Jopo's slime army

[joponnes]

GRAIL ALERT!

Even though i’m nowadays mainly a grimer & muk collector i’ve had a project for almost 5 years now. Topps cards where the first pokemon item i got as a child and as a pokemon product i’ve always loved them more than anything else, so in my collector days as an adult my one big goal has been to acquire all the topps cards since they were the thing that lit my love towards pokemon cards. It is by no means a master set (mainly because of insane amount of variants from first sets and topps chrome) but with this arrival i now have all sets completed including insert sets and all chase cards + all the different promos and special releases (at least with my knowledge and i’ve really dug deep with topps during these years).

This johto series 1 hologram set was the thing that nearly drove me crazy since for almost 2 years now i only hunted 4 last cards from that damn insert set since everything else was completed (well i also found out about a pikachu jumbo variant i didn’t know and bought it immediately when i found out but that didn’t require that much hunting once i learnt about its existence). I have big thanks to E4 since i found 2 of those 4 last cards through my buy thread here, this last one from @thecharizardauthorty so huge thanks go to him!

I still have one topps card to hunt down but that’s for slime army since i still haven’t located a topps chrome sparkle muk, that is also why you can see a blank spot in that hologram page. I do have that totodile card that should be there but i have it in my US mailbox which i don’t want to empty until i find that sparkle muk in case i have to send it home through that service since emptying it costs a decent amount of money.

I’m planning to show my topps collection here too but i’ll wait with that until i can get that totodile home to show everything properly. You can’t imagine how good this feels, the hunt has been insane and sometimes i have doubted if i can ever even make it when the prices rose or when there had been almost a year without even seeing one of the missing cards even while doing several searches for them every day. This also adds a really unique feeling in my collection since completed topps collections are insanely rare mainly due to some of these cards being extremely hard to find, i’m quite sure mine isn’t the only one in the world but i’m also quite sure that at most handful of them exist. It makes me very proud of myself to stick with it until the end even though the road really was bumpy. This furret finally brings a peace from the biggest and most time consuming project i’ve ever done!

[joponnes]

Time for another new non tcg additions post, haven’t had time to do these in a while so quite a lot of them! Also some that i leave now away since i planned to write this post sooner and i’ve gotten some goods already after that but haven’t had time to take proper photos of them yet (would have to do that on weekend mornings only since the amount of daylight here is zero outside working hours). Again a lot of small origin stories which i write for you but also for myself so i can come and read these posts later and brighten the memories of these additions since a lot of them came from friends and other fellow collectors

Let’s start things with the final additions in my custom card page! It wasn’t right that grimer and muk still hadn’t gotten their shiny cards in tcg so i took matter into my own hands. Also something had to done about the fact that grimer line baby pokemon Smujj (Betobebi in japanese) got stuck in beta phase. Made a commission for these on ig when i found some great card artists there and couldn’t be happier with the results! As an added bonus also alolan Smujj now exists and muk got a V card design which i still hope it gets at some point in this era.

Again got some great additions from fellow collectors too. Had been looking for a long time for another copy of this bandai jumbo card so i could peel the mini cards out of it since i knew those too have some grimer and muk cards and finally @thedude1990 provided me with one, not the first time he has added something in my collection!

These too came from other collectors on ig, the top left one isn’t an official one but i couldn’t care less when it’s a free surprise gift from another collector, always the most precious ones The sandylion grimer sticker on top right i already had as another variant which was perforated from a sheet but i didn’t even realise until quite recently that they also were sold from boosters and they had clean edges when gotten that way, still missing a booster version of muk. The bottom playing cards were some of the deck variants i was missing, i already had grimer and muk from charizard and venusaur decks but the copies from blastoise and pikachu decks had eluded me, so was very happy when i found two of the missing copies from the same seller on ig! I thought i was now only missing muk from pikachu deck and grimer from blastoise deck but apparently also fifth deck exists with a back where all four mentioned back variant pokemon are presented with a text “netz toyota”, not much info could be found about the decks but they seem to be a lot rarer than the other 4, apparently they were given out only by some toyota dealers.

The top row cards are a fun addition, i never realized that pokemon monopoly had muk in koga’s gym and apparently also several language and year edition variants exist, i have two others besides the ones in this photo but they (like a looot of other stuff i’ve mentioned previously) are still in my US mailbox, damn i wish i could find that missing topps sparkle chrome muk so i could allow myself to send everything from the mailbox home

The top left one in the first photo was a big one for me since it was the last amada sticker of grimer and muk i knew i was missing, of course there very well might be a sticker i have zero clue about but until then i consider my amada sticker collection completed also four new back variants of kids mini cards which i’m always happy to get more (between the two photos, didn’t have energy or enough sunlight to take new photos so used the ones i posted on ig). Also found out that the menko cards seen in bottom right corner of second photo have different back variants too so again some more hunting to do with those.

