Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This Tiger Electronics Pokemon Pokedex commercial is a proper piece of 90s Pokemon history that a lot of people forget about. Tiger Electronics and Hasbro released this toy in 1999, and it was the very first real life Pokedex ever made as an actual physical product. The whole thing is shaped just like the in-game Pokedex from Pokemon Red and Blue, with a number pad and alphabetical keyboard on the front, and it could show a two-frame animation of any of the original 150 Pokemon along with their height, weight, category, four attacks they can learn and a mystery stat simply called Strength ranked from one to ten.
That Mew shaped hole in the data is actually a fun piece of history on its own. When this toy went into production, Mew still had not been officially revealed to the public as an obtainable Pokemon, so the team at Tiger and Hasbro simply left it out entirely rather than include a Pokemon they were not supposed to confirm yet. Onix, meanwhile, is the only Pokemon in the whole device rated a perfect ten for Strength, which is a completely baffling choice that nobody has ever been able to fully explain.
The commercial also shows a "REPLAY" feature, letting kids replay the Pokemon animation on their handheld Pokedex, which was genuinely impressive for a standalone toy in 1999.
Tiger Electronics was already a big name in licensed LCD handhelds by this point, best known for their Game Boy competitors including the Game.com, and the Pokemon Pokedex fit right into their catalog of officially branded electronics that looked great in a commercial but mostly just felt cool to own.
Let me know in the comments if you ever had one of these. Subscribe to Game Forest GF for retro gaming content every single day.
#pokemonpokedex #tigerelectronics #pokemon #nintendo #retrogaming #classicgaming #90stoys #retrocommercials #90sgaming #oldschoolgaming #vintagegaming #gaminghistory #90snostalgia #pokemonfan #90skids #youtubeshorts #gaming
This Tiger Electronics Pokemon Pokedex commercial is a proper piece of 90s Pokemon history that a lot of people forget about. Tiger Electronics and Hasbro released this toy in 1999, and it was the very first real life Pokedex ever made as an actual physical product. The whole thing is shaped just like the in-game Pokedex from Pokemon Red and Blue, with a number pad and alphabetical keyboard on the front, and it could show a two-frame animation of any of the original 150 Pokemon along with their height, weight, category, four attacks they can learn and a mystery stat simply called Strength ranked from one to ten.
That Mew shaped hole in the data is actually a fun piece of history on its own. When this toy went into production, Mew still had not been officially revealed to the public as an obtainable Pokemon, so the team at Tiger and Hasbro simply left it out entirely rather than include a Pokemon they were not supposed to confirm yet. Onix, meanwhile, is the only Pokemon in the whole device rated a perfect ten for Strength, which is a completely baffling choice that nobody has ever been able to fully explain.
The commercial also shows a "REPLAY" feature, letting kids replay the Pokemon animation on their handheld Pokedex, which was genuinely impressive for a standalone toy in 1999.
Tiger Electronics was already a big name in licensed LCD handhelds by this point, best known for their Game Boy competitors including the Game.com, and the Pokemon Pokedex fit right into their catalog of officially branded electronics that looked great in a commercial but mostly just felt cool to own.
Let me know in the comments if you ever had one of these. Subscribe to Game Forest GF for retro gaming content every single day.
#pokemonpokedex #tigerelectronics #pokemon #nintendo #retrogaming #classicgaming #90stoys #retrocommercials #90sgaming #oldschoolgaming #vintagegaming #gaminghistory #90snostalgia #pokemonfan #90skids #youtubeshorts #gaming
