Differentiating between early and late EX Series print runs

[zorloth]

(Credit to the @Nightvulture for the magenta layer analysis + the corresponding photos.)

So I was curious whether @Nightvulture’s analysis re: 1s Ed Base had any applicability outside of that set. And so I started looking at the backs of EX Series cards to see if any patterns stood out. There were actually several interesting features I noticed, but only one finding that I’m confident enough in rn to post about.

Background info:

In his article, @Nightvulture observes two different dot patterns in the back ‘N:’

The first pattern (straight vertical + horizontal arrangement) he refers to as -15. The second pattern (straight diagonal arrangement) he refers to as +15. I don’t totally understand the roots of this terminology, but I’m going to adopt it here for ease of cross-reference.

Ok, so here’s what I’ve observed:

100% of cards printed in the first 7 EX Series sets (Ruby through Team Rocket Returns) have +15 dot arrangements.

100% of cards printed in the last 7 EX Series sets (Unseen Forces through Power Keepers) have -15 dot arrangements.

And then the two sets in the middle (Deoxys and Emerald) have a mix–with some cards having -15 dot arrangements and others having +15 dot arrangements.

My question, based on these observations is…

Do you think that it’s a reasonable inference, based on what I’ve laid out here, that earlier print runs of EX Deoxys and EX Emerald (both of which were in print at overlapping times) had +15 dot arrangements, while later print runs had -15 dot arrangements?

Basically, my theory is that TPCi transitioned to a different print group or method at some point during the period where both EX Deoxys and EX Emerald were in print.

Which, based on the dot arrangements of other sets, would indicate that +15 EX Deoxys and EX Emerald cards are from earlier print runs of those sets whereas -15 EX Deoxys and EX Emerald cards are from later print runs of those sets.

Curious to hear others’ thoughts. Also very curious to see if anyone has examples of cards that contradict the conclusions I’ve drawn (e.g., cards from the first 7 EX Series sets with -15 dot arrangements and/or cards from the last 7 EX Series sets with +15 dot arrangements). Importantly: make sure to exclude cards that were reprinted in a later product (e.g., in the EX Battle Stadium decks)

And, again: tons of credit to @Nightvulture for many of the underlying observations/analysis.

[anthony_CCG]

Thanks @zorloth for the interesting finds! I’ve heard about the “NA” vs “euro” printing differences for the gold stars in ex Deoxys, with the “euro print” having stronger colours than the “NA” counterpart.

I wonder if this -15/+15 differences show up between the “NA” & “euro” gold stars, with the “euro print” being a later printrun variant with the -15 dot arrangement

[renard]

Thank you for posting this!

As @anthony_CCG mentioned, EX Deoxys Gold Stars have print variants known as the ‘US’ and ‘EU’ prints. However, as I’ve mentioned in another post, I do not believe that there’s such a thing as EU prints.

Instead, it may seem that these supposed ‘EU’ prints were actually from later print runs of EX Deoxys. I own one of these variants as shown below.

If everything checks out, this ‘EU’ Latios has the -15 dot arrangement which would indicate it was from a later print run.

Below is a ‘U.S.’ Latias I’ve owned previously with the +15 dot arrangement.

We’d need more data points, but this could very interesting to look into.

[goldstarsalamence]

This is cool. I’m not biased at all, but ex-series is definitely and objectively the pinnacle of the hobby , so it’s great to keep learning increasingly obscure tidbits of info like this.

@zorloth when you say 100% of cards in the first 7 sets etc.. how many have you checked?

I have access to plenty of microscopes in my lab (I’m a geneticist/neuroscientist), so I’ll definitely check out some of my cards and see if I can observe the same features you’ve described

[goldstarsalamence]

@renard glad you’ve looked at the dots from each variant. I will definitely check my gold stars out, but wouldn’t be able to compare the dots as I only have the one print variant type

Also on an unrelated note, so tempted to post your iconic handshake sticker here

[cyberurchin]

@biirdbots :catthink:

[renard]

With how many people we know with different variants, I’m sure we’d be able to get many reference points!

And I’d kill you if that sticker made it to e4

[goldstarsalamence]

Unless you’re going to fly over to for your retribution I’d feel pretty safe haha

[goldstarsalamence]

This is a Mewtwo Gold Star, with the -15 vertical dot pattern as OP described.

[zorloth]

I’ve looked at probably ~100 cards each of the 16 EX sets (mainly from CGC scans)–not a massive sample, but large enough that it seems highly unlikely that what I observed is by chance. But if anyone finds a counterexample, please post it!

[zorloth]

That would be very interesting! I’m curious about the origins of the claim that the variants are attributable to non-North American English print runs vs North American English print runs. What made people believe that the variants are each from those specific print runs? It’s not as though we have a meaningful sample size of gold stars that have recently been pulled (e.g., I’m only aware of a few EX Deoxys gold stars that have even been opened over the past several years).

[Nightvulture]

I would take similar cards of the timeperiond and look to see if they share key similarities with cards of known origin. Thats where i made alot of my progress.

[goldstarsalamence]

There was never any conclusive evidence about geographical distributions or releases with those variants. The EU vs USA thing just arose as a conveniant way to classify them since the ‘EU’ English language variant looked closer in appearance (in terms of the print quality, lines, colouring etc) to the European language releases like German, Italian, French etc etc.