I believe the first pokemon cards to be whatever the first sketch of every card was but those probably aren’t around anymore, and if they are they are probably in some notebook that will be thrown out at some point
There is no evidence that Funskool was licensed. Please feel free to produce that evidence if you find it in the future.
???
Almost everyone who talks about Pokemon cards is referring to official product. There is a reason why non-TCG cards are qualified with their name (e.g., Bandai Carddass, Zukan, Topps, etc.) when buying/selling/discussing.
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Thank you for the clarification. Very well said.
That would be the prototype paper playtest pasted on a card, but those are not cards. The first true cards printed on cardstock would be the Bandai.
Ok dude, whatever you say 
Your talking about stiff cardboard generally you make cards out of stiff material but if there were similar cards then it would follow along the line of playing cards. So technically if Ishihara when he was a kid drew a purple snake on two different pieces of paper called them ekans (or the equivalent of it in japanese) I would consider them the first cards. I do think that it is a point of view though that slips of paper isn’t a card. But it’s all up to interpretation. A(by the way a playtest card has card in the name making it a card lol)
this was my experience as well, and japanese cards were also pretty unwanted at the time think ppl thought they were fake or something 
That’s not entirely true. If we look at the definition of a card, and moreso a licensed, printed Pokemon card, then no, your example is not a card as a drawing on paper is not a card, it’s a paper drawing.
Also, “playtest card” is not in the name. If you look at the label it says “playtest mounted on card” so the pokemon aspect was simply a piece of paper. If they were cards, then they wouldn’t have been mounted. The first cards are the Bandai carddass in 1996.
Satoshis idea for pokemon came to him when he was disappointed with all the games that were out at the time. He thought of how he can make games better and thus the idea of pokemon came to be. The TCG was not the first thing he and Sugimori set out to do. They set off to make the green and red gameboy games FIRST. Ken Sugimori created the vast majority of the first pokemon arts for the green and red gameboy games specifically. Again, not the tcg. Thats an important piece of information that no one here mentioned when debating about the “test print” cards and other cards that were made for the TCG specifically (which came later) and the 1995 topsun / 1996 bandai cards, which were made specifically to go hand in hand for the green and red games. Even though the 1995 topsuns werent released in time for green and red, doesnt mean they werent produced before or during.
The 1995 topsun card backgrounds are a splitting resemblance to the original green and red gameboy cover, they also have the same descriptions / texts that the original red and green pokedex had in the game (1996 bandai have slightly different more upgraded and detailed backs with game references on the bottom on each side that say “green version and red version”). Heres a really IMPORTANT PART, The 1995 topsuns also do NOT include a MEW… Ill explain why I think that Mew not being included in the Topsun cards is vital for this debate. And why I think the 1995 topsun cards were truly the first ever produced (but not released until later in 1997). Before the bandai carddass 1996 cards.
Shigeki Morimoto put Mews code in the original red and green game very last second to joke with his colleges… Ken Sugimori did not develop Mew or know about mew, it was Morimoto who drew it, this is also very important. Moriomotos glitched mew encounters brought on A LOT of attention and interest to the games. After the rumored glitch encounters of Mew going around, the hype became so massive that Satoshi started promoting Mew through the first ever pokemon event in 1996… where 20 lucky people got to obtain mew (not through glitch this time). Pokemon sales went through the roof. The copyright 1995 TOPSUN cards have NO Mew. I believe this is because Sugimori did not know mew existed when those cards were being made. Its the only logical reason I can think of why they didnt include mew, their MAIN hype man, in those cards. Is it just a coincidence that they didnt put mew in there if it was the most hyped pokemon at the time that was boosting pokemon sales? In a pivotal time where pokemon was growing? Pretty incredible coincidence and not super bright of pokemon to not include it OR holos (which got amazing reception from the fans). Unless, the topsun set was already produced before they realized what impact Mew and holos would have. Thus the copyright date of 1995 (earliest printed on any pokemon card, bandai has 1995 AND 1996 printed on it). It would be logical to think that Mew is not included in the 1995 topsun cards because Sugimori created that set before he even knew Mew existed. Thanks to Morimoto. Some of the later statements made by the developers and creators having to do with mews success of pokemon are listed below.