This one too was a small addition with little difference but i really enjoyed it a lot. These ga-ole tags have different poke ball variants and even though i had found different variants for other two grimer and muk tags all the ones from the third tag seemed to be just with regular poke ball, so got really excited when i found this great ball variant! If i find a quick ball variant for this tag i only need the ultra ball and master ball variants from all three (although i can’t be sure if those even exist since i can’t imagine anyone being a madman and using those balls to capture grimer or muk, for those who don’t know you literally catch the pokemon you want the tag of in the arcade game and the ball you use gets printed on the tag).

This one is actually another copy of this manga book i have but didn’t want to separate my full pokemon adventures manga set to get a display item so got another one since they really aren’t pricy. The only manga book from the series to present grimer or muk in its cover and it gives nice diversity in my slime collection and the display i currently have

And finally, a gift from my gf and our kiddo i got when it was a father’s day it is celebrated here in the autumn and to celebrate my first father’s day my gf made these hama bead grimer and muk for me (and also got me obsessed about hama beads, wish i had more time to make stuff with those but might post here too some grimer and muk pieces we have done) and also i just had to include the father’s day card the kiddo made for me (with just a little bit of help from her mother), isn’t that thing the cutest card in this whole thread made with those tiny fingers!

And that’s it for now, i appreciate everyone who read it this far since i can guess a lot of you aren’t as enthusiastic as me about the non tcg stuff and all the possible variants of them but i hope at least a fraction of you finds my mumbling entertaining

[joponnes]

A great completed part of my vintage japanese collection, all Shogakukan stamp sheets from 1997-2003 presenting grimer or muk in them! Most of them came for @pokegasm so big thanks to him and his massive stamp sheet collection! Pity that they couldn’t have been used as real stamps since who wouldn’t want a letter with a nice little slime in the corner?

[seafoamarticuno]

@joponnes

This one too was a small addition with little difference but i really enjoyed it a lot. These ga-ole tags have different poke ball variants and even though i had found different variants for other two grimer and muk tags all the ones from the third tag seemed to be just with regular poke ball, so got really excited when i found this great ball variant! If i find a quick ball variant for this tag i only need the ultra ball and master ball variants from all three (although i can’t be sure if those even exist since i can’t imagine anyone being a madman and using those balls to capture grimer or muk, for those who don’t know you literally catch the pokemon you want the tag of in the arcade game and the ball you use gets printed on the tag).

First off, really enjoyed your collection post, it’s definitely one of a kind!

Based on the few times I’ve had the joy of playing ga-ole, I think there’s a decent chance that Ultra or Master Ball Muk’s exist. You’re right that if you are able to spin an Ultra/Master Ball most players would want to target the rarest available Pokemon, but since there are only 3 semi-random Pokemon per round, it’s somewhat uncommon to have a 4-star as one of the 3 catchable Pokemon, meaning the bext best option would be a 3-star, like Muk. Technically it’s possible, but I don’t know why someone would waste an Ultra/Master Ball on Grimer unless they didn’t have a 3- or 4- star as one of the 3 catchable Pokemon… which can happen, but isn’t super likely if you know how to play.

I believe ga-ole does have a Quick Ball in one of the modes, but I was only able to figure out the main mode since it’s in Japanese, so unfortunately can’t help you much there… but keep searching, they might be out there somewhere! Good luck!

[joponnes]

@seafoamarticuno

@joponnes

This one too was a small addition with little difference but i really enjoyed it a lot. These ga-ole tags have different poke ball variants and even though i had found different variants for other two grimer and muk tags all the ones from the third tag seemed to be just with regular poke ball, so got really excited when i found this great ball variant! If i find a quick ball variant for this tag i only need the ultra ball and master ball variants from all three (although i can’t be sure if those even exist since i can’t imagine anyone being a madman and using those balls to capture grimer or muk, for those who don’t know you literally catch the pokemon you want the tag of in the arcade game and the ball you use gets printed on the tag).

First off, really enjoyed your collection post, it’s definitely one of a kind!

Based on the few times I’ve had the joy of playing ga-ole, I think there’s a decent chance that Ultra or Master Ball Muk’s exist. You’re right that if you are able to spin an Ultra/Master Ball most players would want to target the rarest available Pokemon, but since there are only 3 semi-random Pokemon per round, it’s somewhat uncommon to have a 4-star as one of the 3 catchable Pokemon, meaning the bext best option would be a 3-star, like Muk. Technically it’s possible, but I don’t know why someone would waste an Ultra/Master Ball on Grimer unless they didn’t have a 3- or 4- star as one of the 3 catchable Pokemon… which can happen, but isn’t super likely if you know how to play.

I believe ga-ole does have a Quick Ball in one of the modes, but I was only able to figure out the main mode since it’s in Japanese, so unfortunately can’t help you much there… but keep searching, they might be out there somewhere! Good luck!

