Fender and Pokémon Center mark 30 years with Red Version Stratocaster and Green Version Telecaster

Fender and Pokémon Center have unveiled two commemorative electric guitars for the franchise's 30th anniversary: the Made in Japan Pokémon Red Version Stratocaster and the Green Version Telecaster. Both reference the 1996 Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green releases that launched the series on the Game Boy.

The most distinctive feature is not on the body but inside it. Fender's proprietary 8-Bit Sound System is engaged by depressing the master volume knob, layering authentic 8-bit synthesizer tones over the guitar's standard analog output to recreate the chiptune sounds of the original handheld.

Both instruments are built on an alder body with a maple neck, a 9.5-inch radius fretboard and narrow-tall frets. The Red Version Stratocaster carries a rosewood fingerboard and custom Pokémon Red Version Stratocaster single-coil pickups, developed specifically for this release.

The Green Version Telecaster takes a maple fingerboard instead, and its bespoke Pokémon Green Version Telecaster single-coil pickups are tuned to that model. Each guitar therefore has its own wood and its own pickup set, not a shared specification in two colors.

Each body is finished with pixel-art graphics drawn directly from the classic titles, alongside a pixel-inspired pickguard treated with a light-reactive finish. The coating produces a glowing effect on stage, so artwork that looks static in photographs responds to the lights once a show begins.

Extras complete the package. A custom 30th-anniversary pixel-art logo is engraved on the neck plate, and the buyer also receives an original pick and pick tin set, an illustrated certificate of authenticity and a dedicated hardshell case. Neither company has published a price for either model.

How to buy one

Sales run through Pokémon Center's online store under a lottery program rather than a standard release. Applications are accepted from November 19 at 12 p.m. JST through November 24 at 4:59 p.m. JST, and lottery results will be announced on Pokémon Center Online at a later date.

Shipping is available within Japan only. Buyers in other regions are directed to check their respective official websites, which leaves open the question of how collectors elsewhere will obtain the instruments, if at all.

Fender is the same company behind the most expensive guitar ever sold. We recorded David Gilmour's Black Strat, the Stratocaster he played across Pink Floyd's records, at $14,550,000 when it sold at Christie's in March 2026.

The provenance comparison

Our ranking of the most expensive guitars ever sold at auction shows provenance, not construction, sets the ceiling. A 1959 Martin worth perhaps $30,000 on its own became a $6 million object once Kurt Cobain played it on MTV Unplugged, and Jerry Garcia's Tiger took second place at $11,560,000.

These Pokémon instruments are at the opposite end of that market. They are new production work drawing value from a licensed design and a Japan-only lottery, not from a famous pair of hands. That frames what a collector is actually buying.

The collaboration also runs parallel to our coverage of the most expensive Pokémon cards ever sold, where condition and grading decide the prices. Here the scarcity comes from a lottery and a shipping restriction, and the instrument is built to be played, not slabbed in acrylic.

The chiptune circuit gives both guitars a reason to exist beyond the graphic. Rather than a painted body alone, the 8-Bit Sound System makes the instrument produce the audio of the games it honors, which is as close as a guitar gets to the source material.

Pokémon Center, the official merchandise arm of the franchise, is the other half of the partnership and the storefront that will take every order. Its involvement routes the release through the channel that sells plush, cards and apparel, treating electric guitars as licensed merchandise.

For collectors, the practical question is whether the two models differ enough to justify owning both. Each references a different game, so the pair reads as a continuation of the Red and Green split rather than a recolor of one design.

What remains undisclosed is the production count. Fender and Pokémon Center have not stated how many of each model exist, which leaves buyers entering a lottery with no figure for how limited the instruments actually are. The certificate of authenticity matters more when the run size is known.