My fiancé and I recently visited the Field Museum specifically to check out the Pokémon Fossil Museum. As a huge Pokémon fan, I was genuinely glad we went, but overall, the experience left us both feeling pretty underwhelmed.
We haven’t been to the Field Museum in years, and unfortunately, the atmosphere felt a bit “off” compared to our past visits. They seem to have taken away a lot of the exhibits we used to enjoy, and my fiancé even pointed out that the cool, classic “academia smell” the building used to have is completely gone. It just didn’t have the same magic.
The core concept of the Pokémon Fossil Museum is fantastic. Seeing the Pokémon “fossils” and comparing their anatomy to real-world dinosaurs was incredibly cool and clever. However, the exhibit was way too short. You walk through it entirely too quickly, and for a franchise built on exploration, it severely lacked interactivity. It really felt like they could have—and should have—done much, much more with the space.
The merchandise section was another letdown. Walking through it felt indistinguishable from browsing the toy aisle at Target. The items branded as “exclusive” were noticeably low quality. We later found out that the actual high-quality exclusive merchandise had completely sold out and the museum was awaiting restock. For fans making a special trip, that was hugely disappointing.
If you love Pokémon, you will probably still get a kick out of the displays—I am still glad I got to see it. Just temper your expectations regarding the length of the exhibit and the state of the gift shop before you buy your tickets.