Bulbapedia:20th Anniversary
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This page details one of Bulbapedia's past initiatives. The initiative has ended and some information may be out of date. This page has been kept as a historical record. |
Starting February 14, 2025, Bulbagarden held a series of events across the site in celebration of Bulbapedia's 20th anniversary, marking the day the wiki was first opened to the public. Over the next 48 hours, the Bulbapedia social media accounts posted and shared the various celebrations surrounding the anniversary.
Events and celebrations
Bulbapedia updates
On February 14, Bulbapedia's Editor-in-Chief, Maverick Nate, posted a Message from the Editor celebrating the 20th anniversary, taking a brief look back at Bulbapedia' history as well as highlighting some exciting new changes to the wiki and several of the events taking place across Bulbagarden.
Of the wiki changes announced, Bulbapedia unveiled a new Main Page with a celebratory design featuring a vibrant green color scheme and fan art of a Bulbasaur wearing a party hat. The wiki's logo was also changed to use a special version of the classic Bulbapedia bulb with a "20" in the center, which was also used as the profile icon for the Bulbapedia social media accounts and in the Poké Earth Collabs mini collab with Bulbapedia. Additionally, two new browsing portals were added, Browse:Current events and Browse:Pokédex, and several pages about Bulbapedia and its history were updated, such as Bulbapedia, Bulbapedia:About, and Bulbapedia:Statistics, among others.
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Bulbapedia's Main Page for the 20th anniversary
Catch-a-thon
In the days following the anniversary, Bulbagarden's Multimedia team hosted a series of live streams as part of the Bulbapedia 20th Anniversary Catch-a-thon, ultimately raising over $14,000 dollars to support cancer patients and their families.
News article
On February 16, a Bulbanews article was published covering an art collaboration put together by Poké Earth Collabs for the 20th anniversary. Over 270 community artists submitted fan art of Bulbasaur in a range of styles which was combined into a single collage. The article also shared three celebratory pieces commissioned by Bulbagarden from specific artists.
App launch
As announced in Bulbapedia's 20th Anniversary Message from the Editor and on social media, the new Bulbagarden app, incorporating Bulbapedia, Pokémon news, and additional features, opened its public beta test for iOS to the first 10,000 people to sign up, with Android support stated to be in active development.
Collaborations
Johto Times interview
On February 13, Johto Times published their interview with Archaic, the webmaster of Bulbagarden. The interview took a deep dive into the history of Bulbagarden, Bulbapedia, and the overall online Pokémon community, including Archaic's involvement and experience in the fandom, as well as exploring the relationship between Pokémon and its consumers.
PokeDoku
As part of the anniversary celebrations, PokeDoku announced a partnership with Bulbagarden to create a Bulbasaur-themed Master Puzzle and add connectivity with Bulbapedia, allowing puzzle solvers to quickly click over to a Bulbapedia article explaining info relating to the various puzzle categories.
Poké Earth Collabs
In the lead up to the 20th anniversary, Poké Earth Collabs announced a mini collab with Bulbapedia. Community artists could submit a drawing of Bulbasaur in their own style, which Poké Earth Collabs would ultimately arrange into a collage. Over 270 artists contributed their art, resulting in Poké Earth Collabs' biggest mini collab to date. In the center of the collage was Bulbapedia's 20th Anniversary icon, a variation of the classic Bulbapedia bulb with a "20" in the middle. Several contributions from the community also cleverly incorporated the number into the art.
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Mini collab by Poké Earth Collabs
Community artwork
Bulbagarden commissioned several community artists for pieces involving Bulbasaur in a variety of situations familiar to longtime fans of the series:
- Quassy (@quassihollic) depicted Professor Oak sitting in front of a desktop computer with a Bulbasaur reaching its vines towards the glowing monitor.[1]
- Matt (@eiffel.hart) created a scene with Bulbasaur wrangling Brock's Onix with the move Vine Whip at the Pewter Gym.[2]
- Kelvin (@kelvin_trainerk) illustrated a moment evoking Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden, an early episode of Pokémon the Series and the original namesake of Bulbagarden.[3]
- Touya (@Touyarokii) drew Erika sitting happily with Bulbasaur.[4] Erika is often associated with Bulbagarden and has appeared in a number of early skins used for the Bulbagarden forums, usually alongside Bulbasaur.
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Art by Quassy -
Art by Matt -
Art by Kelvin -
Art by Touya
Tara Sands message
Tara Sands, the original voice of Bulbasaur in Pokémon the Series, left a humorous birthday message for Bulbapedia as Bulbasaur, shared on Bulbapedia's social media.[5]