How Drifblim Ended Up on a Japanese Arcade Collectible

Drifblim Pokemon Mezastar Tag, Season 2

Pokemon Mezastar is an arcade game series developed and operated by Takara Tomy A.R.T.S., the amusement-focused subsidiary of the Takara Tomy group, which launched in Japanese game centers on July 30, 2020. When a player finishes a round on one of the dedicated cabinets, the machine dispenses a small oval-shaped plastic tag as part of the session. That physical token is what this item is: a Mezastar tag.

The format draws from a long lineage. Pokemon Tretta ran from 2012 to 2016, followed by Pokemon GA-OLE from 2016 to 2020. Mezastar is GA-OLE’s direct successor, continuing a roughly two-decade tradition of tag-dispensing Pokemon arcade games available exclusively inside Japanese game centers and large commercial amusement facilities. Each series produced its own physical collectibles, all tied to arcade play.

This tag carries the catalog number 2-059, placing it in Mezastar’s Season 2. The oval border is embossed with the word “Pokemon,” and the tag is functional within the arcade game itself — it lists a Poke Energy value of 88. Its rarity is rated at four stars, with one of the four shown as an outline star. Mezastar does reserve a separate category called Super Star for the very highest tier, so the four-star rating sits in the upper range of the standard scale without being the absolute ceiling.

Drifblim: A Generation IV Ghost-Type with a Distinctive Design

Drifblim (National Pokedex No. 426) first appeared in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, released in 2006, making it a Generation IV Pokemon. It is classified as the Blimp Pokemon and carries a Ghost/Flying dual typing — a combination that gives it a specific niche within Pokemon’s type system.

The design is immediately recognizable: a large purple balloon-like body, a yellow X mark across the torso, a gray cloud-shaped formation at the head, and trailing appendages where limbs might be. Its pre-evolution, Drifloon (No. 425), is said to appear in groups at dusk. In competitive play, Drifblim is known for an unusually high HP base stat of 150. Ghost-type Pokemon attract a consistent and devoted following within the fan community, and Drifblim’s silhouette — somewhere between unsettling and oddly endearing — has given it a durable presence within that group.

An Arcade-Only Format That Doesn’t Travel

Mezastar tags reach players through a specific experience: a session at a dedicated arcade cabinet, followed by a randomly dispensed tag. The randomness is built into the design, combining the unpredictability of a capsule toy with active gameplay. These cabinets exist inside game centers and amusement facilities in Japan, and there is no official distribution channel for Mezastar tags outside the country.

For Pokemon collectors elsewhere in the world, that means a Mezastar tag is inherently a Japan-export item with no domestic equivalent. Fans who grew up with Diamond and Pearl — now roughly in their late twenties to mid-thirties — are likely to recognize Drifblim immediately from that generation of games. The oval plastic format is also physically unlike a trading card, giving it a distinct identity within a Pokemon collection that already spans many different object types.