Another Wonderous TCG Background Update!

The Actual News:

Wowzers, do I have an update for you! Since the last update, GC| Linkinboss 70HP (aka GCLB) and his friend, along with PA! Discord new friend Gamez n’ Gainz (aka SteppoBlazer), put their heads together and discovered a whole bunch of new backgrounds on your favorite TCG cards. Well, I hope they’re you’re favorite cards… it would be kinda embarrassing if they weren’t… Anyways, I won’t spend too much time jibber-jabbering before I get to the good stuff, but there IS one little observations I’d like to share with you.

I’m beginning to suspect that maybe Media Factory—the original makers of the Japanese version of the game—might have used photos from OTHER stock art collections aside from Datacraft Sozaijiten. I don’t know what that other catalogue might be, and I can’t say for a fact if they even did use something other than DS… especially since the DS catalogue totals some 200+ collections of some 200ish photos each and I simply haven’t gone through all of them to know for sure. But I and others (like cvramen on the PA! Discord Server) have spotted a few cards which clearly have a photo for a background, and yet they don’t seem to appear in any of the DS collections we’ve seen so far. A few good examples include Nidorina (Jungle), Dark Electrode (Team Rocket) and Lt. Surge’s Electrode (Gym Challenge):

See what I’m getting at? They’re all clearly stock photos, and in fact they look a lot like existing stock photos from actual DS collections. HOWEVER those particular pictures simply don’t exist. Now if you happen to spot these backgrounds, please let us know on the Discord Server. We’ve been scratching our heads on this one and could use all the extra eyes we can on this.

Sorry, one last thing! One super awesome thing that has come from all this background discovery is that it’s actually helping out greatly in the card translation front. In particular, the Game Boy cards from the Pokémon TCG Game Boy Color game technically never existed in physical form, not even in Japanese! Well, I mean, there was a pseudo-physical release of the GB cards in Japan, as versions of them appeared in a Japanese card Price Guide (of which I don’t know the name of)… but that’s it. And even then, the quality of the printing wasn’t all that good… so in the end the world got rather poor quality versions of the GB-only cards, and that’s a damn shame.

But once again the Fake Card community has come up with a solution! With easy-to-find high quality Ken Sugimori artwork AND our newly re-discovered card backgrounds, we can finally turn all of the GB cards into authentic-looking English cards, and in higher quality than the original Japanese version scans. In fact, that’s what both GCLB and Gamez n’ Gainz did over at the PA! Discord. Take a quick look below:

Scan currently available on Bulbapedia (as in, representing the most commonly available scan)	Highest possible quality scan from the Japanese price guide magazine (as in, it was a low quality print to begin with)	GCLB‘s reproduction English fake card, using high quality Ken Sugimori card art and DS background	Gamez n’ Gainz own reproduction of Dark Marowak, as originally seen in the Japanese-only Pokémon TCG 2 game.

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Pretty neat stuff, huh?? And best of all, these are effectively the BEST QUALITY of these cards available… period. I seriously mean it: there does not exist a higher quality version of these cards anywhere… not in English, not in Japanese, nowhere. And it won’t be the only time this happens: I’m still working out the details, but I might—MIGHT—have a new section dedicated to bringing these GB-only cards to life as English-language fakes. This was something I had planned to do back in the day… and I thought I made an example GB Electrode fake, but I can’t seem to find it. Anyways, no better time than now to bring an old idea to life!

Anyways, enough jibber-jabber: time for the backgrounds! Once again, most of the card arts were pulled from scans at PkmnCards.com or Bulbapedia, while any holofoil and/or Japanese-only card art generated by myself.

