I am a huge fan and collector of the supposed “1995” Japanese Topsun Holofoil sticker-cards. There is much speculation to when they were released (see thread: www.elitefourum.com/t/first-pokemon-cards-ever-released/14856/1) but are regardless incredible works of Pokemon art. So far, I have not come across any threads that have noted why there are different patterns in the holofoils.
There seems to be three holofoil patterns: “checker-prism”, “block-prism”, and “shattered-glass/angled.” The “block-prism” (2nd pic) seems to be the most common and also the most off-centered usually. The 1st pic is without a doubt the most spectacular prism of any card I have ever seen and contains 4x the boxes as a common block-prism. The 3rd shattered-glass holo is another popular aesthetic.
This leads me to my question: What do these differences mean? Are they an indication of rarity? Do they indicate the time of release? Or something else?..
I don’t see a difference between the ‘block-prism’ and ‘checker-prism’ I did notice a difference in the foils a while ago, but decided not to differentiate the variance in my own collection. Most likely the ‘angled’ was the first print run of the cards and they changed to the squared version after. This is pure speculation on my part because I haven’t found any documentation on it.
The only evidence I have for my speculation is the 1997 versions also use the square pattern. To me that’s enough evidence, but I won’t claim it to be absolute.
As far as rarity, the angled version seem slightly less common in my experience.
I agree with you that the angled version is less common, but I disagree with you on the squared-prisms. I attached two images of cards that I own. In the Pikachu, you can see a distinct 4 cuts inside of each square, 2 diagonal shaded and 2 not, unlike the vaporeon. I believe I see even fewer of these on the market than the shattered-glass/angled holos.
In my opinion, I think the off-centered block-prism came out first due to its poor quality. Then have released the angled and checkered patterns as those come out much nicer, but are seemingly rarer. I see your point on rarity being a key component with the 1995 prints. But I honestly have no idea lol.
I looked through about 20 different topsun square cards I have. Maybe you’re correct in that there’s two versions in there, but I also have some that when turned sideways they look like one version then the other. To me that seems like a glossing issue with the prints, could also explain the poor quality you’re experiencing. Either way I really don’t know, if you want to count them as different go for it.
If you take topsun as a whole you have the no number versions printed first, followed by the number addition, and finally the green backs. I’m not sure if you’re aware or not, but the holo cards were inserted in the same packs 1 per box. Knowing the production changes of Topsun, you could speculate that they made three different print changes in the holo cards as well.
The issue I have is the no number print was a significantly shorter print vs the other two, and I don’t see the same ratio with the holos, if you consider the holos as three different prints. I do see a good general ratio of Blue vs Green back and Angle vs Square foil.
As for the release dates, maybe you’re right, but I don’t think print quality is a good indicator to find release dates. The cut quality of Base set was better than Jungle, and centering was better for both Base and Jungle vs Fossil. Just to give you examples where companies get worse in quality instead of better.
Thanks for your articulated response cullers. It is very interesting to think that there may have been 1st edition holofoils. Hopefully someone can confirm these speculations. Chances are, the angled holos may have been like you said due to their rarity like the blue back cards. And I do have a few other prism cards that do the same thing you described with the glossing.
i am not 100% certain or aware of prism foils for this era. But, the right one looks more legitimate to me, and the left one looks like the fake reproduction stickers i used to find in Hong Kong. But i know Pokemon was made like this, so they are all probably legitimate, but i am assuming left is oldest, and right is a later print.
i am a bit confused by these… haha… as the left has signs that it is a fake card for me, if i compare with bandai carddass releases in sailormoon and dbz from this same era. But i am speculating here.
fake cards from this era generally had: squared perfect foil patterns, covered the entire card when they shouldn’t of, and have a darker colouring. Don’t listen to me though, i am just comparing to different franchises from this era.
Interesting take on things Japan International Trade. Although, I do not believe the checkered pattern with more boxes is fake. After looking through other Bandai Carddass releases, I think I have confirmed part my own question!
I have attached two examples. The 1st one on the left was bandai carddass 1996, the 2nd on the right is bandai carddass 1997. It is very probable that the prism with less boxes was indeed an earlier version than the prism with the checkered pattern.
You’re right @cullers, maybe I was comparing apples to oranges in this case. But the patterns are very similar, so maybe these companies were using similar glossing? Still don’t know for sure.
Carddass is a patinted term for bandai cards, topsun is actually topsopika if you want to do a company search to see if there was any buyout. There’s also Meiji and Nissui that did/do a bunch of anime giveaways with their products.
I highly doubt bandai has any relation to any of the other companies considering their a toy company and the others have food products. You said a lot of fakes use the same foil so it woul make sense that that foil was just readily available for cheep and so multiple companies bought it for their cards.
You would be surprised what bandai had control of in the 80s/90s especially.
From experience it seemed that bandai was generally one of the first people to begin help market some of the older anime franchises.
I need tor research more Anyways.
I’m thinking now about: Shogakukan Production Co., which owned shopro as well.
Maybe they are under some sort of umbrella. Sorry for steering different direction.
