Pokémon fans camped outside toy shops overnight in Gloucestershire this week as the franchise marked its 30th anniversary with a new Trading Card Game release described by collectors as the biggest drop in a decade.
Overnight queues in Gloucester
Dan Spragg, from Stroud, arrived outside Smyths Toys Superstores in Gloucester at 7pm on Tuesday with friends, ten hours ahead of the store’s 9am opening on Wednesday. A collector since the franchise launched in the UK in 1999, Spragg said the renewed excitement around Pokémon was rooted in nostalgia and the good memories the games bring back. He managed to grab some sleep in his car overnight while a friend held his place in the queue, and described the level of enthusiasm as having swept across cities throughout England.
Paul Ransome, from the Forest of Dean, also camped outside the shop overnight, describing an atmosphere of music and good spirits among those waiting.
First in line at Firestorm Games
Across the city centre at Firestorm Games on Westgate Street, Bethany Butler was first in the queue, arriving at 7:15am and settling into a camping chair ahead of the shop’s 10am opening. She was buying cards for her partner and daughter, explaining that the hobby was something she and her partner shared, rooted in his lifelong love of the franchise, and that getting hold of something from the milestone 30th-anniversary release felt especially meaningful given how scarce the cards have become.
Store manager George Read said the morning brought a mix of excitement and nerves, noting the shop had received over 100 messages the previous day from customers reaching out on Instagram, though stock was being allocated strictly on a first-come, first-served basis to keep things fair.
‘Something families can share’
Rich Page, who is opening a new trading card and board game shop in Highworth, Wiltshire, said Pokémon’s enduring popularity had defied early predictions that it would fade as a passing trend. He described the franchise as intergenerational, pointing to parents rediscovering their own childhoods through their children.
Three decades of Pokémon
Pokémon began life as Pocket Monsters, a Nintendo Game Boy title released in Japan in 1996. The Pokémon Trading Card Game followed later that year through publisher Media Factory. In the decades since, more than 85 billion cards have been produced worldwide, and the hobby’s upper end has become extraordinarily valuable — one ultra-rare card sold for $16.5m (£12m) earlier this year.
