Hey everyone. I’ve been doing quite a bit of research into the TMB tournaments lately. They are quite unique in that these tournaments really were the first events to include participants from all over the world. In fact, pokemon Worlds tournaments today are essentially an extension of the original concept. Not only this but these tournaments were hubs for distributing a host of extremely rare and lucrative ‘trophy’ cards. Below is a list of all cards distributed at the TMB tournaments. This is a work in progress so please feel free to help me make this article as accurate as possible!
1999
-Trophies #1-3 (Japan regionals)
legendary bird phonecards
bilingual exeggutor (non-glossy)
tropical wind
2000
lucky stadium Hawaii
limited language specific Vs set prints
the above includes Tropical wind (Vs)
2001
Vs sets were again distributed. One card was altered (clair’s mantine) between 2000 and 2001
Yea the Vs sets were given out to to each player and they had to use the deck during a round of battles. I believe there are also sets in German and italian. There may be more but these are the languages which are confirmed? The order of # of prints in order of most to least are as follows: japanese> english> other. The “other” category received extremely low prints
PhotosI only linked 1 for each year but there are more out there. These are quite fun to read, the authors did a great job at describing the event firsthand.
Keep in mind that the No.1, 2 and 3 Trainer trophy Cards were NOT given out at the TMB finals in Hawaii. They were given out at the regional TMB tournaments in Japan only. There were 7 events of which 2 were 2-day events. This makes a total of 9 copies of the No. 1, 2 and 3 Trainer trophy cards in existence.
@pokeg thank you, I was actually wondering about that. In general the TMB tournaments are confusing hence why i wanted to compile info here and get input from all you guys in the know
As far as I know, there were no VS sets at the 2000 TMB, they weren’t released yet I’m pretty sure. Can any confirm otherwise if I’m wrong?
The 1999 TMB trophies were from the Regionals as was already stated (9 copies of each), so were the 1999 Tropical Wind cards (copies unknown but fairly rare). The Exeggutor non-glossy was a participation prize for those at the finals in Hawaii (very rare, approx. 36 copies depending on news-published numbers of the participants), the phone cards were also distributed there in some fashion. Some have said they were given blindly if you won matches in under 15mins in some sort of dueling room. I would have to dig up whatever posts there are about this on various sites. [something along those lines, anyway] They’re pretty rare too.
In 2000, there was published to be precisely 42 participants, it’s in the article linked above, but it’s also in the Trainer Mag No.3 which breaks down which country each participant came from. So there are about 42 TMB 9th lucky stadium cards. At this TMB they also gave out a silver TMB 2000 participant medal, and participants got a blue T-shirt with Exeggutor art on it (I put mine into the wash by mistake, it’s in rough shape ).
Ahhh yes, thank you for weighing in @cbd1235 . I only have conflict with 2 points youve provided. The first is that I have read from multiple (albeit unreliable internet sources) that the Vs sets were given out in both 2000 and 2001. It is popularly noted that the Clair’s Mantine card had an error on it in the 2000 distribution, ie; resistant to psychic type. With the 2001 set this error was addressed and changed to fighting type resistance.
The second little qualm i have is the number of lucky stadiums. In one of the player reports, it mentions they were given out during a sort of optional side event for the players, just to go and have fun (not the main competition). I dont know for certain that this is 100% true, but I am going off what i read. Because it was optional to play at this side event, not EVERY player may have attended, so a solid 42 cards for 42 participants may be a bit off.
You may absolutely be right! A lot of this is my best inferences based on very limited information.
As for the VS cards, I just assumed they were not given in 2000 because I thought everything at that time was old back still. I’m absolutely inviting anybody to confirm that VS cards were given at that time, I don’t know a lot about the new back cards. I am aware of the Mantine difference, I just didn’t know when they were released 2000/2001 or 2001/2002 or etc. I don’t know enough about those cards.
If you heard in a report that the 9th lucky stadium cards were given out at a side thing, maybe they were! I don’t remember the other reports I’d read about the 2000 TMB. I remember hearing that a lot of people assumed they were worthless and left them around on tables, threw them out, etc. In Jason’s report of 2000 TMB that you linked to, he references getting “the same stuff everyone got The Bi-Lingual Lucky Stadium card and …”. Makes me think participation card, but of course that’s just one report.
If only I could travel back in time… but yea. I believe that there was 42 copies (or maybe even more) made for the players as you said, but if we are talking copies that survived and still exist today? who knows.
A question that is always on my mind is:
For participation ‘trophy’ cards (ex; kamex computer error, lucky stadium, 1999 t-wind, etc), since they were essentially freebies , would it not be logical that these were produced in ‘high’ volume in anticipation of # of participants? So what I am saying is, would there not be MORE copies out there than just a roof # based on the max of #of participants? Or were the extras just flat out destroyed?
I’ve read on Pokegym that the Mantine Error TMB VS set was released in 2001, and that the corrected version was released in 2002 TMB.
Considering that the official release date for the Japanese VS set was August 19, 2001, it’s very likely that 2001 and 2002 were where the two TMB VS sets came from. VS cards were not a thing in August 2000, everything was still old back cards at that time.
Hope that helps
I wonder that aswell! For the TMB events in Hawaii, at least the participants had to qualify so they knew exactly who was coming, and what number of competitors there would be (unless one dropped out, etc.). The TMB Exeggutor was definitely a participation card (based on what a competitor there told me, I bought his Exeggutor), and we can at least say it’s plausible that the 9th lucky stadium card was too. They likely printed a couple extra copies, who knows. So hard to tell.
As for the Kamex card and T-Wind, we know so little about how it was distributed and in what number, unfortunately. I’m sure there were extras of those cards printed, who knows what happened to them! I’d just like to know conclusively how many of each were released or at least specifically to whom they were released.
It was called the World Championships in 2002, but they could have plausibly released TMB cards at it. I have to look into it, but VS cards could not have been given out in 2000.
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