A Wild Pikachu Appeared! …but what to do with him?

[attakid101 | 267]

TL;DR I paid $200 for a rare Pikachu statue and I’m not sure if I should have it restored.

 

I told this story back on NA, so forgive me if you heard it before:

So we’d just dropped my kids off at practice and we’re driving home. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye is spot something big and yellow and adorable. I immediately shout at my wife to stop the car. Before she’s fully parked I jump out to confirm the sighting—sure enough it’s the very rare Pikachu statue alleged to have been used to promote Pokémon Yellow. This thing is just sitting in the entrance to some random building. And I do mean random—this place is an Odd Fellows museum….yeah.

When I get back to the car my wife is understandably confused and annoyed. I explain to her what I found and why it’s cool, and she just stares at me like I’m an idiot, then tells me that this freaking statue has been there for years…

YEARS.

This is crazy for 3 reasons: 

1. this thing is legitimately rare
2. It’s only 5 blocks from my house
3. How has nobody picked this up?

The wife goes back like a week later and finds out that the owner set the statue there because the museum is a Pokémon Go stop. So that explains that. She asks to buy, dude agrees, she pays $200, and Pikachu now lives in my basement.

I love it. It’s in pretty great shape except for one thing, years sitting in a window have left it a touch sun faded. I’ve seen people restore these and they end up looking really great, but is this one of those things that’s better left original? 

I don’t mind spending the money to get it repainted but I don’t know if that’s the right move. What do you guys think?

[Aguy | 773]

How noticable is the fading? Is it really uneven? If not, I'd leave it be since it's still in good condition.

[Mega Tank | 961]

If you like the Pikachu statue the way it is, I would leave it alone.

If the fading is bothering you, then you need to find someone that does quality work.

From the one picture posted, it doesn't look like it's terrible.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,013]

Some guys have all the luck. 

[Strange | 1,700]

God that’s so cool. Congrats on the pickup.

Personally, I wouldn’t repaint it.

[Link | 2,712]

It looks fine to me. Leave it alone.

[Tanooki | 4,934]

Unless it looks obviously two tone and we can't see it since the site likes to crush larger images I'd leave it alone.  From that I think it looks fine, unless I'm seeing not a lighting effect and its head and forward facing ear tops are a lighter shade of sun kissed yellow.

[Funky_brewsta | 42]

Congrats on a very cool find! I’ve restored a couple of these that were in terrible shape. Yours  looks to be in a presentable condition 

Edited September 21, 2022 by Funky_brewsta

[Makar | 1,946]

23 hours ago, attakid101 said:

TL;DR I paid $200 for a rare Pikachu statue and I’m not sure if I should have it restored.

 

I told this story back on NA, so forgive me if you heard it before:

So we’d just dropped my kids off at practice and we’re driving home. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye is spot something big and yellow and adorable. I immediately shout at my wife to stop the car. Before she’s fully parked I jump out to confirm the sighting—sure enough it’s the very rare Pikachu statue alleged to have been used to promote Pokémon Yellow. This thing is just sitting in the entrance to some random building. And I do mean random—this place is an Odd Fellows museum….yeah.

When I get back to the car my wife is understandably confused and annoyed. I explain to her what I found and why it’s cool, and she just stares at me like I’m an idiot, then tells me that this freaking statue has been there for years…

YEARS.

This is crazy for 3 reasons: 

1. this thing is legitimately rare
2. It’s only 5 blocks from my house
3. How has nobody picked this up?

The wife goes back like a week later and finds out that the owner set the statue there because the museum is a Pokémon Go stop. So that explains that. She asks to buy, dude agrees, she pays $200, and Pikachu now lives in my basement.

I love it. It’s in pretty great shape except for one thing, years sitting in a window have left it a touch sun faded. I’ve seen people restore these and they end up looking really great, but is this one of those things that’s better left original? 

I don’t mind spending the money to get it repainted but I don’t know if that’s the right move. What do you guys think?

That’s a cool piece! Kinda looks like he has a little beauty mark next to his nose lol

[a3quit4s | 4,099]

I’d restore it. If it’s really that rare and someone has to have it, your still going to be naming your price on it. If you never plan on selling it even better

[Edgarmcfly | 213]

i want one !!

[fcgamer | 4,723]

I'd probably restore it too. It's a situation where looking better trumps stock.

[Tulpa | 3,501]

When I read your post, I hadn't looked at the picture yet, and I was expecting it to be peeling and looking like Pikachu had mange.

That looks damn good.

[Lynda Monica | 350]

I actually like how the faded one looks. The white patches look more like Ken Sugimori's original watercolor art style. I wouldn't change a thing personally.

[ConfusedCollector | 36]

I wouldn't restore it unless it's really bad. Restoration can go wrong and lower the value as well.  I've learned over the years that sometimes it's better to leave things alone until you have the experience or find the right person to do it.

[RH | 4,904]

Send it to Baumgartner Restorations and ask him to both restore it and put it on his YouTube channel. 
 

I joke because that’s probably going to be a multi-thousand dollar job for an expert like him, plus shipping to Chicago, but he does reversible restorations on fine art. Certainly there’s a reversible paint that could be used on this.  Once you use standard methods of painting, you can never go back.  
 

I’d recommend NOT restoring it unless you can find a non-damaging, easily reversible paint.

Edited September 27, 2022 by RH