I wanted to get this posted on Monday as that is the day I want to hold myself to updating weekly on… but real life work has been hectic! But I hope to return to making a post next Monday again. Thank you for understanding!
OH! BTW, with the recent release of Pokémon Legends Z-A, I’ve done a lot of updating of the PokéLatin pages, namely the Kalos Word List. Check it out!
The Actual News:
Before I knew it, the final day of Worlds 2025 had arrived. The weekend had flown by… I was sad it was nearly over, but also excited for what was to come. Somewhere between the various side events, the Elite Fourum meetup, and endless wandering through the halls, I started to remember why I cared about this community and what I wanted Pokémon Aaah! to become again. But that big-picture stuff could wait. For now, I had one last day to make count—and one big unfinished mission: the Pin Rally.
Pin Rally
The Pin Rally was exactly what it sounded like: a scavenger hunt spread across Worlds, where attendees could earn one of seven exclusive pins—Pikachu, Fennekin, Froakie, Chespin, Vanillite, Murkrow, and Toedscool. Each pin reflected the event’s retro 1950s hot rod theme, with neon-style designs as if they were signs outside of a diner.
I’ll admit, I didn’t take the Rally seriously at first… I’m not much of a “pin guy.” But when it hit me that I didn’t have many physical keepsakes from the event, something to say “I was there” beyond photos and flyers, I decided to jump on the Pin Rally. If anything it gave me a reason to explore some more (which I shared on my Day 1 review).
That said, my friends from my Day 1 adventure—Jeremy (elementsnstuff), Rowan (merekposting) and Tobin (rapidlyapproachingbird)—were also chasing down some pins, so this overview covers both of our experiences… which came in clutch because I ended up having to trade for missing pins because I didn’t know where to go for them, and thankfully Jeremy did. Good times!
Wait, if I’m not a “pin guy”, then how did I have pins to trade with? By pure happenstance, I’d brought a box full of Pokémon League pins from 2004, from the early Nintendo-era. I figured they’d make neat conversation pieces and maybe I could get them in the hands of someone who may appreciate them, but they ended up being my secret weapon for trades. More about trading below.
Pikachu Pin – Start
The easiest of the bunch. I got this one right at the Pin Trading section… just a short wait in line and I was off to a good start. One down, six to go!
Fennekin Pin – First Book
If you aren’t aware, First Book is a nonprofit TPCi partnered with in 2020 to provide books and learning resources to kids in low-income communities. Their booth in the Partners & Vendors area (in Hall A) was handing out Fennekin pins if you spent a few minutes to learn more about their cause. You can see their booth on the left side of this image.
Funny enough, Jeremy, Rowan and Tobin told me to be sure to grab this one on Day 1, but I pulled a Homer Simpson and said “aw I’ll get it later”. Well, “later” came on Day 3, and by that time they were long gone. D’oh! And no, I never managed to trade for it either.
Froakie Pin – Side Events
Froakie could be picked up at the Gaming Lounge in Hall A (just behind the Gardevoir statue), where you had to play one of the different old-school Pokémon games. Tobin actually discovered fact by accident and let Jeremy know, so Jeremy played a round of Pokémon Pinball (poorly played, by their own admission) for a pin. Sadly, the pins ran out not long after.
As for me? I think I traded for mine… somewhere. Somehow. The details are fuzzy… but I’ve got the pin, and that’s what matters.
Chespin Pin – Play! Pokémon Access
This was another easy pin to get: you simply had to download the new Play! Pokémon Access app, show the staff that you got it, and tadah!, you got the Chespin Pin. Alas, it would only get harder from here. The Play! Pokémon booth was also in the Partners & Vendors section in Hall A.
Vanillite Pin – Grand Plaza Festival Games
This one was tied to the giant inflatable Pikachu out front… the ones I didn’t didn’t Photoshop myself into. You had to line up, take a photo with it, then wait in another line to show the proof before receiving the pin. Jeremy, Rowan and Tobin braved both lines (see their picture above). However, they wondered why they had to go through a second line; why not just have Staff hand them out after getting your picture taken?
This is one I had to trade for, as I had no clue how to get it. Ultimately I found someone with one to spare, and I traded all three of my 2004 League pins for Vanillite instead, which was a fair deal to me (afterall I had plenty to spare!). Hopefully whoever got my badge enjoys owning a small slice of old skool Pokémon history!
Murkow Pin – Creators
This one was a bit tricky. While the above five pins came from visiting various activities, the Murkrow and Toedscool pins could only be traded with officially recognized Creators and Staff, respectively, each with their own limited supply. The catch? You had to find them first. Both getting the Creator or Staff pin had different challenges; for Creators you simply had to know who was an official Creator (they had their own special event badge but it was very subtly designed) and you had to catch them at the right time—afterall, they didn’’’t want to get swamped once news got out.
I learned all this pretty late on Day 3, when most Creators were wrapping up, but got a tip that one might be free around 3:30 PM. Thankfully I found her with her friends, offered one of my League badges, and she was absolutely thrilled. I think she picked the Heat Badge. Deal struck, mission accomplished.
Jeremy, Rowan and Tobin likewise had their own secret anonymous tipoff from a highly reputable source (aka “some guy”) and managed to track down a Creator in the merch area who was willing to trade with them… on the condition they not tell anyone. Otherwise, that poor Creator would’ve been mobbed!
Toedscool Pin – Staff
Finally, the Toedscool Pin… easily the most complicated one to get. Sure Staff members were more commonly spotted than Creators, but only certain staff members had Toedscool pins, and there were many unspoken rules about trading for them. Jeremy shares his list of seven rules that he had to find out the hard way:
- Only official Pokémon pins can be traded—look for the word “Pokémon” stamped on the back. Fan-made ones can’t be used.
