pokemoncatalyst

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Merbid's evolution, Macabreck! I swear I can do things other than 2 stage evolutionary lines guys I swear

I actually thought of Macabreck's name before literally anything else about it; its typing, its abilities, its prevolution, the basic concept of it. My brain just threw the word at me and I was like "oh that's a banger, we gotta use that for something". And that something ended up being an undead shipwreck-whale hybrid that lives in a desert.

Macabreck= macabre + shipwreck

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so it looks like I've been reblogging a couple of things to this blog instead of my main...

Oops.

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As well as being inspired by whalefalls and shipwrecks, I was actually inspired by a very specific whale skeleton I saw on a school trip when I was 7-ish, that was on display outside the visitor centre for the nature reserve we were going to. Said nature reserve was just outside of Dungeness, sometimes referred to as 'Britain's only desert'; so now you have a ghostly whale pokemon that lives in a desert that used to be underwater (basically poke-dungeness).

Merbid's shiny colour's are inspired by false killer whales btw

Merbid= mer (French for sea) + morbid

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Izzzumimi, our pikachu clone, is here! Finally a break from the water types...for now...

It’s based on dormice, with the regular form being based on the hazel dormouse and the shiny being based on the edible dormouse. Back in the Roman Empire, poor edible dormice were eaten covered in honey, hence the shiny form’s bee-like fluff colours. The fluffy ball Izzzumimi is sleeping in, as well as the position and poofiness of the tail, are meant to make it look like a little teapot, referencing the dormouse from Alice in Wonderland.

Name inspiration: Izumi (japanese for mouse/rat) + zzz + “snork mimimimi” (snoring onomatopoeia)

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Most pokemon professors: Could you help me with my pokedex project? I’ll give you a pokemon if you do

Professor Bristlecone: If you kids come within 15 feet of my house I am legally entitled to Hyper Beam you

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Professor Bristlecone

The Cawsee region’s resident (and currently missing) pokemon professor, who specialises in being grumpy studying how pokemon have changed and development across time. So the other kind of evolution. He’s also the protagonist’s boss! I am so sorry!

Personality-wise, I’d compare him a lot to Gyro Gearloose in the 2017 Ducktales reboot, but a lot more scatterbrained. There’s a reason he has 3 pairs of glasses in this picture (wearing one pair, one pair on the top of his head, and another in his coat pocket).

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*sees a ladybird larva*

 Gasp! Buglitt IRL!

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Ah heck, looks like I posted to the wrong blog again! Oh well, just means I get to make more people experience the phrase “endless amount of wriggling limbs”

My goal with Cawseean Starmie’s dex entry is to blow up and act like I don’t know nobody make you just as uncomfortable as I am with actual brittle stars. Is it working?

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Our first regional variant, Cawseean Staryu!

Sorry for the long wait, but that’s what happens when I try to make a staryu variant based off of brittle stars, one of the few animals I’d say I have an irrational fear of. That’s why I gave these guys both a partial dark-typing and the hidden ability unnerve.

They’re just too squiggly for me...

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next dex entry is going great

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Maybe if we keep making fake mega evolutions, game freak will bring them back

This one’s design process was a bit of a journey. Initially I wanted to base it on Edestus, another prehistoric shark that I once described as “Helicoprion but worse”. I also wanted to incorporate elements of epaulette sharks (my favourite shark species), whose main claim to fame is being able to walk on land for short periods of time. Originally I was gonna give mega Uzumako little flipper feet instead of proper legs to reflect that, but that, along with the Edestus elements, didn’t really work out. So I basically had ended up with a shark w/ legs. Not exactly the most creative design.

Fortunately, my brain went off on a tangent (as it is wont to do): shark with legs, where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, Gyo.

