Lurantis

Lurantis is my favorite Pokémon of all time, so that's why I'm listing it as a "character" here. My website, my rules.

By virtue of being a Pokémon and not a human, Lurantis has received more merch than a good chunk of Pokémon characters, but it's still not that much, truth be told.

The first piece of merchandise pretty much came as early as it could, with the Sun & Moon expansion of the TCG, which released in Japan in December 2016, while it released in the west in February 2017.

They're all the same card, they are merely different rarities, though they all look super cool regardless!

And right after that we move to our first piece of merchandise that's exclusive to Japan: Pokémon Ga-Olé.

If you aren't Japanese or as autistic as I am over this, you might be wondering what it is. And it's basically an arcade game where you input information with physical figures of plastic.

The game released in July of 2016, but it wasn't until February 2017 that it released the 4th set of disks, which featured Lurantis twice.

I honestly had never seen them before prior to this research, and now I want them.

But they must've rightfully thought "Two Lurantis disks aren't enough" and I couldn't agree more! Because between March and April 2017 they gave away a promotional Lurantis disk, this one right here:

Nothing like exclusive promotional merchandise to feed the heart, the problem will be acquiring it myself though, I don't exactly own a time machine...

Leaving the arcade for a minute, it's now May 2017, the Guardians Rising TCG expansion has been selling well, so it was time to begin making the promotional blister packs, and what better candidate for one than Lurantis?

Shame it didn't get a coin and they gave that to Litten though, in some countries the coin was even a Metagross instead.

And now it's time to go back to good ol' Ga-Olé, as in February 2018 they released Dash Set 4, which featured, you won't guess, Lurantis. Not once, but twice.

These disks are so cool, I wish plastic was real.

Up next is more cards, but this time it's a whole deck. The Lurantis GX deck box released in Japan on July 2018 and features, you guessed it, Lurantis GX.

I actually bought this one alongside the Lisia card sleeves. Japanese cards are super nice to the touch and actually have a different back when compared to international ones.

Now, in April of 2019, there was a promotion in Pokémon Centers where they made a little playmat for the TCG that featured Pikachu and Eevee alongside many Grass and Bug Pokémon, with Lurantis coincidentally being in the very middle.

This playmat looks super cool, I bet it would make for a great mousepad too.

Unfortunately I have to save my money, but I'm getting this the day I buy a desk for sure.

Moving on, the Unified Minds TCG expansion released in Japan in May 2019, with it following suit in the west in August 2019. This expansion features another Lurantis card.

After that release however, there would be a Lurantis drought in the world, at least until January 2021 in Japan (March 2021 in the west), with the release of the Battle Styles TCG expansion, featuring the last Lurantis card to date.

All of these cards are super cool, but thankfully there's still some merchandise ahead!

Similar to Ga-Olé, a new arcade game called Pokémon Mezastar released in September 2020. Instead of calling the plastics disk however, they're referred to as tags here.

The third set of tags released on February 2021 and you know the drill by now, it had the funny mantis.

These tags look cool, truth be told, but I'm running out of ways to describe things.

Fortunately (and unfortunately) the last piece of Lurantis merch released in February 2023, also as part of Mezastar.

And as of writing this, that's all the pieces of official merch that I've been able to find online. If you know any that I missed or even own some that are undocumented, please do let me know!

The easiest way to contact me is via Discord, my username is traceymailin.