Thanks for the kind words! Yeah i wouldn’t hold my breath on getting the grimer ones but would be nice enough to get all pokeball variants from at least one tag (so most likely the 3 star muk), perhaps one day!

[joponnes]

Hadn’t had time to pokemon basically at all which is disappointing, have tried to update ig occasionally but hopefully can go through E4 too soon since i really miss it, but wanted to update this thread with my small figure display i recently organized. Really hoping i can make a larger one some day but for now this’ll do, i especially like the metal figures in the front since they are how i like to visualize the slime army in my head

[filthynwah]

This thread is incredible!

[joponnes]

@filthynwah

This thread is incredible!

Thanks for kind words, i’m glad you appreciate it even though it sometimes may be a bit all over the place

[joponnes]

An update that might look like small one but it actually is a big milestone for me, with this card i’m only missing 3 japanese grimer tcg cards and one english muk card, and this is also the last japanese 1st edition card i needed The 3 cards left are all from different artworks so all the new additions will complete a mini set which will be nice. This addition is also a step closer to completing a world collection of this specific card. I don’t normally go for all languages but thought i’d make an exception for this one since it’s slime made by Tomokazu Komiya (even though i have to say it’s neither my favourite artwork of grimer nor Komiya), but i fear it will be a rough road to go since even the portuguese regular version is nowhere to be seen not to mention the reverse holo, other than those and the last unlimited japanese code variant i’m already done (since all the other european cards were easy and i’ve been so far lucky with the japanese ones + i got the chinese version very kindly from @quuador ) but i fear the rest aren’t going to happen anytime soon.

[joponnes]

Posting today something very nostalgic outside my collection goals since my mom found my old theme deck from my stuff! I had stored the cards in my binder already as a kid but it still had the rules and everything else inside it! I was very surprised to find the rules also in finnish since i thought nothing tcg related was released in finnish, but it was so cool to discover pokemon history like that in my country! I never was that much of a player with the cards but regardless a lovely piece of my childhood and history i wanted to share with everyone

https://i.imgur.com/QyGCHU4.jpg(image larger than 4 MB)

[joponnes]

It’s been around 67 years since i updated this thread or even went through the forum but i haven’t abandoned you! The kid and all other previous busy factors are still there and now i’m also fighting my insurance company since they made a decision that my long covid lasted 4 months and then the symptoms were caused by “something else”, but on the happy side also planning my own wedding atm which will be in autumn!

Still wanted to update this thread since i got my US mailbox return on spring, i’ve been trying to post something on ig every now and then but also time to finally post here my big arrivals! On previous posts i showed the topps johto series 1 furret hologram which was my final purchase for my topps collection but now with the mailbox return all the topps cards are finally together, so behold my grail page of all topps johto series 1 holograms!

I also planned and mentioned i would make a thread of all topps cards when i finish this collection but that’ll be postponed until i have some hope with my schedules

And also wanted to show another card that arrived in my mailbox return, my 1/2 grail topps slime card, topps chrome tekno muk! Getting this home means that the only slime topps card (and actually last topps card at all) i need is topps chrome sparkle muk which i’m desperately trying to find! I’m also trying to find time to show all other new slime items worth showing but for now this post with super big topps cards has to do!

[Dyl]

This is such a thorough collection! Major congratulations. Love seeing the new additions to the slime army.

[joponnes]

Thanks! I’ll try to make a more thorough update when i can, would love to show more of my new stuff

[joponnes]

All right, finally a bit more time to make a post of my purchases from the past months! I have a lot of stuff but will include the stuff i’m most excited about to this post and later i’ll try to make some kind of photo dump of the other stuff

First of all, i finally managed to find all three missing unlimited japanese grimer cards which means i now have a master set of all english and japanese grimer cards completed! First of them was L2 unlimited grimer which was odd to hide from me for so long since i did find 2 unlimited reverse holos of both grimer and muk during the time i was searching for non holo one, but when i found my copy i did find another one just few weeks later.

The second of the three i found was the last unlimited code variant grimer from rocket gang strikes back illustrated by wonderful Aya Kusube (it’s one of my favourite grimer arts). About year ago i already thought i got it but the seller cancelled my order. The second time i found the card it was part of the lot that had condition marked as bad/dirty so didn’t know what i’ll get but was just happy to get at least some version of the card. But when it arrived it was to my surprise super clean without any big issues so things turned out better than i ever could have hoped!

