Our 11 favorite weird little freaks in Pokémon history

Thirty years of Pokémon means 30 years of absolutely bizarre, confounding, and totally lovable little freaks populating our screens.

To be clear, I say “little freaks” with nothing but admiration and love. The entire appeal of Pokémon, to me, is that every few years you get a couple hundred strange new creatures to look at and, eventually, learn to love. In fairness to all Pokémon, basically every single one of them is a weird little freak, but the 10 on this list go above and beyond. Lightning-powered mice are pretty weird, but not as weird as sentient ice cream cones, if you get what I’m saying.

Pokémon 30 year anniversary celebrations are in full swing everywhere. Whether you’re mucking about in the cutthroat world of trading card collecting or simply obsessed with Pokémon Pokopia, we’re all in the mood to celebrate three decades of greatness and, importantly, abundant little weirdos.

Appropriately, here are 11 of my favorite Pokémon, included mostly for how strange they are.

Klefki

Introduced in Gen VI (2013)

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Some of the later generations of Pokémon (well, later by the standards of someone who started playing in the 90s) introduced a bunch of little freaks who are more or less just mundane, inanimate objects with faces. These are some of my favorite Pokémon because it feels like whoever designed them was just glancing around the room, looking for anything they could anthropomorphize.

That brings me to Klefki, which is literally a living ring of keys. Series lore suggests Klefki uses the keys as a defense mechanism by rattling them, but the keys also hold deep meaning for the creature, as it will hold onto its favorite ones for long periods. I love this little guy.

Chandelure

Introduced in Gen V (2010)

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Chandelure is another “random inanimate object” Pokémon, which is best described as a ghostly chandelier. It’s the final evolution of a line that also includes a ghostly candle and a ghostly lamp. One thing I love about Chandelure is that it has a Mega Evolution in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, turning it into an even more ornate chandelier. We love a Pokémon who can dress for the occasion.

Garbodor

Introduced in Gen V (2010)

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Garbodor is a living, breathing pile of trash. I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense; that’s literally what it is. Presumably, someone saw a bunch of garbage piled up outside the Pokémon office one day and used that as a source of inspiration. I love it.

Mimikyu

Introduced in Gen VII (2016)

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Mimikyu made waves online when it was first introduced 10 years ago because, frankly, it has one of the saddest backstories of any Pokémon. It’s actually a tiny ghost whose true form we never really see, hidden under a shoddy, low-effort Pikachu costume. The reason it wears the costume? To make friends, of course, given Pikachu’s massive popularity and the presumed ugliness of Mimikyu’s true self.

Personally, I’m sure the real Mimikyu is beautiful, too, but I can’t say I dislike the way it presents itself.

Unown

Introduced in Gen II (1999)

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I really cut my teeth as a Pokémon video game player in the second generation of games, otherwise known as Gold, Silver, and Crystal. Gen II had a lot of really neat stuff going on, including Unown, a new Pokémon that exists in a couple of dozen different forms that all resemble hieroglyphs or, in some cases, just regular letters. They like to hang out on the walls of ruins, but that’s only when they leave the special other dimension that only they get to live in.

Unown has a place in my heart for contributing to a real sense of mystery when it first appeared, even if later Pokémon games sort of demystified it over time. It’s also the only Pokémon that you can use to form sentences.

Gimmighoul

Introduced in Gen IX (2022)

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Gimmighoul is a strange little fella who lives in treasure chests, which is how it is encountered in the core video games in which it appears. It loves gold coins, which is key to its weirdness; it is actually possible to evolve Gimmighoul into an also-very-weird golden humanoid monster, but only if you collect literally 999 gold coins. I love Pokémon with specific, deeply involved evolution processes, and I have to applaud Gimmighoul for being as high-maintenance about evolution as it is.

Lickitung

Introduced in Gen I (1996)

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So far, I’ve focused on weird little freaks who were introduced after Pokémon got its start in 1996. I don’t want anyone to think I’m ignoring the original 151, plenty of whom are quirky and goofy in their own ways. One such weirdo is Lickitung, who just has a giant tongue that it uses to lick things. Sometimes weirdness is simple like that. Give a little guy a big tongue and make that his defining feature, and you’ve got yourself a 30-year-strong weird little guy.

Mr. Mime

Introduced in Gen I (1996)

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Mr. Mime is a classic weird little freak. It’s one of the best Pokémon ever, purely because it likes doing parlor tricks and will slap the hell out of anyone who isn’t impressed by them. You have to respect Mr. Mime’s hustle or suffer the consequences. I like a Pokémon who has a day job.

Rotom

Introduced in Gen IV (2006)

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Rotom is not, in and of itself, a living inanimate object. It’s more like a living spark of electricity. It has no evolutionary tree, but it does learn to inhabit a variety of household objects, gaining different abilities. At different points in the series, Rotom has been a microwave, a washing machine, and a lawn mower, and it has even served as the basis for smartphones in modern Pokémon video games.

In other words, Rotom benefits society.

Vanilluxe

Introduced in Gen V (2010)

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There isn’t much to say about Vanilluxe other than it’s literally just an ice cream cone with a face. Well, two faces, technically. It looks like two ice cream cones smashed together because it’s the third form of an evolutionary line, and I guess they needed to do something to differentiate it from the other two, which also just look like ice cream cones. I mostly put Vanilluxe on this list because I really like ice cream.

Gengar

Introduced in Gen I (1996)

This choice almost feels like a cop-out in some ways because Gengar is one of the most popular Pokémon of all time. Everyone loves this guy, and he’s been a favorite since the series started all those years ago.

But I can’t help but include Gengar because, I mean, just look at him! No fictional character has ever been more down to party than Gengar. But, like, in a kind of insidious way. You never know how things are going to go with Gengar is around, but they’re always going to be interesting, and that’s one of the best qualities a person (or Pokémon) can have.