Lugia and Ho-Oh are printed on black cotton again, in the same poses they held on the Pokémon Gold and Silver boxes back in 1999. Each shirt also arrives folded inside a copy of that box.
This “return” is two T-shirts. Nobody is remastering the games. The shirts belong to Pokémon’s 30th anniversary celebrations, and they’re pitched squarely at anyone who swapped Pokémon over a link cable around the turn of the century.
The shirts copy the original box art
Both designs are simple black T-shirts carrying the Japanese logo and the Pokémon from each game’s cover. Ho-Oh goes on the Gold shirt and Lugia on the Silver one, each drawn exactly as on the original cover art.
The pair also belong to a bigger set. The Pokémon Company showed them off some time ago as part of a collection with matching shirts for every core game released so far. The Gen 2 designs look the best of the lot, largely because those two covers have held up better than nearly anything else in the series.
The pouch is the part you’ll want
Each shirt is packed in a pouch built as a replica of the original game box. The Ho-Oh shirt comes in a Pokémon Gold pouch, and the Lugia shirt comes in a Silver one. For some buyers, the pouch could be what closes the deal.
The collection launched earlier this year, with sales through Pokémon Center stores in Japan and online storefronts. It cost ¥3,960 at the Pokémon Center when it went on sale a few months back.
More Johto merch is coming
There’s more for Gen 2 fans to spend money on. Further Gold and Silver merch is on its way: exclusive Ho-Oh and Lugia plush dolls, a Sukajan jacket for each game, mugs, bookends, keychains, stickers and a correction tape in the shape of a Moomoo Milk bottle.
Players who first visited Johto through the 2009 remakes are covered as well. HeartGold and SoulSilver show up in the 30th anniversary lineup as premium enamel pins that replicate those games’ boxes.
No new core game this year, so it’s merch
The flood of merch has a reason. No major new core games release this year, and Pokémon Winds and Waves won't land until 2027. Until then, The Pokémon Company and Game Freak have released a long run of anniversary products, and the Pokémon TCG’s 30th Celebration collection has been difficult to track down.
Gen 2 ranks among the franchise’s most popular eras, but other generations are getting their turn too. Anniversary merch will keep arriving until the end of the year, so a favorite generation that hasn’t appeared yet could still get something.
Right now, the standout item is a Lugia shirt packed in a tiny Silver box.