Some Fire-types are held as the best shinies in the series, from Charizard to Salazzle. But, with the abundance of great shiny Fire Pokemon, there is actually a handful of disappointing ones, too. Some Fire-types don’t receive the cool purple-grey flames of shiny Rapidash or the jet-black volcanic vibe of shiny Camerupt.
As with any other type, there are many misses in shiny variants alongside the hits of others. Some shiny Fire-types hardly change from their normal coloring, while others look downright bad. Here are some of the worst offenders.
10 Salandit
Shiny Salazzle, with its stark-white body and beautiful pink detailing, might be one of the best shinies in the entire Pokemon universe. The contrast between the white, pink, and grey are gorgeous, and they give it a sleek, elegant look befitting a Pokemon that already has that exact vibe.
Its pre-evolution, Salandit, though, is another story. Salandit is also white and grey, but it keeps the grey for its head, feet, and hands. It’s just not a nice look, and when you get a male one (since only female Salandit can evolve), it’s even more disappointing.
9 Rotom
Rotom’s several forms typically take on an ethereal glow around their bodies, giving off the vibe of being spooky ghost-types with their own ghostly aura. The color is different depending on the form, with Mow Rotom having a green glow, Wash Rotom having a blue glow, and so on.
However, when shiny, each of the forms has a washed-out yellowish-orange glow instead, which just isn’t as good. Heat Rotom, the Fire-type, would probably be the closest for this warm color match, but it’s just as disappointing as the rest.
8 Reshiram
Reshiram and Zekrom have always represented Yin and Yang, with the two being black and white while serving as the mascots of the games with the opposite names — white Reshiram is the mascot for Pokemon Black and vice versa.
It’s a fantastic opportunity for their shiny variants to swap coloring, making Reshiram all-black and Zekrom all-white. However, the ball was dropped in this regard. While Zekrom does take on a nice blueish hue, Reshiram hardly changes at all. How disappointing.
7 Pyroar
There are white lions in the world, which look really nice, and there are plenty of stylized fictional lions, like Scar from the Lion King with his darker fur and black mane. Adding cooler colors to lions can make them look much more intimidating and cool than normal lion coloring.
Such would be the case for Pyroar, if its shiny had been different. Instead, Pyroar looks overexposed and washed-out. They couldn’t have made its fiery mane a cool blue or black flame or something?
6 Darumaka
Sometimes a shiny variant is a strange color that serves no benefit to the Pokemon at all, making it look weirdly fleshy or raw instead of taking on a more saturated Pokemon-like palette. This is the case for poor Daumaka, who trades its dark red design for a pink that looks like raw meat.
Its evolution, Darmanitan, trades its primary red for a nice deep maroon, which looks great. If only Darumaka took this treatment too, instead of looking like it’ll give you salmonella if you get too close.
5 Volcanion
Some might think Volcanion has a great shiny, while others might find it terrible. But, one can’t deny that it could have been better with a bit of a tweak. Volcanion trades the deep burgundy it normally has for a very bright primary yellow.
If the shade of yellow was tweaked slightly to make it more of a golden yellow, it would be a lot better. It would also work great as a silver/grey shiny or a black one. At least it chose a fun pink toenail color at the salon!
4 Heatran
While some of the shinies on this ist have been drastic changes that missed the mark, there are definitely others that simply don’t change enough to even be noticeable, let alone good. Heatran is one of these shinies.
This defensive powerhouse and Fire/Steel-type changes so slightly that one might not even notice it was shiny if they saw it isolated from its normally-colored variant. It could have been a lot better with a more drastic change.
3 Chandelure
Some shinies aren’t necessarily bad, they just aren’t as good as the original coloring. This is, unfortunately, what happened with the Chandelure evolutionary family. Normally, they look the way one might imagine paranormal ghostly fire to look — purple. A shiny variant should have built on this, making the flames something even cooler like green or white.
However, they revert to the color of normal fire — plain orange. They look fine, but it is just kind of boring.
2 Vulpix
Yet another example of a fantastic shiny having a not-so-great shiny pre-evolution. While Ninetales rules over other Fire-types as arguably the best shiny, with its grey-silver ethereal regalness and blue-tipped tails, its pre-evolution, Vulpix, looks sickly.
Vulpix swaps its typical orange coloring for a sickly, gross, yellow-green. It’s partway between yellow and green, and if it fell closer to one of those sides, it would be much better. Unfortunately, Vulpix is relegated to the hall of gross sickly green shinies.
1 Moltres
Often regarded as one of the most disappointing shinies in the series, regardless of typing, is poor Moltres. This Legendary Bird from Kanto is so poorly colored in its shiny form that it is ridiculed mercilessly by the fan base.
Moltres, which is typically a manila-yellow, becomes a terrible bright pink while its flames stay the same color. It makes it look like a raw chicken that’s on fire. The poor thing just doesn’t stand a chance.
NEXT: 10 Pokemon You Forgot Were Psychic-Type
