Some Early Japanese Pokemon Trophy Card Research

Since we’re playing the numbers game, here’s a few I’ve come across in Japanese Magazines:

1999 Challenge Road Tropical Wind: 90?

From what this says, this was given to the top 10 finishers at each regional 1999 Challenge Road event. Since there were 9 events, that looks to be 90 copies (which seems too low to me). Am I translating this wrong if anyone knows Japanese:

1999 Tropical Mega Battle (Hawaii) Exeggutor (Non-Glossy): 36?

I’ve read the number as 36 entrants to the 1999 Tropical Mega Battle making 36 copies of the card (But I have not confirmed this number in Japanese published print, it was listed in a newspaper article written before the TMB Hawaii). This one was for sure given out at the International finals in Hawaii.

2000 Tropical Mega Battle (Hawaii) 9th Lucky Stadium: 42 copies confirmed

A Japanese Trainer Mag article states 42 entrants were enrolled in the tournament, and it also shows from which countries all the 42 entrants came.

2000 World Challenge Super Secret Battle Tropjies: 20 sets

There were 20 sets of the W.C. Super Secret Battle promos (8 events, two were 2 day tournaments, and two age groups), and it looks like there was male and female variants included within these sets. These cards had the winners name and tournament location printed on them. Based on the winners pictures, here is the approximate number of each variant (perhaps there is some variance, it was hard to differentiate the males from females based on a headshot picture at times):

No.1 Male: 17
No.1 Female: 3
No.2 Male: 19
No.2 Female: 1 (rarest card ever!?)
No.3 Male: 20
No.3 Female 0

Cool tidbit of info: I found the picture and name of the exact card winner who won my No.2 W.C. SSB card (because the name and tournament location are printed on the card). SO cool!

NOTE: There were 2 finals for this event (based on the pictures, they look to be small finals with just , and in the Trainer Mag it shows one set of medalists for each holding what looks to be more of these cards. So there could be 2 more sets in here, I presume they changed the text for the finalist card? This remains to be seen. Those included 1 No.1 Female, 1 No.2 Female, and all the other 4 were Males.

2001 Neo Spring Road Trophies (Same artwork as the W.C. SSB, different text, has a star image in the text) 18sets

There were 7 tournaments, two were 2 day, two age groups for all, making for 18 sets.

Here’s the kicker! Looks like the 4th place winner got a trophy too! I have a couple tiny pictures of the 4 trophies together. Looks like at this event they recognized 3rd and 4th place finishers with trophies that were identical and said No.3 Trainer. Very cool stuff! Therefore there are 36 of the No.3 Trainer from this tournament. Again, on all these cards the name of the winner, and the tournament location are printed on the card.

I’m guessing there were male and female variants, but have no way to confirm. There are a few female winners in the bunch. Not going to go into details here!

There was also a 2001 Neo Summer Road which likely yielded similar card counts and had cards with the same artwork. Of course on the card text the two tournaments would be differentiated from each other.

Finally: Each of these 2001 Neo Road events yielded a final that each yielded one set of trophy cards. These are the infamous Lugia and Ho Oh holo cards with the picture of the card winner on them. These are likely some of the rarest Pokemon cards in existence :blush:

Put a lot of work into this! Hope you enjoy it. I will be working this into a large detailed article in the summer, complete with pictures and info on a lot more cards!

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Hmmm, if the Tropical Wind were given to the top ten finishers at each even (TMB and SSB) in the 99 challenge roads, that would make 180 cards.

I was thinking that aswell, the only reason I didn’t include the SSB is because in the magazine article it broke Challenge Road up into distinct halves (one where the SSB’s were given out to winners, and one where the TMB’s were given out to winners). But the Tropical Wind is listed as a prize only in the TMB half of the article.

I don’t agree that there could only be 90 copies, so I’m not satisfied with that. Perhaps it was given out at both events to make for 180 copies.

Also, who knows really how the Challenge Road TMB events were organized. For all we know, each Challenge Road TMB event could have been organized into smaller divisions leading up to a final set of battles for the TMB cards, with top 10 from each of the divisions getting the card, making for more cards. Just a theoretical example.