Iwata - “There was a really incredible response to CoroCoro Comic’s announcement of the Mew offer. I feel that’s really when things turned around for Pokémon”
Ishihara - “I believe so too. The monthly sales we’d had up to then began to be equaled by weekly sales, before increasing to become three then four times larger” - in reference to Mew
Ishihara - “There’s no denying that Mew’s existence played an extremely significant role…”
Morimoto - “Unless we could think about any good opportunity to do so, the existence of Mew wouldn’t have been revealed to the public” (this is in reference to releasing the game before he knew people would discover it through a glitch)
So… why would pokemon create the 1996 bandai cards first? And then release an obsolete version (topsun with copyright 1995 on them) that matched the green and red game official release covers, and with almost identical pokedex text in green and red, and WITHOUT Mew and WITHOUT holos much later in 1997? I believe that they created the 1995 topsun set, then mew came to be, the hype and sales got so big, they decided to hold off the release of topsun for the upgraded, more complete and more desirable set in the 1996 Bandai cards with Mew and holos. I would hold off the release the 1995 topsuns too and throw their obsolete asses in a pack of bubble gum years later too (to not let production go to waste) if its missing the number one hype pokemon at the time AND no holos… It wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Unless… mew wasnt known at the time to Sugimori.
The success of Mew made Satoshi and the team adapt and make viable adjustments, they would be dumb not to… IMO. Id say it would be going against the grain to think that 1996 bandai (with mew) was produced before topsun (without mew) given the info above. According to Gary - “It was never disputed by MF or Bandai that the first Pokemon card/sticker produced was by Topsun… Their production date was 1995 (for future release) … though there were many floating around prior to mass release” If this is true then it would make more sense.
Regarding the “test print” cards debate and people saying they were the first, the 1995 topsun cards and 1996 bandai cards were never made for the official TCG and were never meant to be played but to promote the games and pocket monsters in general. The developers have stated in an interview that the tcg and many other ideas came AFTER the the gameboy games red and green. This is pretty telling of which card was created first and with priority since the games were their number one priority and inspiration to begin all this. The test print cards are way more far along in terms of detail with power lvls, attack power, layout, description and play-ability in general, clearly made for the development of the tcg which came AFTER the green and red games but before the red and blue english releases. So why would they have started making the final draft versions “test print” cards meant for the tcg before the 1995 topsun cards that were meant to go hand in hand with the green and red games? Would make very little sense.
Also, on the debate of topsuns and bandai cards not being “pokemon cards”… Ken Sugimori himself put his original artwork on those topsun / bandai cards made for the first ever pokemon product (the game). I dont see how they wouldnt be considered pokemon cards. Thats more of a pokemon card than any other pokemon card I know of. What people seem to be debating about is what are the FIRST Pokemon cards in general, TCG or not, from what Im understanding from the OP. A pokemon printed on a card. Its not about whats more valuable and desirable, thats bias thinking. Obviously the 1996 bandai carddass cards were major upgrades compared to the 1995 topsuns. If were talking about rookie cards for tcg then test prints and the 1996 japanese base would be considered rookie cards in accordance to official tcg but were talking about something different.
This is a pic of the 1995 topsun cards that are identical to the green and red game boy cover release.
Here are the pictures of the text from topsuns and the red and green games pokedex. Then I included the 1996 bandai backs so everyone could compare which one was way more developed (final draft to compliment the games) and which was the obsolete version (or the FIRST versions).
1995 topsun card compared to the red and green pokedex:
1996 bandai card compared to the red and green pokedex:
Look at the text, and for anyone who can translate japanese would be very helpful.
