996: Frigibax

In an odd turn, this gen's pseudo-legendary crew aren't the last normal mons before we get to legendaries. And Frigibax here is an odd, lumpy little dragon baby. Almost looking a bit like a cartoon baby dinosaur with its very nearly egg-shaped body. It has one fin on the back of its head, which feels like an incidental detail compared to the yellow... honestly I'm not sure what they are. The Pokedex just elaborates that the dorsal fin is an extreme thermoregulator; it absorbs heat and converts it to cold. So it's a neat way to make a reptilian 'mon Ice type without just plonking ice onto its body.

>:(

997: Arctibax

Arctibax is much more overtly a dinosaur now; and it looks like this time around we have a spinosaur Pokemon! I suppose to make up for the lack of fossil Pokemon this time around. But it's kinda funny that this is twice in a row we've gotten a pseudo-legendary Dragon type as an extinct animal, with Dragapult being a diplocaulus, last gen.

Arctibax is also more overtly Ice type now, with ice over its face to act as jaws and, rather amusingly, angry eyebrows. As well as contributing to the fan-shape of the spine. I still don't know what the do-dads on its arms are meant to be, but it now attacks with that dorsal fin it has, using its back legs to lunge at enemies backwards with it. While a hilariously impractical attacking method, points for the unique take on a spinosaur.

Bax pain

998: Baxcalibur

The final stage, Baxcalibur, stands much more upright than a spino, but increases the size of that fin exponentially to make it a humongous glaive hanging off of its backside. A fin that looks awfully familiar when you take the blue+gray color scheme, upright dinosaur stance, and its signature move, called Glaive Rush, into account. A move with an animation featuring it flipping around to propel itself with a beam of laser breath and slamming that fin straight into the opponent.

Yeah, it's. Another Pokemon based on Godzilla. Or at least one a lot more obvious about being Godzilla-like, since Tyranitar honestly shares more similarities with Bemular. Baxcalibur goes up to the point where it imitates one of Godzilla's silliest stunts in flying around by facing backwards and shooting atomic breath. So we just get a Pokemon that turns that ridiculous idea up to 11. So it's just funny we get something so weirdly specific as a basis for a Pokemon.

Baxcalibur still has those random whatevers on its wrists and like, seriously. It'd just look way better without them and I don't know why they're there. They don't even fit in with the color scheme, and are just a blemish on an otherwise... alright Pokemon. I don't feel that strongly about Baxcalibur, its ice face is kinda cool. But it otherwise feels a little under-developed in the ideas department. It put all its eggs in that back basket (backsket) and the result is that Baxcalibur looks a little blurry and ill-defined. And as much as I appreciate not 100% sticking to a base animal's body plan, I think Baxcalibur would've been a little cooler and kick-ass if it stayed more spinosaurus-shaped.

It is an alright blast from the past, at least. It feels like it's been a hot minute since we've had a kaiju-shaped pseudo, the last one being, well, Tyranitar. And I guess Goodra too but. Tyranitar. So it's nice to have that energy back, I just wish it was energy converted to look like a little more focused of a design. Like seriously, why doesn't it face its backside to the opponent like Turtonator does??