Why the 2016 TOMY Pokémon Line Overlooked Mythical Pokémon

In 2016, TOMY rolled out one of the most ambitious Pokémon merchandise programmes ever staged for a single calendar year. The 20th anniversary collection delivered a fresh mythical plush each month from January through September, alongside Clip 'n' Carry Poké Balls, Pikachu variants, and specialty items licensed through Nintendo and The Pokémon Company International. Australian collectors had something new to track at EB Games, Big W, and independent toy stores roughly every four weeks.

Even so, gaps in the roster were hard to ignore. Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, Shaymin, Victini, Meloetta, Genesect, and Keldeo all received their own dedicated plush release. Several other mythicals that fans in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne hoped to see — Hoopa among them — were quietly absent. The omissions sparked discussion across Australian collector forums and Facebook groups that already trade tips about Japanese imports and reprints.

Looking back, those absences were less random than they first appeared. Licensing boundaries, the strict monthly cadence, and a deliberate effort to keep the Pikachu range centre-stage all shaped which mythicals TOMY could realistically bring to market in 2016.

The Mythical Roster That Actually Made the Cut

TOMY's 2016 mythical lineup reads like a curated greatest-hits tour of the franchise's most beloved event-only Pokémon. January opened with Mew, the original mythical mascot, before February handed the slot to Celebi. March introduced Jirachi, and the releases continued with Manaphy in April, Shaymin in May, and Victini during the early Australian winter. Meloetta arrived in July, Genesect in August, and Keldeo closed out the mythical stretch in September.

Each plush matched the anniversary artwork, with a consistent sitting pose, soft fabric weight, and a small embroidered emblem on the paw or tail. Collectors in Adelaide and Perth routinely arranged the set in order on shelves, and the visual consistency made that display approach possible. Kmart Australia and Target Australia carried the standard editions, while exclusive colour variants were funnelled through specialty hobby shops.

The roster was never presented as a complete mythical index. Phione, Arceus, Deoxys, and Darkrai were notably absent, and Hoopa — fresh from its 2015 film debut — was passed over entirely. The pattern suggests TOMY prioritised mythicals with established merchandise familiarity rather than capturing every creature in the catalogue.

Why the Monthly Cadence Constrained the Lineup

The anniversary programme was built around a rigid twelve-month release window, with each new mythical landing at retail on roughly the same date globally. That structure was a marketing strength — Melbourne collectors knew to check EB Games on the first weekend of each month — but it imposed a hard ceiling on how many mythical designs could be produced at TOMY's quality standards. Adding more creatures would have required accelerating the factory schedule or stretching the timeline beyond the anniversary year.

Toy design for licensed characters also demands extensive approval from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company before a plush can move into mass production. Each new mythical requires new sculpts, colour separations, and packaging artwork, all of which must clear multiple corporate layers. A single change to a pose can push a release back several weeks, disrupting the calendar-based rollout that defined the collection.

TOMY chose to protect the calendar rather than overload it. Skipping less-established mythicals kept the schedule achievable and inventory forecasts manageable for retailers across multiple regions. The trade-off, however, was that Australian collectors wanting Hoopa, Darkrai, or Arceus had to look outside the anniversary programme altogether.

Licensing Realities With Nintendo and The Pokémon Company

Every Pokémon plush released by TOMY in 2016 carried the official Nintendo and Pokémon licences, which limited how the line could be positioned commercially. The Pokémon Company typically restricts mythicals that have been featured in active film campaigns or generation-specific marketing pushes, since overlapping releases can dilute the impact of separate media rollouts. Hoopa had headlined the 2015 movie "The Archdjinni of the Rings," and its tie-in merchandise cycle had only recently concluded when TOMY's 2016 plan was finalised.

That licensing reality meant TOMY had to coordinate its selections with active global promotions rather than simply choosing the most popular creatures. Mythicals already slated for movie tie-in plush releases in the same fiscal year were off the table, and Darkrai and Phione were tied to recent Japan-exclusive distribution events that overlapped with the anniversary window.

Mythical 2016 Status Reason
Mew Released January Anniversary anchor mythical
Celebi Released February Gen 2 nostalgia appeal
Jirachi Released March Long-standing fan favourite
Manaphy Released April Gen 4 distribution tie-in
Shaymin Released May Popular grass-type mythical
Victini Released June Anniversary mascot candidate
Meloetta Released July Music-themed collectibility
Genesect Released August Unique design among mythicals
Keldeo Released September Gen 5 film connection
Hoopa Excluded 2015 film overlap, complex Unbound form
Darkrai Excluded Distribution event conflict
Arceus Excluded Reserved for future programming
Deoxys Excluded Older film tie-in conflict
Phione Excluded Limited merchandise demand

Collectors browsing the dedicated Darkrai plush page often notice that TOMY eventually brought several missing mythicals to market in subsequent years, once the licensing calendar cleared. The 2016 lineup, however, was shaped as much by corporate scheduling as by fan demand.

Why Hoopa Was Specifically Left Out

Hoopa's exclusion was the most talked-about gap among Australian collectors in 2016. The Pokémon had starred in its own feature film only the year before, and its Confined and Unbound forms gave TOMY a tempting design opportunity. The reason it sat out came down to timing rather than popularity. The Pokémon Company had only just wrapped its Hoopa movie merchandise cycle, and adding the creature would have created overlap with concurrent Japanese toy promotions.

There were also practical design hurdles. Hoopa's Unbound form, with its multiple floating rings and elongated limbs, was notoriously difficult to render as a sitting plush at the soft-toy scale TOMY favoured for the collection. Production costs would have risen sharply, and the resulting figure would have looked visually inconsistent with the rest of the line's clean, compact silhouettes. TOMY had prioritised a uniform shelf presence across the mythical series, and Hoopa's geometry broke that aesthetic.

The Pikachu-heavy direction of the rest of the 2016 programme reinforced the gap. With the golden-base Pikachu anniversary figure functioning as a flagship collectible, TOMY redirected remaining capacity toward Pikachu variants, Clip 'n' Carry Poké Balls, and regional exclusives rather than expand the mythical roster to include a complex creature like Hoopa.

Australian Shelves and Tips for Filling the Gaps

The Australian release of the 2016 TOMY collection was tightly synchronised with the global schedule, with most major retailers receiving stock within days of the international drop. EB Games handled the bulk of mythical plush distribution in capital cities, while Big W and Target Australia picked up the Pikachu-heavy SKUs. Independent hobby shops in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley and Melbourne's Chadstone area occasionally received regional exclusives that never appeared at the larger chains.

Collectors reacted to the missing mythicals with a mix of resignation and improvisation. Many turned to Japanese import services to order Hoopa, Darkrai, and Arceus figures through proxy buyers shipping from Tokyo and Osaka. Local groups such as Australian Pokémon Collectors and Brisbane Toy Hunt kept spreadsheets tracking regional stock levels and reprinted variants, and several collectors have lobbied Australian fan channels for a future TOMY release that finally includes Hoopa.

Collectors in Australia hunting down Hoopa, Darkrai, and the other excluded 2016 mythicals can take a few practical steps to fill the gaps without overpaying.