Booster pack for the bathroom: Pokémon fans in South Korea are collecting toilet paper

Fans usually collect Pokémon in Nintendo games (Pokémon Legends Z-A is currently available on Amazon for around $54), on trading cards or as plush figures. Now, The Pokémon Company has found another medium for fans to collect their favorite monsters: paper products. The collaboration is based on a partnership with the Portuguese paper brand Renova. For now, the products are only available in South Korea.

The collection features 79 Pokémon. Buyers do not know in advance which design they will get – much like with a booster pack of Pokémon cards. Toilet paper rolls, however, appear to feature the same Pokémon on every sheet. Anyone hoping to complete the collection would therefore have to buy quite a lot of toilet paper. The images released so far reveal only some of the Pokémon included. Unsurprisingly, the focus seems to be on fan favorites such as Pikachu, Lucario, Charizard, Lapras, Ditto and Clefairy.

How much demand there really is for collectible toilet paper remains unclear. Reactions on Reddit have been fairly muted so far. The South Korean crowdfunding platform Wadiz, however, has already recorded more than 2,000 supporters for the collection and raised over $62,000. Some Reddit users also admit that they would still buy the product – even if the idea is rather questionable.

Unusual marketing campaigns are nothing new for the Pokémon franchise. There has already been a Pokémon exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, for example. Japanese airline ANA also operates several jets with Pokémon liveries. Even so, collectible toilet paper is likely one of the franchise’s strangest marketing ideas to date.