The bicycle featured in Pokémon Red and Blue costs a ludicrous 1,000,000 Pokémon dollars, which leaves the bike unpurchaseable by the player in the Pokémon Kanto region economy without a special item called a Bike Voucher, because the player can only hold a maximum of 999,999 dollars at a time. The economic implications of such a ridiculous price are staggering.
The term “Pokémon dollars” was created for the English translation of the games. In the original Japanese versions, the currency used is Japanese Yen, giving us a real-world equivalent to translate from. Adjusting for inflation, 1,000,000 Yen in 1996 would be worth somewhere around 1,061,465 Yen in modern money, which roughly translates to 7,766 American dollars. To contrast, children’s bikes sold on Amazon in the North America sell for $100-$300 (and around 17,500 to 30,000 yen on Amazon.co.jp, which is roughly analogous to the NA price).
Initially, this may suggest that the Pokémon version of Japan underwent incredible amounts of inflation in the early 1990s. While the cost of a bicycle might seem like nothing compared to the most expensive rare Pokémon cards, it’s still ridiculous compared to most items in the series. Basic Pokéballs cost only 200 dollars at most Pokémarts. Ultraballs generally cost 1200 dollars. A Full Restore, the best healing item in the series, only costs 3000 dollars. A can of lemonade only costs 350 dollars, or $2.75 in modern American dollars.
Pokémon Red & Blue Featured The Series’ Most Expensive Bike
The cost of the bike also far exceeds the price of other expensive items in the Pokémon series. A nugget of solid gold sells for five to ten thousand dollars. Blue, the champion of the Kanto region, rewards 6,435 dollars in prize money upon defeat. The absolute most the player can receive in prize money is 345,600 dollars, obtainable by using five different layers of buffs while fighting Grand Duchess Diantha at the Battle Chateau. The crown from Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee and the Gorgeous Royal Ribbon from Pokémon Platinum, two items that exist just to be expensive trophies and cost 999,999 dollars, still fall short just short of the bicycle’s cartoonish price.
Other bicycles in the series don’t seem to be expensive. Every other bike in the series is given to the player for free, something that wouldn’t make sense if bicycles were worth their weight in gold. The unexplained cost of the bike in Kanto Pokémon games thus exists purely for gameplay reasons. By giving the player a coupon for the unpurchaseable bike in Vermillion, the player has a reason to return to Celadon and notice the path to Rock Tunnel.
It is likely the bicycle does not actually cost 1,000,000 dollars. The owner of the bikeshop may just be giving out a ridiculous price to be mean to the player. Similarly, a man on Route 32 in the Nintendo DS’ Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver sells Slowpoke Tails for 1,000,000 dollars each, despite them only costing 9,800 dollars in the original Gold and Silver. The bicycle is also not the most expensive item in the Pokémon series; in Pokémon X and Y, a Team Flare Grunt offers to let the player join if they pay the impossible cost of 5,000,000 dollars. Even so, Pokémon Red and Blue‘s bicycle remains one of the most expensive (and ridiculous) items across the games.