Hi everyone,
I’m trying to identify an unusual Surfing Pikachu pin that I recently acquired in Japan.
The pin measures approximately 20 × 25 mm and uses the Shogakukan Pokémon Stamp design. The front shows Surfing Pikachu with “SHOGAKUKAN” at the top and “025” at the bottom.
What makes this pin unusual is its construction.
Unlike the regular Media Factory Pokémon Stamp Badges, which use the interchangeable backing system, this pin has a fixed pin post with a butterfly clutch. The front also appears to use a full-color printed image under a clear coating rather than the metal/enamel-style construction normally seen on Pokémon Stamp Badges.
The back is marked:
YUTAKA 1996
MADE IN TAIWAN
This is especially puzzling because I have not been able to find another Pokémon Stamp pin with this YUTAKA marking or this type of construction.
The exact Surfing Pikachu artwork used on this pin also appears on the 1998 “Pokémon Pikachu Version Release Memorial Sheet” issued as part of the Shogakukan school-magazine Pokémon Stamp project.
The seller of this pin also happened to own that same memorial sheet as well as several regular Pokémon Stamp Badges.
The seller said they no longer remembered the details, but thought that this pin may have been some kind of prize or giveaway item. I have not been able to verify that part.
So far, I have only found this one example.
Did you just pick this up off jp.mercari.com? I saw the sold listing a couple days ago. I own a pin just like this but I have no idea where I put it. I distinctly remember that Yutaka 1996 backing, and I am 95% sure the front was a Pikachu. I never found any info on it
Yes, this is the one that was recently sold on Mercari! I bought that one.
That is extremely interesting. This is one of the biggest mysteries I have been trying to solve. So far, I haven’t been able to find another Pokémon pin with that exact marking and picture.
If you ever manage to find yours, would you mind sharing photos? Even if the front turns out to be a different design, that would be incredibly useful for identifying this pin and understanding what the marking represents.
Thank you — this may be the first lead I’ve found to another example.
This is the art of a pokemon stamp. its possible it was a fake pin based off of the stamp. But usually companies wont put identifiable info on the back of a fake product lol.
If you look at all the other pins from 1996, they are always a combination of enamel/paint/metal. There are a few Sailor Moon ones with the clear coating but it is still overlaying enamel/metal artwork. I feel like it could be a fake since it doesn’t seem to match much else at the time. If it was a special prize they probably would have made it with the higher quality materials.
Someone shared some pics of the stamps, I found another one on X. And the complete sheet.
I checked the physical construction more closely. The image is not inserted into a removable holder. The printed image appears to be permanently sealed to the metal base under a clear layer.
The construction is definitely simpler than the regular ones.
It seems to be a deliberately manufactured finished pin rather than a reusable stamp holder.
One thing that may be relevant is that Shogakukan ran many small magazine-only Pokémon Stamp giveaways that do not appear in the regular product pamphlets.
For example, I found a Shogakukan magazine page offering a special Pikachu badge to 1,000 readers.
It says that you can only have these from this magazine. I also know that the design of this badge has been used to 5th edition of the regular ones too. But the color of the back of the badge seems diferent.
So I’m not sure the absence from the CoroCoro / regular Stamp Badge pamphlet rules out a prize item.
I agree, though, that the manufacturing style being different from other 1996 YUTAKA pins is an important point.
I may need to find old magazines of the shogakukan in the libraries this weekend lol.
Just a note, this is not a cloisonne enamel pin like the other ones seen from shokugan where the image is made by filled areas of colored enamel, that process involves baking to set the enamel and produce vibrant colors. This seems more like a 3rd party item that took the image to emulate the official stamp and used a clear epoxy/resin/enamel to fill and seal a premade blank pin (that oddly does have a colored enamel border to look like a postage stamp).
The way that there is almost a bubble of either saturation or layer separation around the edges of the image makes me think it was poured separate to the surfing pikachu image.
I agree that the construction is clearly different from the regular cloisonné/enamel Shogakukan Stamp Badges, and the idea of a printed image being sealed under a clear resin layer seems very plausible from the physical pin as well.
One thing I’m still cautious about is concluding from that alone that it must be a 3rd-party item.
There is a historical/contextual reason why I’m hesitant about the 3rd-party explanation. In late-1990s Japan, I Think unofficial character merchandise certainly existed, but it was not something collectors or children would encounter in the same way as mass-produced bootleg goods in some overseas markets like China. In particular, an unofficial maker deliberately adding a very specific manufacturer/date/country marking such as “YUTAKA 1996 / MADE IN TAIWAN” would be quite unusual and would need an explanation of its own.
I remember late-1990s Japan personally, and while unofficial goods did exist (like Japanese festival prizes), the ones I saw generally avoided manufacturer markings and exact official artwork.
So I think there are still two possibilities worth separating:
either someone later used a premade YUTAKA blank to imitate the official stamp, or Shogakukan/YUTAKA used a simpler premade pin base for a small promotional or prize run.
I’m currently trying to verify whether a Surfing Pikachu badge was ever actually offered in one of those magazine campaigns.
I’ve also contacted Shogakukan directly to ask whether they have any record of such a giveaway. If I can confirm that from a contemporary Shogakukan source, the remaining question would be whether this physical construction matches the original prize item.
I received a reply from Shogakukan if they have records of the badge.
Unfortunately, they said that because these magazines are now quite old and the staff who were responsible for them at the time are no longer with the company, it is very difficult for them to investigate the details of old magazine promotions.
They also suggested checking holdings at the National Diet Library instead.
So this unfortunately neither confirms nor disproves the giveaway theory. It looks like the contemporary magazines themselves may be the best surviving source.
I will try searching the national library this weekend.
Any chance we can see a close up photo of the ink on the stamp? I have a few I could compare with from around the time.
I found where the stamps come from. It would be interesting if there is any mention of the pins.
The backing says 1996 which is incorrect since the stamp doesn’t seem to appear until 1998 with the movie release. It could just be excess bulk re-used but that part seems unusual.
The sheet in your photo is the Pikachu Version Memorial Sheet from the October 1998 issue of Shogaku Rokunensei (小学六年生). The Surfing Pikachu stamp used on this pin is actually on that sheet as well, although it’s hidden behind the Sanrio sticker in the photo.
There is also a number printed in the bottom-right corner of the sheet that could be used to enter a prize drawing. I don’t know whether this pin was one of the prizes from that, though.
I’ve attached a few close-up photos of the pin below. Hopefully these are clear enough to compare with the stamps you have. I’d be very interested to hear what you find.
I went to the National Diet Library and checked Shogakukan school magazines from around September–December 1998, mainly Shogaku Sannensei through Shogaku Rokunensei. Unfortunately, I found no mention of this Surfing Pikachu pin.
I confirmed that the prize connected to the number on the October 1998 Pikachu Version Memorial Sheet was Pokémon Pikachu Version itself, not this pin. So that theory can be ruled out.
I also checked CoroCoro Comic from the same
period, but found nothing there either.
So unfortunately the NDL research was basically a dead end. The ordinary Shogakukan magazine giveaway theory now looks considerably weaker.
Personally, I’m glad I was able to find material confirming that the gold Pikachu Genki Dechu Stamp Badge was an application-only item.
It was also really nice just getting to enjoy the nostalgia while going through all of this.
However, during my research I was able to print out a few pages that may not be available online, so I’ll post them here in case they’re useful for someone’s research in the future.
I took additional close-up photo using a 5× magnifying glass, hoping they might make the printing details easier to examine.
I’m posting them here in case the printing pattern, registration, or other small details provide any clues about the pin’s origin or how it was produced. Im not sure if this works.
I hope this is useful!
