Oooh, there’s that vending snorlax that reignited my pokemon card love as an adult 
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Your mother has seriously good taste then, @parkermrparker ! Please tell her I said thank you!
@joponnes I’m so glad a card like that was one that could revive your love for the TCG. I remember seeing it as a kid and being like, “they made THAT into a Pokemon card?” but now I can’t help but love that kind of stuff. It really ties kids into the universe.
So minor updates but the latter of which marks an incredible point for me.
First off, a year or two ago @chrisbalestra showed off a series of Pokemon Center Phone cards. Of the 3, was this Lapras Phone Card which showcased Wartortle, Staryu, and of course, Gyarados. Currently it is the only phone card that features Gyarados and I was on the hunt for one and was thankful to track this down. The set was featured on July 18th, 1998 as part of a 3 card set in celebration of the Tokyo Pokemon Center Grand Opening:
A closeup of the Gyarados:
Next up, something pretty monumental for me for 2 reasons:
- It is the final card of a set I’ve been hunting for more than 3+ years now.
- It is the 2nd to last Gyarados card that I needed for my collection - meaning I have only the Snap Card left.
Roughly a year ago, after having no success on my own finding any of the Unlimited Gyarados from Rage of the Broken Heavens (Japanese Breakpoint), I posted this on instagram requesting help:
I asked for help in getting the Unlimited copies of these cards and after a month with no feedback, I decided to jumpstart the search and change my habits. Weekly searches turned into bi-daily searches. I signed up for Buyee, made some risky buys, had some failures, seeked many of your guys advice and expertise, and in the end, the connections, advice, and hard work paid off.
In the course of a year, I was able to track down all 6 Unlimited variants.
And a few days ago, nearly a year later after the above picture’s post, I was able to recreate the above picture with the Unlimited counterparts:
The final card I needed to complete this set and reach 169 out of 170 Gyarados cards in English & Japanese was the RotBH Unlimited Gyarados EX 081/080 Secret Rare:
Just 1 card left.
In the 20 years I’ve been collecting Gyarados as a kid, I don’t think younger me could have realized how much of a journey Arita’s Base Unlimited Gyarados would take me. There have been a few times that I thought I was close to being done, though with thanks to Quuador’s organizational talents and some cross references with Shizzle in the past, I found out that there were always a few cards that I missed.
But the lists have been checked 20 times over now - this is the closest I’ve ever been to completing a silly childhood dream I had as a young impressionable child.
I have some things to go over in my head about how to approach the last card and a crazy idea. I just need to tie some minor loose ends before I put it into effect and put everything I have into seeing if I can make it a reality. I have heavy doubts about realistically being able to obtain Snap Gyarados and at the same time, I’ve never given it a serious attempt. The card is easily worth 3~4x my annual salary but I wouldn’t be able to say I’ve done everything I could without giving it at least one real go.
Let’s see what this year brings. 
In either case, more updates to come as I have a bunch of non-tcg stuff waiting to be delivered from Japan.
Thanks as always for reading my long winded updates!
- Azul
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Congratulations @azulryu , what an update! I´m rooting for you getting the last one, you are the one person I would love to see acquiring the last missing puzzle piece…for now! 
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Thank you, @shadowless. It means a lot. 
And yeah, Gyarados will definitely appear in a new set at some point so there will definitely be new cards to acquire. Which is exciting in itself!
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Congrats!
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Wow! Been a member on here for about 6 months since I got into collecting. And there are some really cool, small big, rare, expensive collections and a mix of everything above. But this is amazing! Well done you. More so for sticking to it.
I’ve not read every comment on here you’ve got like 300 pages haha.
But have you ever got bored? Or stopped and then picked it back up? Or thought at one time or another this is where I draw the line? Curious to know!
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I’m with you… I love Gyarados. I also like the story behind it. Magikarp is completely useless, but when it evolves, it becomes this incredible pokemon. Your collection is amazing. Really amazing.
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Amazing collection, best of luck in your chase for the snap card!
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@brendantheclayboy I absolutely love it. XD Thank you for the encouragement!
Thanks @chrisbalestra !
And thank you @teamrocketcollector - you might be surprised how powerful Magikarp can be. I forget what the combination is, but I’ve seen people powerhouse sweep pokemon Teams with a Magikarp’s struggle. Just goes to show how tough you have to be to evolve. XD Always nice to meet another Gyarados appreciator.
And much appreciated, @lebleu !
Thank you so much! I agree, we definitely have a lot of amazing collections here on E4 and it’s always nice to just take a gander at people’s updates.
