nidorino and pidgey alpha playtests up on fanatics this week
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I do like the theory they have in the corocoro section, haven’t thought of that before!
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Yeah it’s a pretty interesting theory.
Most of us assumed that Coro Coro/Beta presentation was the final stage because it’s closer to the cards we know, but it could’ve been the work of another team.
This would explain the inconsistencies that occurred with this variant (hp, moveset…).
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The strangest part of that to me is the trainer frame being present in what would be considered the earliest version
Two new Beta Presentations have been graded which takes the total population from 3 to 5.
I wonder if this means they are finally being sold and we should expect to see a few more start to surface. I still have no idea how many possibly exist, but I think these are the most rare of the prerelease cards. I guess we will see if I’m wrong.
Edit: also movement in other sets
Alpha Playtest: 107 to 132
Beta Playtest: 591 to 606
Edit2: More big moves for Beta Playtests. There really must be about 10 sets.
Alpha Playtest: 135
Beta Playtest: 759
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Looks like there may be a new category of prototype cards on the CGC pop report? or this may eventually get merged to one of the other categories. I’m particularly interested given my favorite evolution line. (edit: link below)
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Looks like tomorrow should be the last big alt auction of these
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until the unpaid ones get reauctioned again 
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The percentage of unpaid cards has gone down significantly. You can view that directly looking at sold items on alt. The items marked pending have not been paid for. I count 11 to be listed in the future. So this next auction of 41 should be the largest tranche left.
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Why? Akabane alone had around ten sets.
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To add to this, there is a version of the Mystery of the Fossils dragonite with an earlier version of Kagemaru Himeno’s artwork that has flown under the radar for a while, which I’ve so far seen in two places; an early TCG commercial that you can also see a snippet of here, and the Pokemon 2 & Hobby Special booklet included with the May 1997 issue of Corocoro Comic (available to purchase a month earlier in April as is seemingly standard with most magazine publications). Both feature other early versions of fossil cards with Sugimori artwork.
For quick visual reference:
1996 - Beta Playtest (maybe originally intended for Expansion Pack to complete the dratini line but held back for Mystery of the Fossils? Which would correlate with other cards like dodrio featuring in the prototypes but being held back from Expansion Pack until Jungle)
April 1997 - Pokémon Ierukana? TCG commercial/Corocoro Comics May 1997 Pokémon 2 insert preview of Mystery of the Fossils
21st June 1997 - Mystery of the Fossils release version
18th December 1998 - Pokémon Card GB release version
The draft Himeno artwork version features a few differences between the playtest/final MotF versions, such as the Pokémon Power name and text, the missing た in the attack name, the extra retreat cost, and what looks like a weakness to psychic instead of fighting type. Seems like they had a pretty quick turnaround for getting the art and card design finalised compared to now.
I also believe the zubat featured in the Ierukana TCG commercial uses a draft version of Himeno’s art, though I haven’t been able to find the video in better quality to verify:
The psyduck and tentacool seen in the commercial are other good examples of Ken Sugimori’s art being used initially before being replaced by Himeno’s, then later returning to the same Sugimori illustrations on different backgrounds (note that these are quick image compilations to show the differences in the art. There may be more clues about the design timeline in other printings as far as the text and layout goes):
My angle on the decision to use Sugimori’s art vs commissioning a new image is that his illustrations were viewed as “stock” artwork that was easy to just edit onto a stock background (you can browse some fun examples of the original stock backgrounds and their sources on this account(Edit: I erroneously linked the first tweet that brought the stock background source to my attention, while meaning to link this account instead which features many more texture matches from old cards/videogames)). Generally it would be faster and cheaper to do this when prototyping cards, then later make the decision to spend time and money on a new artwork that more closely adheres to the set’s flavour, instead of it being based on preference between artists. I feel this is also the reason why so many early promos feature Sugimori’s art, as it would make them quick and easy to produce and they didn’t really need unique “flavouring” as with set cards. It’d be really cool if the draft Himeno art prototypes exist in physical form and emerged at some point from Akabane’s collection like all these other prototypes have, as well as other fossil prototypes and GB prototypes, though I’m less hopeful about the GB cards besides the legendary birds as I doubt there was much reason to print them physically, but I’d be happy to be proven wrong.
If you dig around in other Corocoro issues/inserts there are some other early versions of cards, such as some gym cards like sandslash with some slight differences, but I haven’t found any others that are quite so profoundly unique as the dragonite.
Credit and many thanks to @droripory for taking a closer photo of the dragonite in the Corocoro insert, as previously the best quality photo of the page I could find was the one on Zoidsland.
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Wanted to note that Himeno mentioned in an interview that she was not involved until '97 when someone at creatures saw her art in a comic.
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hey im happy to help since it was very intresting read 
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What a fantastic post! Thank you for this contribution.
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That was a great read. Really good analysis regarding the usage of artworks. Also the link for the stock backgrounds is so fascinating. Thanks a lot for sharing all of the info.
Cheers!
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Pretty strong numbers on the recent heritage block for these. Alt seems to have dried up for now. Will be interested to see if the other sets that were acquired will be auctioned off. Seems pretty counterintuitive if the private prices being paid to acquire them are higher than auction end prices of graded copies
I put a low-ball bid in on the gyarados on heritage. Figured if I could win it for cheap then great, if not oh well 
I still haven’t made my mind up what I think of these.
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Thank you for the kind responses to my previous post, I’m glad the information was of interest!
Also correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think this version of proto blastoise has been shown before:
source
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I need that damn
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