Shleepy

343: Baltoy

If you're a fan of odd, Psychic-powered constructs, Gen 3 is your generation, apparently. Baltoy's body is made of baked clay, making it a clay statue, which would seem to imply this Pokemon is actually an ancient man-made Pokemon. But how exactly did it spring to life? And why did ancient Pokeworld people feel the need to bring their clay figures to life? That much has remained cloaked in mystery, which feels ever so fitting for such an odd little design.

The Dogu is one of ancient Japan's oldest and most famous artifacts, though their meaning to this day has remained unknown. They're just odd, bug-eyed statues with pumpkin-shaped heads and just so happen to be humanoid.

Dogu wound up being a common subject in Japanese pop culture, especially anything with a focus on monsters. Whether it be Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon, Monster-of-the-Week shows, and now Pokemon! Baltoy's own take on it is combining some aspects with more "modern" toys, most notably a spinning top. With how Baltoy balances on a single nub for a lower half where legs aught to be, and quite a few animations feature it spinning around. Cute!

I SEE EVERYTHING

344: Claydol

Baltoy only becomes even stranger when it becomes Claydol, which is like a Dogu but souped-up to 11. With a head covered in a complete ring of eyeballs, combined with the usual odd Dogu shape is so refreshingly bizarre in a Generation that's mostly kept things easy-going and recognizable. You can't even tell which way Claydol is facing! The answer to that question is just "Yes!" Especially helped by the "beak" nub between each pair of eyes, really making this thing look like it not only has loads of eyes, but multiple faces layered on top of each other.

We've always also found its shape to be funny, in that as a child we mistook this thing for a spider at first. With the body looking a bit like a stylized spider's head, and its head like an oddly shaped abdomen, complete with spire on top to stand in as a spinneret. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, since we found Ariados so underwhelming as a spider Pokemon? Maybe! It's otherwise got floaty orbules for arms that aren't actually physically attached to its body, but merely held in place with its mind alone.