I knew that I was never going to see this car in person. And even though one of these cars did indeed make a stop near where I lived, I never got to see it during the promotion.
Now, after this promotion concluded, you would have thought that Nintendo of America would have had these cars either destroyed or had their modifications removed before selling them second hand. But they actually ended up in the hands of private collectors (or at least one of them did).
See, despite thinking that there was no way I’d ever see one of these cars in my home town, in recent years I’ve caught glimpses of one driving up and down U.S. Route 12 in my home home town. There was a nearby resident that ran a small used games booth at the Volo Antiques Mall in Volo, IL that acquired one of these cars and drove it around from time to time.
I mean, it’s crazy for me to think about. Something that 11-year-old me would have been crazy about getting to see in person. And here it is almost 20 years later parked in the parking lot of the fast food restaurant I used to work for.
A few years back I got to speak with the owner of the car. He was on the verge of retiring due to health reasons. According to him this was the last of these cars still in existence. I’m not sure how true that story is. But last I checked this car was on sale on the Volo Auto Museum’s website. I’m not sure if it sold yet or what it’s ultimate fate is. Hopefully whichever private collector ends up owning this car takes good care of it and can work on restoring some of its modifications.
