Random Pokémon-related TIL moments

[Vertemes]

Today I learned that Greninja turned into Ash Greninja in SSBU for it’s final smash and now my life is completely broken. I have over 2,000 hours in that game and NEVER known this in my life. Ash Greninja is my favorite Pokemon when I was a child, so knowing this now makes me feel like a fraud.

[Vertemes]

Without Ken Sugimori there would be no Rayquaza, so now I’m obligated to be a Ken Sugimori fan. Also that he made shining Gary.

[Quuador]

YIL (yesterday I learned) that some Jumbo cards have been redacted, missing certain aspects (e.g. HP; Attack costs; Type; etc.) they didn’t wanted to reveal yet for the regular sized versions when the boxes the Jumbo versions came in were released. Thus far, this only applies to the Jumbos of the base sets of an era (Sun & Moon Solgaleo + Lunala; Sword & Shield Zacian + Zamazenta; Scarlet & Violet Koraidon + Miraidon).

Here are all six of them, with the redacted Jumbo on the left, and a regular-sized copy as comparison of the changes on the right:

Sun & Moon 89/149 Solgaleo GX (missing HP; Stage; evolves from; Attack Energy costs)

Sun & Moon 66/149 Lunala GX (missing HP; Stage; evolves from; Attack Energy costs)

Sword & Shield 138/202 Zacian V (missing Type; Stage; Ability; Attack Energy costs; weakness, resistance, retreat)

Sword & Shield 139/202 Zamazenta V (missing Type; Stage; Ability; Attack Energy costs; weakness, resistance, retreat)

Scarlet & Violet 125/198 Koraidon ex (missing Type; Attack Energy symbols; Energy symbols within the Ability text; weakness, resistance, retreat; set number)

Scarlet & Violet 081/198 Miraidon ex (missing Type; Attack Energy symbols; Energy symbols within Ability text; weakness, resistance, retreat; set number)

Overall a pretty weird concept..

Greetz,
Quuador

[Vertemes]

Rayquaza can evolve into M rayquaza without a stone.

Just another reason why he’s the goat.

[Quuador]

TIL (or to be more exact: AFDAIL - A few days ago I learned ), that the Ultra/Secret cards of the SwSh era Simplified Chinese sets have two different holo versions. One coming from the Slim (5-card) booster packs, and one from the ‘Jumbo’ (25-card) booster packs.

All credit of this information goes to @DragonClasher and @dylancollectsglaceon, who shared this info with me in the Pokémon species Discord.

The sets affected:

• cs3aC Primordial Martial Arts
• cs3bC Primordial Martial Arts
• cs4aC Nine Colors Gathering
• cs4bC Nine Colors Gathering
• cs5aC Charming Stars
• cs5bC Brave Stars
• cs6aC Dark Shadow of the Blue Sea
• cs6bC Dark Shadow of the Blue Sea

The different holo applies to all Ultra Rare V(max) cards, Secret Rare V(max) cards, full art Alt Arts, Hyper Rares, etc. Basically every holo in the set, except for Holofoil Rares and Reverse Holos.

Since I haven’t seen this difference in person yet, I’m not 100% sure what to look for, but here some pictures that were shared with me:

Apparently the difference is especially noticeable on the HR and textured SR cards, since PSA also differentiates between the two versions in their labels (these are both scans taken from PSA’s cert lookup):

This difference only applies to the eight mentioned sets of the SwSh era. All Simplified Chinese SM era sets will have the ‘jumbo’ holo variant, and all promos and SV era sets will have the ‘slim’ holo variant, from what I’ve heard.

Greetz,
Quuador

[Quuador]

TIL that the Fan Club Eevee doesn’t have a Vaporeon/Flareon/Jolteon in its background. Instead, they’re more Eeevee, but with the colors of Vaporeon/Flareon/Jolteon. I came across this picture that shows this pretty clearly:

I always thought this card had cameos of the three gen 1 Eeveelutions, but apparently it’s all just Eevee.

Greetz,
Quuador

[Quuador]

TIL, that even though Fairy-Type was discontinued in the TCG since the start of the SwSh era, a Fairy-Type card did release last year in 2025 (in five different holo versions):

It’s a reprint of the SM era Cosmic Eclipse card in Simplified Chinese.

S. Chinese kinda does its own thing with sets and releases.

Greetz,
Quuador

[slowqueen]

The holo shine on Breakpoint holo Slowking goes in different directions for Korean/Japanese than from the Western language printings

This is perhaps only interesting to me

[DarthEevee]

@slowqueen

This is perhaps only interesting to me

Now now you can’t be the only person. Maybe one more

[slowqueen]

[slowqueen]

Also, I want to contribute my own Slim/Jumbo variants in response to your comment @Quuador. I am not an expert so please don’t cite me as a definitive source on this, looking for these has been playing tricks on my eyes thanks to @DragonClasher and @dylancollectsglaceon for helping me identify these. Supposedly the difference also exist for non-textured Vs in addition to Vmaxes, but it’s definitely a bit harder to see on Vs, especially in photos. Included multiple photos in case it’s helpful

Here’s the note I have saved on my spreadsheet after discussing with Dylan and DragonClasher:

slim:
less saturated
less intense holo
thicker texture

jumbo:
more saturated
more intense holo
thinner texture

Slim on the left, Jumbo on the right for both

[SolemnStar]

TIL this actually is blowing my mind now, as its the core premise behind the manga I’m reading “daemons of the shadow realm” See look at the cover of the first volume