Pokéball and Pokémon Keychain Toy: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This pokéball and keychain toy was inspired by the Pokémon video game franchise. The pokéball is red and white with black highlights and has a white button, which opens the ball when pressed to reveal the separate keychain toy inside. The key chain toy is the Pokémon character Psyduck. The toy portion of the keychain is placed on a mounting post inside the pokéball while the keychain links hang through a small portal on the left side of the pokéball, allowing it to also be used as a keychain. The iscription on the bottom gives the letters "B F I", possibly linked to the manufacturer. The mMaker field denotes copyright holder Nintendo. The manufacturer is likely Basic Fun, Inc., though this has not been confirmed.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1999
• maker: Nintendo Co., Ltd.
• Object Name: toy
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Physical Description: plastic (overall material)
• Measurements: pokéball: 2 1/4 in; 5.715 cm
• Measurements: keychain: 2 3/4 in x 29/32 in; 6.985 cm x 2.286 cm
• place made: China
• Associated Place: United States: Pennsylvania, Japan
• Associated Place: Japan
• ID Number: 2016.3016.13
• nonaccession number: 2016.3016
• catalog number: 2016.3016.13
• Credit Line: Judy Gradwohl
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.