On the 19th of February, out in Arcadia, there was a Pokemon event. The new game came out in March, so Nintendo did a tour in select cities across the nation to help promote the game. Several years ago, we went to the 10 year anniversary celebration event out in West Covina. The kids enjoyed it, so we thought we would go to this one in Arcadia.
This event wasn't as big as the one for the 10 year anniversary, but it still turned out to be an all day affair.
We started it off by getting to the mall an hour before it opened so that we could wait in line to get free tickets to the new Pokemon Black & White movie. By the time we got to where they were passing out tickets, the 10am and the 12pm showings were full, so we ended up going to the 2pm showing of the movie. It probably turned out better that way because we then had time to do the other activities and eat lunch.
There was a stamp rally where we went around the mall collecting stamps from different locations to put in our booklets. After we had all five stamps we could then spin a wheel and get a prize.
We knew that this activity was the thing to get out of the way first, and we were right. By the time we had all of our stamps, the line for the prizes had just started, but we still had to wait at least 20 min. before we reached the front of the line. Later in the day, we walked past the same line and it stretched deep into the mall and the wait was probably a couple of hours. Mason ending up getting a Pokemon stylus for his DS. Robert, Amanda, and Rainer all got phone charms to put on cell phones. And I got a stuffed animal of one of the new Pokemon from the new game.
Once we were done there, we headed over to Gamestop. Nintendo, through Gamestop, was giving away a free Pokemon for the Pokemon games. The Pokemon will unlock certain things in the new games and it is a rare Pokemon that you can't catch during normal game play. While I downloaded the Pokemon into our different games, Robert took the kids to the play area in the mall to wait for me. That gave them a chance to run around and get some energy out and also "play" on the best "toy"--riding up and down on the escalator.
I'm always intrigued at seeing the various levels of dedication that Pokemon fans have. Of course there is the Official Pokemon merchandise that you can buy, everything from shirts, to hats, to stuffed animals. But then there are the more dedicated fans that dress up as different characters (we saw a couple of Pikachus) or trainers. But what always amazes me are the 20-something guys that get fully decked out, complete with badges, poke-balls, outfits, etc. I can appreciate their love for the game and all things Pokemon, but I wonder, do they have a social life?, do girls actually date them?
We went to Del Taco for lunch because you can't beat 49¢ tacos and burritos! (besides, their food tastes better than Taco Bell). After we had refueled from our morning activities, we thought it would be better to get to the movie theater and wait until it was time for the movie to begin. We knew that Nintendo had passed out enough tickets to fill the theater and we wanted to make sure that we would be able to find 5 seats together. We were the second group in line. Considering it was a Pokemon movie, it was pretty good. By the time it was over, it was 4pm and we were all about ready to go home.
But there was one last thing that we let the kids do. This mall happened to have a Carousel and Rainer absolutely loves Carousels. Mason isn't a big fan of merry-go-rounds, so he opted to stand in line to play a demo version of the new games.
Rainer and Amanda were thrilled to ride the Carousel, even more so because this was a two-story Carousel. After the ride was over, we gathered up our things and started for home.It turned out to be a really fun day and the kids were glad that we went as a family.
(2-19-11)
No comments:
Post a Comment