In a historic Instagram post, Takumi Akabane, the research and development director at Creatures, Inc. showcased his 26-year-old test print Pokemon TCG set, the oldest Pokemon cards we have ever seen!
The image which shows test print Pikachu alongside Ponyta, Pidgey, and Gastly to name a few, gives us an incredible insight into the cards that were tested before Pokemon TCG’s 1996 release in Japan. The cards show original Ken Sugimori artwork without backgrounds.
Seeing Pokemon TCG test cards is an unbelievable sight, especially when prices of known “Holy Grails” are at an all-time high. Just last week, a PSA 7 Pikachu Illustrator card sold for a record price of $900,000 via Goldin Auctions making a test set like this almost priceless.
In celebration of Pokemon’s 25th anniversary in 2021, artists from the TCG were gifted beautiful half decks with special cards highlighting the 25 years of the franchise’s history. One of the special cards included in the deck was a test card of Chansey drawn by Kouichi Toyama from 1995. If you would like to read more about the Creatures, Inc. Corporate History Deck you can find high-quality images and details here.
The reveal of the existence of these test cards brings a new light to the TCG we all know and love by giving a snippet into the creation of one of the world’s biggest media franchises. For many, we would never have dreamt of seeing images of the birth of Pokemon TCG making this revelation an exciting prospect – what else is out there?
There’s a very insightful post on Elite Fourum, user Shizzlemetimbers goes in depth with the information they have found related to these elusive and mysterious test print cards. To find out more about the process of bringing the first ever Pokemon cards to light, check out this post here!
You can check the original Instagram post of these Pokemon TCG test print cards here!
How cool are these cards? Would these prototypes lead to the first-ever $1 million Pokemon TCG sale?
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John-Anthony Disotto – Ludkins Media Editor-in-Chief
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