torchic's nest!

welcome to my little shrine for torchic - my favorite pokemon in the entire series of pokemon!

my first experience with torchic

i remember when i was a wee little baby, i didn't even own a copy of anything from the third generation at the time. i actually ended up having to borrow a copy from a friend with the old caveat that i wasn't allowed to save... obviously, baby cody couldn't have been having that. but still, in that playthrough i think i'd chosen treecko. i thought treecko was so cool, and i still do. but when my parents spirited me off to glorious walmart to finally get my own copy of ruby, i knew something had to change.

and so, off to the races i was. when my feet hit the grass and i saw that cute little bird face staring up at me, it was time. i grabbed torchic and the world was never the same.

after the much needed saving of prof. birch from the dreaded poochyena, he asked me if i wanted to nickname torchic... and i mean that was my starter! of course i did. i wasn't that big of a fan of nicknaming pokemon back then because it felt weird no other characters did and i liked seeing the pokemon's name change when they evolved... but torchic was different. i named him phoenix after the coolest thing i knew as a baby year old 😈

what i love about torchic

it's probably harder to say what i don't love about torchic. let's see... i love how round torchic is and how energetic it is too. it seems like it's always raring to do something despite not having any forelimbs to brace its falls which is so brave to me.

did you know torchic is super huggable? not only that, but it feels like holding a nice warm water bottle when you do. literally a perfect guy to hug when it's a little chilly out - you couldn't ask for anything better. i should know - i'm a bit of a space heater myself.

i also think torchic has one of the coolest final evolutions of any starter. blaziken is AMAZING and its hidden ability speed boost really makes it a terror to reckon with if you let it go wild. on top of that, blaziken was so cool and well loved that (i think) it kicked off the trend of fire/fighting starters!

my first shiny torchic

even though i've loved torchic forever, it took me a LONG time to actually get a shiny torchic. you see, until the release of pokemon scarlet and violet, i'd never really been a shiny hunter - at all! i can't say i'd ever seen a shiny ever (that i recognized) until generation 9. even then, there wasn't much hope for me despite the easier methods of getting a shiny because torchic wasn't in gen 9 at all.

however, that all changed with the release of the second half of the hidden treasure of area zero, pokemon scarlet and violet's dlc expansion. at the blueberry academy, you could make it so that every starter up to generation 8 all can roam around in the terarium! so you know i had to buy the upgrade to get torchic first.

finding the torchics was a struggle, though! they only spawn in one cave in the snowy biome of the terarium. even then, the spawn rate in that cave seems pretty low. however, interestingly... there is a unique little spot you can stand in at the far side of the cave that tricks the game to spawn constantly as long as pokemon are getting cycled out. this let me set up a sandwich that made it more likely for a shiny fire type to spawn - which also conveniently meant only torchics could spawn! all i had to do was stand in a little corner and set a pokemon to attack the spawning torchics as they appeared to cycle them out. i can't lie, it hurt a little to see so many torchics get slapped around, but it was all worth it in the end - phoenix the torchic came home! in honor of his namesake, i decided to evolve him up to blaziken... which means another baby torchic is surely going to be in my future.

torchic stuff i own

here is a rough collection of some of the torchic things i own. right now i have TWO plushes of torchic - one is the poke plush standard torchic from the pokemon center (right) and the other is a torchic plush released when pokemon mystery dungeon dx came out (left)!

while not torchic, blaziken is part of its line and i do in fact own the sitting cuties blaziken as well :]

if you made it down this far thanks for reading!