Can someone help me out here with these things...

So I’ve had this Pokemon card since I’ve been about 7 years old. Wondering WTF this is and where it comes from! Can anyone help me out?

Also… I realize one of these is “Shadowless” & the other isn’t… But I don’t think that’s the whole reason for the printing difference here. Mostly my question is… is the one on the LEFT normal? Or is it that the one on the RIGHT is correct printing? I’ve very confused on the prints here and have had these my whole life; but I have always wondered why the major color difference between the two. Anyone ever seen this before / know why these cards are like this?

Thanks for any responses.

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I can’t help with the Scyther, no idea what it is but when it comes to those Magnetons, both are correct. Shadowless cards have more vibrant color scheme than the shadowed unlimited cards.

Really? So these cards ARE printed correctly? B/c I have literally never seen another Shadowless Magneton… I’ve never seen one with that heavy of a “coppery” color.

The difference between Unlimited and Shadowless is more than just the shadow. It’s very obvious for Magneton, but other cards look different as well. I found out the same way as you when I compared two Magneton cards :blush:

Very interesting, never knew that. I just figured something was different and haven’t begun to dig deep into the depths of the gaming cards and their meanings yet. So I’m trying my best.

I’ve attached some photos so you can compare further between Unlimited and (1st ed) Shadowless. Things you can look at:

  1. “Boldness” of the HP text
  2. Fontsize for attack
  3. Color difference
  4. The numbers at the bottom of the card

There’s probably more differences, but that’s a few I know of :blush:

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The Scyther is a Japanese card. Probably one from a candy-toy package or a gatchapon machine. If you can post a photo of the back of the card, I will probably be able to tell you for certain.

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As for the Magneton, the Shadowless vs unlimited indeed had some color differences, especially noticeable for the Holofoil cards.

And that first Japanese card is the same as the Derpy Pikachu & Meowth I have and have asked about before (without answer unfortunately):

@japanime, do you know where my Pikachu/Meowth with Onix at the back is from?

Greetz,
Quuador

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I see those cards for the first time, but I have to say - I love the Artwork …will see if I can get a few of those.

Pics

I do not understand a word, but they look cool :sunglasses:

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So I did a bit of digging around on the Japanese cards because the artwork on those look AMAZING.

It seems that the artwork on those cards are from an illustrated guide called <<ポケットモンスター全わざ大図鑑>> (Pokemon All-Purpose Illustation Book). It was released in September 1997 and it details the original 165 moves in the Pokemon Red/Green games. In terms of content, you will find illustrations of the moves along with things like the move type, PP, power, accuracy, effect, a list of Pokemon that can learn the move, etc. The book itself was published by <<ティーツー出版>> (T2 Publishing) which was a fairly well-known company in Japan for game guides and magazines at the time. They have since shut down.

As far as the illustrations are concerned, they were done by an individual named <<成田保宏>> (Yasuhiro Narita). I searched around a little because that wasn’t a name I recognized, but now I’m confident that Narita was simply a staff illustrator contracted by T2 Publishing; he is not directly associated with the Pokemon franchise. With all that said, it’s still a bit of a question mark as to how these illustrations ended up on the back of stickers/cards. My guess is that T2 made some agreement with a 3rd party to have these distrbuted via vending machines. But really, your guess is as good as mine!

@cracker , there seems to be several listings of this item on YAJ and other JP sites if you’re still interested in hunting one down (they are very reasonably priced).

Front:

Spine:

Back:

One of the pages:

(Images are from YAJ)

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Awe this is so sick. This is exactly what mine looks like. I’ve never seen another like it! I’m very impressed! I never knew more of these were ever made or still in existence! This is so sick. I love it. Thanks for sharing the Onix this is sick! I LOVE my Scyther. I remember back when I got this I got this from my Cousin who also had a Pinsir… but my clear choice was the Scyther. Thanks for sharing!

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This is so awesome. But its intriguing to me because mine isn’t as big as a page. Its just a tad smaller then an original Pokémon card. It’s more the size of a Yu-Gi-Oh card. This is awesome though. I’ve always wanted to know where this card originated from. So its really not rare or worth anything then is it?

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Thanks for all the infos!
Do you know where I can find this sort of information (i.e.: how to properly search this stuff on the internet)?

Thanks for posting the back of the card, @quuador. And kudos to @burpies for the excellent research!

The pages of the book were probably just reproductions of the card art.

Certainly a nice piece of early Pokemon history!

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I add “some” other examples of these beautiful unofficial cards

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