Total Number Of Holofoil Patterns?

[Parallax]

Hi everyone,

We’ve all heard of holofoil variants such as Cosmos and Cracked Ice, but how many known holofoil patterns are there across the entire TCG?

And are any of the patterns unique to Japanese cards?

Thanks

Parallax

[ragingkraken]

Does this count the different reverse holo patterns too? And would stamped holos count as a pattern?

[thsigma]

Off the top of my head, for English, the OG base-fossil holo, cosmos, “new cosmos” (i wanna say bw era it started? Mostly for blister promos), bw holo, xy holo, sm holo, swsh holo, sv holo. Cracked ice. Some later ex sets like dragon frontiers had a holo that was sheen like. I wanna say call of legends had a slightly different cosmos holo, but not 100% on that. Do the celebrations set holos count? Do the classic collection ones count? Do the pokemon classic cards count?

Hope that helps some

This doesnt include reverse holos, of which theres a ton.

[thsigma]

Also, try this:

Holofoil

Has most of em

[Pkmnhawaii_collector]

It wasnt mentioned on bulbapedia but in aone Portuguese and Brazilian cards there was a saturn holo that looks like the planet saturn. Heres a pic courtesy from @Rockets_rares’ insta

[bbobrob]

There’s a holo appreciation thread here that has some nice mentions

There are a good number of Japanese-exclusive holo patterns (at least, I think they’re unique, as I’m not very knowledgeable in other languages aside from English and Japanese). Just some random pictures I pulled off Ebay that I think are Japanese-exclusive holos:

This one leads to crescent-moon-like effects when viewed at certain angles.

And a lot of unique reverse holo patterns:

Credits to @quuador for more information on some holos:

@quuador

My favorite holofoil type, unique to this single card:

And this Korean-exclusive holofoil type is pretty cool as well:

And simplified Chinese also has a unique reverse holo pattern:

Lots of fun when you delve into holos, especially with other languages!

[Parallax]

Thank you all for the wonderful answers and images. I’m a Japanese collector so those interest me the most, but i’m also a swirl collector and the Portuguese Saturn Swirl is amazing!

Kind regards

Parallax

[quuador]

Here is a great video which goes over all English holo variations (from ~5 years ago when it was uploaded), for which there are already hundreds:

A History of Pokemon TCG Holos + Foils

And even this video is missing some, like the ex era Reverse Holofoils with both holofoil artworks AND a holofoil set symbol in the description (I think it was the EX FireRed LeafGreen reverse holos, iirc).

Also, as mentioned above by @bbobrob, there are even more holo variations in Japanese, and even some exclusives in other languages, and more are releases every day.

Take this upcoming Japanese mini set for example, which will have six different Holofoil variations for a single artwork: https://www.pokebeach.com/2024/12/pokemon-tcg-gem-pack-releasing-in-china-with-new-pokemon-horizons-cards

I estimate it’s a similar situation with Pokémon as it is with Yu-Gi-Oh. On the surface there are only a bunch of holo variations, but if you look at the small details, there are hundreds of variations across the different eras, sets, and years.
I’ve never created an article for Pokémon, but I do have a thread with all Yu-Gi-Oh rarities here: [W.I.P.] Complete Yu-Gi-Oh Rarity Guide, to give you an idea of what I’m talking about by minor variations.

Greetz,
Quuador

[xileets]

Does the HGSS holo pattern differ from the WotC Rocket - eReader?
Is eReader even the same pattern as Neo?