Typhlosion was surprisingly good as it had a good speed stat and could learn a lot more moves than Feraligatr.
The grass type starter of gen II was dogshit from what I remember and since I wasn't a sperg with movesets, I never could properly utilize her.
One issue I noticed when trying to get rarer evolutions, was the difficulty cooperating with kids in the playground. Some would steal your pokemon once you traded them. Eventually kids either started stealing gameboys or losing them, causing parents to complain to the faculty about their child's distraction causing them grief, ruining the experience for everyone. Then my school banned other, more innocent, cheaper physical toys since the issues repeated and finally the playground gyms were banned because of children hurting themselves.
In junior high, I listened to a lot of music, and similar issues began to happen with the staff banning music players, ipods and telephones during recess. I would hide my earbuds under my hair and toque, but one asshole teacher caught me, and told me to hand it over. I tried playing dumb, then he threatened me with detention, so I handed it over like a good boy and recollected it at the end of the day and resumed walking around recess listening to music.