E4 Secret Santa 2024 [PICTURE THREAD]

Glad it’s my turn to share my excitement!

I had @connorc as my Secret Santa, and I received a great mix of items that touch on a number of my interests.

First, here’s the letter, with the great interpretations of the Hoppip line. If I do say so myself, these artist renditions may rival the great works of @stagecoach and @Josh. Also, as an aside, I was not aware, but connorc is yungchap in TCG Pocket, and he and I have been sharing showcase likes for quite a while now—those shop tickets certainly do build up!


Next are amazing additions to the Hoppip non-TCG collection. Connor must have some supernatural powers, as I haven’t posted about my recent non-TCG acquisitions, but due to an interesting confusion on my part with Mercari listings, I thought I had already obtained the whole Pokemon Fit/Sitting Cuties line for Hoppip/Skiploom/Jumpluff. After I received my package, I realized I had actually ordered a huge Hoppip Banpresto (I think) prize plush rather than the Hoppip Pokemon Fit plush. I had had the Hoppip Pokemon Fit plush in my mind for a recent Buyee purchase but opted to get it later. And I guess that was for good reason, as fate already had something else in mind for the plush to fall into my hands! Alongside the Hoppip Fit plush, Connor also sent some sealed Pokemon Center Kyoto promotional items, which feature the Hoppip line and the Wooper line (another one my favorites). And lastly, I always had the hanafuda Hoppip card in my sights, but almost all of them I had seen were graded, and I felt they had seen a bump in price that was more than what I was willing to pay (though I liked the card a lot). I wasn’t actively searching for it, but I did intend to pick it up one day. So yes, Connor, I am very excited to see it included in the Secret Santa gift and am equally happy you were excited getting it too—it will hold a cherished spot in my collection!


Next are some included cards of my favorite lines: the Hoppip, Wooper, and Chinchou lines. The reverse holo EX Team Magma/Aqua Lanturn is a great card to look at, as are the especially cute Wooper and Quagsire Gym Promos. The reverse Secret Wonders Hoppip is funny because it has a print line in almost the exact spot the current one sitting in my binder has—only off by a couple millimeters! The other extra cards are also much appreciated. Modern art rares are amazing cards. I don’t actively collect them but am always happy to receive them. And thank you for the signed card! I will slot it right next to the other signed cards from members I have interacted with. Oh, and I almost forgot, but the Van Gogh Pikachu and Eevee playmat was also part of the gift! I don’t have any of the official playmats, but the quality is really nice. I’ll have to find a use for it somewhere (perhaps at an in-store TCG event sometime, if I ever find time to try the TCG in person).


Lastly, Connor sent this empty Pokepark Forest binder, which has absolutely exquisite art by Kanako Eo. I agree that the illustration is amazing, and it would be a great place to keep my small (but hopefully growing) Kanako Eo collection, as I do adore their illustrations.


Sorry for the long post, but I was very excited to receive everything and want to give Connor a big thanks and wish him a great holiday break :slightly_smiling_face:

Here’s a final picture with all the items included:

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Alright, my gift arrived a while ago, but I wanted to hold off until Christmas Eve! First off, I really appreciate everything that went into it! There was a great assortment of things, which made opening the gift even more fun!

We’ll start with this Arbok who has clearly been hitting the gym way before all of those New Year’s resolution folks! I got a pretty good chuckle out of this and I really appreciate the creativity! The fun stickers (that Scyther is hilarious) and pin were an extra bonus!

Next we’ll head to the household favorite - Pokemon Ramen straight from Japan! My kids are very excited about this and the Eevee in particular is a hit!


The cards themselves are an absolute fabulous jump start in one of my favorite sets ever - Golden Sky, Silvery Ocean! As a lover of gen 2, I’ve admired just how many of my favorite Pokemon this set has, all while producing some fabulous artwork and poses. My secret Santa made some awesome selections and I’m so excited to get a binder and add them to the measley one holo I already had! The Forretress in particular looks amazing in person! I also really liked they they included something from their childhood (Squirtle figurine) as that gave the gift a very nice personal touch!

Thank you again to my Secret Santa for making this another wonderful year of participation in this event and thank you to the mods for keeping everything running so smoothly!

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@bbobrob Such an awesome and well thought out gift coming from @connorc! The art is tops as well!

@tcgmaine awesome gifts and even a mystery santa. The arbok working out after being cut in half is always hilarious.

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It’s Secret Santa time once again!
Before I post about the awesome gifts I received, I need to give a big thank you to @beccazican!!

