The Great Topsun Debate : Looking at the History of Pokémon

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I have seen some mixed opinions lately regarding Topsun cards, when they were released, and if they are the first produced Pokémon cards. Although I cannot confirm my theory, everything below is based on research. I am presenting this to help solve this “debate” but in NO WAY claiming i am definitely correct. I have worded this like a research paper supporting this thesis however this is meant to start a discussion. I will happily edit or add information as the forum sees fit. To start here is a summarized timeline of the history of Pokémon up to 1997.

(Bibliography coming soon)

Timeline

1983-Satoshi Tajiri (the founder of Pokémon) starts Game Freak Magazine focusing on arcade games while studying at Tokyo College of Technology. Printed (1983-1986) The first magazine is sold in a dōjin shop.( a store that specialized in self-published works)

  • Ken Sugimori was trying to become a manga artist at the time and visited the dōjin shop. He read the first copy of the magazine and sent a letter to Tajiri right after. This led to a friendship between the two and Sugimori being hired as the main illustrator. He was in charge of illustrations starting with the 3rd issue.

~1985-1986 While making the magazine Tajiri enters in various contest by game manufactures with ideas for games. He even wins a contest, but his game is never made. This frustrates him and makes him realize that current games are lacking quality. He decides to make his own games with the help of Sugimori.

1989- Satoshi Tajiri founds Game Freak, a video game company with the same name as the magazine. He starts the company with Ken Sugimori and Junichi Masuda, who was originally hired to compose the video games music. Their first game is puzzle game called Quinty which helps to initially fund the company. The English release is called Mendel Palace. Other notable games they worked on are Yoshi, Mario & Wario, and Pulseman.

1990- Satoshi Tajiri pitches the idea of Pokémon to Nintendo. They were skeptical at first but due to the respect they had for him after working together in the past they decide to explore the idea. Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario Bros and Legend of Zelda begins to mentor Tajiri. The first games, Pokémon Red and Green, took the next 6 years before they could release, almost bankrupting Game Freak along the way. Tsunekazu Ishihara, who is the current Pokémon Company CEO, worked on the Pokémon Red and Green games while he was a producer at Creatures Inc in the early 90s. If not for Creatures investment in Game Freak the company would have surely failed. For this reason, Creatures Inc. was given one third of the Copyright along with Game Freak and Nintendo in 1995.

1995 The Original Pokémon Copyright is filed. The copyright is split 3 ways between Nintendo, Creatures Inc., and Game Freak. Pokémon Red and Green are set to release on December 21 1995 however there is an issue with the Game Boys. This led the release date to be change to February 27, 1996 instead.

1996- Pokémon Red and Green are released February 27 in Japan. The design for the game included the 150 Original Pokémon. However, Shigeki Morimoto, one of the game designers at Game Freak, secretly programmed Mew into the game as a joke among Game Freak Staff that only they would be able to obtain. Mew was later revealed to the public in April after Tajiri ran an ad in the Coro Coro magazine to Morimoto’s surprise.

1997- Satoshi Tajiri signs a license agreement with Tv. Tokyo, Shogakukan Productions and Jr Kikaku regarding the production of an anime and similar products. Episode 1 of the anime releases April 1st 1997. This year Shogakukan signs a license agreement with Top Seika Co. to start selling Pocket Monsters gum.

This timeline and information can help us solve the mystery of Topsun Cards and which is the first produced set. Unfortunately regarding Topsun Blue and Greenback cards, we have no exact acknowledged release date. However, when looking at the history on this timeline, and comparing to various other cards, we can piece together a timeline of why Topsun blue and greenbacks could potentially be the first produced set.

Topsun blue and green backs are the only set to be dated with just the original copyright of 1995. This has led PSA to labeling them as 1995 although many people like to claim they are made in 1997 due to an article on Pokeboon. However, this assumption could be wrong. The Pokeboon Article mentions how they were surely from 1997 as Top Seika Confectionary, the candy company whose gum the Topsun cards were sold with, signed a license agreement with Shogakukan Productions in 1997. Although this points to an official release date of the cards with gum, they may have been produced prior. Game Freak/ Creatures were known for giveaways and promotions to promote Pokémon as it had a slow start and these cards could have been used as a giveaway prior to 1997. The basic summary explanation how these could be produced in 1995 is Creatures/ Game Freaks history from the beginning of always labeling Copyrights on cards as well as the lack of Mew in the set.

(For reference every card mentioned below will be labeled with a picture example from that set. I picked some of my favorite cards.)

When looking at the original Topsun cards there are a variety of factors that lead me to believe Green and Blue back non holo’s were the first cards produced in 1995 and NOT originally produced in 1997.

