Act Now & Win This Rare & Adorable Large Pikachu Plush

From the fine people at Pokezine.com, we have this awesome free contest for you where you can enter to win an adorably rare plush of Pikachu dressed up in a Charizard costume! All you need to do is enter your email and answer a dead-simple trivia question, and you're in. Good luck. Here are further details from the contest page:

Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo 2015 Grand Opening Pikachu ”Pikazard” large size plush toy. It was sold at the Japan Pokemon Centers April, 2015, for a very limited time and in very limited quantity. 

Pokemon Shaming

Image courtesy of mrpresidentlincoln.tumblr.com

 It started 2 years ago on tumblr, when one user launched the "dog shaming" blog-- in this case, a photo of a dachshund next to a chewed up pair of underwear, a sign shaming them for chewing it up, and the dog looking guilty. It caught on like wildfire, spawning other pet-shaming inspired blogs and trends-- cat shaming, lizard shaming, pet shaming, et al. It's hilarious, of course, because animals can't really feel shame, and everyone can relate to both loving their pets and feeling frustration at some of the things they do.

Keeping that in mind, it's a wonder that the latest pet shaming trend didn't appear sooner: Pokemon Shaming! About two months ago, Tumblr user and fan artist davidmakesart posted a multi-image set on his tumblr where he took the idea of pet shaming, and applied it to several of the Pokemon's signature moves:

image courtesy of davidmakesart.tumblr.com

And from there, the phenomenon has continued to grow. While you can simply peruse the "pokemon shaming" tag on tumblr, I wanted to compile and share a few of my personal favorites.

ambersdraws.tumblr.com

inktail.tumblr.com

inksword.tumblr.com

mineapple.tumblr.com

lizapproved.tumblr.com

Nintendo Game Boy: Now You're Playing With Flower

Images courtesy of  Riverwood-Elf

These incredibly well done custom Nintendo Game Boy cases are courtesy of tumblr user Riverwoof-Elf, who does custom covers for portable systems for her friend's shop. If you want one of your very own, contact her via her tumblr.

(Thanks to reader Velmagrrl for the tip)

Gotta Quit Pall Malls, Smokémon!

From DS Fanboy comes a tale of trading one habit for another, and how a gamer pulled it off-- he traded cigarette smoking for playing Pokemon on the DS:

How did you come up with the idea of using Pokémon to help you quit smoking?

I can't really say for sure what made me choose Pokémon to help me quit. Back when Pokémon Red and Blue first came out, I was addicted to those games. I caught them all, even borrowing a friend's Gameshark to help me get the elusive number 151, Mew. After that, I more or less forgot about Pokémon for 10 years or so. It was only while getting trophies in Super Smash Brothers Brawl that I was reminded of all the different Pokémon, and I became sort of nostalgic for the series. Then one day in-between rounds, I just decided that I was going to play Pokémon instead of smoking. So I went down to the local Target and purchased Pokémon Pearl.

How does it work? Walk us through the process.

I decided that every time that I wanted a cigarette, I would turn on my DS and play some Pokémon. But the thing about going from two packs a day to cold turkey is that at first, you always want a cigarette. So the first three days, I did nothing but play Pokémon non-stop. My routine was to sleep extra late (because if I'm not awake, I'm not craving a smoke), play Pokémon for about 8 hours with breaks to stretch and eat, read Pokémon walkthroughs, F.A.Q.s, strategies, and websites, and then sleep. Experience has shown me from previous attempts to quit smoking that the hardest thing is to be around other smokers. Unfortunately for me, every single one of my friends that I see on a regular basis are smokers. So for those first few days, I went into seclusion, locking myself in my room and not answering my phone. After the initial push, it just required the willpower to keep playing Pokémon instead of smoking.

Did it work? Read the rest of the interview to find out!