Pokémon

Delibird is the very definition of a ‘gimmick Pokémon’. It doesn’t evolve into or from anything else, and it is a truly terrible battler due to the fact it can only naturally learn one attack, Present, which happens to be completely impractical and unreliable. This move involves Delibird giving its foe a booby-trapped gift, which can deal a random amount of damage. But occasionally, Delibird gifts its opponent a more useful present, which actually restores its health. It is clear that Delibird was created simply as a holiday-themed novelty – and that’s why I’ve decided to look at this Pokémon now, so close to Christmas.

Introduced in Pokémon Gold and Silver, which were released in Japan in late 1999, Delibird is an Ice/Flying type. It lives in icy mountains in small flocks and makes its nest on the tops of sharp, precipitous cliffs. It spends all day searching for food for its chicks, carrying whatever it finds in its stretchy, sack-like tail, the folded-up end of which it almost always holds onto with one wing to make sure the contents inside don’t spill. The Delibird with the biggest tail is the leader of the flock.

But Delibird’s instinct to share and feed is so strong that it will also gift food from within its rolled-up tail to other Pokémon and even people, especially if they are starving and lost in the mountains (its name seems to be a combination of ‘delivery’ and ‘bird’). However, if Delibird is attacked, it will often throw its food at its opponents, possibly to distract them so it can get away. Of course, this food was meant for its chicks, so anytime a Delibird saves a lost mountaineer or tries to defend itself in battle, it is actually using up food that it is trying to bring to its young…

But what exactly is Delibird supposed to be? Well, its plump, upright, bird-like body, coupled with its Flying/Ice typing, suggests that it is based on a penguin. If you’re about to say, ‘But penguins can’t fly’, remember that this is a fictional world – and, in any case, the Flying type in English is known only as the Bird type in Japan. The feathery mask shape over Delibird’s face may be based on the rockhopper penguin, which has long, spiky yellow plumes just above each eye, giving the impression of having insane eyebrows.

However, the rest of Delibird’s appearance – its red-and-white colour scheme, its sack-like tail, and its ability to give presents – is derived from Santa Claus. It is coloured in such a way that it almost looks like it is wearing a large red suit, complete with a white button in the middle of its belly. And while the top feathers around its face remind me of a rockhopper penguin, the bottom half takes on the appearance of Santa’s big white beard.

Then, of course, there’s that tail, which is based not on a penguin’s tail (which are generally short and pointed), but on Santa’s sack of presents – so much so that in the official artwork for this Pokémon (seen at the top of this page), it’s hard to tell, if you didn’t know otherwise, that the tail isn’t simply a bag that Delibird is carrying around. It is only from particular angles that it becomes apparent that the bag is connected to Delibird’s rear end.

Delibird is one of just two Pokémon that can learn Present by levelling up. The only other Pokémon to do so is this one – a similar-looking Paradox Pokémon that debuted in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet called Iron Bundle.

Paradox Pokémon are believed to originate from a different point in the Pokémon timeline, or even from completely different timelines altogether. They seem to be related in some way to contemporary Pokémon, though they do not evolve to or from them. With only a couple of exceptions, their names also do not follow typical Pokémon naming conventions.

As its physical appearance would suggest, Iron Bundle is clearly connected to Delibird, though the nature of that connection remains unknown. Some people have speculated that it is a future relation; others theorise that it comes from the past and is the product of a long-gone civilisation – a notion supported by ancient writings that describe the design and usage of machines resembling Iron Bundle. Whatever its origin, it looks like a robotic Santa bird with metallic panels, a blank faceplate, and LED-screen eyes. It’s as if someone wanted to make a shiny, slightly futuristic toy using Delibird as the inspiration – a cute Pokémon that has been reimagined as hardware. Or perhaps it has come from a future in which Delibird has gone extinct – and this technologically advanced delivery robot pays homage to the Pokémon that once handed out presents.

When running, Iron Bundle uses its feet as if it were skiing. In its battle animations, its head can separate from its body and extend over long distances thanks to a stretchy cable. A similar cable (or perhaps it’s the same one, running through its body) connects the torso to its ‘bag’ – a spherical, luminous blue sealed pod that, when opened, can fire blasts of ice, propelling this Pokémon through snowy lands on its ski-shaped feet. When it falls asleep, it turns itself off, causing the blue energy on the spot on its belly, and in Iron Bundle’s ‘bag’, to turn black.

I’m going to end this post by circling back to Delibird. In addition to its obvious likeness to Santa Claus (physically and behaviourally), the franchise ties this Pokémon to the secular Christmas holiday in other ways, without ever specifically calling it out in-universe. Its number in the Pokédex, for example, is 225 – the closest Game Freak could get to 12/25 for a couple of decades (and we’re still not there yet, over 25 years later). The only move it learns by levelling up comes at level 25 – and the name of that special move, as we’ve already learned, is Present. If any Pokémon could be called a ‘Christmas Pokémon’, it would surely be Delibird.