Clip 'n' Carry Poké Ball: Push Button or Zipper?
The 2016 TOMY Pokémon 20th Anniversary Collection gave Australian fans twelve months of fresh reasons to line up outside their local toy aisle. Monthly drops rolled out mythical Pokémon plush figures, Pikachu variants, and a string of specialty items that rotated between major retailers including BIG W and Target Australia. Among those releases, the Clip 'n' Carry Poké Ball stood out as the most tactile. It was the toy you actually opened, closed, clipped to a backpack, and carried through Westfield on a Saturday arvo. That daily handling made its opening mechanism a quiet but defining feature.
Two versions appeared across the year's run, and collectors quickly developed strong feelings about each. One used a push button on the top dome that released the lower hemisphere with a spring-loaded click. The other relied on a zipper that ran along the seam between the two halves. Both looked like a Poké Ball from across the room, but up close they felt completely different. Understanding those differences matters for anyone picking one up secondhand or deciding which release to chase down at retail.
Origins and Place in the Anniversary Collection
TOMY built the Clip 'n' Carry Poké Ball as a play-and-display piece aimed at younger fans and longtime collectors alike. Roughly ten centimetres across, it was sized for small hands while still detailed enough to sit on a collector's shelf. The 20th Anniversary Collection rolled these out as part of a broader monthly schedule that also featured items like the darkrai plush figure, a mythical Pokémon release that became one of the harder items to find in Australian stores as the year progressed.
The Poké Balls were positioned as the anchor item that helped hold the monthly schedule together. Different finishes and trims rotated through the year, some exclusive to specific retailers, others distributed more broadly. This staggered release rhythm meant a typical Australian buyer might see one version on the shelves at BIG W in Brisbane and a different colourway at a Target in Melbourne a few weeks later. The mechanism itself remained a constant design decision, and it set the tone for whether a particular ball felt like a quick-access toy or a sturdier keepsake.
The Push Button Approach
The push button version placed a red circular button on the top hemisphere, exactly where the anime and games have always shown the central release. Pressing it depressed an internal spring and allowed the lower half to drop open with a satisfying clack. The release felt immediate and a little dramatic, which suited fans who wanted a Poké Ball that mimicked the on-screen action as closely as a plastic toy could.
In practice, the spring-loaded design rewarded one-handed use. A kid walking out of a Chadstone toy aisle could pop the ball open with a thumb, drop in a small figure, and snap it shut again without ever looking down. The trade-off came with long-term durability. The internal plastic spring sat under repeated compression, and over years of play it could lose tension. Older examples that turned up at Australian collector meets in 2022 and beyond sometimes needed a firm press or a tiny shim to open reliably. For display purposes, though, the button mechanism still looked the part, with no visible seam breaking the iconic red-and-white silhouette.
The Zipper Approach
The zipper variant replaced the button with a short metal zipper that ran along the equator of the ball. To open it, you pinched the seam, found the zipper pull, and drew it around roughly three-quarters of the ball's circumference before the two halves separated. It was a slower, more deliberate action, and it left a faint seam line across the finished toy when closed.
That seam carried real benefits. Once zipped, the ball stayed shut whether it was rattling around in a school bag, bouncing in the back of a car on the way to a regional swap meet, or clipped to a belt loop at a Brisbane Supanova panel. There was no spring to weaken and no button to accidentally press. The zipper mechanism also felt closer in spirit to a soft-sided coin purse or carrying case, which gave the ball a slightly more grown-up collector vibe. The trade-off was the action itself: it required two hands, a little focus, and steady fingers, especially for younger kids whose thumbs were still building the dexterity for a clean zip.
Putting Them Side by Side
The differences become clearer when the two mechanisms are laid out against each other.
| Feature | Push Button | Zipper |
|---|---|---|
| Opening action | Press top button, halves spring apart | Pull metal zipper around the seam |
| Sound | Crisp plastic click | Soft metallic zip |
| One-handed use | Yes | No, two hands usually needed |
| Pocket safety | Can pop if button is pressed | Stays zipped until deliberately opened |
| Aesthetic when closed | Smooth Poké Ball silhouette | Visible seam line around equator |
| Wear over time | Spring can weaken with heavy play | Zipper teeth may misalign or snag |
| Closest in feel to | Anime Poké Ball release | Small coin purse or pouch |
| Best suited to | Younger kids, active play | Display, travel, older collectors |
Both versions carry an official Nintendo-licensed TOMY stamp and both clipped onto belts and bags the same way, so the real choice came down to how you planned to use the ball day to day.
Collecting Across the Australian Market
Australian collectors encountered the Clip 'n' Carry Poké Balls in slightly different ways depending on where they lived. The big-box retailers rotated stock unevenly across states, and a release that sat on shelves in Perth for weeks could sell out within a day in Sydney. Some colourways and mechanism variants were tied to specific retailers, so a collector chasing a complete set often ended up driving between a Kmart, a BIG W, and a Target to track down what they were missing.
The secondhand market picked up the slack. Facebook Marketplace listings, Australian Pokémon Facebook groups, and convention-floor traders at Supanova in Melbourne or Oz Comic-Con in Brisbane became reliable sources for anyone who missed a particular drop. Pricing in Australian dollars reflected that scarcity, with rarer finishes often clearing three figures once shipping was factored in. For anyone weighing up the two mechanisms today, condition matters more than ever, since a button with a weakened spring is harder to repair than a zipper that just needs a careful wiggle to free the pull. Fans curious about which Pokémon appeared in more than one plush size during the same collection can read about the different plush sizes that turned up across the year, since those variants often shared shelf space with the Clip 'n' Carry Poké Balls and shaped which mechanism style a given buyer ended up bringing home.