I personally like the 1996 bandai cards for obvious reasons but also stating some things that were not mentioned for the 1995 topsuns that are very viable and should be talked about. That were not brought up at all in this post.
I apologize if I mistyped or repeated some things. I was jotting this down pretty quickly and definitely made some errors. These are my opinions from my knowledge on this so far, if anyone has anything to share feel free.
At the end of the day thats why I believe that it makes more sense that the 1995 Topsun cards were the first pokemon cards created or even thought of. I do not think they were just made to go with bubble gum years later after the initial game release… after everything I stated above.
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You’re making many assumptions here. Mew was not necessarily unknown to GF as you mention, it’s literally referenced in the games and is tied with the creation of Mewtwo. I’m pretty sure there’s a DYKG video on Mew, it was added as a pokemon last minute but regardless the R/G watercolored artwork for all 151 pokemon seems to not have been finalized until roughly March/April '96. No merch can exists without the stock artwork.
Second, I don’t see any reason why Sugimori would be involved with the creation of Topsun or any licensed product, he’s art director for GF not Creatures (which handles merchandise). Bandai Club Toys was the first licensed pokemon product and Topsun didn’t acquire a license agreement until '97. If a product is made w/out licensing you wouldn’t see any reference to pocket monsters/pokemon/nintendo etc… You’re free to opine on what you consider is/not a “pokemon card” but the release of products is known at this point.
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I stated that I was speculating based off what we know. And what I wrote isnt farfetched. Top Seika made an agreement with Shogakukan in 1997 for the gum, doesnt mean the cards were produced in 1997. Why would they have a copyright date on 1995 on them? Those topsun cards go hand in hand with the release of green and red versions. It wouldnt make sense to create those cards after the success of mew and the holo versions from bandai. That doesnt mean its a fact, im just stating that it wouldnt make sense at that time where mew was their mascot and leading the sales.
The paper work for creatures inc was filed in late 1995, Im just saying Sugimori had these arts for the topsun cards ready to go before that, that did not have Mew. I shouldnt have said sugimori “created these cards” I meant he drew them and that they were meant to go hand in hand in time with the release of green and red but didnt release. Instead they chose to go with bandai for the next couple years because of just how more upgraded the cards would be with holos and mew. Then, to get rid of already produced stock, they partnered with Top Seika to put the already produced and obsolete versions in packs of gum.
In an interview with all the developers, they stated that by the time Sugimori find out about the joke, he had too little time to implement mew for the actual game (for official release), so he decided he couldnt do it on such short notice and chose not to. So Morimoto chose to take up the task and had everything to do with mew. I forgot to mention that in my first statement sorry. Ill find where I saw that interview and link it. Morimoto stated he and someone else knew about mew while everyone else did not.
Its not farfetched to think that sugimori had these drafts ready to go for topsun to develope later when they made the agreement. For there not being a mew in them and because there were originally 150 pokemon listed until satoshi chose to include mew later. Its clear these topsun cards were made for the games. Speaking of pokemon, just look at the evolution of the bandai cards compared to the topsuns. Its a huge step up and clearly more developed. Again thats my speculation. Hopefully we can build some more on this topic
Someone will get to this after me, but just putting in my 2 cents. I believe there is no evidence at all that the topsun were “created” in 1995, as they received their license in 1997. The 1995 on the topsun card is just copyright. I’ll link some information below. Gary himself also said that he agrees they were neither produced nor released in 1995.
What is the topsun card? - PokeBoon JAPAN.
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Ah, I see where you’re coming from. It would be nice to know, I get the feeling Nintendo was hesitant at first to get involved selling merch, such as the tcg, so obviously there was discussions between Creatures and these other toy companies early on. The story is likely more interesting in our minds than how it exactly went down 
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There are many other non-tcg items that have the 1995 date on them (bandai pokemon kids cards for example). That its just the date creatures inc was created.