As the 2023 advent calendar box is releasing tomorrow, I’m gathering information on the release of the 2008 countdown calendar.
For a bit of context, this snippet is from Bulbapedia:
Released in October 2008, the Pokémon Countdown Calendar saw a rather limited release in countries such as Canada, Germany, Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and sold exclusively in certain store chains such as Toys “R” Us, and via some online retailers.
As far as I am aware, it was never released in the US. There were 24 snowflake-stamped reprint cards included in the set, with 23 having a gold stamp and the one Pikachu having a silver stamp. I’m most interested in the Piplups in this set (shocker, I know):
I own English and French prints, and I have a German one on its way to me. Apparently Italian prints also exist, but I haven’t seen one myself. This suggests that other countries had different language prints that aren’t listed over on Bulbapedia, which has then led me down the rabbit hole we’re in now.
I’ve hit a bit of a roadblock myself, so anyone has any additional information on languages the set released in or general release info, that would be much appreciated!
I have Glaceon as part of my saved search on eBay, so I see every Glaceon listed every day. I have only seen the same languages you mentioned over the years. I think it was limited to 3-4 languages.
It is! The same illustration was also featured in the Mewtwo Lv. X Collection Pack in Japanese, and Majestic Dawn set in English.
I agree, I think the snowflake is my favorite stamp variant in Pokémon, honestly. The new snowflake designs in the 2022 and 2023 advent calendar are also lovely!
The Glaceon printed in this set is one of my favorite illustrations of it, and it also got several promo stamp preprints- the Burger King “Platinum” reverse Holo is also really nice to me.
Same with the Piplup for me. Around 2008, Spanish (and to a smaller extent Portuguese) got peripheral sets as well, so I was curious if this one also had those releases. You only seeing the 3-4 above for the Glaceon is great information, though- thank you!
This is my favourite English set of promos ever. The Pikachu especially looks so good in person, with its silver stamp that photographs incredibly poorly.
Worth noting, the cards came just kinda chucked in the box on their sides with no protection or anything, so they’re often in poor condition.
See this opening for an idea: (https://youtu.be/G5CNTNugdvo?t=150).
Right, the stamps are so good in person! I had seen openings before and that packaging certainly is something else. It’s a shame a lot of the cards got damaged because of it, from what I can tell. I appreciate it, thank you!
Hey! Personally love this set too. Do you have confirmation that this set was actually released in October 2008? I own a PSA 9 Happiny (image below), which definitely comes from this set, but the slab says 2007 on it. I also can confirm condition is a pain since this card is total POP 16 and highest is a 9, of which only 6 exist.
As @eeveeteam mentioned, the date on the slab refers to when Mysterious Treasures (the original set) was printed. All of the cards in the countdown calendar were reprints of set cards- they didn’t get new set symbols or numbers, just the snowflake stamp.
Hi! I’ve just stumbled upon this thread after finding these countdown calendar promo cards in my old childhood binder, I have a munchlax, bronzor, and abomasnow. I’m Canadian and bought these back in 2008, they’re in fairly good condition still. I could upload some photos
I’m not too sure what criteria was used for the ordering of the 24 cards on bulbapedia, but the video doesn’t give the full order as some cards were in the bottom of the box, but the ones they do show don’t match the order from bulbapedia
Edit: This does not match the order of the cards in the video posted earlier in the thread at all. I suspect that the order of the cards (save for the final slot) might have been random, thus Bulbapedia’s solution of just going with original set order.
Iv currently been searching all over Europe and have only found the language mentioned above. English French German I’m still waiting on confirmation on Italian tho been told many times there is one.