And the third one was the last unlimited code variant grimer from mirage forest and it’s ofc illustrated by the master himself, Tomokazu Komiya! I usually buy my japanese stuff through buyee service but after russia started a war in ukraine japan stopped delivering regular mail in europe. After that buyee started only using private companies to deliver mail in finland and also removed the time limits they are keeping items in their storage for free. This meant that i stored the items i bought there for almost a full year and during that time i occasionally bought some listings with bad photos that had multiples of unlimited mirage forest grimer in hopes i would get the last variant i needed. When i finally got the package from japan in my hands the most exciting part of opening it was to see if any of my lottery tickets of this card was a success, and eventually i ended up with not one but even two copies of this card! I am, since it’s grimer card from my favourite artist, however trying to get all possible variants of this card and i’m still missing a portuguese version of this card so still have some final hunting to do for this artwork

Some other exciting additions in my collection include my first graded slime cards! I’m almost 100% binder collector and have only handful of slabs but for my future display purposes i wanted to highlight some cards that have a special meaning to me. Cards included are the first slime cards i had as a kid which were unlimited fossil grimer and muk and topps grimer and muk (went with holos even though mine were non holos as a kid), also wanted to have the first full art version released of muk to display which happens to be alolan muk gx from burning shadows. I also chose to get them as bgs and psa 9 which is more than enough for me, since i don’t concentrate on slabs or high end cards i find little reasons to aim for psa 10 when these are almost as good condition and very much more affordable. I hope i’ll be able to set my big display some time in near future but we’ll see how that goes. Not planning to buy any other slabs to display but i would like to grade something for it myself, atm planning to use ace grading since their slabs and labels are very nice looking for display purposes. Also would like some topps cards in bgs slabs so might send something there too if an opportunity ever appears.

I also have special feelings towards playing cards and this was a set i was thrilled to complete! The last pikachu back muk spent over 2 months on its way to me and i already deemed it lost until it finally arrived. Technically i’m still missing the netz toyota promo deck ones but don’t know how many of those decks ever got distributed and if they even are realistic cards to even think of getting, so i’m just happy to have all the regular deck variants now in my possession.

Another set of cards i’m really fond of, burger king cards. I bought this canadian promo version of muk with clean edges already earlier but got it in my hands the same time i got those big topps grails from my previous post. Also have found the canadian grimer with perforated edges (don’t have that one in my hands either) so only clean edge variant of canadian grimer to find now, at least when assumed that clean edge german variants don’t exist. But about german burger king cards, this is a real gem to find, an uncut german burger king sheet featuring grimer and muk! In english these cards and uncut sheets are quite common but other languages, canadian and german, single cards are very rarely seen and these uncut sheets are narurally even rarer so was thrilled when i found this german uncut sheet. Unfortunately the seller didn’t add any hard protection in the envelope and as you can imagine a cardboard sheet this size gets very easily damaged during shipping, so two of the corners suffered some damage before it arrived to me. But regardless it’s a beautiful item and great piece of pokemon history. Really hoping i would find uncut canadian sheet too but not getting my hopes high about that since even the singles from the set appear so rarely.

Last but not least, not technically an actual collection addition but i got married with my now wife We actually got secretly married already a year ago but didn’t have a celebration until this autumn so this , and pokemon naturally played a part in our wedding since pokemon go was the thing that united us. But in my bachelor party my friends arranged me my own pokemon journey which led into finding the thing “i desire the most” which was a grimer card signed by all participants which were some of my closest friends

But that’s all for now, hopefully it won’t take another half a year to make a bit longer post!

[joponnes]

BIG grail time! After those last three japanese grimer cards i very soon managed to also get the last english tcg muk i was missing, behold the 3rd print fossil muk that eluded me for years! Getting this card finally means that i have ALL official english and japanese grimer and muk tcg cards! The feeling of finally completing this goal feels miraculous, no more checking the blurry listing photos in hopes of finding the slightly different copyright year enormous thanks go to both @jac2357 and @Quuador , jac traded me this card and quuador sold me the card that made the trade possible. Both parted with cards from their personal collection which is something i basically never ask people to do, but with this card being so big for me, i couldn’t be happier that they both agreed to sacrifice something to make another collector happy i’m planning to add the binder pages of the whole slime tcg collection at some point but let’s see when i find time for that now it’s just the hunt to find the last big grail, that damn topps chrome sparkle muk, to complete my topps slime collection and finally be able to lighten the search a bit. Technically i’m also missing cosmos holo fossil muk but since it’s not official release and i couldn’t afford it even if i found it i’m happy to leave it out of my wants and just be owner of all official releases

[Dyl]

Congratulations, @joponnes! What a huge accomplishment!

[Schileru]

This collection is incredible, congratulations on the amazing accomplishment @joponnes! Your passion is inspiring.

[joponnes]

Thank you @Dyl @Schileru , feels sure great to finally get a goal this long-term completed!

[mrbubbles]

Wow @joponnes this is such an amazing achievement. Super happy for you. I have been in awe of your dedication and also the collection. Super congratulations!

Cheers!

[joponnes]

Thank you! Glad if my collection is appreciated