989: Sandy Shocks

Another Paradox for a not-fully-evolved Pokemon, Sandy Shocks here is easily the WEIRDEST of all the Paradox Pokemon. And while I've seen other people refer to the past Paradoxes as "Cavemanified Pokemon", Sandy definitely looks like a "What if Magneton was a caveman thing", between the unkempt hair and the mild suggestions of facial hair and face paintings.

It picks up an Electric/Ground typing, the Ground part seeming to come from how its "hair" is likely made of iron filings, that magnetic sand that makes funky, "hairy" shapes when magnetized. Which is a funny way to give Magneton this hair in the first place, but what's also so weird about it is how it's a centaur of a Magneton. Two of its magnet "arms" now reach all the way to the ground to form two pairs of "legs", including how surprisingly flexible those horseshoe-magnet legs are when it walks. But ALSO also, it has a TAIL made of BOLTS, ending with another tuft of filing hair. What a truly bizarre thing.

It definitely deserves chops for uniqueness, because there's no way this oddball is forgettable. But, as usual, things get screwy when we ask any deeper questions surrounding the thing. Like the implications that horseshoe magnets and screws would have to be naturally occurring objects tens of thousands of years before their invention. That Occulture magazine, reliable source as always, apparently frames this creature as just a Magneton that managed to survive a really long time, but that hardly answers the implications there!

Though speaking as someone who's always had a soft spot for the whole Magnemite line, I dunno if Sandy Shocks does it for me. Again, points for uniqueness, but something about its vibe that I can't quite put my finger on just feels like it's a bad-taste caricature of a Magneton, somehow. Like, its hair and uncharismatic walk make it feel like its intention was the mock Magneton. Which I'm SURE wasn't the intention at all! But this combined with how clumsily it feels like it fits in with other Paradox forms leaves me in a muck of mixed feelings. Like, I appreciate that someone went to the challenge of turning Magneton into a dinosaur, but I'm not sure if this result is really for me. It calls the strangeness that brings Ultra Beasts to mind, but while still grounding itself as a visual clone of Magneton.

But either way, while we still have a few more past Paradox Pokemon to look at, that's the main meat of them met. Next time we're going to the FUUUUTURRRRRE