Ok, so here is what I got (plus a Squirtle plush shown later):

It’s not shown, but the card says “Merry Christmas or Whatever.” I thought the phrasing was really funny. :joy: That being said, I love the little Mudkip you drew - I will put him with my other Secret Santa cards. :slightly_smiling_face: And, I haven’t tasted the chocolates yet, but I am sure I will love them!

Now, you killed it on the cards. I don’t know if I’ve said it anywhere, but I really love e-reader cards! And these two cards are perfect! I didn’t have them, nor, to my knowledge, have I seen them! The last of the cards is, of course, the best - I am over the moon with this tropical wind promo! I am actually a huge fan of the tropical wind cards, but I only had the 2008 promo before now! Thank you so, so much! I absolutely love it; I mean, look at this little guy swimming around:

Oh, and here’s the picture of the Squirtle plush next to his card:

I only have one other Squirtle plush, so this will go great next to him!

I opened up the tin - in addition to the promo card which I didn’t have (and I love promos) the Silver Tempest pack did not disappoint! I got a Milotic trainer gallery:

Also, there was an NSFW card included which is not pictured here :joy: I feel like I heard a story of these being opened up at Worlds… :laughing:

Thank you once again! I appreciate these gifts so much, as well as the thought you put into them, @beccazican!!!

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@bbobrob So glad you enjoyed everything! I did my best to scour through your collection posts and other posts to find items you’d like :slight_smile:

I’d like to thank @vic for my selection of presents! My favorite Pokemon are Smeargle, Delibird, and the Porygon evolution line, and there were so many related items that fit my interests. The Smeargle XY-P Promo is especially awesome - I have it graded, but no binder copy yet. I’m also happy to get the Crosshatch Delibird HGSS promo in a PSA 10, as I only have ungraded copies!

Everything else - the beautiful Pokemon Center Taipei pins, the extremely cute plushes, the Smeargle figurine, the blister pack, and the singles - is amazing, too.

I almost didn’t sign up to participate this year as I knew December would be a busy month for me, but I’m so happy I did. This forum’s the best place on the internet for so many reasons, and this is one of the primary ones.

Thanks again @vic , and Happy Holidays to everyone!

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I got @dylan as my Secret Santa this year, and I couldn’t be more thankful!

The first part of the gift included a signed/sketch card from Dylan’s World Championship deck (can’t overstate how cool this is to me), an Italian Eevee card for my all-languages Eevee collection, and two non-TCG Eevee items that I’ve never seen before!

The holo pattern on the Topps Merlin sticker is especially awesome to look at in person. I’m so happy that I get to add all of this to my Eevee collection!

I was advised by Dylan to save this part of the gift for last, and for good reason. When I read that this would be an Eevee cameo, I thought “surely the madman didn’t get me something crazy like a Z Snorlax on top of everything I already got”… and then I opened the gift…

My mind didn’t even consider this Eevee cameo! It took me a solid few seconds to process what I got, and I’m still so blown away by the generosity of @dylan

Thank you SO much, and Happy Holidays!!! :christmas_tree:

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I figured, what better gift would there be for a worlds collector to give an eevee collector. So glad to hear you enjoyed it so much! :))

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Clearly skipping leg day…

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I received a package I wasn’t expecting a few days ago and once I realized it must be from my secret Santa I was as giddy as a child. I held out from opening it for a couple days but figured it had been long enough! The first thing I saw was the handwritten and illustrated card from @mrpandachum. I grinned from ear to ear at that Sandman/Snowman Pikachu and surfboard. Just perfect.


The CIB Japanese Blue version is without question the cleanest boxed game I own now and it had everything inside including the map of Kanto, amazing!!

Next I was so happy to see Sabrina and Misty’s Golduck as they will be perfect additions to my Gym Challenge binder. They’ll soon be cracked from their plastic prisons and join their brothers and sisters beyond the leather bound gates in binder heaven. 🪽

Last but not least the Cubone plushes are adorable. Especially the sleeping one! It is incredibly soft and squishy.

The sitting cutie Cubone is now helping Pikachu and Delibird keep my CRT warm during these chilly months.

Thank you so much, @mrpandachum and Merry Christmas to you and your family!! And thanks to everyone who participates in this tradition and keeps it alive. Truly the best time of year. Merry Christmas everyone!
:santa:t4::christmas_tree::star:

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I’m happy to see the package arrived on time! I sent it out a bit late this year because I underestimated how long the 8-bit art style would take on the comic strip. I am really glad that you enjoyed the presents. Also the blue version is a coro coro version if that means anything to you. I don’t really know what that means but I’m sure you would have a better chance at knowing than I would. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

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The 8bit art is amazing!

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The comic strip artwork is so good! An awesome tribute to yellow version and I loved seeing my Christmas themed profile picture in there haha. It was so good that my wife and I were completely perplexed as to how you did it… was it all by hand? It’s perfect right down to the pixels.

