Hi all!
Just wanted to get some opinions on if you would include the Black Star Promo Mew #8 as part of the set of cards (Pikachu, Mewtwo, Dragonite, Electabuzz) from the first Pokemon movie? I know when we got one of the movie cards there was a Catch Mew card with info on obtaining the Mew Promo card. So for collecting purposes if I collect the movie promo cards should I include Mew with them?
I do not consider it part of that set, no. And I donāt think most would.
The actual movie promo cards contained an advertisement for the PokƩmon League, one of the motivators being the opportunity to receive Mew. Mew #8 and #9 are League promos and were simply advertised on the insert of the First Movie promos.
(Edit: I recognize this kind of categorical conundrum. One year from now, you will be collecting every WotC promo and have a spreadsheet so detailed that itās easier to reference than Bulbapedia itself.)
No, but Iāve always felt that ANCIENT Mew should have been a promo for the first movieā¦it just makes more thematic sense and the movie (from memory - been years since I last watched it) goes into the expedition to ruins to find Mew. Might even show the Ancient Mew wall artwork in a scene? Makes more sense either way.
Instead we had Electabuzz and Dragonite who had nothing to do with the movie.
Ancient Mew should have been a First Movie promo, and the GB Lugia holo promo should have been with the birds for Pokemon 2000 in the West.
I DID say I hadnāt watched it for years lol
Can I at least bin off Electabuzz from the promo line-up?
For sure. Electabuzz was a weird choice. 
It may seem weird, but it is known that WOTC employees always favored electric-type pokemon. Itās why Dark Raichu was the first ever secret rare, and why electric-types were overpowered early on.
Electabuzz actually makes a cameo in the first movie for a split second at the Pokemon center when Ash, Misty and Brock run into the center escaping the storm. Heās in the background. But I agree he shouldnāt have gotten a promo card for the first movie.
Definitely a weird one for sure, seems out of place
I think Ancient Mew is fitting for being a promo for Pokemon 2000 since it actually made an appearance in the movie.
I need to watch these damn movies again lol. I donāt remember that bit whatsoever (unlike my embarassing Dragonite blunder earlier in the thread).
Because @stagecoach ās beautiful collection thread got a bump today I couldnāt resist scrolling again and saw the poster he owns.
I would agree itās not really a movie promoā¦but I do think it was handed out in the movie theatres in the UK from my memory.
If you ever find documentation to support that please share it! I would feel differently in that case for sure.
It was probably a local thing, but I remember the Blockbuster near my house hosted a Pokemon First Movie Event. Anyone who bought the VHS also received a #8 Mew promo with purchase. So for a short time, my neighborhood was flooded with these. This would be enough for me to include it with the First Movie set, but purely from anecdotal nostalgia haha.
Cries in brown cheese. 
I wanted this card so badly as a kid. Literally couldnāt find a single one.
Hmm. Perhaps I am being convinced.
I wish I could find documentation or proof. Purely anecdotal experience though haha, and this was a loooong time ago.
Basically in the UK children would have birthday parties and I remember attending at least two.
Iāll tell what I remember in case it jogs any memories from others, but I was a child so logistics are assumptions haha.
I assume the parents would book a ābirthday party experienceā with the cinema. In this case the theatre would be odeon (biggest chain in the UK at the time). Again I would assume it would be a bulk discount type of thing.
So the group would be about 10-20 kids and you would arrive at the theatre an hour early or something. They would take you into the projection room and show you how everything works, the giant roll of film and give a tour of the theatre and how all the magic works behind the scenes.
Then they would give you a party goodie bag. Inside were the promo cards and some film cells from the movie. The promos were random and if I remember each bag would contain two promos. There was also a movie program, similar to what you would get at a sports game. Some movie snacks and I feel like there was something else but my memory escapes me.
Then they would take you back and you would watch a screening of the film with everyone.
Thatās about as much as I can remember.
Here is the brochure you would get in the goody bag:
Sorry for the deep fried image, but I am not with my collection right now. You can see on the right hand side āpresented by odeonā which was the movie theatre chain where I attended the parties.
I donāt have a picture of my film cells but have them in storage.
Iāve found other copies of the brochure that are printed by other theatre companies or just blank:
UCG
Blank
The movie release date in the UK was April 14th 2000 (so quite late comparatively) and Mew was released January 8th 2000, holo version April 2000. I donāt think the Holo version was a possibility in the goodie bags because I never knew anyone to get one and remember trading for mine at a later date.
This is basically all I can remember but maybe other UK collectors had a similar experience and can chime in.
I still firmly count it as a league promo though haha
Got curious so popped onto the toyzone.co.uk in the Wayback machine.
It was the official site for the first movie.
Seen you could win a goodybag by entering a competition. I would assume this goodybag would be the same that they gave out in theatres.
Iām in a rabbit hole now haha
KEEP DIGGING
Iām tired of digging haha but just wanted to show some additional stuff and thoughts for preservation purposes.
This is going to be pretty UK specific so want some UK E4 lurkers to chime in. I think the UK had a very different relationship to the black star promos and their distribution and I would probably guess that Europe in general had different ways to the US too.
Iāve previously mentioned that all the black star promos I own never came from PokĆ©mon League because I never attended this as a child, yet my childhood binder has them all sitting right there and I know they werenāt traded for because I do remember getting them, although specifics are vague. Cards that we know are league specific - cards such as Arcanine, Eevee, Computer Error etc. were actually obtainable through trade events at the retail store Woolworths in the UK.
Going there and trading and getting promo cards are memories I have. There were no badge books or badges there, purely just designated days for trade events. It is worth mentioning that the league did exist and these cards were also obtainable via the known routes in the UK, but Woolworths trade days were also an obtainable route.
This flyer I have shows one of these events, but nothing mentioned about league.
A picture I found of such an event at Woolworths shows an employee holding an activity book that you could do to get promos etc. (very similar to league obtainable methods tbh), but these were mostly chaotic ātrade eventsā. If anyone knows what this blurry āactivity bookā is or owns one I would be very interested to see. My only hope would be our resident expert: 
Iāve found some of the Cinema snacks merch stuff that would have been given with the goody bags mentioned earlier. Popcorn box from the Odeon cinema chain:
TLDR:
The UK had two methods of obtaining promo cards:
-League events
-Trade events at Woolworths
Iām starting to second guess my memory now though, and am leaning towards Mew being obtained at Woolworths rather than the Odeon goodybagā¦
