I have two.
No rarity is the real first edition.
Shadowless charizard is more aesthetically pleasing without the 1st edition stamp. No, it’s not because I’m jealous. I just think the shadowless looks better 
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It’s not jealousy, I prefer my shadowless blastoise to my 1st ed blastoise aesthetically too. I do love the historical aspect of the 1st ed though.
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Shining charizard looks terrible.
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maintaining long term interest in the hobby. If it gets diluted enough that people stop caring it’s a significant threat to their long term business
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Do you think that decreasing interest in Charizord equals decreasing interest in Pokemon card collecting in general?
I for one am super into Pokemon and never gave a crap about Zards. Maybe I’m too spoiled by the beautiful diverse e4 microcosm, but I assume that most kids and casual collectors can appreciate non-Charizord cards, too.
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Charizard in general is a meaningful chase card in every set it’s in. Without meaningful chase cards (or with making cards so easily / heavily available it is no longer a chase) would (imho) lessen the interest in modern significantly. I’m not sure how much modern you open, I hadn’t opened any in a long time but I wanted to get a pulse on that side of the industry (and future of pokemon TCG) so I’ve done everything I could to see what it’s like. Opened a business around it, opened many hundreds of packs now, soon to be many thousands.
I can say now I can absolutely see the appeal, I love the hunt of filling out a binder. I love the sweat trying to get that big pull, checking quality on every card, all of that. It’s a rush, and it’s super fun. That said, after about the 10th pack you basically stop caring or looking at 90% of cards. A single case in and you have like 30 of every common and uncommon, even the reverse holos quickly become repetitive. You’re chasing those mythical hard to find pulls (that also hold value because of that). And it’s not just any pull, pulling a golden oranguru is not even close to the feels of pulling a rainbow vmax pikachu.
If that goes away, if there isn’t something to hunt, then people open 10 packs rather than 200. If there are so many charizards set after set after set that people don’t care about them anymore, well the plain fact of that matter is people just don’t care about (most) other pokemon nearly as much and if the allure of the zard goes away that would be very very bad for the hobby.
Now to be clear I don’t think zard stonking is the best way to enjoy this hobby lol, but it drives it. Without it it would be a very different environment and their interest and the interest of the general chase powers a lot of the wheels that turn vintage, and content creation, and all of the other ecosystems happening alongside of it. We should all hope it stays as healthy as possible, and TPCI is smart and doesn’t overprint (90s sports cards), or over saturate
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@primordialaa I see where you’re coming from. But assuming that only Pikachu and Zard have the ‘chase’ feel to them, what is TPC supposed to do about that?
Deliberately release a ‘weak’ set with neither of the two between two ‘strong’ Zard sets? That wouldn’t really change the fundamental ‘problem’ of too much consumer focus on the Zard, which is the cause of the Zard overprinting right now.
I think we have two different approaches here. I say people should care less about Zards so TPC prints less of them.
You say TPC should print less Zards to make people care more about them.
Not saying either one of us is right. It’s just not really possible to come to an agreement here, since we seem to have fundamentally different premises.
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Maybe they just need to do a better job at making people care about other Pokémon 
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I can agree with that!
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The problem really isn’t that people don’t care about other Pokemon; it’s that adults with disposable income don’t care about them. Next time you’re at your LGS, talk to a random kid and ask them what their favorite Pokemon is. I can almost guarantee you it’s not Charizard!
Obviously this makes sense because Charizard isn’t nearly as prominent in the current Pokemon generation. There’s definitely a disconnect that exists between what collectors/investors perceive as popular and what’s acutally popular among kids. It’s almost a culture shock when you talk to some kids because they are unfamiliar with Gen 1 Pokemon, but they can otherwise name a good chunk of Gen 7 Pokemon. Will definitely be interesting to see what this hobby looks like in 20 years.
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With a few exceptions, primarily Lost Thunder and EX Ruby and Sapphire, almost all my favorite Chansey cards come from sets or series that happen to contain a Charmander and/or Charizard as well. So in case this is causation and not correlation, I say keep it up with the Zards!
Base Set: Chansey Holo & Charizard Holo
Snap Promos: Chansey & Charmander
Vending Sheet 1: Chansey & Charmander
Gym Challenge [Japanese]: Your Name’s Chansey & Blaine’s Charizard
Neo Destiny: Chansey Clay Yuka Morii & Shining Charizard
Expedition: Chansey (Sample Set and Regular) & Two Charizards
EX FRLG: Beautiful Chansey reverse holo & Charizard ex
Hidden Fates: Chansey & multiple Charizards
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I agree that they should pull back on the zards. Fine, it’s a popular Pokemon, but why not give it 1 card in a set instead of 4 with just slight variations of the same artwork
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I think its more due to the fact that there are so many pokemon that arent charizard that causes so many people to not say its their favourite. I would say with some confidence that just about every kid still holds charizard in the top 10-20 of Pokemon. My kids still come home and brag about their friends charizard/rainbow zards all the time and is still 100% THE card to have.
My unpopular opinion is that zard is a crap pokemon and does not deserve its place at the top.
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When the Pokémon anime hit for the first time in English television, the absolute craze it had was maddening. I remember me watching it starting from ep1 myself. I was so into it. The episode where Ash’s charizard decided to started listening to Ash and help him win the gym battle is still one of the greatest episodes ever. From there on out, charizard would forever be at the top. It’s a different matter that the anime sucked after that for me personally and I won’t get into it as I could write a thesis of how much I hate watching Pokémon.
Do I like zards being thrown in every set? No. Is every zard artwork good? Nope. Does it deserve it place at the top. Absolutely! I will not have it any other way. Ofcourse people are free to choose their favourite Pokémon but there’s a damn good reason Charizard is at the top.
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I hate they’ve decided to name the February set “Shining Fates”…
Why not “Legends of Galar” or something similar as its mostly Sword and Shield series Pokemon?
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they want to ride the hidden fates hype. good marketing imo, the set is going to sell like mad and prices will be through the roof.
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Clearly thats what theyre trying to do, its just done so poorly imo. 'What do people like? Shining legends? Hidden fates? Lets make the new set Shining fates"
Just so stupid lol
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the cards look great and the art looks great. with the exception of another chase zard whats not to love?
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I might’ve preorded some boxes if they would’ve went for Shidden Fatends.
Wasted potential.
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