For those who don’t know, Gyo is a horror manga by the renowned Junji Ito, with the main monsters being fish carried around on mechanical legs, most notably a great white shark. The concept of ‘’shark with legs’’ has been said to be what inspired the entire manga. And considering the only reason I know the word uzumaki (the word that makes up half of this fakemon’s name) is because of another Junji Ito manga, taking inspiration from Gyo’s walking shark actually seemed like a pretty good next step. This is also what got me thinking about making it poison type (since those fish stank), which then lead to the rusted teeth.

So I basically had ended up with a shark w/ legs, but now it’s a horror homage and also a rusty buzz saw that can give you tetanus. Much better.

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This is Uzumako, the evolution of Scuppierce.

It’s based on the bizarre prehistoric shark Helicoprion. Screw Megalodon, that thing is who we should be paying attention to. Sharks, like everything else in the Permian period (the time period just before the dinosaurs took over) decided they were just gonna become really freaking weird, resulting in (among others) a shark that looks like it had a buzzsaw in its mouth. If you look it up you can find some hilarious reconstructions of this thing, because paleontologists have been looking at this for over 100 years and having no idea what to do with it.

Because of the amount of confusing Uzumako’s inspiration and its weird mouth have caused, this pokemon has a brand new ability: Baffling Jaw. Any biting moves inflicted by this pokemon have a chance of making its opponent confused, because seriously, what is going on there??

Name inspiration: Uzumaki (Japanese for spiral) + mako (a species of shark)

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Meet Scuppierce, a sea-dwelling pokemon based off of the tiny cookie cutter shark (also known as the cigar shark!

Real life cookie cutters will suck onto and cut out chunks of pretty much any animal they can find, and though they don’t go for ships like Scuppierce here (they live too far from the surface), they have been known to try to eat submarines and fibre-optic cables!

I tried to make its colour palette look like rusty metal, and its shiny palette like oxidised copper.

Name inspiration: Scupper (to deliberately sink a ship) + pierce

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“They occupy the same ecological niche that talonflame does in other regions, and the two will fight fiercely if they ever encounter eachother”

honestly the main reason I drew this was because I thought posswoon falling over like that was really funny

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Pyregal, the final evolution of Micrown! Hopefully I’m posting this to right blog this time...

This pokemon is dedicated to my mum, who loves buzzards, which is what this pokemon is based on. It also carries over the fire hawk and royalty design stuff from its prevolutions, and has some elements of a spitfire plane (such as the ring markings on the underside of its wings, and though you can’t see it here it also has a similarly shaped tail). There’s also a teensy bit of hang glider in there, with its huge wings and the way it holds its stick.

It was so hard to fit those wings in the picture as well as truly convey how big they are. If you’ve ever seen a buzzard or similar soaring bird, you’ll know how huge those wings are.

Name inspo: Pyro + regal

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Woops, posted this to the wrong blog!

Introducing Crestrel, the evolution of Micrown!

In case you couldn’t guess from the name and the first half of the dex entry, this pokemon is based off of a kestrel, known for hovering while looking for prey. The rest of its behaviour is inspired by ‘fire hawks’, which are not a specific species but several unrelated birds of prey that take advantage of wildfires and even start them using similar methods to those described here. Whole article about it right here.

At some point I also ended up incorporating some stereotypical old-timey pilot stuff into its design: the flames around crestrel’s neck are a long striped scarf, the skin around its eyes and above its beak (known as a cere) are flight goggles, and the dark patch on the back of its head is the little hat thing.

Name inspo: Crest +kestrel

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Finally, our regional bird, Micrown!

Based on a firecrest, one of the tiniest birds in the uk, alongside wrens and its close relative the goldcrest. Firecrests are probably one of my favourite birds, though I rarely get to see them because as the dex entry says here, their tiny size makes it very difficult, plus they tend to hide in flocks of other birds like blue tits.

The ‘little woodland prince’ nickname comes both from the firecrest’s genus name (regulus) can be translated to little king or prince, as well as an old story where it (or perhaps a wren) won the title of King of the Birds. By cheating. Look it up.

Name inspiration: Micro + Crown