The jury is out, but it’s something at least!

Im very sure that the 2000 finals had those other trophy cards that we have seen a pic of… I can upload it once im home but I guess you know what I mean. Those cards that didnt have a pokemon in the artwork but were holo all over. Those cards were for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers of both tournaments TMB and SSB. The picture shows 6 players in total and reads “mega battle” and “super battle” in japanese… Only 2 of each card exist

And the world challenge summer TMB events had those no. 1/2/3 female and male cards as well

World Challenge Summer qualifying events were the ones I was referring to. It includes the TMB (younger) and SSB (older) age groups. But it appears that on all the qualifying trophies, and on my trophy in particular it’s listed “World Challenge Super Secret Battle”. BUT we have not yet seen a TMB age group trophy. Maybe they switched the words “Secret Super Battle” for “Tropical Mega Battle” on those. We have not seen it yet though, and on the stock art for the tournament (which shows the No.2 as a girl) it has the text “Secret Super Battle”

If that were the case, then there would be 10 sets of W.C. SSB and 10 sets of W.C. TMB differing only in the text in the card.

As for the finals for those events, there was a TMB one Aug. 26th, and a SSB one Aug.19th. In the Trainer mags there are pictures of the winners of that event holding their prize. But they cards look to be the same as the qualifying cards, that perplexed me.

As for these cards:

They presumably came from the 2000 Champion Road event which was in the winter of 2000, probably went out in the finals. Looking for more info…

Champion Road 2000 Events:

  • Jan. 8 2000

  • Jan. 16 2000

  • Jan. 22 - Jan. 23 2000

  • Jan. 30 2000

  • Feb. 6 2000

  • Feb. 13 2000

  • Feb. 20 2000

  • Finals: Feb. 26 2000

The prize for the Regional events above running from Jan. 8 - Feb. 20 was not a set of cards, but a plaque-type trophy:

IMO they got jibbed :wink:. And since there were two age groups at these events, there are 16 sets of these “plaques”.

Participation cards for these regional events: the pair of Champion Road Gold-Embossed Berries. These appear to have been given to the top 100 at each regional event in each age group, making for 1600 copies of each.

I believe the finals from this event (Feb. 26 2000, two age groups) would have yielded our 100% holo trophy cards.

Lastly, I believe there was a second set of Champion Road events in March 2000 that yielded the Champion Road Gold-Embossed starter cards. I need another magazine to get details on that event if I’m correct.

Yes you are right, those Cards were from the Champion road… I had Brian translate the scan for me a few weeks ago… sorry for the confusion…
Brian confirmed it was given to the winners of the “Super Battle” and “Mega Battle” thats what it says on the scan with the pic of the winners…

yes please upload as many scans as possible. .its cool to see those pics :blush:

Wow, I’ve never seen these before, its pretty epic.

Makes you wonder where they are right now.

Somewhere in my warehouse. :rofl:

Can we get some image updates please?

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Regarding :

2000 Tropical Mega Battle (Hawaii) 9th Lucky Stadium: 42 copies confirmed

A Japanese Trainer Mag article states 42 entrants were enrolled in the tournament, and it also shows from which countries all the 42 entrants came.

Comment:

I just spoke face to face to the owner of this card and TMB book who attended the 2000 Tropical Mega Battle Tournament in Hawaii.

By playing against an WOTC member and winning a Pokemon game against him he was rewarded by selecting/choosing a special card(s) given at that time.

He was advised to choose this card. So only attendees who won against the WOTC member could get a special card.

This is an other story as that this card was given to all attendees. :ninja:

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I will try update all the images of the previously mentioned cards once I arrive home. I’ll either be using stock images or images provided by other members (I’ll ask if need be and I can’t find them online anywhere). One day I’ll be able to contribute my own images ;-;

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wait, so were there also female and male variants for the tournaments in 2000, as well? I thought the female variants of the trophy cards was only from the 2002 Battle Road tournaments

It‘s not just possible it‘s a fact and we have proof that the 2000 amd 2001 tournaments had female cards. I have uploaded a photo in the other thread ‚rarest cards in the hobby‘