And I love your questions because I think that, at least for many of us who have been collecting for years, those walls are always something you grapple with from time to time.
I’ve definitely gotten bored before - sometimes seeing the same cards pop up time and time again when you’re trying to complete a collection can be burn-out territory. I’ve been lucky enough that a Gyarados card has been printed almost every year either in English or Japanese, but it’s not always the most exciting art *stares at Galactic’s Conquest/Platinum*. That’s usually when my non-TCG side of my collection fills that gap but there have been a couple of years where I haven’t found much to add on to the non-TCG side, or it’s just the same Sugimori stock art that they like to stick on everything.
I’ve also stopped at certain points, halfway through my teens I took a break to focus on Yugioh for about a full year or two until I gave that up too and got back into Pokemon. Then my first year or two of Undergrad I took a break. A few years ago I took a 2 year break as well only to come back around and had a blast catching back up. I think breaks are important. Especially for people like me who can’t just simply buy stuff willy-nilly.
I’ve had to abandon my side collections for the most part since last summer and have thrown out a lot of side collection ideas simply because I don’t have the luxury of being able to afford anything outside of my collection goals at this point. I was stung too many times in recent years because I missed something because I decided to spend $50 on a card for my side collection instead.
As for stopping all together, I’ve met burn out before and even attempted to sell my collection on two occasions - parting with some pieces that I would have easily paid 3x more for what I sold them to get them back today. But I had to learn the hard way not to part with my collection and to really value it the way I value it now. When it came to these final 6 and not having any luck in finding them the first 2 years, I wanted to throw my hands up and toss my towel into the ring, but I simply refocused and reorganized my priorities instead.
Honestly, what helps keep me going is the support I get from the community here, my friends inside and outside here, and the support I get from some great people on IG. I love sharing my collection, as small as it may be in comparison to many, and I love seeing people take enjoyment in sharing theirs. I’ve also had some incredible moments where this community has really pulled me back up when I was in some deep trenches. I lost my job one time nearing Christmas and it was devastating. But this community gifted me something that year and from then on, if I’m ever feeling rough about my collection, I pull out my binder, try to remember where every card came from, who helped me with it, and then I’ll read the card I received that Christmas, and it puts me back up.
This year, collecting has felt more important to me because being locked up during Covid has left many of my usual adventures out the window. I’ve solidified some friendships here that I wouldn’t trade up even for cardboard. 
Sorry for the long winded reply, but I found your questions wicked reflective. 
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Thanks man. That was nice little read on my way home just now. I love to hear stories like this. I like to learn from long time collectors such as yourself on some of the ups and downs of it. I love your passion for you collection.
Will keep an eye out for future additions. Hope you get that one card. From my short time collecting as an adult I know it’s a big one! Good luck.
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Thanks @gen1a, I hope not to disappoint. 
Speaking of updates, I was going to save this for a big post since I have a few more final tidbits on the way, but I’ve been valuing my personal time more so I’ll do small updates as they come.
Village Vanguard Poke Lid - Shiga Prefecture Replica & Sticker Set:
I came across Poke Lids as a concept about a year or two back when I spotted some for Slowpoke. For those who don’t know, Poke Lids started appearing in 2018 at popular locations across Japan. Poke-Stops are at each one for Pokemon Go users with Village Vanguard book stores near some locations which sell merchandise. You can see which Poke Lids are available and their locations by visiting the main site: local.pokemon.jp/en/manhole/
Back in September 2020, they announced two new Poke Lids for Shiga Prefecture in Otsu City by Lake Biwa - a callback to the Lake of Rage (located at the Kinki Region in Red from the website above):
A few months back I was actually able to get in contact with a Japanese seller who sold me some original newspaper and magazine clippings that commemorated the announcement (including the one posted above with the Replica):
Here’s a closeup of the insert:
Following this announcement, I would do weekly searches on Japanese Instagram and Twitter to see if any merch was being sold - finally spotting an article talking about official merch being in production which led me to grabbing a preorder at the end of December. I was super stoked to pick one up because they sold out within the first week along with the official set of stickers showcasing both versions.
I’ve officially broken out of my Pokemon Flats collection for Gyarados by getting this and in realizing this and looking at the stuff I’ve since acquired, I’m now okay with adding exclusive items like this to my collection as well as the occasional knick-knack. I’ll still avoid the black hole of collecting EVERYTHING Gyarados, but for the official tidbits like this, I don’t mind.
Stay tuned for more weird goodies! And after that? A major project.
