Throughout the last 27 years, an infinity of Pokemon, reaching today to exceed the whopping number of more than 1,000 different creatures. That without counting the alternative forms of Alola, Hisui, Paldea, etc., since then the figure would skyrocket even more.
In the first editions of the saga, pokemon blue and redit was possible to meet a total of 151 different Pokémon, but have you ever wondered which was the first to be designed of all of them? And no, it wasn’t Pikachu, despite his popularity. Neither does Bulbasaur, even if it is number 1 in the Pokédex, and neither is Mew, no matter how much it has the DNA of all the Pokémon that exist.
Well, it turns out that the first Pokémon of all that was created was nothing more and nothing less than Rhydon, as Ken Sugimori, one of the designers of the first generation of the franchise, has always stated. Moreover, despite the fact that the titles did not go on sale until 1996, Rhydon’s early sketches take us to 1990with a somewhat different aspect from the one we know today.
In addition, another detail that reaffirms this curiosity is the fact that for all the gyms in Kanto there were statues corresponding to a Pokémon, which in turn was the same sprite that was used for many others when opening the equipment to select someone that we had on us. If you look closely, that same statue is very similar to the initial design that Rhydon had.
For all these reasons, Rhydon is so key in the saga, despite the fact that he is by no means one of the most popular in the series. Even in the Pokédex it appears with the number 112, so it is not a very noteworthy one either, but yes, in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl they wanted to give it more importance by giving it an evolution: Rhyperior.
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