Thank you for kind words! Gen 1 merch indeed is an endless pool of stuff to find, it still amazes me too how much unknown obscure merch there is especially in japan, it was only my latest buyee order where i didn’t find any new items to purchase with my grimer/muk searches, before that i did always find something unexpected while doing the searches! (I did also find new slime items with other search words so the merch amount is endless even if one sometimes has to dig a bit deeper to find it 
)
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This is probably my most niche lot of new slime items so far, consisting of my semi-recent buyee order and some other new-ish goods. First showing one of those other goods since i managed to bump into french case of battling coin game with both grimer and muk inside. That inspired me to put also my other language variants of these coins into single cases to save some space in my display. This was the first time i saw a french case of these coins so i’m curious to see if new language variants pop up at some point in future, added a current family photo below the photo of the french case
Then some more stuff for my display. I absolutely love the looks of this old notebook, it just screams the spirit of vintage pokemon items! I’m always happy to get a reason to include items like this in my collection since they so rarely have any slime in their artworks. And next to the notebook another unpunched banpresto battle chip sheet, i already had a similar one with matching muk so this one completes a pair.
After that so obscure and niche item that i just had to buy it, an old game board of some sort that included muk in the art, i have no idea how the game is played and there’s no way i have heart to punch the different parts out to build the game. There’s a small image added in the board of how the game should look like when built properly so i’ll add a blurry photo of it.
Then another piece of pokemon horizons merch in school supply form which i’m happy to buy whenever i bump into them. This one also included a sticker that i’m probably more excited about than i should but i love it that i can add an example of this artwork in my binder too, at first i thought i’d perhaps anyway keep this item sealed and try to find the sticker somewhere else but there apparently was a huge hole in the packing so the sticker fell straight on my lap making my journey finding a loose copy of that sticker a lot easier
And finally wrapping it up with more niche stuff in magazine/manga form. Official UK pokemon magazine had some grimer merch during this summer so i did the only possible right thing and ordered two copies, one to keep sealed and one to take the grimer goods out and read the magazine (not opening the slime tho 
). And below it a manga book that i don’t even recognise so don’t know the origins of it or if it even is official, but it was dirt cheap and had a funny photo of grimer so i bought it anyway, perhaps someone here can tell me more about it 
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A fantastic haul. I love all of the variety.
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So cool to see all the awesome items you added to your collection. Your presentation is spot on and makes the goodies even more appetizing. It activates this urgent feeling in me to touch and inspect them myself. Hehe … 
The notebook, the school supplies, and especially the board are amazing. The vibrant colors of the school supplies are crazy.
Congratulations on this awesome haul. May the goods keep coming—please, more of this fantastic content.
Peace out 
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Those battling coins look like they were put in old CD cases 
But very cool to have the pair in a few different languages!
And I’d also be curious to see how that cardboard game plays out. I’m not even sure what’s happening in the picture–is something supposed to be shot or flung to try to reach the top? 
Cool pickup regardless. Completely random items with cameos are always fun to find because they come out of nowhere.
The last manga seems to be a 4Koma (4 panel) manga. Looks official—found it here on Bulbapedia.
As always, thanks for sharing!
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@bbobrob i think they actually are cd cases 
the english one feels like it’s still in its original form but the other too probably were taken out of the case and then realised that it’s too difficult to put back again and then just tucked back in how they fit in some way (i tried to put them back how they originally were and that indeed was difficult). Also big thanks for finding the manga article! I’m not sure if the plastic wrapping is original one so i’m hesitating a bit to open it, if i had to guess tho it’s not original since i have never seen manga being sold like that so it’s probably getting opened at some point. If i do that i hope the manga isn’t too good looking so i’m tempted to get the rest of the volumes too
@orannge no worries, the growth of slime army sees no end!
@D3F14NC3 the variety gets me too every time, the range of products in japan knows no limits
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Finally had time to go through your latest update @joponnes and such a fantastic haul of super niche items. It is lovely to see your dedication to the slime army to be able to source out all of this stuff. I also agree with you on the notebooks. Some of these old notebooks really have this vintage feel almost similar to how as children you always could cover one of your books with random stickers. This reminds me of that feeling. Thanks for sharing the update and the thoughts behind the pickups.
Cheers!
