Tangrowth’s Five-Star Mezastar Tag and Japan’s Arcade Culture

Tangrowth Pokemon Mezastar Arcade Tag, Five-Star Rarity

What Is a Pokemon Mezastar Tag?

Pokemon Mezastar is an arcade game series developed and operated by Taito Corporation — a Tokyo-based game maker and part of the Square Enix Group, long known for its amusement center operations across Japan. The series launched in August 2020 as the successor to the earlier Pokemon Ga-Olé line, which ran from 2016 to 2020 under Bandai Namco Amusement. Although the two share a broad concept, Mezastar is a distinct product line from a different manufacturer with its own tag format and game system.

At the center of the Mezastar experience is the tag itself: a small, oval plastic token printed with a Pokemon’s artwork, type symbol, Pokedex number, and a row of rarity stars. Players insert coins at an arcade cabinet, battle through the game, and receive a tag at the end of their session. The tag can be used in future play or kept as a collectible. This particular tag carries the product code 2-4-023, indicating it belongs to Series 2, the fourth release, number 023 in that set — pointing to an estimated release window of around 2021 to 2022.

Rarity in Mezastar is expressed through a star count, with five stars representing the top of the system. The five-star format uses four solid gold stars alongside one outline star — a visual shorthand that makes the highest-tier tags immediately recognizable. Mezastar cabinets were primarily installed in shopping center game arcades across Japan, and tags from the series circulate on Japan’s second-hand markets as well as through specialist importers abroad.

Tangrowth: A Grass-Type with Deep Roots

Tangrowth — known in Japan as Mojambo — is National Pokedex number 465, a pure Grass-type Pokemon. It evolves from Tangela, Pokedex number 114, a curly-vine-covered creature that has been part of the franchise since its first games set in the Kanto region. Tangrowth’s evolution line was completed in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl in 2006, during the fourth generation of the series, giving the long-established Tangela a new final form.

Tangrowth keeps the same core aesthetic as its pre-evolution: a body almost entirely concealed beneath thick, tangled vines and tendrils. Its silhouette is immediately distinctive within the roster. The artwork on this tag depicts Tangrowth at a dramatically large scale against a red-and-purple background. That color palette and the oversized presentation are consistent with the visual language of Dynamax, a mechanic introduced in Pokemon Sword and Shield in 2019 that temporarily grows Pokemon to enormous proportions during battle. Whether Tangrowth has a Gigantamax-specific form — a variant with its own unique appearance — is not confirmed, so the background imagery most likely represents standard Dynamax rather than a specialized form.

Why International Collectors Follow Mezastar

Mezastar tags are dispensed only by arcade cabinets installed in Japan. There is no official international distribution channel, which means the only route a tag like this takes to buyers outside Japan is through someone who obtained it in person — either a local collector or a traveler — and chose to sell or export it. That geographic restriction makes the entire line of genuine interest to international fans of both Pokemon and Japanese arcade culture.

For collectors who know Pokemon primarily through the main handheld games or the Trading Card Game, a Mezastar tag offers something physically distinct: a rigid plastic token tied to an arcade ecosystem that most of the world has never encountered directly. The 100-yen coin slots, the competitive play sessions, the cabinet networks in shopping mall game centers — that context adds a layer of cultural specificity that goes well beyond the character on the surface. Tangrowth itself contributes to the broader appeal: as the evolution of a Generation I Pokemon, it carries recognition among fans who have followed the franchise for decades, while its unusual vine-covered design keeps it a conversation piece even within the wider Grass-type lineup.