German
Elektek (Wizards Promo 2)
- The stage is “Normal-Pokémon” instead of “Basis-Pokémon”
- The move is called “Lichtschirm” instead of the correct translation “Lichtschild”
- Quick Attack was very literally translated as “Schnellangriff” instead of it’s actual German name “Ruckzuckhieb”
- Weakness, resistance and retreat costs are not capitalized, but should be
- The attack descriptions are also badly translated
Mewtu (Wizards Promo 3)
- The stage is “Normal-Pokémon” instead of “Basis-Pokémon”
- Psyburn was left untranslated
- The attack description of the first move is badly translated
- Weakness, resistance and retreat costs are not capitalized, but should be
The translation of this card was fixed with the reprint as Wizards Promo 16 like you can see on the picture.
Pikachu (Wizards Promo 4)
- The stage is “Normal-Pokémon” instead of “Basis-Pokémon”
- The attack description of Donnerblitz is different to the one used in Base Set
- Weakness, resistance and retreat costs are not capitalized, but should be
Dragonit (Wizards Promo 5)
- The German name of Dragonite is Dragoran, so the card name Dragonit doesn’t make any sense
- Stage 2 is translated as “Stufe 2” instead of the correct translation for the TCG “Phase 2”
- “Setze […] auf die Karte der Stufe 1” is also an incorrect translation for the TCG, normally it would be “Lege […] auf die Karte der Phase 1”
- In the attack description of Überschallflug there is a comma after “Zahl” which shouldn’t be there
- In the Pokédex entry “circumnavigate the earth” was translated to “die Erde […] umsegeln” which means “sail around the earth”, doesn’t make much sense for anything other than a boat
- Weakness, resistance and retreat costs are not capitalized, but should be
French
Electabuzz (Wizards Promo 2)
- The name of Electabuzz was left untranslated even though it’s French name should be Élektek
- Quick attack was translated as “Attaque rapide” instead of the usual “Vive-attaque”
- Weakness, resistance and retreat costs are not capitalized, but should be
Deuxmiaou (Wizards Promo 3)
- The name was translated into French (thus creating a complete new one) since Mewtwo is supposed to keep it’s name in French
- Weakness, resistance and retreat costs are not capitalized, but should be
The reprint also fixed the translation in French.
Pikachu (Wizards Promo 4)
- Thunderbolt is translated as “Éclair” (The French name of Thunder Shock) instead of “Fatal-Foudre”
- The attack description of Recharge places the energy icon in front of the word “Energie” when it would normally be placed behind it.
- Weakness, resistance and retreat costs are not capitalized, but should be
Dragonite (Wizards Promo 5)
- The name of Dragonite was left untranslated even though it should be Dracolosse in French
- The evolution text was translated as “Mettez […] sur la carte Niveau 1” instead of the usual “Placez […] sur la carte Niveau 1”
- “Draw one card” was translated as “tirer une carte” instead of the usual “piocher une carte”
- Weakness, resistance and retreat costs are not capitalized, but should be
Spanish
Electabuzz (Wizards Promo 2)
- There is a space before m and kg in the info print when there normally is no space
- The r of “Ataque rápido” isn’t capitalized while it normally is
- The attack description is also translated differently
Mewtwo (Wizards Promo 3)
- There is a space before m and kg in the info print when there normally is no space
- Psyburn was left untranslated
Pikachu (Wizards Promo 4)
- There is a space before m and kg in the info print when there normally is no space
- The attack description of Rayo is translated slightly differently
Dragonite (Wizards Promo 5)
- There is a space before m and kg in the info print when there normally is no space
- The evolution text is “Pon […] en la carta Etapa 1” instead of the usual “Poner a […] sobre la carta de Etapa 1”
Now in contrast to Base Set cards, the weakness etc. also were un-capitalized however that is also the case for later Spanish sets, so it was more of a general change.
Other languages
Now the last two European languages missing are Portuguese and Dutch. For Portuguese it’s pretty simple as these promos just weren’t released in Portuguese.
For Dutch however Pikachu was and it’s image was one of the reasons I even looked into these promos as I mentioned.
While the capitalization of weakness etc. is different here, that also applies to Dutch Fossil, so like Spanish that seems to have been a more general change not tied to these promos. Regarding the different translation of the first move there is unfortunately no other card with it to compare it to, so it’s not easy to say which translation would be “right” or consistent there. If we compare the translations for searching and shuffling the deck however, the World Collection version seems to be more in line with the regular translation like on this Marowak:
The translation of Thunderbolt on the other hand is 100% consistent with Base Set Zapdos:
So I’ll count Dutch as partially / potentially affected, but not to the degree of Spanish or especially German and French.
Conclusion
So after all, the question that remains is why these cards were translated so differently (and often badly). These cards were all tied to the Pokémon movie release, so my wild guess is that maybe Wizards outsourced the translation for these to the European movie distributors who were neither familiar with Pokémon nor the TCG which could explain some of the mistakes. Or the translations were just done very early on, before some of the terms were final, but I don’t really see why these cards would be the first to be translated. So the only thing I’m relatively certain about is that these were not translated by the same people as all the other cards. If you have any additional information, I’d of course be happy to hear it in the comments.
