Chinese / Lunar New Year

These plush were available in Singapore and Taiwan.

Chinese New Year Pikachu Plush (2020)


Chinese New Year Pikachu Plush Tag (2020)




Lunar New Year Male and Female Pikachu Plush (2021)


Lunar New Year Male and Female Pikachu Plush Tags (2021)

If you can see the back of the tag, it is now changed to say Lunar New Year Pikachu.

Comparison of the 2020 and 2021 Chinese/Lunar New Year Male Pikachu Plush

When the Singapore Pokemon Center announced that they were re-releasing the male Pikachu plush along with the new female one, I was actually happy thinking that I only need to buy the female version since I bought the male version back in 2020. However, I discovered that there were some differences to the plush when I looked at photos. At first I thought I was imagining things, then I decided to bite the bullet and buy a male version too.

The biggest difference between the 2020 and 2021 version is the buttons on their clothes. The 2020 version has black buttons and the 2021 version has gray buttons. Another thing that is different that I was not able to take a good picture of was the hat trim. If you look closely, the hat trim of the 2020 version is black. The hat trim of the 2021 version is grayish black. You definitely can see the difference in trim color if you had both plush in your hands.

Not only was the hat trim a slightly different color, the pants were different too. The 2020 Pikachu plush pants is a darker blue. The 2021 Pikachu plush pants is a lighter blue.

Besides the pant colors, the tush tags are slightly different. The Pikachu plush from 2020 has two fabric strips for it's tush tag. The Pikachu plush from 2021 has three fabric strips for it's tush tag. My guess is from 2020 to 2021 they added more information and changed the tush tag.

The front of the hang tags look exactly the same but the back is slightly different. The 2020 version calls the plush "Chinese New Year Pikachu." The 2021 version calls the plush "Lunar New Year Pikachu." I'm guessing they wanted to be more politically correct since many Asian countries celebrate the lunar new year.

Chinese/Lunar New Year Plush Set

My Conclusion:

Personally, I like the look of the 2020 Male Pikachu more. The black buttons look better and makes it stand out. I think the only good thing about the 2021 version is that it matches the Female Pikachu. The Female Pikachu has gray buttons on her dress, so the gray buttons of the 2021 version matches better.

I also think the 2020 Male Pikachu was made bettter. If you have both of them in front of you, and you are touching it, the materials/fabric on the 2020 version is better. For example if you are touching the pants, the 2020 version's fabric feels thicker than the 2021 version.

I have no idea why these changes were made to the plush considering they were supposed to be the exact same plush. My only guess is that they used a different factory to produce them or they were not able to get the same materials as the year before so they found something similar.