No problem! Rest well!! You deserve it :>
Thank you! I went back and changed a lot of dates using new sources, so it should be more accurate now. I’ll try to revise more of them when I get some time off. In the meantime, check it out:
I’ve added all of the sets you mentioned in this reply to the main post. Thanks again. 
I think this is just for the toys mentioned in that link, not the 2019 TCG cards. McDonald’s likely has a different promotion every month, so not too surprising there are more Pokémon-related promotions besides the cards.
Greetz,
Quuador
From what I’ve seen, the time between WotC placing the order with the print facility, and the product being released to the public, is typically 2 or 3 months.
I would expect a longer time during the Pokemania of 1999 to 2000, when WotC was having difficulty printing the cards fast enough, there were cardstock shortages, and WotC was hiring new print facilities to meet demand.
The print facility is constantly printing various things, so every print run has to be scheduled in advance.
When WotC is working on a set, they contact the print facility to schedule the print run. The print facility gives them a date for when to hand over all the print files. Then WotC estimates shipping and distribution time, to come up with the public release date.
The people who schedule all that, aren’t the same people creating the set, so sometimes the team creating the set struggles to meet the deadline for handing over all the print files to the print facility.
Each print facility adds the color bars and sheet edge text themselves, to match their own quality control equipment. The printed date on the sheet edge, is part of this. It happens when the color separation print files are used to create the printing plates, and that’s just before the print run begins.
Next the plates are fitted to the printing press, and the Make Ready process begins, to calibrate the registration of the different plates to each other, and make sure everything is working smoothly.
A hand written date on the sheet (or on a Press Approval label), is from the Press Check, and signifies the actual beginning or regular production.
If you see inked dated initials scrawled on the sheet edge, that’s from a pressman doing an inspection during the print run.
There’s a little time between when the print facility receives the print files, and when production begins, maybe a few days or a week. This is because the print facility knows how frequently customers don’t get their print files submitted on time.
Printing is a big job.
Cutting & Packaging is also a big job. Sometimes sheets are shipped elsewhere for cutting and packaging, and sheets from multiple print facilities might be packaged together in a single product.
Once printing & packaging is complete, worldwide distribution begins, and that takes time.
The product is shipped, literally on a Ship, which is slow, to WotC (or local Publisher) distribution centers around the world.
Many countries receive English product along with their native language, because English cards are popular, and so many people speak English. For example, most of the Portuguese cards go to Brazil, because English cards are more popular in Portugal.
(not relevant for Pokémon, but several years ago WotC stopped selling Portuguese cards in Portugal because they didn’t sell well there, and more recently they’ve discontinued Portuguese cards entirely, because the English cards are more popular with collectors (even in Brazil) due to having a higher international value and being easier to sell the cards.)
In general, Portuguese print runs tend to be smaller than most other languages.
Once the cards have arrived in the correct country, regular distribution begins.
Pallets of product are sent to Distributors, who then have to distribute it to all of the various stores.
The stores need to receive the new product before the public release date, so that it’s ready to go when the public expects to see it available.
The store is not supposed to sell new product before the public release date, but they might open quite a bit of product in preparation for selling single cards on release day.
So that’s how things work. 
Now for some more info about how the business works.
The Pokemon set info all came to WotC from Japan. WotC handled translation into various languages, hired various print facilities, and had a worldwide distribution network to sell the cards.
An important part of that worldwide distribution network, was partnership with regional Publishers.
WotC did a lot of work for making the cards and overseeing the printing, and WotC was also the Publisher in the USA and some other areas, but WotC assigned other companies to be the Publisher in their region.
Publisher is the position between WotC and the Distributors.
A Distributor simply buys product from the Publisher, and resells it.
The Publisher oversees regional distribution, and has to invest / create marketing materials for their region, promote organized play, extra stuff that Distributors don’t have to do.
WotC required publishers to spend a certain amount of money promoting WotC products, and in return the Publisher was the top of the food chain for product distribution in their region. WotC also protected the different regions, so Publishers weren’t allowed to sell outside of their designated region, but they had the market cornered within their designated region.
If you were part of the distribution chain, and were caught selling product internationally outside your designated region, you could be blacklisted and you’d never sell WotC product again.
WotC has production cost, and markup to profit from selling to Publishers
Publishers have promotional cost, and markup to profit from selling to Distributors
Distributors markup to profit from selling to stores
Stores markup to profit from selling to you
In countries where WotC is also the Publisher, they make extra money.
If WotC can also cutout the Distributor by selling directly online, they make extra money.
Stratelibri was the Publisher for Italian WotC products
Amigo was the Publisher for German WotC products
Devir was the Publisher for Portuguese WotC products
Hobby was the Publisher for Japanese WotC products (not applicable to Pokémon, because WotC didn’t make any Japanese Pokémon cards)
If there’s other Publishers, I don’t know their names. Maybe WotC was the Publisher everywhere else.
But these large game companies already had their own established regional distribution chains, and that was a valuable part of the WotC worldwide distribution network.
The Publisher did not print the cards, the Publisher is not a print facility.
The main reasons that Pokémon came to WotC for help expanding worldwide, are that WotC had a US Patent on Trading Card Games which would have required Pokémon to pay patent royalties to WotC anyway, WotC had experience translating into various languages, WotC had a worldwide manufacturing & distribution network.
The WotC Portuguese Pokémon cards should have gone through Devir.
After WotC & Pokemon stopped working together, Pokemon still needed Devir for distribution.
I’d be surprised of Devir printed any Pokemon cards, or even owned a print facility.
One of the Carta Mundi Belgium guys, told me that Carta Mundi has a facility in Brazil, but I’m not sure when it was created, and I don’t have much info on it because WotC doesn’t seem to have used it, at least not back then.
The owner of Devir passed away many years ago.
My friend Mario Câmara knew him, so that was my main contact for Devir info, but Mario passed away last November.
Hi! I don’t know if I’m late to the chat, but I’ve found something very interesting, images of HS Triumphant in Portuguese:
Those are just assets from the Trading Card Game Online, where all sets were translated into all languages regardless of them being physically printed in those languages or not.
That’s interesting 'cause I actually have a lead that might be worth checking. A well-known brazilian collector named Cast told me he personally knows a collector who has a sealed Portuguese HS Triumphant booster box, and Cast has actually seen it in person.
I know that’s still anecdotal evidence, so I’m not taking it as proof yet. I’m trying to get photos and more details about the box. But if it’s genuine, it could be a very interesting piece of evidence.
When I did my big Copag research crawl forever ago (you can read about that here), I went through all of Copags websites and blogs. They only ever imported the English translation. Articles about official language support coming around to be consistent again as Copag took over also supports this. Copag’s website where they sell cards only ever had it listed for imported. They don’t remove those tabs when things sell out for a looooong time. I doubt if it is a thing, that it’s real.
This is one of the most informative responses I have read on here in a while. Holy cow that’s cool
my attention span didnt last long enough to read this entire thread but:
EX ruby saphhire arrives in brazil announcement, doesnt have a date on it but it was first detected in september 2003