- Only orange-shirted and black-shirted staff members even have the Toedscool pins.
- Security staff, despite wearing black shirts, don’t have them.
- And some black-shirted staff members can’t be traded with anyway… their sole only job is to restock pins.
- The orange-shirted staff are restricted to precisely two areas: the Pin Trading corner and the Crafting Station directly opposite from it. If you didn’t know to look there… oh well!
- The orange-shirted staff members carried only a limited supply of Toedscool pins and were prone to run out… so you’re stuck waiting until a restock comes by.
- And some orange-shirted staff members, for reasons known only to Arceus, displayed a Toedscool pin on their lanyard (which should mean it’s tradeable), yet refused to trade it, claiming it’s their “personal copy.” (Then why not just keep it in your pocket??)
It genuinely took Elementsnstuff + Merekposting + Tobin two whole days of constant attempts to track down enough pins for themselves, largely due to running into these secret, unwritten rules.
I lucked out with getting mine; I found a friendly staffer near the TCG tables in Hall B who was open to trading. At first, he hesitated when I showed my old League pins (“They don’’’t have Pokémon/Nintendo on the back…”), but once I explained they were official Nintendo-issued badges from 2004, his eyes lit up. He smiled, nodded, and handed over the pin. Huzzah!
Pin Rally: Success!
Thankfully all of our hard work, timely trades, and a bunch of elbow grease ensured that we were all able to complete the Pin Rally! Well, I kinda cheated a bit by having old pins that people thought were too cool to pass up on. So the real credit goes to Jeremy, Rowan and Tobin for actually putting in the legwork to complete their pins. To the victors go the spoils!
The Final Round Up
In between my Pin Rally journey, I managed to link up with Jon from PokéBeach again. Actually what we were both trying to do was get into the Arena to watch the final tournament matches—but long story short, the place was packed. The line bunched up in front of the Arena, and staff eventually had to turn people away.
With no matches to see and no plan in particular, we decided to roam. Joining Jon were a few of his friends, including Dylan (pupnapoleon), woopuwooper, and Michael (allegedly137), and for the next couple of hours we wandered through the halls… talking shop, reminiscing about how much the scene had changed, super-secret rumors, and even stopped by a few events we’d missed earlier.
During our hang out, what caught me off guard was how genuinely excited Jon was to introduce me to everyone. Like, when Michael realized who I was, he asked for a picture—which was flattering and a little surreal! It’s been a long time since I’ve been on that side of things, but it felt good to know that something I built so long ago still mattered to people today.
Now I don’t have any flashy moments to share, but honestly, hanging out with everyone really was the highlight of the whole weekend for me. It’s one thing to chase clout by tagging someone famous online and hope you get noticed, but the moments that really stick are the ones where you’re just there with people who enjoy your company as equals.
That said, I did take a few moments to snap some pictures of the people and goodies I got here and there, take a look!
Once it got close to the final ceremony at 7pm, we all meandered to the Programming Stage to see the final matches and closing ceremony live. Jon had to work, so I started chatting up with woopuwooper and Michael about what we were seeing. That said, I figured I might as well record the hype as it was happening… it’ll be a year before I can do it again!
The final hype moment of the final announcements was when Ishihara announced a Pokémon GO event to catch Eternatus, and we would be the first to catch it, live outside! Personally I think this was their way of chasing everyone out… but hey, it worked!
Final Moments & Goodbyes
We all shuffled out to the plaza outside to find outselves in the midst of organized chaos of everything trying to go through the steps to catch Eternatus. It was actually pretty easy given that like 1,000 different people were filling up the Raid lobbies within seconds. That said the event was a little buggy and a few people couldn’t even see the Raids in order to catch them.
Jon on the other hand was having his own battles to fight; as soon as all the final event announcements dropped, PokéBeach got absolutely slammed with traffic and buckled under the load. Talk about a good problem to have! He spent a ton of time trying to stablize the servers… truly a man of the people.
Once Jon got the PokéBeach server back up to some semblence of normalcy and we got our fill of the Raids, we all headed out to see how Worlds was petering out. Maybe even pick up a few black market items in the common meet area?? Unfortuntately those plans were for naught as there were signs everywhere saying that selling merch within Anaheim city limits was prohibited… and there were even Code Enforcement officers everywhere to make sure no money traded hands. Booooo! That said, there were still some last minute fun to be had; for example, lore-accurate Brock let us snap a few pictures before he headed off.
We eventually migrated to the Marriott lobby, our true the “last call” for Worlds 2025. We hung out, traded more stories, and I even got to show off my rare card binder that I forgot to bring to the Elite Fourup meetup the previous night. But alas, all good things must come to an end… we were all old men now, and 9pm might as well be 3am. We snapped a final photo to remember everyone by, traded a few hugs, and finally went on our way. I hope to see everyone again next year!
Wrap Up Of Day 3
Too bad this event lasted only three days… I would’ve loved it if it lasted a whole week! Still, never have I’ve swung so quickly between “IT’S SO OVER” to “WE’RE SO BACK” than this weekend. Going in, I felt like a man outside his element, someone who felt like Pokémon has moved on from an old skooler like me… but by the time I was walking back to my hotel room on the night of Day 3, I knew that I still had some real value to offer. And hey, maybe some other secret projects might come up in the future… who knows!
My Worlds 2025 journey may be over, but don’t go away! I have a “Final Round Up” post covering some of the merch I got, shout-outs, and other future plans. I was planning on including it here but this article is long enough as it is. Stay tuned!
