Thank you for your insight, I really do appreciate it. I would not be surprised that there is a clear variant out there that you mentioned. I had some difficulty trying to specifically find any variants of Starmie or Staryu that were clear in original packaging, or any variants of Starmie or Staryu that were any colors other than blue and clear.
Here is more information about these specific boxes. I hope that this is helpful, and apologize in advance for any mistakes.
This specific box series (1996 Bandai Pokemon Box) has 8 variants, which is visible on the back of every box, and encourages you to collect them all.
(Top right of back of box).
I also found an advertisement for all 8 boxes.
From Mercari/eBay listings, we can actually see each box, and what color they are.
The back of each box is a setlist, which means you can see which figures were released with this box set:
Here is the front, back, and inside of all eight boxes:
No. 1 - 草原のポケモン (Charizard - Red)
No. 2 - 草原と山のポケモン (Venusaur - Green)
No. 3 - 水辺と町のポケモン (Blastoise - Blue)
No. 4 - 空と海のポケモン (Mewtwo - Blue)
No. 5 - 森と絶滅したポケモン (Dragonite - Clear)
No. 6 - 豆と不思議としたポケモン (Zapdos - Yellow)
No. 7 - 水辺と森と海と町のポケモン (Slowbro - Orange)
No. 8 - 草原と山のポケモン その2 (Mew - Pink)
The only source of Starmie/Staryu figures from this set is in No. 3, the blue set featuring Blastoise. The only source of clear figures from this set is in No. 5, the clear set featuring Dragonite, but it does not include Starmie figures.
Related Boxes
ポケモン スペシャル セレクション (Pokemon Special Selection)
There is a metallic version of the larger figures in a special set.
ポケモン大全集 (Pokemon Complete Collection)
This is metallic versions of the previous figures as well as sparkly transparent yellow and white figures of the larger figures.
- More information and source: https://www.mandarake.co.jp/information/2017/05/20/21nkn02/index.html
Other Sources of Single-Color Figures
Because the mold used is identical to these Box figures, I suspect that it was still made by Bandai around this time. Another possible source of transparent figures I investigated from around this era is the 1997 Bandai New Pokemon Club series.
1997 新ポケモンクラブ (New Pokemon Club)
- As a sidenote, putting ポケモンクラブ into Google will get you results mostly of Krabby…because “club” and “crab” seem to be homophones in Japanese, and Krabby’s name in Japanese is also クラブ. To search for images of this, it may be easier to reverse image search this image, then add in the text as an additional search term.
There seems to be two variants.
Game Boy Variant
Pokedex Variant
However, if you compare equivalent figures between these figures and the box figures, you will notice that the mold used is different. For example, the Beedrill in the first image above compared to the Beedrill from the Slowbro box:
Bandai New Pokemon Club (Game Boy):
Bandai Box Figure:
It seems that the Box figures have a “base” molding between the legs of many figures, while the Club figures do not.
I found this image of a Staryu next to a lot of New Pokemon Club boxes. However, it is laying on its back (which is impossible for orannge’s figure to do) and lacks the small round circles on the tips of each of its points, which is present on orannge’s figure.
Bandai New Pokemon Club:
orannge’s Figure:
1996 Bandai Pokemon Club
I could not find whether or not there were transparent versions of these figures in this set.
- Sidenote - this seems to be where the Bandai Club Stickers come from.
1998 Bandai New Pokemon Club Mini Display
The side of the box does not list Starmie or Staryu in the setlist.
Sometimes I suspect the large mixed lots of color figures likely include figures from both sets, or otherwise mix figures across sets which can make identifying more difficult.