Pokémon Carddass Part 1 & 2
Pokémon Carddass Part 1 and 2 (ポケモンカードダスパート1／2) are two sibling sets of Pokémon cards designed and manufactured by Bandai Company. They are often jointly referred to as the "1996 Carddass" set. Pokémon Carddass Part 1 was released on September 21-30 1996[1]. Part 2 has an identical style and was released a few days later on Oct 1-10 as a continuation of the set[2]. The two sets' Pokémon complement each other and together depict all of the 151 original Pokémon.
Carddass cards are not part of the Pokémon TCG: they do not have attacks, abilities, HP, and cannot be used to battle. In 1997, Bandai released a sequel set, Pokémon Carddass Part 3 and 4, which is known for its unique early art style.
Pokémon Carddass Part 1 has 78 unique cards, or 153 cards total when counting red and green variants of the same card. Part 2 has 80 unique cards, or 156 cards total.
Carddass cards were purchased in small vending machines that came in two types, selling single cards for 20¥ or stacks of 5 for 100¥. They were only released in Japanese.
Background
Carddass
Carddass is a larger card product line by Bandai depicting characters from Dragonball, Gundam, and many other anime and games. Bandai produced about a dozen Pokémon Carddass and Sealdass sets – Carddass is Bandai's product line for cards, and Sealdass is their product line for stickers. Normal-size (non-Jumbo) Carddass measure 59 x 86 mm, slightly smaller than TCG cards which are 63 x 88 mm.
In Japanese, "Carddass" is a reference to AMeDAS, a high-tech automated weather data collection system[3]. The concept behind Carddass cards is that the back of each card has high-quality data and data visualizations to learn about each Pokémon and improve at the original Pokémon gameboy games. The name can sound awkward in English. It was likely not planned for international release, and at the time of the release of Part 1, it would be another 2 years before Pokémon would exist outside of Japan.
Historical Context
Bandai designed, manufactured, and distributed the Pokémon Carddass cards. Bandai was a licensee, as the Pokémon IP was owned by Creatures Inc, Nintendo, and Game Freak. Pokémon Carddass Part 1 was released in the period of September 21-30, 1996[1] (in Japanese:1996年9月下旬).
At the same time, the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) was underway. It had been under development since before the release of the first Pokémon games in February 1996, with TCG cards featured in CoroCoro comic #220 in mid-July 1996. The first TCG cards released, a glossy Pikachu and Jigglypuff promo peeled from an insert in Corocoro magazine with the Pikachu's artist erroneously attributed as Ken Sugimori, came out on October 15 1996[4], five days before the Japanese base set.
Carddass Part 1's September 21-30 release makes it the first-released pocket-size Pokémon cards. Carddass is enjoyed by collectors for its unique design and early place in Pokémon history. Although they are often compared, the first TCG cards are treasured for different reasons: they were the start of the familiar yellow-bordered Pokémon trading cards that would soon cause a mania among kids internationally and be collected for decades to come. It is believed that the TCG began development earlier than Carddass Part 1, despite its later release date.
Contents and Rarity of Part 1 & 2 Set
The Pokémon Carddass Part 1 set includes one title card (タイトルカード), 69×2 regular Pokémon cards (one each in red and green), 6×2 holographic "prism" Pokémon cards (one each in red and green), and two Pokédex (カードリスト) cards with checklists on the back. The front of each title card in Part 1&2 matches the art of the manual that came in the box with the original Japanese gameboy game, in this case matching Pokemon Green with a Venusaur on the front[5]. The back of the title cards displays the town map that also came in the box with the games. The front of the prism cards in both Part 1 and 2 can be peeled off like a sticker, leaving only the back remaining on the card. The title and standard cards do not peel. The checklist cards in Part 1 are both green.
The Part 2 set includes one Title card featuring Charizard, one Title Card EX (タイトルカードEX) featuring Blastoise, 70×2 regular cards, 6×2 prism cards, and two Pokédex checklist cards. The checklist cards in Part 2 are both red.
The art on the front of each card is early watercolor art by Ken Sugimori that was used on many different Pokémon products at the time, including the materials for the original games. 11 cards have unique illustrations on the back by Benimaru Itoh: Arbok, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Polywhirl, Geodude, Slowbro, Doduo, Gengar, Drowsy, Horsea, and Kabutops.
The back of the cards show information from Pokémon Red and Green including the original sprite (sprites were soon changed with the release of Pokémon Blue & the originals were not released outside Japan), a bar showing that Pokémon's height, and statistics on that Pokémon's rarity in each of the games. The statistics section is filled with water if that Pokémon can only be caught by fishing.
