Pokémon fan art is nothing new, but TikTok user kumattaojisan has really upped the game. Their channel has dozens of videos showing off the intricate and colorful characters they made out of Q-tips, or cotton swabs. They dye each Pokémon cotton swab and assemble and glue together the many pieces. And it all started with Pikachu, of course. Check out some of the amazing creations below. They’ve got a ways to go if they’re going to make ’em all, but your favorite may already be there.
Each video is a montage of the artistic process. Though the TikToks are only about 30 seconds long, we imagine it must take hours to build each Pokémon. The colors, shapes, and details are simply stunning. Who knew cotton swabs could be turned into something so beautiful? The massive Milotic (below) is particularly impressive.
There’s also a cute Quagsire, made even more impressive because it’s reversible. The artist dyed one end of the swab blue and the other purple so you can choose which side to display. Speaking of showing these off, how would one display dozens of cotton swab creations? Hopefully the artist has a lot of shelf space, or friends and family to give them away to. Or maybe they sell them and try and recoup some of their extensive Q-tip budget.
There’s so much great Pokémon fan art out there. Someone even created a video game mod that inserts Pikachu into Sonic Frontiers. Some of our favorite examples imagine what popular Pokémon would look like in real life. There’s sculptures that show off Pikachu’s creepy side, a museum exhibit of Pokémon fossils, and a whole anatomy textbook called PokéNatomy. You can also use an artificial intelligence program to turn anything into a Pokémon.
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.