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yes it was all by hand :sweat_smile: It was a bit of work but I’m really happy on how it turned out! I’m so happy that you and your wife liked it. It makes all the work worth it!

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Alright, I did it. Waited for xmas… or at least close enough. A completely nondescript box arrived 2 days ago and in it had 2 other nondescript boxes. I started to open them up but once I saw a letter I assumed it was from E4 and held off as long as I could.

Thank you @Throwingknifekiller! Such an awesome gift from you. As someone who buys for myself regularly, I know Im hard to shop for but you nailed it with your gift. First off, the Quilava reverse is such a fun art with him kicking up dirt at the viewer! Followed by a cute Mareep slab with mareep being a bit of a derp. Then an amazing looking Flareon by Kawayoo which anytime an evolution stone is shown in the art, Im going to love it.
Additionally there was of course an awesome Unseen Forces Ampharos that he took to another level with a great drawing, and also I apparently belong to a flaaffy now in their signature card.

After opening the slab packages, their letter instructed me to then open the last package which was the “homemade” portion of the gift and I was shocked. My very own named display! Did you print it yourself?! Such a cool gift and the design fits slabs cleanly, at a nice display angle, and the 3 at once with the very imposing name in the center really makes me feel more important than I should be feeling. It screams that Im important, almost like a nameplate at a desk. While I love seeing the slabs you got me in it, I may have to change out often with different combinations just for fun.

Thanks again for the wonderful gift, hope you are having a wonderful holiday season!

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@lyleberr All great arts (give respect to the farting Quilava), and very cool custom slab holder piece! @Throwingknifekiller

@mrpandachum The hand-drawn pixel-art comic strip is amazing! Not even on grid paper or anything. Very cool work!

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Ok… Now, this is EPIC!

Thank you so much @bash2112 for the kind gifts and AMAZING Mankey VMAX Artwork!

He is too damn cool lol :joy:

It is so funny because I got the exact same small pokemon 1996 toys for my secret Santa as well. It seems like great minds think alike :smirk:

I appreciate all the thoughts that went into my gifts this year. I really liked the small mankey family cut out in the CGC Pristine holder. Had no idea those existed. They looks so good in the CGC Gold label with the gold-like card. Also that huge Mewtwo and Mew jumbo is fricken sweet! So menacing Mewtwo is!

Thank you for all the gifts bash :gift: it made my day opening all the gifts with my wife :two_hearts:

I hope to see you this year for the Sig Exch. in January :wink:

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Opened up the packages this morning afternoon (no way I’m getting up before 12 o’clock on a free day :sweat_smile: ). Thanks again for all the gifts @Josh.
Some sleeves I’ve never seen before; a durpy Ditto winter hat; two pens; two Eeveelution blisters; a Japanese Shiny Treasures ex booster box; and a Scottish energy drink.

Surprisingly, the pulls from the English booster packs were defintely better than the Japanese box. :wink:

Once again, Merry Christmas everyone! :christmas_tree:

Greetz,
Quuador

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Big mank

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I opened my door last night at 6:30 and was surprised to see a big box. My secret Santa this year was @candle who did a fantastic job! Thank you very much! They perfectly captured my interests of everything Japanese as well as cute and spooky.

The first is a Japanese poster that I can’t wait to hang in my office as well as a corresponding jumbo that I’ll probably frame and hang along side it.

Then they gave me a Mimikyu puzzle I can’t wait to put together this week during my downtime, a PSA 9 Giratina trophy slab I don’t have, which I’ll be sending to my vault to live forever. I actually have thought about diving into these type of cards for years, but never pulled the trigger, so it was very thoughtful you looked through my collection to see what I didn’t have! Finishing things off with matching Sabeleye cards for my binder, one auto and one not.

Thank you very much again for the very thoughtful gift! I read the note about the frame coming later, so I’ll be back again after I get everything framed and hung. Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas E4!

It’s been great reading through this thread with a nice cup of coffee this morning and seeing all the fantastic gifts from others!

I just opened my secret Santa gift from @mthursty and he nailed it!

To start we have an awesome magikarp artwork and a custom E4 secret Santa shining charizard!

Next up was a bunch of singles. I love the variety, some of the Japanese promos I haven’t seen before so that was a treat. I’ll take some time to read up on them! Top it off with two of my favorite vending cards; the Abra and kadabra. Along with the best alakazam art there is; skyridge!

Last but not least an expedition reverse holo alakazam and a alakazam V box, now I have some packs to open and enjoy.

Thanks again Matt, very thoughtful gift! Merry Christmas!

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