{"id":136204,"date":"2026-02-20T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-197750"},"modified":"2026-02-20T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T12:30:00","slug":"upcoming-pikachu-puppetronic-is-equal-parts-adorable-and-terrifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2026\/02\/20\/upcoming-pikachu-puppetronic-is-equal-parts-adorable-and-terrifying\/","title":{"rendered":"Upcoming Pikachu Puppetronic Is Equal Parts Adorable And Terrifying"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/55ccbd1f7708f\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/55ccbd1f7708f\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/55ccbd1f7708f\/large.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<aside class=\"object object-youtube\">\n<figure class=\"youtube\" data-videoid=\"TtHSb5SzU28\" data-start=\"0\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TtHSb5SzU28?rel=0&amp;hd=1&amp;showinfo=0&amp;modestbranding=0&amp;autohide=1\">\n<p>[embedded content]<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>We&#8217;ve seen our fair share of Pikachu plushies over the years (it&#8217;s only one of the most recognisable faces in media <em>ever<\/em>, after all), but few have been quite as lifelike as this.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, Wow! Stuff and RealFX unveiled their latest creation: the Pikachu Puppetronic. As that name suggests, this is a puppet with a traditional hand-controlled design, combined with a fair amount of electronics for even more movement and expression.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re talking dual-motion ears, blinking eyes, light-up cheeks, a moving mouth, and sensors all over its head, body and neck, so it can react to your touch. Throw in &#8220;over 120 sounds and actions&#8221;, and this is probably as close as you can come to having ol&#8217; anime Pika in your home.<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, it doesn&#8217;t come cheap. The first wave of pre-orders went up on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pokemoncenter.com\/en-gb\/product\/72-11257-101\/pikachu-puppetronic-by-real-fx\">the Pok\u00e9mon Center UK website<\/a> yesterday for <strong>\u00a389.99<\/strong> and almost immediately sold out. Admittedly, there may have been a rush on these thanks to the inclusion of a special &#8220;First Edition&#8221; badge and certificate to up the FOMO, but we wouldn&#8217;t be surprised to see folks clamouring for these for a while yet.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"gallery\"><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Images: The Pok\u00e9mon Company<\/em><\/figcaption><\/aside>\n<p>It&#8217;s all very sweet, but there&#8217;s a bit of us that finds the puppet a little&#8230; freaky. There&#8217;s something about the blinking eyes, the vacant expression, and the promise that it can move on its own that pushes things closer to the uncanny valley than we&#8217;d like. A cute plushie, we can deal with, but one that might open its mouth and blurt out a &#8220;Pika Pi&#8221; in the middle of the night? *<em>gulp<\/em>*<\/p>\n<p>The puppetronic is expected to ship in mid-spring 2026, so keep an eye out for restocks in the coming months, if this looks up your street.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/pokemon\/related-articles:197655 @ 1771854689 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n<p><em>What do you make of this Pikachu Puppetronic? Let us know in the comments.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[embedded content] We&#8217;ve seen our fair share of Pikachu plushies over the years (it&#8217;s only one of the most recognisable faces in media ever, after all), but few have been quite as lifelike as this. Yesterday, Wow! Stuff and RealFX unveiled their latest creation: the Pikachu Puppetronic. As that name suggests, this is a puppet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}