Pokémon x Van Gogh collab ends in disaster, as scalpers appear to snatch stock

Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum has said it will no longer offer the Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat promo card that ties in with its special Pokémon exhibit due to safety concerns, after scalpers and fans mobbed its gift shop and cleaned out all of its stock in a frenzied scene at the exhibition’s opening on Sept. 28.

Late last month, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam opened a special exhibit in partnership with Pokemon, celebrating its 50th anniversary—and, in a move that's a little unwise in hindsight, also offered a limited-edition Pikachu card in the style of Gogh's piece «Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat».

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has confirmed that it will not be restocking its promotional Pokémon card following «safety and security concerns» for its staff and customers.

Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum has stopped a Pokémon promotional card giveaway due to what it called “safety and security” concerns for visitors and staff.

The Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam said Saturday it would no longer hand out a prized Pokemon card after the giveaway sparked crushes by "scalpers" reselling it for exorbitant prices. Launched with great fanfare last month to mark the museum's 50th anniversary, the collaboration with Pokemon aimed to inspire younger visitors and included exhibitions on the artist's links with Japan.

Well, this is just Trubbish. The Van Gogh Museum, which recently held a Pokemon collab that got a bit hectic, announced it will no longer distribute its Pikachu promo card at the physical exhibit starting October 14. If you want the Pikachu in Grey Felt Hat collaboration card, you’ll have to shop online for a qualifying purchase.

What was supposed to be an adorable collaboration card for the with Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum became a chaotic frenzy for collectors and scalpers who wanted to get a copy of the special Van Gogh Pikachu card. On September 28, 2023, when The Pokémon Company debuted its collaboration collection with the museum, scalpers swarmed in to claim the cards, so they could be resold at exorbitant rates online rather than allowing true fans to be able to get access to them as intended. The Van Gogh collection merchandise was entirely sold out within the first 24 hours of the exhibit's opening, and promo cards were out of stock in minutes online.

If you missed out on the special Pikachu card inspired by the Van Gogh Museum the last time, don't worry! The Pokemon Company is giving fans another shot. This card, known as "Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat," is part of a unique collaboration between the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Pokemon world. They're showcasing a special exhibition that will run until 2024, and there's a range of cool merchandise available, including that elusive Pikachu card.

Detective Pikachu isn’t the only live-action Pokemon offshoot in existence. There’s also a Japanese TV series on the way, but don’t expect to see more CG-animated Pokémon waltzing about in this one. Per Crunchyroll news, Pocket ni Boken o Tsumekonde — Pack Your Pockets with Adventure, or PokéTsume for short —is a Pokemon-inspired drama that aims to mine a very specific type of nostalgia. In particular, nostalgia aimed at folks who grew up on the original Game Boy and the first Pokemon games. 

When we first heard that Japan would make a live-action Pokemon series, we felt, “It was about time!” But then we listened more to what they had to say about what they were making, and admittedly, our eyebrows went way up. Because this wasn’t a series about a live-action trainer going around the world and catching Pokemon, this was a series set in our world about a young woman who needed the video game series to get through a tough period in her life. It sounded both very weird and “very Japanese.” And now, PokéTsume has gotten its first trailer.

By Charles Pulliam-Moore, a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.

TV Tokyo has released the first trailer for a new live-action Pokémon drama series called Pack Your Pocket With Adventure (literal translation), or Pokétsume for short.