In January 2024, I was doing some research on unusual German & Italian Base Set Pokemon cards that Chel picked up from the free table inside WotC headquarters. It was the same time he picked up the protostoise.
In particular, I was looking for information on where German & Italian Base Set were made. I couldn’t find any good photos of Italian 1st Edition manufacturing info, but I was surprised to find that Italian 2 Player Starter Sets had been made in both Belgium and the USA.
It was specifically Italian Base Set that I was asking about.
I talked to several people while researching that topic.
I just double checked what Carta Mundi Belgium told me.
Luc Mertens:
Your question about Made in Belgium: yes, if that is on the display the cards should be produced in Belgium as well. This is a rule stated by the ministry of economy and customs.
On the Italian subject, Italy was and still is extremely big on Pokémon. In certain cases indeed production for Italian product happened at both sides of the ocean.
So instead of Belgium telling me that WotC was in a hurry, that part of the info must have come from one of the WotC people I visited with. I should have the quote saved, but it’s difficult to double check, until I can remember which person said it.
I suppose that WotC could have been impatient on a subsequent print run instead of the first print run.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be the UV Press that was causing Carta Mundi to be slow, there could have been something else going on.
We’re in the realm of speculation here.
For English, shadowless Unlimited cards were released to the public first, in Demo Boosters, Theme Decks, & Two Player Starter Sets, during 1998, then 1st Edition happened in January 1999, then shadowless Unlimited booster packs were made.
”1st Edition” isn’t necessarily the first release, though I wish it were.
Either way is possible here.
Here’s a general run down of the events…
By showing how good Pokémon was doing in the USA, WotC was able to renegotiate the contract with Pokémon, expanding WotC to worldwide distribution outside of Japan.
This also made WotC more valuable to Hasbro, which resulted in higher buyout offers.
Pokémon licensed the anime separately from the games, which resulted in Topps also selling Pokémon cards to the US market.
This forced WotC to release the Jungle expansion in June 1999, a few months earlier than they wanted to, while battling Topps for market share.
July 1999 was the first international product under the expanded license contract. It was international English Two Player Starter Sets. They were first, because they didn’t require any extra time for translation into another language.
Chris was the typesetter for Jungle and all the earlier WotC Pokémon stuff, but he’s more of a Magic fan, and was happy to hand over all the subsequent Pokémon stuff to another typesetter. Her name is Kat. I visited with her a bit, and she did all the languages after this point, except for the Asian languages. She was the main typesetter for Pokémon for quite a while, and was really into it, but she’s stepped away from the industry and gone a different direction with her life now.
French, German, Spanish for Latin America, & Portuguese were the next languages made, all being done in July, August, September, & October, with a 1999 copyright date.
French 1st Edition Base Set sheets are dated September 29th 1999, and were printed at the Carta Mundi facility in Belgium. Not sure exactly when those other languages were printed, but it was before November.
German was also printed at Carta Mundi in Belgium. Most Portuguese cards are sold in South America.
September 9th 1999, Hasbro purchases WotC. I think the Pokémon license / contract was updated again as part of the ownership change, but it just extended the term for a few months longer than original.
Fossil released in October
Test prints were made for the new Cosmos holofoil, using the existing Fossil printing plates.
The English Base Set cards with the 2000 copyright date, were printed November 1st 1999, at the GPS Colour Graphics Ltd facility in the United Kingdom. Labor cost was cheaper in the UK than in Belgium.