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Uri Geller calls off 20-year ban on Pokémon trading card that 'stole' his 'signature image'

What a spoon

Infamous spoon-wrecking genius Uri Geller has lifted a 20-year ban on Nintendo from publishing Pokémon trading cards he claimed appropriated his likeness.

Because we suppose that Geller is a yellow fox-dinosaur thing and not the Israeli illusionist we all thought him to be.

For the grownups in the room, we're talking about Kadabra – a character from Nintendo's popular Pokémon media franchise that spans video games, TV shows, films, comics, books and more.

Back in 2000, Geller sued the Japanese gaming mainstay for "unauthorised use of his name on Pokémon cards and related materials", as the BBC reported at the time.

"Nintendo turned me into an evil, occult Pokémon character," he claimed. "Nintendo stole my identity by using my name and my signature image."

What does this have to do with Kadabra? Aside from the fact that the psychic-type monster wields a spoon, the Pokémon's Japanese name has been rendered as "Yungerer, Yungeller, and Yun Geller", according to games site Kotaku.

Following the legal action, Kadabra ceased to be printed on trading cards from 2003, though other stages of the Pokémon's evolution, Abra and Alakazam, continued to appear, despite them also referencing actual magicians – "Casey" from Edgar Cayce, and "Foodin" from Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin or Harry Houdini. It helps if they're dead.

The Register notes that Alakazam has not one spoon, but two, and its evolution – Mega Alakazam – four.

It seems the magician has got over it, however, as Geller emailed The Gamer with the good (?) news: "Due to the tremendous volume of emails I am still getting begging me to allow Nintendo to bring back Kadabra/Yungeller, I sent... a letter to the chairman of Nintendo giving them permission to relaunch the Uri Geller Kadabra/Yungeller worldwide."

Geller said the letter was picked up by "two Nintendo representatives" but it's yet to be confirmed whether the character will return to the trading card game.

Geller then tweeted:

The magician made his millions by proclaiming himself a psychic capable of telepathy and bending cutlery with his mind alone – powers he says were bestowed upon him by an alien. However, Geller has been caught cheating on several occasions that revealed him to be employing pretty stock misdirection techniques common to all of stage magic... ®

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