Chaos and Kanji is the blog where I write about my adventures through Japan!

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Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Calbee Evangelion: You Can (Not) Complete The Set

(Evangelion fans will understand the title reference.)

 Calbee doesn't just make baseball cards.

While they're most known in America for being a chip company that makes baseball cards, they have been making trading cards for all sorts of franchises. Ultraman, Doraemon, soccer, and dozens more have received at least one set over the several decades that Calbee has been gluing packs to their bags of potato chips.
It should be no surprise to anyone who knows anything about Japanese anime that Evangelion has a couple Calbee issues. I think three series were released in the late 1990s (series one came out in 1997). Last year, there was a new issue, and I'm sure there were some in between.
 I found this card holder while browsing around Nakano, and noticed that it seemed to have some cards in the pages. I was going to buy it anyway, but when I got home I found I was correct: there were a bunch of cards inside! There is a checklist - two, actually, for series 1 and series 2. Series 1 is stuck inside the binder; series 2 is a sticker that could go in a second card holder.
 I hadn't seen Calbee Evangelion cards until now. It was pretty fun flipping through the binder and seeing all the images.
Unfortunately, the set was not complete. I'm missing two cards: 43 and 57. This set was issued quite some time ago, so I'm probably going to have a tough time locating those two cards! And then, there's series 2 and any other sets issued by Calbee, if I want to be a completist.

By the way, if you're wondering, I've developed an interest in Evangelion even though I haven't been able to see any of the original episodes or movies yet. I've seen some clips online but I can't get English-dubbed copies yet to watch the whole thing. Despite not really watching the show, I've gathered a small collection of Evangelion cards and several figurines that I've found pretty cheap while walking around Akihabara. Eventually, once I've seen the show, I'll do a real post about the cards that I know about.

But until then, I need to scan all the other Calbee (baseball) cards I bought today.

3 comments:

  1. Very cool set. I hope you're able to find the last two cards.

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  2. i have these two cards that you need, and i can tell you that there are 3 albums,the third album is divided with the series 3 and 4 with 36 cards everyone

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  3. Angel - thanks for the details. I've completed my set and found all three albums now. I still need the third and fourth series sets but I haven't been aggressive in locating them.

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