Wow,wow,wow! Some of the very best Japanese exclusive sets and also maybe the best sets overall that Pokemon has produced. Really impressive @joponnes . As someone who only collects Japanese cards, these sets are also close to my heart and although I have bits and pieces of some of these sets, I truly enjoy seeing other people finish them. These are really peak sets when it comes to the concept of it all, specially Vs.
This was a great post to share and again, your collection beyond the slime boys is truly very special. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, I’m in progress of collecting the vending series so it was very cool to see it laid out in one post. I love the artwork so much. Snorlax is probably my favorite, after that I think it is the Habu haunter in Series 3.
Masakis may be a little out of my reach now, but thank you again for sharing!
The Vs artwork is so amazing too, I may have to look into it next!
Done with regular sized wotc cards so posting oversized cards now, both jumbos and box toppers. I really like the concept of box toppers, especially when they all have so beautiful holo pattern and there’s exactly four per set so my binder pages perfectly display them. The transparent skyridge cards with cracked ice holo pattern take the cake for me, being some sort of lamin cards they feel like very unique ones.
With jumbos there’s one of each wotc jumbo but i’ve also included the other weird variant of electabuzz i have with rounded corners and a lot thinner cardstock. I first thought that i had bought a fake (even though it felt like a very weird product to make fakes of) and even was about to throw it away but luckily decided against it, there has been some discussion on E4 about them too but i’m not sure if they are something that can be found anymore. I still haven’t made any research beyond that so i have little idea where those could have been released but i guess it’s anyway fun that stuff like jumbo cards even have any variants regardless of their origins.
Not much to say about these cards as there’s only one unique art but i do like them a lot and didn’t consider my wotc collection completed until i had them.
Tomokazu Komiya is my favourite tcg artist by a mile, even as an overall favourite artist he’s only competing with Van Gogh his cards stood out and did make an impression on me already as a kid and they were among my favourites, so even though my first goal when i returned to collecting was to finish wotc cards it didn’t take long until i also started picking up Komiya cards with an intention to slowly finish every unique tcg art made by him. It did take years but i enjoyed taking it slow and intentionally bought a lot of the cards one by one to be able to concentrate better on each art.
As it must be with a lot of other artist collections too, flipping through the binder and seeing the evolution of his art is extremely interesting. While i do prefer a lot of his original era cards there are highlights in every era and majority of the modern releases have been ones of the best cards, if not the best, of every set. For some reason i especially like it when he includes any people in his arts, for example the S&V drowzee art rare with a big crowd of people in it is my favourite modern card and one of the few cards i’ve also bought as a slab. I have an intention to buy some non-pokemon art made by him at some point too because of this.
In addition to my slime collection this is the one ongoing goal that i’m extremely dedicated to so i really hope there won’t be any trophy cards or similar made by him since it would be soul crushing to get an empty spot in this binder. The order here isn’t strickly chronological as i’ve mixed some cards to get all the evolution lines on same row and other small eye appeal changes. There’s actually one card now missing from the pics as the new year present oversized card is in another binder and i want to include it here with those cards when i eventually add them in this thread. I also included the page where i’ve gathered all the sleeves made by Komiya.
This was at least for a good while the last collection post here that i consider as a part of my main collection, i do have a lot more to add here but they are mostly some side collections that i’ve had a numerous amount during my time of collecting. A lot of them mainly consist of bulk cards but i do enjoy every one of them so i want to have them too here
Very cool to see all Tomokazu Komiya’s TCG artworks (minus the Jumbo(s)) in a row like that!
Can’t say I’ve seen them laid out like that before, even though it sometimes feels as if 90%+ of the forum has him as their favorite illustrator.
For me personally, his artwork style has always been a bit of a hit or miss. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely like almost all his artworks and definitely see why he’s so popular, but I never really loved them personally. Seeing them all in a row like that, I also see some very subtle changes in his art-style. I can’t really put my fingers to what exactly, but overall I like his artworks from the Neo sets, BW era, XY era, and SM era a lot more than the ones from the Vending Machine Series, VS set, E-Series, and EX era (and the other eras - DP, HGSS, SwSh, SV - are kinda in between the two). Again, this is just my own (unpopular) opinion.
