#48: Rhydon

Yup, at number 48 you can find the rhinoceros Pokémon Rhydon. At first, I didn't really like or dislike Rhydon; it was just an average Pokémon being there just for the sake of it. Then why the hell is Rhydon in this list? Because I found out it's the first Pokémon ever created, that's why! You'd expect the first Pokémon to be Bulbasaur or even Pikachu, but Rhydon was drawn up before any other Pokémon, even its pre-evolution Rhyhorn. According to interviews with Ken Sugimori, who always creates the official Pokémon artwork, Rhydon's index number in the game code is 001 in the first generation, precisely because it was the first coded in. There are also early sketches of Rhydon from Capsule Monsters, the conceptual predecessor of Pokémon (see image below; click on it to enlarge it, or drag it to another tab). How awesome is that?! Besides, in the video games it's quite strong, too. It has a ton of attack and defense, while having abominable special defense and special attack. The latter doesn't really matter, because Rhydon doesn't need that stat, anyway. But don't let it get hit by a special-based attack, because it will almost certainly get knocked out in an instant (except maybe when it is resistant to that attack). You'll find it to be difficult to avoid special-based attacks, anyway, because it's slow as tar and doesn't often get the first hit. I don't use it very often, but it is strong and it can have a diverse movepool, too, so it's not a bad Pokémon to use. I'll just stick with other Pokémon though, and let Rhydon be one of my favorites just because the whole Pokémon hype has begun with it.