Coalossal Controversy: Did Pokémon Get Rolycoly’s Evolution Wrong?

One of the most compelling aspects of Pokémon—aside from the eternally addictive “gotta catch ’em all” hook—has always been the evolutions and the creative flair that comes with each new form. When done right, evolutions are both surprising and satisfying, especially when the final form brings something unexpected while still sticking to a clear theme.

That whole “sticking to the theme” idea matters more than you might think. Sometimes a Pokémon’s final evolution just doesn’t seem to match the design or tone of their earlier forms. One smoldering example of a final evolution that misses the mark is Coalossal.

Coalossal begins its evolutionary journey as Rolycoly, a small, coal-black Rock-type Pokémon with a single glowing magma-orange eye. You can first encounter it relatively early in Pokémon Sword and Shield, deep within Galar Mine—a cavern laced with minecart tracks and glimmering crystal formations.

One of my favorite details of Rolycoly’s design is the glowing orange eye, which calls to mind the headlamp of a coal miner’s helmet or the eerie glow of a minecart headlight cutting through the dark. It’s a small touch but one that reinforces the whole “living coal chunk from the Galar Mine” concept beautifully.

Another standout element of Rolycoly’s design is the shape of its body: a jagged, uneven top that resembles rough, craggy rock, paired with a smooth, rounded bottom that acts like a wheel. This ties directly into its Pokémon Shield Pokédex entry, which notes, “It can race around like a unicycle, even on rough, rocky terrain. Burning coal sustains it.” For a first-stage Pokémon, Rolycoly has a lot going for it: its simple, yet standout design, a unique “coal unicycle” concept, and even the perfect name to go with it—a clever blend of “roly-poly” and “coal.”

Rolycoly keeps the coal minecart theme going when it evolves into the Rock/Fire-type Carkol at Level 18, but a few design choices make it feel like it’s veering off the tracks. While Carkol does gain a minecart-like body, its smooth, wheel-like base is replaced with four short, squat legs—more reminiscent of bathtub feet than anything that runs on rails. According to its Pokémon Shield Pokédex entry, “By rapidly rolling its legs, it can travel at over 18 mph,” but visually, those jagged stone legs don’t look nearly as functional or streamlined as Rolycoly’s unicycle-inspired base. Still, we’ll have to take the Galarian Pokémon science community at its word.

The most jarring shift, though is that Rolycoly’s singular, glowing orange eye is gone. In its place is… a face. A face that looks like a strange fusion of a fish head and Bullet Bill from Super Mario.

“Look at how they massacred my boy.”

All jokes aside, I don’t actually hate Carkol’s design. Sure, its squat, bathtub-like legs are an odd choice, but overall, it still resembles a minecart well enough. And while some might find the Bullet Bill-esque face jarring, I find it charming in a Steve Buscemian manner. Plus, it fits Game Freak’s tendency to give Rock-type Pokémon zoomorphic traits—turning inanimate objects into creatures with animal-like qualities. Part of me wonders if Carkol had been a Rock/Steel type instead of Rock/Fire, it might’ve leaned even further into its minecart identity and retained the glowing orange eye as a key visual element.

That said, as much as I enjoy Carkol’s design on its own, it’s still disappointing how much it deviates from what made Rolycoly so distinctive. And that deviation becomes even more pronounced with its final evolution at Level 36: Coalossal.

Coalossal takes the minecart motif and tosses it aside completely. Instead of refining the coal-powered cart concept, it transforms into a towering, bipedal Rock/Fire goliath with a glowing, furnace-like mouth and a mound of burning coal atop its head. It’s more volcano than vehicle.

I’ll admit—I do enjoy Coalossal’s design in the context of Pokémon Sword and Shield. It has presence, and the fire-as-furnace imagery works. But it’s hard not to feel like the design team missed an opportunity. Instead of building on Rolycoly’s unique visual identity, they pivoted hard and essentially turned Coalossal into a Rock/Fire version of Golem. Impressive? Sure. Thematically consistent? Not so much.

Plus, as much as I’m a stan for Golem and its design—we already have Golem as a massive, bipedal, Rock-type… well, golem. And Rhydon (I refuse to address Rhyperior at this moment). And Aggron. And Tyranitar. In other words, we’ve seen the big rock monster archetype before. Rolycoly had something unique going with its coal-mine aesthetic and glowing magma eye, and Carkol built on that with the minecart concept. But then Coalossal completely goes off the rails, evolving into yet another bipedal rock beast.

I like Coalossal, don’t get me wrong—but its hulking, volcanic Rock/Fire vibe feels like it belongs to a different Pokémon entirely. That design space could’ve been saved for a new Pokémon instead of capping off what started as a creative and thematically tight evolutionary line.

So what could the Rolycoly evolutions have done differently?

One of the better redesigns I’ve seen for Carkol and Coalossal is this one by DrawJaw:

This Carkol is much more in line with what Rolycoly could’ve turned into, a minecart with rounder wheels for legs and of course, retaining its orange-red eye. While I like Joe’s Coalossal, the rubbery looking wheel body gives too much of a Transformers-vibe to me, specifically Demolishor from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Here’s what I came up with for Carkol:

And Coalossal:

Now that’s a Coalossal that looks more like a natural evolution from a coal-filled minecart Pokemon that can roll around at high speeds in a Galarian cave, truly take advantage of its Steam Engine ability and terrorize unprepared Pokemon trainers while it’s at it.

Keep in mind, I’m no artist, so if any of you artists out there want to ameliorate my Rolycoly evolution images I conjured up with AI, feel free to drop me a line in the comments or contact me directly.

Did Pokemon get Rolycoly’s evolution wrong? Should Coalossal have been a train Pokemon? Or do you like the rock-volcano monster look that it ended up with in Pokemon Sword and Shield? Let us know in the comments.