No. 959: Tinkaton

Lil' Miss Trouble

 

When I caught a Tinkatink, and evolved it into Tinkatuff, and looked at the space in the Pokedex to see there was a third form, I immediately predicted its name would be Tinkaton and I was not let down.

Tiny girls with big hammers are scientifically proven to be awesome, it's as simple as that. I love how ridiculously huge the hammer is, and I like the design of it this time, too! It's neat how the core of it is still the rattle from when it was a baby.

In fact, I appreciate how the design aspects grew with each stage of this line: the hair goes from a tiny tuft, to a ponytail, to twintails. Tinkatuff adds metal flanges at the hip, and now Tinkaton has 4 of them. The teeth grow over time, too. It's just really pleasing consistency.

And again, it cannot be stated enough, Tinkaton rocks. I think it's awesome that it knocks Corviknights down out of the sky. Gigaton Hammer is a based move. And her pose when sleeping is adorable.


Overall: 10/10

No. 958: Tinkatuff

Ruff 'n' Tuff

Tinkatuff fixes the proportions of Tintatink, but has the problem of so many middle evolutions that I'm just waiting for the final form.

Also I don't really like that hammer design, the way the metal is wrapped without any support, won't it just bend completely the moment you try to use it to hammer anything? It needs crossbar support to hold the sides up.

But still, Tinkatuff herself is well-designed.


Overall: 7/10

No. 957: Tinkatink

in the pink

 

the concept of a baby running around with a rattle made out of metal, whacking things and causing trouble, is terrifying. Little poopy pants babies should not be trusted with heavy dangerous objects. I think we should put Tinkatink in timeout until she can learn to behave.

Design-wise, my issue here is that Tinkatink is too abbreviated. Like, this line is always going to be gremlin-mode, but the absolute lack of a torso here looks really weird compared to the size of the arms.


Overall: 3/10

No. 956: Espathra

 Can't see my Poker Face

 

The colors, the stripes, the triangles, the ruffles... Espathra is an intensely Johto-coded Pokemon, and I love it. The way the bands around the neck and legs aren't just stripes of color, but have actual width to them, is a subtle touch that goes a long way in preserving this old-school feeling.

I love her sassy bob and piercing blue eyes. This is a bird who knows that she's the Queen of the Nile, and expects you to obey accordingly. Being an Egyptian ostrich doesn't have a damn thing to do with whatever Flittle was trying to be, but that's in the past. Now it's Espathra's time. And she is the moment. She is an icon, and she is a legend.


Overall: 10/10

No. 955: Flittle

 I deserve a flittle bit more

 

When I caught Flittle, I had no idea it would evolve into an ostrich. I thought it was some sort of Dumbo Octopus, or a weirdo Fairy thing. Maybe it's supposed to be an egg? With frills? 

I don't dislike the design, mind you, I'm just confused on how we go from here to Espathra. Flittle is cute, and in general I support making Pokemon that are just kinda Monsters without necessarily being based on a specific real-life animal.


Overall: 6/10

No. 954: Rabsca

Whatever. Go my scarab

 

I gave Rellor a ton of shit (which he'd probably enjoy, the little freak) but Rabsca is worth the effort. I think the concept of a mystic scarab cradling the egg of the Dreaming World is really cool. The colors are striking, too!

Note: that is Rabsca's front you're seeing, not its back. That's a sleeping face, with a big white mustache and eyebrows, NOT the top of the beetle's head and its jaws/horns. Personally I wish it was the other way, but the ambiguity is probably intentional in the design. But it's a good design either way.

Revival Blessing is also pretty cool, though useless in-game if you can just buy Revives. I get why Rabsca learns it, that fits into the whole "magical scarab of rebirth" theme, and Pawmot uses its paws as a defibrillator or something, but it's funny that both of them are 1000-steps evolutions. Do you think Bramblin is jealous that it didn't get the move, too?


Overall: 8/10

No. 953: Rellor

 Rolling Start~

 

Taking the 2022 award for "Least Effort Put Into Naming A Pokemon", Rellor just looks like some random bum. He's just a dude, a regular little dude, with a unibrow and beard, muppet-style. Except he rolls around a big ball of shit mud, and does it upside-down because maybe dung beetles do that irl? I don't care enough to verify that fact.

Oh, and while "walk 1000 steps" is a fun evolution mechanic, in practice it's a pain in the ass because the counter resets if you walk with a different Pokemon, and Rellor is slow as hell so you can't really walk around normally with it anyway, and even after meeting the step requirements it doesn't automatically evolve, or in battle, you need to level it up with an item while outside the ball. ugh.


Overall: 1/10

No. 952: Scovillain

 two heads are worse than one

Well, that was disappointing. I do applaud Scovillain for the typing, the overall concept, and for bringing back the iconic Gen 1 Single White Toenail, but dear lord are there problems here. The biggest one is that those necks look ready to snap right off. I know plant stems are pretty skinny, but surely it would look better to taper in the opposite direction? (it's not just a quirk of the artwork's perspective, either - they're actually modeled that way)

Almost as important is the bizarre way those lower teeth are cutting through their jaws. I guess the teeth are supposed to be like pepper seeds, but uh... are pepper seeds known for poking through the pepper like that? It looks painful at best, and if it wasn't for the artwork I would have assumed they were a model clipping issue.

See? Now was that so hard? In my version, the red head is always the one to shoot Fire attacks, and the green head always does Grass attacks. Also it gets Drought as a hidden ability. But alas, the perfect ideal can never exist. So we are left with the flawed reality.


Overall: 6/10