Some of the artworks of him that I like the most (in chronological order): Neo Discovery Politoad; Neo Revelations Octillery; EX Hidden Legends Feebas; Dragons Exalted Audino; BREAKthrough Cyndaquil; Generations Gulpin; Steam Siege Chandelure; Guardians Rising Nosepass; Ultra Prism Alolan Vulpix; and Paradox Rift Brute Bonnet. (Not sure which of these would be my absolute favorite. Probably the silly Gulpin, with Nosepass as close second.)
I’ve personally always been a fan of realistic TCG artworks of Pokémon in their natural habitats. And although all of Tomokazu Komiya’s definitely depiction the Pokémon in their natural habitats, so a big plus in that regard, the style is more paint-like abstract than realistic for me to love them.
PS: You should replace that Neo Genesis Focus Band with its Japanese copy, since it’s missing a part of the top due to that misaligned layer.
@Quuador not sure if i actually knew the difference between japanese and english print! I may have to consider it, even though my rule for the binder has been english print if it exists and japanese only for the exclusive ones
@Ragdajin i would probably go for a classic for the front of the binder like vending voltorb, machop or machoke, and a modern beauty for the back of the binder like that favourite of mine, drowzee ar!
The psa 10 thread inspired me to post my slabs here too (with some decks and lego), i’ve sold all the slabs that just sit in a box and saved only the ones i have in my display. These are my absolute favourite arts from different eras besides some slime cards and i wanted to be able to see them every day, and displaying them as slabs felt like a proper way to make that possible i have zero interest in buying more slabs in future (except for possible future AR slime cards but those would go in different display so not affecting anything in these photos) unless i’m cracking them, so i’m considering this part of my collection completed
Even though i love non tcg i usually stay out of full sets but i’ve made few exceptions. The vintage japanese products have a charming style and i was fascinated for the idea of these bandai carddass series 1-2 sets basically being the first pokemon card product there was, and with the price these went for back then it was an easy purchase to make. They actually were the first products i bought from Japan using proxy sites, never knew how deep rabbit hole that route would be!
Beautiful. This is the kind of binder I’d be excited to get home and look through. I also like how the red and green make a checkered pattern with the way you laid them out. Great set!
@stagger12 i’m a fan of the colour alignment too! Makes it so much more interesting for me compared to just two same coloured sets. Thanks also @Parrotdox@D3F14NC3 i’ve had the same thought about the holo choices many times and it’s fun that for example golem got a holo treatment while in fossil set it didn’t even get a rare, and the usually well treated ones like dragonite, gyarados and eeveelutions were stuck with non holos
Congratulations @joponnes on being able to complete this wonderful set. Both the red and green Bandai sets are iconic and seeing them all like this in your binder is something really special. Just brilliant.
P.S. also saw your collector profile being featured on the johtotimes website. Was a cool read as well. Congratulations on your feature.
Thanks, yeah it’s a great fit for a binder set, i kinda wish the 9 pocket binders would have more pages so i could add the next set too with them, would be kinda cool to have all 3 next to each others but i guess that would ruin the chess pattern then. And yeah, the feature went live some time ago, fun that you happened to find it
Continuing the theme of the previous post with these bandai carddass series 3-4 cards. Originally i bought the series 1-2 but it felt so lonely without the successor sets. These sets had also the unique art aspect in addition to the vintage card looks, i think it’s still unclear who the actual artist is but i love the attack theme and the sometimes grotesque looks of them, poor psyduck, diglett and fellas. I remember having fun with my wife when i got these cards trying to guess every attack from the card artwork, some really great interpretations! Cards like weepinbell, kingler and kabutops show some brutal attacks that break the normally childlike style and i love it. And who doesn’t love the checklist cards after the actual set, or that mew’s unique holo pattern!
Wonderful sets Jopo. I never knew you had the '97. Reeal nice. The '96 was a light thought in the long long ago but never dived into it, and then prices went up and I was like nahhh. But they’re awesome.
his cards stood out and did make an impression on me already as a kid and they were among my favourites, so even though my first goal when i returned to collecting was to finish wotc cards it didn’t take long until i also started picking up Komiya cards with an intention to slowly finish every unique tcg art made by him. It did take years but i enjoyed taking it slow and intentionally bought a lot of the cards one by one to be able to concentrate better on each art.
I can’t really put my fingers to what exactly, but overall I like his artworks from the Neo sets, BW era, XY era, and SM era a lot more than the ones from the Vending Machine Series, VS set, E-Series, and EX era (and the other eras - DP, HGSS, SwSh, SV - are kinda in between the two). Again, this is just my own (unpopular) opinion.
