Question about Pikachu!

[shinyrayquaza]

So I have another question for my favorite people of all time! (=

So I have this Pikachu with the Red cheeks compared to the normal yellow’d cheeks.

So my question is; what is the big difference within these two cards, and why the Red Cheeks? Was this just a misprint or what? Cause I mean mine is in absolutely flawless condition, I just never knew what it was; or what its “special” was? Can anyone chim in and help me out here a little more, it’d be much appreciated. I’m sure everyone on here knows but me. Like I said, I’m quite new to getting back into collecting so I’ll be having quite a lot of questions! Haha. Hopefully you guys can manage / dealing with me!

Thanks guys for all the help ONCE again (=

[pokemoncardproject]

If I recall correctly, I believe the initial artwork was the red cheeks pikachu, but for some reason WOTC decided against it, and in turn, changed the cheeks to the more common yellow variant (something to do with the way the lighting bolts looked with the cheek color?). Apparently they didn’t even notify Mitsuhiro Arita about the change to his artwork, which is another reason the red cheeks is sought after, aside from its sheer rarity compared to the yellow variant.

Someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, lol.

[shinyrayquaza]

@pokemoncardproject

If I recall correctly, I believe the initial artwork was the red cheeks pikachu, but for some reason WOTC decided against it, and in turn, changed the cheeks to the more common yellow variant (something to do with the way the lighting bolts looked with the cheek color?). Apparently they didn’t even notify Mitsuhiro Arita about the change to his artwork, which is another reason the red cheeks is sought after, aside from its sheer rarity compared to the yellow variant.

Someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, lol.

Very interesting! I had no clue anything like this or of the sort was like this. I just noticed one day that one of my Pikachu’s in my original binder of my Base set cards had Red cheeks instead of your average/ typical Yellow’d cheeks and was like hey this is pretty cool. Started looking into it and saw that it was something different, or more sought after, but no idea what to do with it. Lol

[quuador]

This article of mine has close to all the info you’ll want to know about the Base Set Pikachu artwork.

But to quote the relevant part regarding your question:

In addition, the Base Set Pikachu was first printed with Red Cheeks, but WotC later switched to Yellow Cheeks instead. This change is by a lot of people mentioned as a misprint, and therefore this Red Cheeks Base Set Pikachu is considered to be the most well-known and easy to find misprint in the Pokémon TCG. Officially however, it isn’t a misprint. Although Mitsuhiro Arita’s original artwork (as can be seen on the earlier Japanese print) was with Yellow Cheeks due to the lightning bolts in the artwork, WotC employees thought the cheeks were supposed to be red since it’s Pikachu, so they changed it without Mitsuhiro Arita’s permission. They later on corrected it back to yellow cheeks. (Source: From a friend who got in contact with Mitsuhiro Arita himself in person at events, as well as on Facebook.) Neither of them are misprints, but the Red Cheeks aren’t Mitsuhiro Arita’s original artwork.

Not sure if this is 100% accurate information, though. When I contact mister Arita on FB about it all he said was:

I think so, but not certain. Ask WotC if you want to know fact.

Which basically means he can’t tell me.

The part in that it isn’t an actual misprint is true though, as well as that it later changed to yellow cheeks.

Would love to hear anyone from WotC about this, but I doubt we’ll ever know the factual reason for both Red and Yellow Cheeks Base Pikachus tbh.

Greetz,
Quuador

[shinyrayquaza]

Thanks for that @quuador I really appreciate the response/ feedback. Always nice to know just that much more information on somethings that I have collected over the years!

[quuador]

@shinyrayquaza

Thanks for that @quuador I really appreciate the response/ feedback. Always nice to know just that much more information on somethings that I have collected over the years!

Np. And we’ll never be done learning, no matter how long you’ve collected Pokémon. Even I learn new stuff every once in a while, and actually made a thread for some of the note-worthy things I learned here: Random Pokémon-related TIL moments.

Greetz,
Quuador

[shinyrayquaza]

That’s super awesome man. And again, sincerely appreciate it. Just always trying to learn new things for myself; and I am always looking out for my odds and ends Pokemon cards and trying to learn more on them. And this place is so awesome to be a part of; and all you guys are amazing on information.