One of the hardest things for me as a kid was deciding which starter Pok\u00e9mon to choose.\n
At the time I was playing Pok\u00e9mon Red, so naturally, I ended up choosing Charmander to be my very first Pok\u00e9mon.\n
I\u2019m not going to outright say that Charmander is the coolest when compared to Bulbasaur or Squirtle, but I\u2019m also not going to deny it either.\n
What I will do is share with you a nice big chunk of facts, all about Charmander, so you can make the decision for yourself!\n
Charmander is one of the three starter Pok\u00e9mon in the 1996 Pok\u00e9mon Red and Blue games, which were released for the Game Boy.\n Two years after Pok\u00e9mon Red and Blue hit the US market, Pok\u00e9mon Yellow was released. In this special edition, the player started with a Pikachu instead of choosing one of the original starter Pok\u00e9mon. Fortunately for fans of Charmander, it\u2019s possible to acquire one from an NPC (that\u2019s a non-player character, for the uninitiated) later in the game.\n Charmander returned as a starter Pok\u00e9mon in the remakes of the original games, titled Pok\u00e9mon FireRed and LeafGreen. The remakes were released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004.\n In the Pok\u00e9mon anime, Charmander is acquired early on by Ash Ketchum, the show\u2019s protagonist. Although Ash catches many Pok\u00e9mon during his travels, Charmander is one of his most commonly used Pok\u00e9mon.\n Ash Ketchum doesn\u2019t actually catch his own Charmander in the anime. Ash and Brock find a Charmander out in the wild that\u2019s been left behind by its trainer for being too weak. The Charmander has been out in the rain and is becoming weak, so Ash takes it to a Pok\u00e9mon center to bring it back to full health. When Charmander sees what a true trainer\u2019s love can be like, he changes loyalties and lets Ash catch him.\n The origins of Ash\u2019s Charmander are quite different in the manga The Electric Tale of Pikachu. A similar story is told, but instead of the trainer abandoning his Charmander for being weak, it is left behind as the trainer himself is injured and is taken to the hospital. In the manga, Ash is shown to have his own Charmander already.\n In the anime, when Ash\u2019s Charmander evolves into Charmeleon, its nature changes completely. Before it evolved, it was fiercely loyal to Ash for saving it from its previous thuggish trainer. After evolving into Charmeleon, it becomes stubborn and lazy, only fighting battles when it feels like it.\n In 2017 Pok\u00e9mon the Movie: I Choose You! was released, in which Ash\u2019s Charmander behaved very differently when it evolved. Upon evolving into Charmeleon, it instantly recognized Ash\u2019s authority and obeyed his every command with utmost loyalty.\n Charmander is born with a flame at the end of its tail, and this flame is said to represent the Pok\u00e9mon\u2019s life force. When a Charmander\u2019s flame goes out, it will die. A Charmander\u2019s tail can also alert others to its mood, with the flame growing in size when enraged or flickering when happy. Ordinary water cannot put out its tail.\n Charmander has two sequential evolutions, Charmeleon and Charizard. In the video games, Charmander evolves into Charmeleon when it reaches level 16 and then again into Charizard at level 36.\n It was designed in such a way that it would be difficult to tell that it would eventually evolve into a Charizard.\n Charmander stands at two feet (60 cm) tall, which makes it the tallest of all starter Pok\u00e9mon.\n Charmander also has the longest name out of all unevolved starter Pok\u00e9mon.\n Unsurprisingly, Charmander is a Fire-type Pok\u00e9mon. There are 16 different Pok\u00e9mon types as of Generation VI, with the types defining the properties of a Pok\u00e9mon. A Water-type Pok\u00e9mon would generally do very well against a Fire-type, while a Fire-type such as Charmander would do well against a Grass-type.\n The artwork and game sprites for Charmander initially depicted it as having small spikes along its back. Over time the spikes disappeared, which makes Charmander appear a little more friendly and juvenile.\n For a long time, depictions of Charmander were inconsistent, with the Pok\u00e9mon sometimes having three fingers, and sometimes three fingers and a thumb. This inconsistency lasted all the way until Pok\u00e9mon Black and White were released in 2010, from which point Charmander has had just three fingers.\n Way back in 2001, a tiny island nation called Niue decided to commemorate Pok\u00e9mon culture by minting five different coins, each with a different Pok\u00e9mon depicted on them. Each coin was to the value of $1 NZ, with Charmander depicted on one of them.