A Pokémon Center in London? Yes, it's a real thing now! A Pop-Up store has been opened since Friday October 18, 2019 in the shopping centre Westfield London, in Shepherd's Bush. This Pop-Up store will run for 1 month and will close after Friday November 15, 2019.
The Pokémon Company International invited PokeGuardian to the preview one day before the official opening on Friday of the Pokémon Center London Pop-Up Store.
Many fans were hanging around the store already before we could go in at the preview on 13:30. There was a queue but the Staff told us that we can just walk in directly with no waiting times, so we did.
Once I was in, we could check out the very nice wall art behind check out counters, the staff were waiting for us. Of course it was very busy in the beginning, everyone was very excited to see the merchandise.
The London exclusive merchandise was in the same hall, this was limited to 1 item per person, which perfectly understandable. The Pikachu London playmat was also displayed there, aswell as the London TCG Deck Sleeves, Pin badge, Plush and many more items.
The Pokémon Center London artwork has been illustrated by Kouki Saitou. Many of this artwork has been used for the London exclusive merchandise.
Credits to Serebii.net for the exclusive official images shown below.
In the other hall there was the Pokémon TCG section, aswell as the Sword & Shield merchandise. What stood out to me, was that the Pikachu GX & Eevee GX Special Collection was sold 2 weeks before it's release on November 1, 2019. I have immediately purchased one for myself since it includes 2 Cosmic Eclipse packs. This box includes the controversial Full Art Eevee GX card illustrated by Q-Rais, the (BEAMS) Pikachu GX card and lastly both the Pikachu / Eevee Pokemon Card Friendly Shop promo's that now are released internationally.
Also 4 TCG Deck Sleeves from the USA exclusive pokemoncenter.com website was available here. This was the Eevee Pixel Collection!, Poké Ball Pattern Card Sleeves and the Espeon & Umbreon Starry Constellations Card Sleeves.
Lastly the Pale Moon GX Box was available 1 day early. On the right side of the TCG section, you could buy clothes, for example Pikachu London exclusive socks and many more clothes and accessories.
On the other side of the area, the Galar First Partner merchandise was available, I was told this was also limited to 1 item per person of this section.
Upstairs there was a Sword & Shield demo area where you could play the Sword & Shield demo for 10 minutes either on the Switch Lite or on a regular display. You could also take some pictures on the wall with Sword & Shield artwork.
If you want to see everything of the store, please check out this video-tour by our friend PokeTaj.
For more information about the opening times, when the queues are closed, or anything important, please follow the dedicated Twitter account PokemonPopUp. Some of the merchandise may sell out early, so make sure you visit as soon as possible when you have the chance.
Be sure to be in the queue early, because the queue can close early. After 08:00 AM, it will be busy. I hope you enjoyed this blog and once again we thank The Pokémon Company International for giving PokeGuardian the chance to visit 1 day early!
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