  1. They feature the same layout as the original 1995/1996 Red and Green release flyer. The 1995 flyer is one of a few other Pokémon items to solely feature the 1995 Nintendo / Creatures Inc. / Game Freak copyright. However the main significance of this point is the matching layout, not the matching 1995 date.

  1. They do NOT feature the added copyright for Shogakukan, Tv Tokyo, or JR Kikaku on the cards. This copyright was added to ALL OF THE NON TCG CARDS after the deal with Shogkukan was signed in 1997. The Tv. Tokyo, Shogakukan and JR Kikaku copyright appears on the 97 Bandai Carddass set, the 97 Topsun Vs set, and the 97 Tomy scratch set as well as ALL of the following Non tcg sets after. They also appear on the Original “95” Topsun Holo set (see point 3). The only cards without these copyrights are the 96 Bandai Carddass set ( released September 1996), the 96 Bandai Carddass Jumbo Promos( released after the 96 Carddass set in anticipation of the 97 set), the Banpresto Jumbo Prototype set from early 1996 which was never released, and the original Topsun blue and greenback sets.

  1. The Topsun “95” blue back holo’s feature the Tv. Tokyo, Shogakukan and JR Kikaku copyright. This means they were produced in 1997 after the license was signed. Non holo Blue and Green backs were originally produced in 1995 in preparation for the launch of Red and Green. The Holo’s were produced after the licensing deal in early 97. They were likely produced after the success of Holographic cards in the Japanese 96 base set, as a way to boost excitement for the gum. They only offered 1 holo per 2 boxes of gum (20 packs per box) to add to the chase.

  1. Top Seika changed its name to Top in 1998. On both the original 97 Topsun holo’s as well as the 97 topsun VS set and all following Topsun cards, you will notice the card will say either topsun, or top (in Japanese) depending on when it was made. If it was made before 1998 it will say topsun.

  1. The original Topsun cards do NOT feature Mew. The design plan for the Red and Green games included the 150 Original Pokémon. However, Shigeki Morimoto, one of the game designers at Game Freak, secretly programmed Mew into the game and revealed Mew to colleagues just prior to the release. He did this as a joke among Game Freak staff as a Pokémon only they would be able to obtain. Then to Morimoto’s surprise, Game Freak President Satoshi Tajiri ran an ad in the Coro Coro magazine previewing Mew in April. This was Mews first public reveal. Both the blue and greenback topsun set and Banpresto Jumbo set do not have Mew included. Any set made without Mew was produced before the public reveal of Mew in April of 1996. The first officially released set with Mew is the 1996 Bandai Carddass Vending Set which was released in September of 1996. Japanese Base set was released October of 1996. The only other set to not feature Mew besides 95 Topsun Blue and Green backs is the 1996 Banpresto Jumbo cards.

  1. Creatures Inc. was officially founded after changing their name from Ape Inc on November 8 1995. Creatures is widely responsible for the Pokémon TCG and Toys since Pokémon’s beginning. It is possible they had the original 95 Topsun non holos produced in November of 1995 as a marketing tool to release alongside Pokémon Red and Green in December after Nintendo’s recommendation. (see point 7) However, as the games were delayed the cards release would have been as well. This could explain why people claim to have seen topsun cards as early as 96, as Game Freak was known for giveaways to market the brand. Then when the anime deal was signed in 1997, they set up an official release for them with Top Confectionary which dropped with gum that year. This would also explain the reason for the new holo’s as an added chase card to up excitement for the already previewed and partially released cards. Pokémon has been known for amazing promotions and great market understanding since their origin. Modern Pokémon’s success today is an example of this.

7.) Nintendo has had a License agreement with Top Seika for Super Mario Bros since 1985. It is possible that they recommended this collaboration to Game Freak / Creatures for Pokémon. Pokémon topsun cards would have been first produced as early as November 1995 based on the Creatures copyright and Creatures name being founded in November. However, it would be very understandable for Top Seika to not want to fully release a product until the success of Pokémon was proven. This would lead to an official release in 1997.

Basic summary

Based on the history of Pokémon and their record of accurately labeling early cards with proper copyright dates, as well as the fact Topsun blue and green backs do NOT have Mew in the set supports the idea they are the first Pokémon cards ever produced in 1995.

Side debate: Green vs Blue backs which came first???

I am still researching into this topic further but here are some of the points for either side.

Blue backs: commonly considered to have come first due to No number errors. There are only 50 blue backs that come with no number so many believe that this was a test run originally. Another interesting point is when comparing the original topsun 97 holo to the topsun 97 VS holo you will notice the original ones have a blue back and the VS ones have a green back. This could be following the pattern of the non holo cards with the blue being first.