\n Charmander was originally called Hitokage when the game was released in Japan. In an attempt to make Pok\u00e9mon more interesting to American children, the names were changed to make them more descriptive. As such, Hitokage was renamed Charmander, combining the words \u201cchar\u201d and \u201csalamander\u201d, as in a fire-salamander.\n It\u2019s said that the salamander that Charmander is named for is actually the mythical beast, rather than the actual lizard. In mythology, a salamander is a type of fire spirit, and as such is immune to fire. This comparison makes much more sense when we look at Charmander.\n The release of Pok\u00e9mon X and Y saw a new evolution for Charmander. Within this particular game, it\u2019s possible for a Charizard to evolve into a Mega Charizard for the length of a battle. This new evolution has different abilities and even different appearances depending on whether you are playing Pok\u00e9mon X or Y.\n Charmander is actually the weakest of the original three starter Pok\u00e9mon. Anyone who wished for a Charizard had to tough it out for the first parts of the game. Was it worth it? Absolutely!\n Charmander\u2019s direct predecessor in the Pok\u00e9mon games is Cyndaquil, who we see in Pok\u00e9mon Gold and Silver. The base stats for both Charmander, Cyndaquil, as well as their respective evolutions are identical. This trait is not shared with any following starter Fire-type Pok\u00e9mon.\n Readers of popular video game review site IGN ranked Charmander as the 37th best Pok\u00e9mon of all time.\n Charmander is featured a few times in the popular Nintendo Game Cube game Super Smash Bros. It\u2019s possible to unlock an in-game trophy which represents Charmander. There\u2019s also a stage in the game called \u201cSaffron City,\u201d in which Charmander can be seen.\n Charmander is also one of the catchable starter Pok\u00e9mon in the hit global phenomenon Pok\u00e9mon GO, along with Squirtle and Bulbasaur.\n As a man born in the 90’s I grew up with Pok\u00e9mon. When I think about the glory days of playing Pok\u00e9mon Red on my Game Boy Color I think of that impossible decision at the start of the game.\n Charmander was the obvious choice, and I\u2019m glad I did as it\u2019s definitely one of the coolest starter Pok\u00e9mon, especially when compared to the later generations!\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Charmander is one of the most famous Pok\u00e9mon around. He was a starter Pok\u00e9mon in the Red and Blue editions released way back in 2006 and although not the strongest he is one of the most loved. Here are 25 awesome facts about him.\n","protected":false},"author":10000016,"featured_media":205814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"0","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"592,577","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"509,244889,253109,242752","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"category":[7,9],"tags":[35,70,473,85],"topics":[425,230,227],"class_list":["post-205812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-television","category-games-toys","tag-animation-cartoons","tag-pokemon","tag-television","tag-video-games","topics-ashs-pokemon","topics-pokemon","topics-starter-pokemon","infinite-scroll-item","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","resize-featured-image"],"acf":{"tfs_social_fact":"Did you know that the Pok\u00e9mon Charmander was originally called \"Hitokage\"?","tfs_pinterest_description":"Charmander is one of the most loved of all Pok\u00e9mon. He is one of the first starter Pok\u00e9mon in the original Red and Blue games that came out way back in 1996. He was actually originally named Hitokage but it was changed to appeal to the American market. If you're a fan of Charmander, or the games you will love these 25 awesome facts all about him. Come check them out. #TheFactSite #Facts #Pokemon #GameBoy #VideoGames #Charmander","tfs_previous_post_link":200864,"tfs_pinterest_image":205815,"tfs_sources":[{"url":"https:\/\/bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net\/wiki\/Charmander_(Pok\u00e9mon)","title":"Bulbapedia","no_follow":false},{"url":"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charmander","title":"Wikipedia","no_follow":false},{"url":"https:\/\/www.thegamer.com\/pokemon-things-didnt-know-charmander\/","title":"The Gamer","no_follow":false},{"url":"https:\/\/pokemon.fandom.com\/wiki\/Charmander","title":"Pok\u00e9mon Fandom","no_follow":false}],"tfs_next_post_link":236295,"is_trending":false,"tfs_guest_author":false},"yoast_head":"