Recently came across this pin set which I thought was neat.
The only information provided:
So if we take this information at face value, the pins could have come from a WotC employee since WotC is owned by Hasbro. The pin set is plainly meant to commemorate Gym Heroes and Gym Challenge. Each gym leader is represented, as is a Pokémon for each of them, and the full set originally must have had each leader’s corresponding badges. Unfortunately only two are present here.
But I do notice Brock’s shirt says Nibi City, which could indicate these are merely Japanese pins that made their way to the hands of an employee. I don’t really know what they are. Prototypes? Employee swag? Rare retail pins? Some sort of Japanese import with unknown origin?
Have you seen this pin set before or have any information on it? I think they’re really cool.
So as a merch collector, these for sure are interesting but I myself have no idea where to trace these too or if the hasbro story holds any merit. Kind of like things such as the protostoise or any cards from a factory without any direct notation as to how they were released, these items fall under the same category. Over the years ive seen many factory items come out such as prototype toys, display items used only for expos and other promotions, and various other releases so these might fall into that realm, but on the other end of that same coin is the fact that so many bootleg and counterfeit items exist as well. Right now, youcan search “pokemon gym badges” on ebay or any other platform and 95% percent of listings are fake badges made by parties without any licensing rights so id proceed with caution unless you can find some concrete evidence proving any claim with these.
Moral here, pay whatever you might desire if its something you enjoy, but if not maybe researching more will be your best bet here to see if anymore info pops up. Hope this helps!
Bouns info: If interested in pinsets, theres many official pokemon pinsets and even some with extreme limited releases that you may enjoy instead that have definite numbers, such as the Pokepark limited to 1000 framed pinset or the ANA Limited to 1000 Plane pinset. Both are super cool and hard finds, but might be of more interest than just word of mouth stories being they have serial numbers on them.
The colours are interesting, Erika wears different colour hairbands, Dark blue is used but not universally, but pink Kimono was Gen 1 art style. If I understand correctly, I believe this was the colours used in the Nintendo Game, not the TCG.
This colour scheme wasn’t featured in any TCG cards.
The only time that Erika wore pink kimono / blue headband was ‘official artwork from Yellow’
This colour scheme wasn’t used in the game itself (the game itself, she wore yellow/red/white).
Rather, it was material / concept art associated with the release. Bulb lists it as artwork by SUGIMORI, but I cannot see where it was used. I’ve read both R/B and Yellow Game manuals and whilst it’s similar to artwork used in there, it is not printed there.
To me, this suggests that a consistency from Sugimori’s very original concept art for her, to the images used in the game which have her sitting down, which is the pose all of her appearances in the game have used, until FireRed where she has been standing up for all future appearances.
There is some inconsistency with websites which list this image, sometimes it’s listed as associated with Yellow, others have it as Gen 1 or Red/Blue.
Yellow was released in 1998. Depending on whether this image was ever printed, I’m not entirely sure how a 3rd party would have managed to get hold of the image, as they were not so readily available in 98. Google being less laborious with its image databases. But perhaps, a collector of the game merchandise can advise where it was printed or what it was used for.
The pins are legit, but the Hasbro story is bullshit.
They were manufactured and sold by Media Factory here in Japan during the late 1990s, around the same time the Pokemon Leaders Stadium (aka Gym Heroes) theme decks were released. Each trio of pins set retailed for 750 yen plus tax.
Here’s a picture of the Hanada City Gym set in its star-shaped blister pack. If you look carefully at the bottom of the package, you can see the Media Factory logo printed on the back. (Photo is mine. Please credit “Japanime” if posting elsewhere. Thanks.)
@stagecoach I believe you are missing six of the pins. The “blue badge” in the Kasumi (“Misty”) set in my picture, the “orange badge” in the Machisu (“Sgt. Surge”) set, and the “rainbow badge” from the Erika set, and three others that I haven’t been able to, um, pinpoint. If I get a chance to dig through my inventory and can figure the out, I’ll let you know.
The ones you do have appear to be in excellent condition, though. The pins were prone to discoloration and fading. Yours look really great.
I’m pleased to report I did get the pins — and for really cheap too. They haven’t arrived yet but they are in transit. I will address this severe issue as soon as possible.
@japanime Really appreciate your information here, thank you so much. I am interested in completing this set so if you come across the missing badges either in your own archive or for sale elsewhere do please inform me!