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The battle coins are indeed packaged in CD cases. They were originally all blindbags with the coins not facing out and you never knew what you would get. Once they were opened it makes sense to face the coins out for display but the cardboard they are set in is very sturdy and thick.
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@mrbubbles it’s fun that people appreciate this new post since like said this was probably the most niche one so far. And i get a lot of help finding this stuff, actually 4/6 of the items in that post i got hint from someone else that it exists and there’s a listing for it so i couldn’t do it all by myself
@lyleberr someone always knows something, thanks for additional info about the cases!
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I knew when I saw you lead with the battling coins that this update was going to be extremely niche, and I was right! @joponnes these are some very cool items. The UK mag is a great find
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Heh, interesting that the niche items really get some real attention, i was already doubting myself a bit when i wrote the post since some of them felt like too random already, but i’m glad people like what they see here
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I think seeing cards is cool, but I have a healthy level of respect for seeing things I’ve rarely or never seen before also.
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A different kind of update today. For the first time ever i’m up to date with every grimer and muk variant in pokemon go, best buddies and maxed with xl candies. Previously i was always either lacking with enough xl candies or didn’t have enough time to make the newly released ones best buddies. A fine looking gang i say!
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Edit: This ended up being the saddest disappointment of my collecting life. I no longer have the cards in my possession as i have sent them back to CGC but i will leave this post as it was. It was a beautiful few months thinking i owned something unique and historical and i appreciated eveyone’s excitement about it
I really got the beta playtest cards
I never thought i could obtain cards like these. I have to admit i had my doubts when the cards surfaced to the public since the publicity and everything around them in the beginning didn’t feel like it was handled properly. But even after warming up for them while following the situation and reading everything about them i was sure the price was way too high for me to get them, until i found this muk being auctioned and i threw in an offer that i could justify paying for it but what simultaneously felt like a lowball with very low odds of winning, but to my surprise the next morning i woke up to read a notification about winning the auction. I never thought these would get so much cheaper than what it looked like in the beginning.
Buying muk was quite stress free since i didn’t really consider my odds to get it very realistic but boy was buying grimer after that stressful. I didn’t really have any massive issues or any real reasons to stress but at that point i REALLY wanted to get the pair together and it felt like anything could happen with these cards and their prices. Also i’ve never purchased any cards with this price range so overall bidding with four digit amounts and hoping the cards would after that arrive safely were something i hadn’t experienced earlier so that alone was stressful for me, based on this experience buying single valuable cards doesn’t really suit for me 
It was also a real rollercoaster to follow the threads about the prototype cards, everything from people questioning their authenticity to making their own proxys of them.
I got some new experiences too along the way since i never had bought anything from the big auction house sites. Buying muk from fanatics was quite easy in every way but while buying grimer i did repeatedly question the sellers reasons for choosing alt to auction it, there were so many small things increasing my stress levels bit by bit and in the end after winning the card i noticed that they don’t even provide international shipping which i really had taken for granted for a site like that. So massive thanks for @bbobrob for middlemaning the grimer for me, i’m extremely glad you could help me with this whole process! Also thank you @Quuador for willingness to help with this whole thing and rooting for me.
In the end it’s an absolutely breathtaking feeling to have them in hand and to own such piece of pokemon history, especially knowing they originally are from Takumi Akabane. I’ve had my doubts of cgc slabs but the new labels really look good, cgc cases also look quite clear even if these have already gotten some scratches in them and what looks like some dust that’s trapped inside the cases. The grades feel completely arbitrary tho but at least they match my other display items being both 9. I probably can never be too sure that other similar cards from early pokemon days wouldn’t surface and if that happened i would have another possibly unobtainable card to chase, but at least now it feels like i have a peace with the thought and i’m happy to at least own these examples of such historical pieces, no matter what other cards may appear. After this i just hope i can find the cosmos foil fossil muk and be done with purchases this valuable, luckily also my funds for it didn’t after all suffer too badly because of this purchase so i’m still ready for it if an opportunity to buy one appears.
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Whoa huge congrats!
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Super happy for you, joponnes! When I saw these in auction, I was wondering if they would end up in your slime army. 
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Congrats! Glad you can continue to build the slime army
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Incredible!!
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Congratulations! These cards couldn’t have gone to a better home. I’m glad they made their way to you.
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Congrats! Glad i didnt fight you for them… its amazing that such historical pieces have gone for such seemingly good prices. Couldnt think of a better collection for this pair to be in.
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