Hey guys! I came across these awesome pins on an old post from Pratte and had to have them. My complete set just came through and I think it would be really cool to put together which artist drew each Pokemon!
Some seem obvious like Ooyama’s Raichu & Komiya’s Golduck but I’m not that knowledgeable of the early TCG artists.
Many of you are experts and I could really use your help, below are pictures of every single pin in the set (151 total). As we decide on some of these I’ll start filling out a list or doc below.
Not an expert on illustrations by any stretch, but I think the Psyduck looks closer to a Tanaka illustration with the flat design + use of bright pastel colors.
Also in my completely uninformed opinion, I feel like Kizuki is more like the Machamp with the thick outlines + flat design.
But man, some of these are so hard. Do we know that these are all from official Pokemon illustrators? Some of the drawings are just so drastically different from what they did during that time IMO (e.g. Scyther, Articuno, Jolteon).
I think i saw earlier before on a Japanese site that listed the artists, not sure anymore. They re-issued these pins again during the 15th anniversary at pokemon center.
These designs are 20 years old and most of the artists that were commissioned on these old back cards have been commissioned on these. I hope i can find that list.
Interesting game… I can only pick out a few artists, and it’s naturally the more obvious ones like Komiya and Ooyama. Definitely think they have done a few more than I picked out in one pass, the bold black outlines seem like all Ooyama and the abstract most likely Komiya. A few below to start:
Pidgeotto - Ooyama
Charizard - Kusube (looks a lot like Lance’s Charizard)
Oddish - Komiya
Clefairy - Komiya
Magnemite - Ooyama
I was unsure of Kizuki admittedly. For some reason the Psyduck just reminded me so much of his Slowpoke from the Team Rocket set. You might be right about the Machamp though.
Yeah it did look like all of them were commissioned from the early artists which is why I thought this thread would be so cool. If you can find that list that would be amazing!
I’m adding everyone’s multiple guesses for now too. We can whittle it down over time.
I see a bunch more potential ooyama and komiya since theyre so recognizable, and maybe machop is Nobuyuki Habu? Looks like the EXTRA RULE vending cards with the thick lines
