So, it’s been a while since I’ve posted pictures of my entire Pikachu collection. When you have almost 1500 unique cards, it takes a lot of times to take pictures of every single card, so I kept postponing it due to lack of time and motivation. But, a few weeks back I had an idea to show my entire Pikachu collection in steps, one language at a time, and also add general information about each language and their Pikachu released cards.
This new ‘Pikachu around the World’ series will have eighteen parts. The first fourteen are all Pokémon TCG languages in alphabetical order, only focusing on official releases: (Traditional) Chinese; Dutch; English; French; German; Indonesian; Italian; Japanese; Korean; Polish; Portuguese; Russian; Spanish; Thai. The parts after that will be all languages combined for the following categories: unofficial released cards & well-known misprints; one-off misprints; autographed/signed cards; and altered cards (mostly focusing on all my altered/extended Pikachu cards).
So, today we start this new Pikachu series with the first language:
Traditional Chinese
Let me start with a picture of all Traditional Chinese Pikachu cards. The Chinese portion of my Pikachu collection is complete.
The only Traditional Chinese card released outside of the Base Set (and the mentioned theme decks below), is the Jungle Pikachu card with golden tail stamp. This golden tail-stamped Jungle Pikachu card is part of the Pikachu World Collection 2000 set. This set consists of nine non-holo Pikachu cards of existing artworks, all in a different language. This product was exclusively sold at the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, from September 13th to October 1st, 2000.
The first Traditional Chinese set was of course the Base Set, released near the end of 2000. This set was released in both 1st and unlimited edition in Traditional Chinese, although the unlimited edition print run was smaller due to decreasing interest in Pokémon cards in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In addition to this set, some of the decks were printed as well, all containing unlimited edition Base Set cards: 2-Player Starter Set; Overgrowth Theme Deck; Zap! Theme Deck; Brushfire Theme Deck; and Blackout Theme Deck.
The Base Set of course contained the 58/102 Pikachu, in both 1st and unlimited edition:
Due to diminishing interest in Hong Kong and Taiwan for even the unlimited edition print run and some of the theme decks, they haven’t printed any of the other WotC era sets.
After that, there were years of silence for Chinese Pokémon releases, until in 2006 they tried to bring new life into Pokémon in Taiwan (these sets were never released in Hong Kong). They released the EX Legend Maker set in Traditional Chinese, as well as Plusle and Minun pre-constructed decks.
These Traditional Chinese decks contained the same cards as the EX Trainer Kit 2 Plusle/Minun Half Decks, but were released in different boxes (the booster boxes and packs of the set itself were different as well, actually). The Chinese EX Legend Maker set also followed the same set numbering as other EX Legend Maker languages. There were however two main differences: the Traditional Chinese set didn’t contained any Reverse Holo cards, nor did it contain the 93/92 box topper Secret Rare Pikachu. So no Chinese Pikachu cards were released in this set nor Plusle/Minun decks.
That same year (2006), they also opened a Nintendo PokéPark in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan. The park was open between June 23rd and September 24th, 2006. The earlier mentioned EX Legend Maker set was released at the same time this PokéPark opened. This Taipei PokéPark was also the location where the Japanese 2006 Pokémon World Championships was being held. Because of this, promotional Traditional Chinese cards were given out with entry tickets to the park during the last week of the event. A total of ten Traditional Chinese promotional cards were given at this event:
- POP Series 2 3/17 Raikou, given to visitors on Monday September 18th, 2006
- POP Series 2 1/17 Entei, given to visitors on Tuesday September 19th, 2006
- POP Series 2 4/17 Suicune, given to visitors on Wednesday September 20th, 2006
- Nintendo 029 promo Celebi, given to visitors on Thursday September 21st, 2006
- POP Series 2 5/17 Tauros, given to visitors on Friday September 22nd, 2006
- POP Series 4 13/17 Pikachu, given to visitors on Saturday September 23rd, 2006
- POP Series 1 3/17 Rayquaza, given to visitors on Sunday September 24th, 2006
- Nintendo 021 promo Jirachi (which was given sealed), which could be obtained by exchanging three tickets
- Nintendo 028 promo Champioship Arena, given to participants of the TCG tournament
- POP Series 4 9/17 Pokémon Fan Club (unknown how these were distributed, but here is the pamphlet it came in)
And as you can see in the list above, these ten hard to find Traditional Chinese PokéPark promos include a Pikachu with number 13/17 and POP4 set symbol, released on September 23rd, 2006:
After that, again years of silence for Chinese Pokémon TCG releases. Until recently, in October 2019, they started printing Sun & Moon cards, which were released in both Hong Kong and Taiwan again like the original Base Set.
The first Traditional Chinese set released during the Sun & Moon era was the All Stars Collection, with an accompanying All Stars Collection GX Random Starter Deck, released on October 9th, 2019. Unlike the Base Set and EX Legend Maker sets, which were printed in the US, these new Traditional Chinese sets were printed in Japan. Because of this, we also see that the set is split up into an A and B booster box like they do for a lot of Japanese sets, and the card layout and set numbering is also similar as Japanese cards (with silver borders and 00x/xxx numbering) instead of English cards (with yellow borders and x/xxx numbering). The back of the cards are still the same as the English cards though, so they kept it consistent with the earlier released Traditional Chinese cards and haven’t changed them to the new Japanese backs.
The cards in the ‘deck set’ were all non-holo, including the GX cards. Each deck contained 60 random cards, although still grouped together based on a certain theme. So every deck will contain the same amount of GX cards; Energy cards; and Trainer cards, despite being configured at random.
