Charizard
Described by the media as "a lean, ferocious, fire-breathing dragon [...] sleek, powerful, and utterly destructive", Charizard has been noted as one of the franchise's most popular characters. People who sell toys have noted that the high sales of merchandise related to the character to the popularity of the character's dragon-like design with children. Interviewed children have stated similar; they attributed its appeal to its "cool looking" appearance and associating the character with the concepts of stubbornness and power. GamesRadar described Charizard as "hands-down one of the coolest Pokémon out there", heavily praising its character design and calling it "one of the coolest" designs of the entire series. IGN editor "pokemonofthedaychick" called Charizard "certainly the most popular and perhaps the most well-balanced of any of the current starting Pokémon". The book Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon cited Charizard as popular with older male children who tend to be drawn to "tough or scary" characters, and compared the character's evolution from Charmander into Charizard with the loss of "cuteness" as one leaves childhood. The book Rebuilding Attachments With Traumatized Children stated psychiatrists utilized the character as an empowered character traumatized children who were fans of the Pokémon series could relate to. In 2005, search engine Yahoo! reported Charizard as one of the top Pokémon-related web searches.