Greenbacks: Gary mentioned when he would buy binder from Japan back in the day the green backs always came first. Red and Green were the first games with Blue being the third. One could argue that they finalized the designs with Greenbacks and then did a test run of no number blue backs to see how they turned out/would be received. Then after approving the 50 prototype blue backs the rest were printed. The blue backs could have been planned to release as promo with the Blue release In October 96. Another interesting fact is Topsun Holo’s ONLY came in boxes of Greenbacks. On the contrary in the Topsun 97 VS set the non holo cards are greenback and Holo cards are greenback.

Excited to hear everyone’s opinions. Almost all of this information was found on Japanese websites I translated. I am a Japanese non tcg collector primarily and love these sets! My apologies if there are any typos, i have been researching this awhile but rushed to get this out after seeing recent discussion on about Topsun.

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Thank you, this was very comprehensive and detailed.

For point 5, don’t the back of the cards say the word Topsun in Japanese?

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Ooops i forgot this, the problem with rushing! You are correct. However a possible explanation for this is they were still made in 1995 in preparation to be released with the games. Nintendo and Top Seika already had a licensing deal set up for Super Mario since 1985. It is very possible they produced the Pokemon Topsun cards in 1995 in preparation to release with Top Seika after Nintendo’s recommendation. It would be understandable for Top Seika to want to wait a year for an official release to make sure Pokémon had a future . The history of them being accurate with the copyrights still make me believe they are 1995.

I will edit point 5 and add a new point instead . Thank you!!

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Wow! Thank you for that detailed account. Absolutely fascinating. I will be interested to hear other members accounts and I have the popcorn at the ready.

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You present your argument as if the evidence for the cards being made in 1995 is conclusive, but in fact it’s far from that.

Personally, I’ve always thought that the best evidence for the Topsun non-holos being produced before Bandai Carddass Series 1 is that Mew is not in the Topsun set.

The copyright date stuff you present is interesting but not convincing to me. Both Bandai Carddass Series 1 and Topsun have the “1995” copyright date. The fact that the Topsun holos have additional copyright information, while notable, isn’t what I would call definitive proof of anything. For example, the non-holos could have still been made in 1996, earlier 1997, or there could be some other explanation as to why this additional copyright info was put on the holo cards.

It’s totally possible that Topsun was made in 1995, but again, there’s just no real evidence for it. The truth might also be somewhere in between - that Topsun was manufactured in 1996 (same year as Bandai Carddass Series 1 and Base Set) and not released until 1997. Again, the “1995” copyright label (which is also included on Bandai Carddass Series 1) doesn’t mean much.

To me, the original date of release remains the most important thing for a couple of reasons:

  1. The release date is the only thing we have definitive evidence for.
  2. The date of release is what actually determines how the Japanese (global) public experienced Pokemon cards for the first time, which is probably more important than the fact of which cards were actually manufactured first.

Either way, it’s interesting speculative history, and the Topsun cards deserve a place in the conversation for the “original” Pokemon cards along with Bandai Carddass Series 1 and of course Base Set (which also has a good argument for the first cards to be manufactured, but again all we know is the release date of each set).

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I would love to hear an expert opinion on this because it’s very important to me to know which card came 1st

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These recent guides have been helpful. I would like to see more information fleshed out before people pour larger amounts of money based on what they think is the very first produced and/or released set.

You can make the same “Topsun was physically produced well before official distribution” argument with Base set. We have the Pokémon assembly line poster announcing the October 20 1996 release date featuring no rarity cards. Obviously these cards were printed months in advance in time for shipping and logistics, sheet cutting, placing into packs / stater decks, ink testing etc. Physical cards were likely used to show potential toy market buyers & store chains of the potential. From my perspective the safest thing to go off is official release date as there were undoubtedly cards we would recognize as Japanese base by summer 1996.

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I would like to respond to this more in depth, however it is late here also it would be beneficial if you could post the sites that you are quoting/translating.

1, 2 & 3.
There are quite a few items that have just the 1995 copyright date. As many have said before the copyright date means nothing. A copyright does not denote that something was made at that date.

More 1995 copyright:


(back of 1st flyer)

4.
Doesn’t say anything about being made in 1995.
5.
The absence of Mew is probably the most interesting element but at best it puts it at 1996.
6.
100% conjecture with no sources, you need some outside sources if you want to make these claims.
Also I have a problem with " these cards were very likely released as giveaway promotions on a smaller level after the release of Red and Green" you need to back statements up like this with real sources.

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I worded this like a research paper supporting a thesis. In no way am I claiming my speculative arguments are definitely correct. I am presenting researched facts along side speculative arguments based on those facts . When i worded something as “it is very likely” it is based off a comparison to a fact but technically this is an assumption.

I probably could have worded some things differently but i was rushed to finish, my apologies. I will get a Bibliography put together and add in citations to sources in the post.

As for the 1995 Flyer comparison, the main comparison point here is not the 1995 date but the layouts. Both feature the Red and Green layouts with background Pokémon. This is not one of the strongest points but is a supporting one. I probably shouldn’t have put it as point 1. This layout is also found on the 1996 Banpresto Jumbo set and the the 1996 Bandai Town Map cards.

