Board 8 > VG Characters Ranked by how often they show up at the Scholastic Book Fair

(+) Yeah! (+)

In a project that took all my break and lunch today, I share with you this completely useless data. I got the idea back when I heard a few people say "I don't think kids even know who Steve is" which struck me as pretty out of touch.

Rules:

Every time a VG character shows up on the cover of a book, they get a point, multiple times per cover still only gets one point. In some cases (fortnight and roblox) I just used the game name if they have a generic character from that game.

Merch Counts as a point (unless the merch is bundled with a book that also has the character i.e. a pikachu book with a pikachu eraser is 1 point, but those items sold separately would be 2)

Standard gamefaqs contests rules for what is and isn't a vg character- must have originated in a game or be gerault.

Ranking of characters that have two or more appearances:

1. Pikachu- 8
2. Mario-7
3. Steve- 6
4. Popplio- 5
5. Rowlet- 5
6. Litten- 4
7. Cappy- 4
8. Alex (Girl Steve from Minecraft)- 4
9. Zombie (Minecraft)-3
10. Master Chief- 3
11. Spyro- 2
12. Washbuckler- 2
13. Creeper- 2
14. Chikorita-2
15. Totodile- 2
16. Bulbasaur-2
17. Charmander-2
18. Squirtle- 2
19. Roblox- 2
20. Bowser-2

Bowser just barely made it in as a large percentage of his body was cut off from a mario kart image.
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Series by how many reps appeared-

Pokemon- 34
Skylanders- 13
Minecraft- 9
Mario-7
Overwatch- 5
Pacman- 5
Yokai Watch- 4 (all merch)
Plants Vs Zombies- 3 (counting all zombies as one zombie)

Oners-

Clash of Clans
Legend of Zelda
Rocket League
Roblox
Fortnight
Splatoon
Super Lucky's Tale
Halo
Street Fighter
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If there's interest I can do a full list of characters tallied. I'm not doing it now because I need to get back to work and there's literally 34 pokemon to list.
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Came in predicting #1 and got it right.
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I would have to say this is the weakest year I've ever seen from Steve since I started working at a school, and probably the strongest year I've ever seen for mario

Also usually see WAY more charizard stuff, I'm fairly sure this is the first year he's a no show
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Dang, the Litten disrespect.

Just because Incineroar sucks doesn't mean you can just let its first stage show up less than the others.
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I love this

I think Pac-Man is the one I'm most surprised by, I'm assuming the reps are the four ghosts

PS I hate skylanders now.

All the books have three characters on the front, and bios for two of them. Luckily there was the "Ultimate guide to all skylanders" to consult, but that took way more time than I would have liked
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Personally I was surprised by the amount of times Halo stuff popped up. That seems like a franchise that's not as popular with kids as it was back in the day
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xbox is all the rage with the kids these days.

mind you most of them don't play games or read anything.

(They live entirely through other people on youtube)
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this is a pretty sweet project but uh...who's Steve >_>
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Drakeryn posted...

this is a pretty sweet project but uh...who's Steve >_>

Minecraft guy
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Drakeryn posted...

this is a pretty sweet project but uh...who's Steve >_>

don't feel bad. I had to look up the names of like 20 characters.

we gettin' old
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Minecraft is a cultural phenomenon for kids in the last few years not far below Pokemon and I'm surprised by its longevity even though I understand the appeal of the game itself

Even though I logically understand why kids love Minecraft it's strangely hard to not feel a sort of resentment towards it and I don't know why. is this what getting old feels like? Minecraft isn't even that far removed from my generation, it came out in my early 20's

Paratroopa1 posted...

Minecraft is a cultural phenomenon for kids in the last few years not far below Pokemon and I'm surprised by its longevity even though I understand the appeal of the game itself

Even though I logically understand why kids love Minecraft it's strangely hard to not feel a sort of resentment towards it and I don't know why. is this what getting old feels like? Minecraft isn't even that far removed from my generation, it came out in my early 20's

I feel a similar way to Skylanders after today. I always thought it was a stupid corporate cash grab, and it IS, but after reading through the guides it's amazing to me how much effort is put into each character. I find myself both a little jealous that I didn't have something this cool when I was a kid, and also a little resentful and try to find little things to pick apart like the artwork and character names even though I know if I was 13 I would be all over that shit. Like it's basically pokemon but if you actually got to play as every pokemon and each one had their own unique moveset! It's super cool and I hate it.
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bump
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Master Chief lol?
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one more bump
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