To celebrate Pokemon’s 30th anniversary, we can reveal a series of “First Partner Illustration Collections” will release throughout 2026, beginning with Series 1 on March 30th.
Each collection will include a special promo booster pack containing three of nine Illustration Rare promo cards, two regular booster packs, and a sticker sheet.
Series 1 will feature the Starter Pokemon from Kanto, Sinnoh, and Alola:
Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle
Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup
Rowlet, Litten, and Popplio
We first reported about the existence of the product last month. No images have been revealed yet.
Japan will be getting a Celebration Collection set at some point this year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the franchise or the TCG itself. It’s possible these cards will originate from that set or its associated products.
Potentially all 27 Basic starters will have an Illustration Rare
Possibility of a separate promo lineup for JP containing all AR starters in addition to Celebration Collection
25th JP had S8a 25th Anniversary Collection and S8a-P 25th Anniversary Promo Pack
OH YES I’m so excited for these!!! I was really hoping they’d do something similar to the starter promotions they’ve done in the past!
I wonder if they’re going to be all new IRs or if they’ll reuse the IRs that some starters have already gotten? The different promo campaigns are intriguing as well- I’ll be following these super closely for the next few months!
I hope it’s new artwork! I wouldn’t put it past TPC to reuse art though, hence my musings. I’m trying to keep expectations low, haha. Thank you for keeping us all up to date as always with these threads!
So obviously 27 starters for 9 generations. 3 series of 9 each covers the 27. Would be cool if Pikachu and Eevee were secret rares or something to bring in the “special” starters
I think it’ll make more sense to have a gen 10 release to get to 30 starters for the 30th anniversary.
Weren’t the 25th First Partner Jumbo cards also released per gen over the course of the entire year, starting with the Pikachu & binder and three Kanto starters?
I’m gonna predict we’ll see gen 10 leaks on Pokémon Day (Feb. 27th, 2026), and then gen 10 starter Jumbo cards near November/December, since November was also the month most other gens were officially released. Just my 2c.
Announced first in Simplified Chinese, Art Rare promos for the First Partner Illustration Collections vol. 1 will release in bundles. They will be expected in EN, JP and other languages eventually
Obviously the colour palette is unpleasant to say the least. The depiction of the starters is very generic, there is no personality into it. The various collage of nostalgic elements feels a bit artificial.
The only good thing is the connected artworks that makes it for a good binder page.
I will still get it though. It’s just…not great. Underwhelming. 25th was also the case.
not a fan of these, I do like the various land marks and specific easter eggs of each gen but have never been liked Saboteri’s art (with the exception of 2 of their cards) These all look thrown together and all the starters look souless.
I really hope the ARs for the other 2 starter sets have a different artist per set to salvage the other starters
Art has a very strong Worlds x JR stamp rally feel with a collage of in-game references. I think they’ve done a good job of making it feel like a 30 year roadtrip album
I like them a lot! Love it that with new releases there has been loads of effort in connected artworks lately with 9 sets we’ll see some beautiful full binder pages of these when more sets get revealed