As for point 4, I reference this so people can properly identify when their Topsun Cards with these attributes were produced. It is not meant to support the 1995 argument, i should have made that a separate section.

I’ll try and get it updated with a formal bibliography, in text citations, and further pics this week.

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Maybe @garyis2000 can chime in his thoughts since he’s been in the game for so long?

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Any thoughts on Topsun being sold to Nintendo? Had a guy walk me through that piece and why it legitimizes Topsun coming before Japanese Base Set.

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Here is a really interesting diary from a collector in Japan documenting their finds with early Pokemon items as they were released in 1996/7(waybackmachine captured 18 April 1999). The Topsun cards are not even the first variant released there were two gum related products prior both did not contain any cards or stickers however.

The only relationship I know that Pokemon shared with an outside company in 1995 was the Corocoro magazine (Dec 1995) (around Line 30). This was VERY early in Pokemon’s history Ishihara aka the president of Pokemon used them first to promote the Pokemon games. Nothing was produced before the Pokemon games especially cards (games were completed by October 1995).

So far I haven’t seen anything new about Topsun just speculation about the copyright. It’s the same as saying the Yellow gift pack was produced first because look at the copyright:

Update with links and documentation when you can I’m eager to see what you can rustle up!

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@collect incredibly interesting origin details I’ve never seen compiled together in one resource, thank you so much for putting this thread up. I love seeing the conversation and insights from E4 users already taking shape here.

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If Ishihara does another signing at Worlds, we should bring Topsun & Japanese Base. Ask him which came first. Undisputed results.

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@gemmintpokemon , he would know too in the research paper I posted above it also says Ishihara dealt with all the licensing with other companies especially in the very early stages. It even says there was a meeting held every year and Ishihara was mediator. However I think at least for me there is still no evidence for Topsun but it would be cool to ask!

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I almost made a note in my conclusion how Ishihara may be a surefire way of solving this mystery. I just never realized he did a signing at worlds so I figured the likelihood of asking him was near impossible. That would be awesome!

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This is a fantastic thread, very well written. Thank you for putting it together.
I’ve posted about the 1995/1997 difference before and have claimed quite recently that the Japanese Confectionary Database claimed these to have been released between March 1997 and March 1998. I’ve also compared the Pokémon release with the original One Piece gum set (One Piece didn’t exist until July 1997).

Unfortunately I couldn’t dig out either of those, so I’ve done some more research.

The JAN (EAN-13 / barcode number) for the “1995” set is 490 1919 00612 0. Without going into too much detail, this means it was manufactured by a factory in Japan and has a sequential product ID of 00612 or 612; the 0 at the end is just a check digit and can be ignored.

The next 3 products have been lost to time, but product ID 616 (490 1919 00616 8) is the “Topsun VS” set…

This set features artwork from the anime on the front including Togepi, who first appeared as an egg in the anime in an episode titled “Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon” which first aired on 28th May 1998.

For the original Topsun set to have been produced and distributed 1995 they would have had to put out only 3 other products between then and either very late 1997 or early 1998. I think that in itself is conclusive enough for me to believe that these must have been at least distributed in 1997 at the earliest.

As for why TV Tokyo and Jr Kikaku aren’t included in the copyright for the original set: the original set doesn’t include anime artwork, so those companies didn’t need to be involved. This I imagine is the same reason the copyright on the 1999 Japanese Pokémon Gold and Silver Game Boy Color games only includes Nintendo, Creatures and Gamefeak. There’s no need to include companies which solely relate to the anime if the stills from anime itself are not featured on the product.

I personally do not believe any Topsun cards were created in 1995 and honestly I don’t believe they were created in 1996 either. I’m still trying to find that Japan Confectionary Database website I once stumbled upon which showed the flavours and release dates starting in March 1997, but until then I think what I’ve said above should be a strong argument against 1995.

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All of the information presented so far is great.

My following comments are speculation,

but:

  1. The card designs could have been approved around the same time period as the first wave of 1996 cards,
  2. the contract could have enforced the release date of 1997 to stagger product hitting the market,
  3. the contract could have stipulated mew was to be withheld until approved, or indefinitely, or permission triggered by some other event such as a sales target.

We don’t know.

We do know Mew was being withheld from the game to be toted as special. I would not be surprised if Bandai with its massive clout demanded Mew be included in its set from the get go.

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@pichufan , I don’t know if you have seen the pack being opened.

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Having seen hundreds of Japanese owned binders years ago it left it pretty obvious that the media factory produced base set was the first ever released card set. Topsun/Bandai pages always came after the base MF set though usually before Jungle.
I thought this was pretty much confirmed by the 20th anniversary being celebrated in 2016.

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