Before being loaded into vending machines, the Part 1 and 2 sets came in simple white boxes with descriptive text. If they were due to be loaded into a 100¥ vending machine, the cards would come in bunches of 5, held together by a loop of white paper. If they were due to be loaded into a 20¥ vending machine, the cards would come out of the vending machine unpacked. According to a public Part 1/2 box break by YouTuber Tsunagu, each individually-packed Part 1 box contains exactly two of each prism card (one red, one green), two Venusaur Title cards, one of each regular card, one Pokédex card, and 48 duplicate regular cards, for a total of 200 cards. The probability of coincidentally getting exactly one of each Prism card variation in both boxes is (12!/12¹²)² ≈ one in 347 million, so it seems that all boxes have the same structure. If so, Part 1 Prism and Title cards are equally rare, and are only slightly more rare than the regular cards, of which there are ≈1.35× more copies per card on average. The Carddass Part 2 box opened was the same in its rarity distribution, with a total of 200 cards and one of each prism, but with two Blastoise Title cards and three Charizard Title cards.
Some collectors at one point believed that the green cards in the sets came from Part 1, and the red cards came from Part 2. Many Part 1 assets are linked to the color green, including the vending machine display, the map card, and the Pokédex cards. However, all primary sources, including the displays for the vending machines themselves, state clearly that Part 1 contains both the red and green card variations for all of its 75 Pokémon, and Part 2 also contains both red and green variations of its remaining 76 (see original sources in the relevant section of this article). The distinction between the sets is just which Pokémon are included in each: Part 1 has red and green versions of most of the lower Pokédex numbers as well as all Pokémon Green gameboy exclusives. Part 2 has red and green versions of most of the higher Pokédex numbers as well as all Pokémon Red gameboy exclusives.
List of cards in Pokémon Carddass Part 1 & 2
The card numbering below is in the same order that the checklist cards show, with indexing starting at 0. This article displays Title and Pokédex cards separately because they have a unique appearance, but their order is indicated by their Set #, matching the Pokédex card order.
Title and Checklist Cards
| Part 1 (パート1) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Set # | Front | Back | Type |
| 0 | 
|
|
Title card (タイトル カード) |
| 76 | 
|
|
Checklist card (カード リスト) |
| 77 | 
|
|
Checklist card (カード リスト) |
| Part 2 (パート2) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Set # | Front | Back | Type |
| 0 | 
|
|
Title card (タイトル カード) |
| 77 | 
|
|
Checklist card (カード リスト) |
| 78 | 
|
|
Checklist card (カード リスト) |
| 79 | 
|
|
Title card EX (タイトル カードEX) |
Pokémon Cards
References in Corocoro and other Japanese media
The Carddass Part 1 and 2 sets were referenced in a variety Japanese media, which are a primary source for information about the sets, including release dates and card contents. There are many references to the sets; pictured in this section are ones which are the most useful as a source for release dates and set contents.
Carddass News Magazine
 |
|
| Cover of Carddass News Magazine, September 1996 (left) and a Part 1 & 2 product spread inside (right) | |
Carddass News Magazine was a regular release announcing upcoming Carddass sets. The cover of the 1996 edition announcing Carddass Part 1/2 contains a list of "September new products" (9月の新製品). The final list item is "Pocket Monsters Part 1" (ポケットモンスター パート1), referring to Carddass Part 1.
Corocoro Magazine
The most specific primary source for the release dates of Carddass Part 1 and 2 is an advert on page 154 of the October 1996 edition of Corocoro magazine, which was released on September 15 1996. In reference to Part 1, the right-margin of the advert says 9月下旬発売 "on sale September 21-30". The very bottom of the page says パート2は10月上旬ころ発売, "Part 2 on sale around October 1-10!!".
Carddass Vending Displays
The displays on Carddass Part 1/2 vending machines had a lot of information about the Carddass sets. They are the most clear primary source disambiguating which cards are in Parts 1 and 2. The display of Part 1 has a checklist containing all Part 1 cards. It also points out specifically that both red and green cards are to be found in the set, using Pikachu as an example to make it clear that the both colors appear in both sets. The card checklist on the vending display lists the same Pokémon for Part 1 as the checklist on the Pokédex card that is part of Part 1, so all primary sources are consistent.
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This article is part of Project Merchandise, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on all Pokémon toys, dolls, books, and collectible merchandise. |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Corocoro comic, October 1996 edition, page 154, right-hand margin
- ↑ Corocoro comic, October 1996 edition, page 154, bottom margin
- ↑ web.archive.org/web/20090713040724/http://www.bandai.co.jp/releases/J2004052401.html
- ↑ Corocoro comics were each released on the 15th of the prior month: https://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/features/books_magazines/pokemon_in_1996.html
- ↑ Original Green box with contents (map is folded).
