Pokémon V-Trainer

💡Did you know?

• ◆V-Trainer (Hasbro, 2002) isn't a figure line — it's an electronic battle game where the figure is the controller. A full system is three pieces: an LCD handheld, a rival trainer chip (holding that trainer's real team of three Pokémon), and the figures themselves, each stamped with a type and a P1/P2/P3 power level. It had two waves: Master Quest (2002, Johto — eight Battle Packs for the eight Gym Leaders in league order) and V-Trainer 2.0 (2004, Hoenn — left unfinished, but added Rival Battle Packs with Ash, Gary, Brock and Misty).
• ◆Watch for a trap: the Pokémon bundled in a leader's pack are NOT their real team. Chuck (Fighting) comes with Charizard and Espeon; Falkner (Flying) with Teddiursa and Tyranitar — the real team lives inside the chip, not the blister.
• ◆The line's best story: in the "Where's that Ditto?" promotion Hasbro hid about 10,000 figures that were secretly a Ditto disguised as another Pokémon, indistinguishable by eye — the only way to tell was plugging it into the console. Finding one won an exclusive Mewtwo.
• ◆Collector's note: the hard part of this line isn't the figures, it's finding chips and consoles that still work. Consoles were almost always stored with batteries in (the compartment is screwed shut), so contacts are usually corroded — most sell untested.