The Pokémon Company – Safari Pikachu Poké Plush

Character Name: Pikachu
Series Name: Pokémon
Game: Pokémon GO
Company: The Pokémon Company
Set: Pokémon Center Poké Plush
Year: 2021

Being an avid Pokémon GO player, I was extremely excited when it was first announced that an in-person event would finally be happening in a city near me. I bought tickets to attend the Safari Zone Philadelphia event, originally scheduled for May 2020… and then a pandemic hit.

Alas.

Fortunately, the event wasn’t canceled, just postponed (for nearly a year and a half!), but when it finally arrived in late October 2021, it would be alongside a new Safari Zone Pikachu plush, wearing a safari hat that matched its Pokémon GO in-game counterparts. The plush uses Pikachu’s running pose rather than the usual standing design to match the Pokémon GO Safari Zone key art featured on the event-exclusive t-shirt.

The plush was made available both online and in-person at the Safari Zone events. The plush was grouped with the t-shirt as “Exclusive Items” on the Philadelphia event’s merchandise order site, but I believe it was also made available to the general public though the pokemoncenter.com website around the same time. Perhaps it had originally been intended as an exclusive, but since the event had been rescheduled and many who had originally purchased tickets were no longer able to make it in-person (though ticketholders were still able to participate remotely if they were unable to travel), it was probably only fair to offer it up to everyone.

But since I was fortunate enough to be able to pick this one up in person, let’s talk about how that worked. I can only speak for the Philadelphia event, though I wouldn’t be surprised if other cities used the same system (I know it was also in place for the St. Louis event, at least). The event took place in a park in the middle of the city, and on one end was a series of tents where the merchandise was housed, though this was for pick-up only. There were signs around the park with a QR code for safarizonemerch.com, and orders were to be placed on your phone through this site, then once ready, there was a (really long) line to stand in to pick up the merchandise at the tent.

This was the sign. I believe the safarizonemerch.com site was only able to be accessed the weekend of the Safari Zone events. (I’m also glad I thought to take a few screenshots of the site on my phone while ordering since it doesn’t look like there was a lot of luck archiving it.)

The Safari Zone t-shirt and Pikachu plush were under the “Exclusive Items” on the order site (even if the plush wasn’t ultimately exclusive, it was at least slightly discounted!), but various other Pokémon Center items such as other character plushes and pins were also available to order as well. If I recall correctly, I believe after ordering you were given a time to get in line. I remember thinking that I should have ordered much earlier since the afternoon wait was rather lengthy, but our starting point was on the opposite side of the park, so we didn’t see the signs for how to order until we’d already been there for a while. (Very thankful for the patience of my mom and my brother who were attending with me!)

This is what the merchandise tents looked like. The big crowd near the tent is the line. You didn’t actually go inside the tent, but there was an opening that acted like a service “window” where someone behind a table would go and find the bag containing your order. Also, look! A Bidoof Hat in the wild!!

This was my little Safari Zone Philadelphia haul. Behind the shiny Safari Hat Pikachu I caught in-game is a brown paper bag with the Pokémon GO logo printed on it, which is what the merch was handed to me in. I got the Safari Zone t-shirt (and in-game t-shirt voucher) and the plush. The Pikachu visor was also given out to attendees along with a little sign where you could write down Pokémon you wanted to trade for. It was a good time.

And finally, as of March 2025, Safari Zone Pikachu is still available to order though pokemoncenter.com. I love this little guy (he’s actually sitting next to my computer as I type this). Pokémon GO has been such an important game for me in terms of finding community in pandemic times, so it meant a lot to have this plush to commemorate this event.