I've used Butterfree as a starter in Gen III Kanto, and I never thought of the Whirlwind tactic you just outlined. That is diabolical.

The other benefit of Primeape against Erika is that its ability Vital Spirit makes it immune to sleep

Poliwrath is heavily slept on also imo

Spear-oh like a spear
Fear-oh like fear as in horror

Pinsir learning so many fighting type moves and yet not being part fighting type is diabolical

Butterfree with dream eater - psychic- sleep powder - silver wind (or whatever you want in 4th slot) , was one of the most fun builds I used in a playthrough

Ok hold on buddy… Primeape is a CHAMP in Fire Red.

Teach him - Mega Punch, Brick Break, Rock Slide, Aerial Ace. (I’m pretty sure those are the correct TM/move names. Suddenly Primeape can one shot all rocks, all flyers, all normal type, all fighting types, bugs, fire, ice…. He is a one man army. Absolute GOAT

I used both Primeape and Vileplume in my first Fire Red playthrough, and they both were great. Vileplume was easily my strongest

Dewgong is slept on. Ice Beam, Rest, Surf. It's bulky and has the Thick Fat ability.

Butterfree is one of the best Pokemon you can catch because sleep powder makes Pokemon so easy to catch. Plus having psychic moves available early is nice.

Heracross is absolutely in this game. Just not until the Sevii Islands.

That butterfree tech is crazy. A pokemon I never see anyone talk about is clefable. It's pretty rare at a 6% encounter rate, but can be evolved before the end of Mt Moon, has high stats including special attack, can learn a variety of strong special moves like psychic, thunderbolt, flamethrower, and ice beam, and as a normal type is only weak to fighting. The only disadvantage is as a special attacker it can't effectively use a normal move with STAB bonus, but its type coverage and stats more than make up for it.

I was just thinking “yeah the random vileplume I picked up for misty has been BLASTING”

Muk has always been underrated to me. Especially since poison moves are physical in this gen

hypno is heavily slept on too

Butterfree is seriously underrated. I used to teach it psybeam and psychic to wreck.

marowak + thick club was one of the shining stars of my last firered run. absolutely awesome setup

Personally I feel like a lot of people don't talk about how great Golem is not only in FR/LG but in every game he's available. Mainly the reason is due to him being a trade evolution, but being able to get him so early providing the insane physical bulk and very good physical attack with pretty good level up moves and TM's  to go along with those stats make Golem a reliable pokemon throughout the entire game. I highly recommend Golem to anyone who has not used one!😃

Primeape has the advantage of all the ev training before you find a machop

Gen1-3 Pinsir normally:  🐛

Gen1-3 Pinsir if Cut was Bug-Type: 🗿