SET	№	Name	Card Art	Original DS Image	DS Source	Notes
CD Promo (Japan-only)	(n/a)	Charizard			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #161	Y’know, I realized just now that my previous numbering for Vol 006 was wrong; I will be using the CORRECT numbering here. Every other Volume’s numbering is fine, however.
Base Set	28/102	Growlithe			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #033
Base Set	23/102	Arcanine			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #029
Gym Challenge	39/132	Erika’s Bulbasaur			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #029	“We’ve run out of backgrounds to use… so just use a posterize filter on a background we’ve already used; no one will notice!” … And y’know what? For nearly 20 years, they were right: no one did notice.
Base Set	68/102	Vulpix			Vol 007 – Lights & Crystals Pic #009	Also seen on Neo Genesis Pichu (see below)
Base Set	56/102	Onix			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #167
Jungle	11/64 & 27/64	Snorlax			Vol 009 – Paints and Pastels Pic #085
Jungle	6/64 & 22/64	Mr. Mime			Vol 007 – Lights & Crystals Pic #087
Jungle	7/64 & 23/64	Nidoqueen			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #101
Base Set	22/102	Pidgeotto			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #031
Base Set	3/102	Chansey			Vol 009 – Paints and Pastels Pic #077	I realize that this might look like a bit of a stretch, but after playing around with a bunch of filters in Photoshop, as well as comparing other pictures in Vol 9, I’m 90% certain that this is the background used.
Base Set	45/102	Caterpie			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #109
Base Set	57/102	Pidgey			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #006	Aside from the use of Photoshop filters, a bright spot was added in the upper-left corner.
Base Set	62/102	Sandshrew			Vol 008 – Walls & Soils Pic #176
Base Set	73/102	Impostor Professor Oak			Vol 008 – Walls & Soils Pic #070
Gym Heroes	11/132	Rocket’s Hitmonchan			Vol 004 – Flames Sparks & Waters Pic #081	For some reason the English version turned the black bits into brown, but otherwise it’s the same picture.
Base Set	88/102	Professor Oak			Vol 008 – Walls & Soils Pic #151	Anyone else extremely satisfied knowing that they chose picture number 151 for Professor Oak? No, just me then? OK….
XY Evolutions	84/108	Professor Oak’s Hint			Vol 008 – Walls & Soils Pic #063	This is interesting; for the “update” to Base Set in the form of “XY Evolutions“, they created a new card to replace the original Professor Oak card called “Professor Oak’s Hint”… but they went with a totally new background instead of reusing Picture #151. That said, they still chose one from the same DS collection: picture #63.
Team Rocket	1/82 & 18/82	Dark Alakazam			Vol 007 – Lights & Crystals Pic #031
Jungle	41/64	Parasect			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #092
Fossil (Tropical Mega Battle Phone Card)	12/62	Moltres			Vol 009 – Paints and Pastels Pic #197
Fossil (Tropical Mega Battle Phone Card)	2/62	Articuno			Vol 009 – Paints and Pastels Pic #104
Gym Challenge	118/132	Misty’s Tears (Japan-only version)			Vol 004 – Flames Sparks & Waters Pic #145	This one only applies to the original Japanese version, as it was changed for the International (eg. non-Japanese) release. It used a slightly naughty picture of Misty, which I’ve hidden behind a spoiler box in case that’s not your thing. Anyways, this was previously seen on Base Set Seel.
Gym Challenge	91/132	Misty’s Seel			Vol 004 – Flames Sparks & Waters Pic #155
Gym Heroes	55/132	Misty’s Seaking			Vol 004 – Flames Sparks & Waters Pic #156
Gym Heroes	31/132	Misty’s Poliwrath			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #111
Black Star Promo	2	Electabuzz (First Movie Promo)			Vol 007 – Lights & Crystals Pic #010	The card was given a red filter for the background, but otherwise it stayed the same.
Neo Genesis	12/111	Pichu			Vol 007 – Lights & Crystals Pic #165
					Vol 007 – Lights & Crystals Pic #009
Gym Heroes	24/132	Brock’s Zubat			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #171	0
Gym Heroes	78/132	Erika’s Oddish			Vol 026 – Forests and Grove Pic #110
Gym Heroes	79/132	Erika’s Tangela			Vol 026 – Forests and Grove Pic #101	-+
Gym Heroes	73/132	Brock’s Vulpix			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #172
Gym Heroes	40/132	Brock’s Graveler			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #170
Gym Heroes	45/132	Erika’s Gloom			Vol 003 – Metal and Rust Textures Pic #118
Gym Heroes	46/132	Erika’s Gloom			Vol 008 – Walls & Soils Pic #063
Gym Heroes	42/132	Erika’s Dratini			Vol 007 – Lights & Crystals Pic #011	The original stock picture was rotated 180 degrees for use on Erika’s Dratini; the example image was similarly rotated for comparison purposes.
Gym Challenge	67/132	Brock’s Diglett			Vol 006 – Seasons and Nature Pic #044
Gym Challenge	93/132	Sabrina’s Abra			Vol 009 – Paints and Pastels Pic #185
Neo Genesis	13/111	Skarmory			Vol 007 – Lights & Crystals Pic #021	I suspect that there might have been an overlay image used on top of Vol 7 Pic 21, but I’m not sure what it could be.
Gym Heroes	60/132	Sabrina’s Slowbro			Vol 007 – Lights & Crystals Pic #126
					Vol 007 – Lights & Crystals Pic #078

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What an update! I think that just about DOUBLED what we had already worked out. But it looks like there’s still more to go, so keep your eye’s peeled. Thanks once again to GCLB and his friend as well as Gainz  for helping out spot these. We couldn’t have done it without your help!