Pokemon Packs Provide Perfunctory Pleasure

Why, you may ask, are Pokemon cards here? Well, I've mentioned in the past that I have a Pokemon card collection, so they're not entirely random. I've been working on a master Pokedex for a few years now, first getting one card of every Pokemon, and now I'm working on all the variations. A pop-up Pokemon shop opened in the department store near me, so my coworker and I stopped in to check it out. I didn't walk away with any exclusive merchandise (the sleeping Eevees are cute, though!) I did grab eight packs, two of each type they had for sale.

 

This is from the Sword and Shield (8th Generation) series, and is titled Mugen Zone (Infinity Zone). It's the third series, with 100 cards: 44 common and 34 uncommon, plus 10 rare, 8 ultra-rare, and 4 triple rare (all shiny), along with 19 secret super-rare and hyper-rare cards.

If you've never looked at a Pokemon card before, the Japanese certainly won't help you. The number in the upper-right is a sort of health statistic, and the logo next to it represents the type of Pokemon (ghost, fire, water, and so on).The top left has the Pokemon's name; this one is Skarmory, who in Japanese is (roughly) called Airmode. Sometimes, there is a small image in the upper-left. This means that particular Pokemon is an evolved form; Skarmory is a base form.

The picture in the middle can be really interesting - sometimes there are clay Pokemon, or knitted Pokemon, though usually there is some artwork. The number below the photo (227) is the Pokedex number for that Pokemon. That is the number I'm most concerned with.

The rest of that line has some vital statistics, with the main body of text explaining that Pokemon's moves with this particular card. (Moves can change or be stronger or weaker depending on the particular card.)  The line below that includes some additional card game statistics for its use in battle. The bottom right corner includes information on where the image came from, which series this is from, its card number in that series, and the level of rarity (C stands for common). The rest of the text is a sort of biography about the Pokemon.

Trainer's cards seem valuable, but I don't really need them in my collection. They're useful when playing the game, but I don't play.

If you look closely enough, you'll notice that the color-coding of the card corresponds to the type. There are two water type Pokemon in this row, both with the water symbol in the upper-right corner and a light blue background.

On the left, we have a rare card! Decidueye (Japanese name: Junaipa).

Here, we move over to the Sun and Moon series (7th Generation). This particular series is called GG End (Jiijii End). This expansion pack was released in April 2019 and contains only 54 cards (23 common, 16 uncommon, 7 rare, 4 double rare, 4 triple rare) plus 14 secret (super rare and ultra rare). 

Not much to say here. That's a cool haunted house behind Litwick (on the right).

The Trainer's card here is Grimsley (Japanese name Gima). Character cards help support your battles.

Again, nothing particularly interesting.

This Trainer's card is a Reset Stamp. And doing a quick bit of research, it is a banned card in tournament play! It appears that it is a little valuable, so I suppose this card is the best in this pair of packs.

 

Another Sun & Moon pair of packs, this series is called Sky Legends. Again, there are 54 regular cards (23 common, 16 uncommon, 7 rare, 4 double rare, 4 triple rare) plus 16 secret (super rare and hyper rare).

I remember hunting down Magnemite (Japanese name "Coil") around Tokyo several years ago to evolve it and also finish off one of the medals. I'm talking about Pokemon Go of course.

Tsareena (Amajio) on the left is a rare shiny card, the second shiny in these packs. I should probably mention that rare, shiny cards aren't necessarily that much more valuable, if at all. 

*yawn*

Yes, I did get a double. Thanks for noticing. I guess when each pack contains 10% of a set, it's pretty likely that you'll get a double out of just two packs from time to time. Oh well. One more pair of packs to go.

Let's finish with Sword and Shield again, since that's the newer of these two series. This is called Bakuen Walker (Explosive Flame Walker). Nice name. 70 regular cards (30 common, 23 uncommon, 8 rare, 6 double rare, 3 triple rare) and 16 secret (super rare and ultra rare).

Mr. Mime in the middle is a Galarian version, which is a sort of regional variant. Again, not really valuable, but it is a variation. 

Golispod (Genkumuja), left, is another rare shiny, and the center card is an uncommon.

Blobs are gross. Ferrets are cute. Avoid both if you're smart.

Two more uncommons to finish this series, including a support trainer and a teapot. I guess Belle won't be too happy at the castle tonight.

And there you have it. Eight Pokemon packs from four different expansion packs from two different series. In addition to the fun of opening, scanning, and writing the post, and gaining some cards for my collection, I actually learned a lot about the actual Pokemon TCG for this post. Who knows, maybe I'll actually learn how to play. Probably not. But until next time...

They Aren't Baseball: More Non-Sport and Multi-Sport

 Depending on your tastes, you might not like my posts for the next couple of days.

I'm really working hard to finish off several of the sets on my want lists. For US cards, those are basically baseball, but here in Japan, I've come across several non-sport and non-baseball sets that I've been working on tracking down. 

This is no easy task. Finding major-issue singles, like from the 1995 and 1996 BBM sets, is hard enough. But looking for relatively obscure cards from random issues from the same period is even more difficult.

If you don't know what Evangelion is, you probably don't know modern Japanese culture. It's one of the most well-known anime of all time, and after an initial one-series run, has seen multiple movies released over the past 20 years or so. The latest one should be in Japanese theaters this year. When it was originally released, several different card sets, some with multiple series, were rushed out in varying formats. The Death/Rebirth Widevision series might have actually been printed by Topps' factories, though it doesn't carry any logos from them. For the longest time, I've been one card short of a full set, including the SPs. Finally, I made a bit of a revelation. There is a second Widevision set, and distinguishing the two can be a bit tough. But one of my identifiers turned out to be wrong, and after checking that Rei wasn't in the other Widevision set, I grabbed this card as fast I could. One card, one set crossed off the list.

These two cards have holographic backgrounds. It's hard to tell on the white card, but it's there. Sega (yes, the game company) was involved in this issue; it might have been two series or just one, but either way it's a 108-card set. I thought I was missing only three cards: these two and one more higher-numbered card. But after getting these and checking my collection, it seems as though I might be missing four more instead of just one. I believe the three I'm missing are regular cards, and it's possible I have at least some of them in a box back at my apartment (yes, I'm still on the road). 

At least one of these next two cards might look familiar to you.

These two essentially unnumbered cards were included in a 2006 issue of SCM magazine, and were the last two I wanted for my collection. I picked this Reiko Shiota up earlier this year, but I now have  second copy, which came with this:

Kumiko Ogura makes my SCM collection complete. The Shiota card has a #0 on the front, while this has a #11, but I'm not so sure those are meant to be card numbers, as I had first guessed. Instead, I think they might be "jersey" numbers. Eitheer way, I'm happy this multi-year adventure has finally drawn to a close.

While searching for the Tough & Smile cards, I came across two promo cards from the Badminton box set "Be Active" issued in 2008. 

The cards have identical backs. There are two things advertised on each card: a photo book titled "Ogushio!" that was sold for 1000 yen, and the Be Active box set, sold for 3990 yen. I didn't know about the existence of these promos, but I figured they would be a nice accompaniment to the base Be Active set I already have.

While I wasn't able to finish all three sets, two are done, and the other may need more cards, but it needs easier-to-find cards. So, until next time....