Hi All,
Big post today, I have FINALLY completed my Double Crisis Set, so ALL pokemon cards featuring people + accompanying token trainer card. My one regret is that there is no full arts of these trainers, but maybe one day. Also, this set was featured in Celebrations, so for the princely sum of .3 English pounds each, I was able to pick up the new Kyogre and Groudon which I think is an awesome reference to the originals.
First up, Matt and Shelly. Matt I think is the most hard done by trainer that I have come by since I started doing the close up photos of the trainers face, as he is the only one so far who has managed to get text straight through his face!
Now, I’ll say this for all of them, but what I really love about this set is that because they have used the same two grunts in all of the arts, it really feels like the cards show a story of all the battles between these two grunts vs the other two grunts. With ups and downs, highs and lows.
Regarding these two grunts, they are the two that were used for concept art / sprites from Alpha Sapphire /Omega Ruby - the originals didn’t have the goatee and the lady had red not brown hair. Of note, the Trainer card’s team Aqua Conspirator and Schemer reference the two from the original games (red head and goateeless man.) Only Team Aqua Grunt - from double crisis itself references these two particular umm grunts.
Okay, so here we go!
Then for the people close ups! I have tried to do individual shots for each character, the only exception being the first picture. This one excited me, because I didn’t realise that the female grunt was in the art, until you see her eye on the left! But without context this looked weird when photographed individually.
Now this chap, I feel particularly sorry for - as I feel he was the one that the artists were laziest with, he has a lot of ‘less good’ depictions.
Right, the female-
BUT PENTAGON, you are undoubtedly saying right now. There is a 3rd Team Aqua Grunt (2nd male grunt) in the art of Team Magma’s Aggron… Well, yes you would be right. It’s tricky to tell completely, but the one on the right clearly is clean shaven and looks to be our good friend from the original games, and as he’s on the art for Team Aqua Schemer, I feel comfortable calling him the Schemer, who seems to have turned up to back up our usual team for the fight against the Aggron. Therefore from context, I assume that the one to his left is goatee (our regular grunt) but it’s hard to tell as you can’t see his goatee in that pose.
Right, onto Team Magma-
Firstly Courtney and Tabitha.
Then for the grunts
Now, these two are definitely the two characters from Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire - as you would expect. However, there is much less difference between them and the two from the original game. They are definitely different characters based on the shape of the faces - but the female has purple hair in both. Also note, that the uniform for the female in original games had the female in a skirt, whilst she has shorts in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire onwards. Finally, these original characters match the art for the Magma Conspirator / Schemer as in keeping with trends we saw with their Aqua opposite numbers.
Now, you’ll note that in the sharpedo, you see only the back. I am reasonably sure that is the back of the female as the male is accounted for in the art.
BUT in the Aron’s art, memorable for the fact that it is literally a bunch of Arons eating Aqua’s Submarine…
You have the following…
Who are they, you ask! The one on the left is of a build completely inconsistent with any of the Magma known people so far except for Tabitha. However, we can rule him out - as Tabitha wears the admin uniform with the mountain patterned coat. Whilst our man here is wearing clear grunt uniform. The one on the right is of a slim build and has a fringe which is consistent with the other arts for the male modern grunt. I did wonder if that was supposed to be the female with him, just drawn particularly fat… but I think that can be ruled out by the shape of the shorts. The female wears slanted shorts, which are shorter than her male colleague. The fat grunt, whilst wearing shorter shorts than the grunt next to him, has straight edged shorts making me believe it is supposed to be a male but a new character possibly the larger grunt from the anime as below.
I have not watched the episode in question… maybe I need to in order to check how long his shorts are!
Now, I didn’t put them in their respective teams because it felt wrong to split them up… Belong together!
I have to say, for 4 unnamed grunts, this mini set showed off some amazing adventures.
ANYWAY, apologies for the long post, I’ll leave you with the total of what they all look like together!
AND that’s the Double Crisis Part Finished.