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I love this. If you ask who the most badass Pokémon is, the winner has to be Gyarados. The Ivan Drago of the Pokémon world
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Hey buddy I just stepped into this selling post in a local FB group, he is asking 10 usd for it, do you want me to buy it? Can ship it for maybe 30usd to the states
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@papafrankgod , that would be amazing! Sorry for not seeing it earlier (feel free to message me on IG for things like that in the future). I’ll definitely take you up on that to match the pair.
But I can’t help but feel this is a trap…
And @lessthanbread couldn’t agree more. I feel like they did a disservice by making Red Gyarados lose to Charizard but we all know they had to hype up the lizard some way.
In either case! Going to do a quick overlook of some things I got since I got a big project underway with my collection which will be announced at a later time, so let’s get right into it:
HS Trainer Kit - I was priced out of the last few sealed ones I tried to bid on but got this opened one for a steal! Everything original is inside, including the pack (which was also opened).
I shared it on Quuador’s Non-TCG thread (as I’ll have to update with more of the items you’re about to see), but I got these non-peeled Banpresto Battle Chips with a sealed version on the way eventually:
Speaking of sealed, I got this 1998 Bandai Pracoro Gyarados Dice set. I’ve wanted one for a few years but each one that showed up ending up being in shoddy condition until this beauty appeared.
Eventually I’ll get the loose stuff as the Gyarados die is just too cool to NOT have opened.
Also received this 20th Anniversary Shaymin Postcard which features the lovely Shiny Gyarados in all his glory:
Next are these Best 10 Weight/Length Cards (need to find out where these came from unless anyone has information on them?). They look like inserts of some sort due to the perforated edges:
One of my favorite items - Pokemon Center Singapore EZ-Link Cards for the Grand Opening and the 1st Year Anniversary. Originally I avoided these as the only place I could find them (thanks to @dizzle24 ) had weird shipping prices. In conversation with them, though, they worked things out with me and explained what shipping looks like out of Singapore. They told me how they got these from the Center itself and so I took the dive. Some may recall my thread about Pokemon Center Singapore’s Illustration Contest and the possibility of Gyarados being one of the main features. Sadly the winning art left out Gyarados, but he’s been a pseudo-Mascot in exclusive merchandise since then and even has a Shiny Gyarados statue inside the center. These are the EZ-Link cards:
So cool to see Gyarados used as a Water Fountain in this:
And then we have this Pokemon Red - Green Super Music Collection which has some amazing callbacks and includes music from the original Red/Green and FireRed/LeafGreen games:
One of my favorite items (still need the other version) is this Meiji Rainbow Sticker. Pictures do not do these things justice and they remind me of Ghost Rares in Yugioh:
It’s hard to capture the effect from pictures or video, but I tried showing the rainbow properties as best as I could from this weird angle:
I’m still missing a few things to post and forgot to upload them on my home computer so will have to do a separate update for that. Got a poster that I’m excited to show off because it is a piece of Pokemon history.
Thanks for checking this all out!
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Amazing additions, specially that sticker. Also I feel kind of offended by the fact you thought my good intentions were a trap, I thought we were friends but well. Still congrats again for these great additions, sometimes I feel going for just Gyarados would have been better but as a high end enthusiast I couldn’t accept the only high end this guy has was the SNAP version, so I went to chase the rarer pre-evolded karpys instead. I don’t consider PSA 10 Base Set 1st the same as trophy cards, so it never really was a goal of mine or I considered as final goal or anything. Well all this rantling was ment to distract and confuse you and feel bad for the earlier incidet, because it was and always has been… a trap : )
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https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7c/80/01/7c8001fe1f013f4fef347428a074fb77.gif(image larger than 4 MB)
*angrily writes notes about future memery*
On a serious note. Part of me is sad that I never tried to jump on the Karp train because it is undoubtedly an incredible mascot for Pokemon with some amazing cards and memorabilia. That being said, I will never deny my journey with my favorite. Besides, I can always live vicariously through collectors such as yourself and the other Karp fandom.
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Despite poor lighting, a small apartment, and now some back issues, was happy to line all of these up for the first time since I was probably a teen. It’s been a weird and wonderful 20+ years, but happy to have come this far to showcase all 169 out of 170 Gyarados variants in English & Japanese:
To think it all started with these 5:
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Which art has grown on you the most? Was there an illustration you weren’t keen on originally?
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I like how the top of your SNAP Gyarados placeholder drawing looks like an arrow. Almost as if it is saying: ‘insert SNAP Gyarados here’.
And as I already said on your Instagram: big congrats on the (semi-)completion of your 20-year old goal, Devin!
Greetz,
Quuador
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