These were my thoughts as well, I honestly don’t really see a major problem. At the end of the the day, they are a business and want a “piece of the vintage pie” just as multiple people have suggested, not sure why that is surprising.
Perhaps an easy way to mold originality with Pokemon’s origins is to simply copy/paste some of the vintage art and then expand it with full art cards. Can you imagine a base set Zard full art card with new artwork of a Charmander and Charmeleon in the foreground or background? That thing would stonk to the heavens.
Not with that attitude it wouldn’t. Maybe I’m misunderstanding - why couldn’t someone just take Charizard out of the holo and create an actual artwork around it?
The new holofoil looks pretty sweet, but the actual functional part of the set is almost laughable. What is the point of hamfisting the Lugia/Ho-oh/Suicune-ex cards in there without adjusting their stats to match the Base Set era? These Pokemon can take out all the starter Stage 2’s like they’re nothing and, in return, can barely be scratched by Charizard/Blastoise/Venusaur (even with the weird tools that try to balance out the powercreep by adding 100 damage to just the starter Pokemon). You would not be experincing the game as it was with the release of Base Set at all.
Also, the weird stackable damage counters looks like terrible implementation. It’s like playing Jenga on your nice shiny Charizard and hoping the things don’t topple and dent your card. The game already has a good way of dealing with damage tracking using dice.
If part of the intent was really to have viable Base Set decks readymade for people to pull out on the kitchen table and play whenever, it could’ve been done much better.
Also, I doubt any collectors are going to convert into players due to this product. The mechanics and speed of Base Set are so far off from today’s game that this product hardly serves as a transition into the other side of the TCG. And just to throw in some additional info, TPCi is already doing a pretty good job lowering the bar for entry into the competitive side of the game via battle decks (that are actually semi-viable) and the trainer toolkits.
Overall, just seems like a weird premium product to me.
Not so much a new trend but instead a continuation of something TPC has done for years now
I don’t foresee premium products being a “bad” thing for the hobby at large. The main thing I want with future reprints (if you want to call it that) is that they are easily distinguishable from the original cards/products they are based on.
I think this product is getting so much attention since its actually releasing in English while previous premium products and unique cards never make it to the west…(or they end up as box promos)
Anger and frustration around this seems like a nonproblem to me. If you don’t like it, then it is OK to pass on the product. Maybe you’re not the right audience for it. There will be plenty of other cards/sets/releases that you’ll enjoy in the coming years.
Focus on what you love and ignore the rest. Life is too short to be angry about Base Set reprint #69.