When this first set + deck was released, they also released three promo cards to celebrate this: the 001/SM-P Pikachu; 002/SM-P Mimikyu; and 003/SM-P Eevee. The A part of the set, as well as the deck, each contain a single Traditional Chinese Pikachu card, with numbers 048/158 and 047/157 respectively:
The second Traditional Chinese Sun & Moon set was the Dreams Come True Collection (again with a GX Random Starter Deck), released on December 20th, 2019. This set nor deck didn’t contained any Pikachu cards.
After that came the third Traditional Chinese Sun & Moon set Double Burst with GX Random Starter Deck on February 18th, 2020. This time the A part of the set contained six Pikachu cards (with numbers 068/184; 069/184; 066/184; 193/184; 194/184; and 2016/184), and the deck contained two more (with numbers 043/169 and 044/169):
The fourth Sun & Moon set was Legendary Clash (with GX Random Starter Deck), released on April 10th, 2020. The B part of the set contained two Pikachu cards with numbers 069/194 and 198/194, and the A part of the set nor deck didn’t contained any Pikachu cards:
As you may have noted by the release dates, the Traditional Chinese sets were releasing faster and faster after one another. The first Sword & Shield era set, simply called Sword & Shield, was released on June 19th, 2020 (with a Random V Starter Deck). This set didn’t contained any Pikachu cards, but the randomized deck did, with number 048/164.
Simultaneously, while all these sets were released, there were also small tournaments and events, where many SM-P promotional cards were released in Traditional Chinese, and later on S-P promos as well. Most of these promos were given at Pokémon TCG Gym meetings and Pokémon Day events, which are rather similar as Pokémon Leagues in other countries.
Although no more SM-P Pikachu promo cards were released after the 001/SM-P mentioned earlier, the first section of S-P promos that were released for the Gym battles of June 2020 did include the 008/S-P Pikachu promo.
The second Traditional Chinese Sword & Shield era set was Infinite Power (again with Random V Starter Deck), released on August 21st, 2020. The B portion of the set contained a Pikachu V Holofoil card with number 025/144, and the randomized starter deck contained the same artwork as non-holo with number 040/157:
Next we have the 025/S-P Pikachu promo with Gym stamp. This Traditional Chinese promo Pikachu, alongside 026/S-P Morpeko and 027/S-P Eevee, were given to participants of the Pokémon Card Gym Newcomer Challenge. This challenge was held at participating shops (not sure which), where new players would be given one of the random starter decks mentioned earlier to play a 20 minute game. I’m not entirely sure about the release date, but I’ve been able to find four Facebook posts mentioning it and the promo cards at: September 1st, 2020; October 29th, 2020; November 14th, 2020; and November 29th, 2020.
The third Traditional Chinese set of the Sword & Shield era was the Amazing Volt Tackle set. This set follows the same set configuration as the Japanese set by the same name. It was released in Taiwan and Hong Kong on October 9th, 2020, and just like the Japanese (and English Vivid Voltage) sets, contained four Pikachu full art cards with numbers 030/100; 031/100; 104/100; and 114/100. (I’m not aware of an accompanying Random V Starter Deck for this set.)
Released at the same time, by pre-ordering a booster box of the Amazing Volt Tackle, people would receive the 062/S-P Pikachu Vmax promo.
Also released around October 2020 was the Traditional Chinese 030/S-P Pikachu promo. All S-P promos from 028/S-P to 039/S-P were given at random to participants of the Pokémon Card Gym battles.
After that we had the Traditional Chinese Shiny Star V set with accompanying Partners V Starter Deck, released on November 27th, 2020. The set didn’t contained any Pikachu cards, but the deck did contain a Pikachu card with number 029/135:
Next on January 29th, 2021 there were a bunch of Traditional Chinese releases. First we had the fourth Sun & Moon era Traditional Chinese sets: Single Strike Master & Continuous Strike Master. This set didn’t contained any Pikachu cards.
On that same day, January 29th, 2021, they also sold the Sword & Shield Joyful Collection Pack, which contained the 041/S-P Grookey; 042/S-P Scorbunny; 043/S-P Cinderace V; 044/S-P Sobble; and 045/S-P Pikachu promos.
Also released on that same day, January 29th, 2021, to celebrate the Lunar New Year of 2021, was the Pokémon New Year Red Envelope Promo Pack. This pack was given exclusively at the Singapore Pokémon Center, to customers who’d spend at least 88 Singapore Dollars (~65 USD) at once. Although I’ve heard they were later also available at 7-Eleven stores. These packs would contain a single Pikachu promo card, one of seven: 077/S-P; 078/S-P; 079/S-P; 080/S-P were non-holo promos with same artwork as Pikachu cards from earlier sets; 081/S-P was a new holo promo artwork; 082/S-P was a reused Pikachu V artwork; and 083/S-P, which was by far the hardest to pull, with golden Pikachu & Zekrom GX artwork.
And one which was released after February 27th, 2021 (25th Pokémon Day), after which I stopped collecting Traditional Chinese Pikachu TCG cards, is a Base Set reprint for which I made an exception: the 001/028 Pikachu full art blocked Reverse Holo and regular holofoil from the Traditional Chinese 25th Anniversary Collection set, released on October 20th, 2021.
And there you have it: all Traditional Chinese released Pikachu cards, released before February 27th, 2021 (plus the Base Set reprint from Celebrations), after which I stopped collecting all languages for Pikachu.
The next language we’ll discuss is Dutch, my own language. Luckily there aren’t a lot of Dutch Pokémon TCG cards, so it will be a rather short next part (unlike the third language after that: English 
). But more on that later. I’m not sure yet in what interval I’ll make these parts. It also greatly depends on how fast incoming cards will arrive, and whether I have enough time and motivation to do so. All that’s known is in which order I will present everything, and that I will mention all Pikachu cards I own eventually. 
Greetz,
Quuador