Pokémon Carddass Part 1
Pokémon Carddass Part 1 is a set of Pokémon cards manufactured by Bandai, which is often grouped together with its sibling set Pokémon Carddass Part 2. Parts 1 and 2 together are often referred to as "1996 Pokémon Carddass". Part 2 has an identical style and was released 10 days later as a continuation: 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 another set, Pokémon Carddass Part 3 and 4, which is known for its unique early art style.
Carddass cards were purchased in small vending machines by inserting either 20¥ or 100¥ and turning a knob that released a card or stack of 5 cards.
Background
Carddass
Carddass is a larger 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 for cards, and Sealdass is for stickers. In the Carddass sets, including Part 1 and 2, the Prism cards can be peeled and used as a sticker.
In Japanese, "Carddass" is a reference to AMeDAS, a high-tech automated weather data collection system. The concept behind Carddass is that the back of each card has high-quality data and data visualizations to learn about each Pokémon. The name can sound awkward in English; at the time of its release, it would be another 2 years before Pokémon would exist outside of Japan, so the English interpretation was likely never considered.
Historical context
Bandai designed, manufactured, and distributed the Pokémon Carddass cards themselves. Bandai is not an owner of the Pokémon intellectual property, which was jointly owned by Creatures Inc, Nintendo, and Game Freak, so it was given a contractual license to use the IP for that purpose. Pokémon Carddass Part 1 was released in the period of September 21-30, 1996 (in Japanese:1996年9月下旬).
At the same time, the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) was being designed by Creatures Inc, one of the three owners of the Pokémon IP. The TCG consists of the familiar, typically yellow-bordered cards that can be used to battle with friends. The first TCG cards, a Pikachu and Jigglypuff promo in Corocoro magazine, were released on October 15 1996, a few days before the Japanese base set with no rarity symbol.
This means that the first Pokémon cards of any kind released were the Carddass Part 1 cards. The first official Pokémon TCG cards released were the Pikachu and Jigglypuff Corocoro promos. Each was a special moment in Pokémon history in its own way. There were also other non-card Pokémon collectibles released prior to Carddass Part 1, such as the Pokémon Menko Chips (ジャンボカードダス チップシューター ), a set of cardstock coins which were the first card-like collectibles and the first collectibles of any kind to include all 151 original Pokémon, released June 21-30 1996.
Contents and rarity of Part 1 & 2 cards
The Pokémon Carddass Part 1 set includes 69×2 regular Pokémon cards (one each in red and green), 6×2 holographic "prism" Pokémon cards, 1 Title card (タイトルカード) with a Venusaur on the front and town map on the back, and 2 Pokédex (カードリスト) cards with checklists on the back.
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 illustrations on the back by Benimaru Itoh: Arbok, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Polywhirl, Geodude, Slowbro, Doduo, Gengar, Drowsy, Horsea, and Kabutops. The illustration of the town map on the back of the Title cards is the same one from a poster that came with the original gameboy games; it is not known who the illustrator was.
The back of the cards show information from the original Red and Green games including the original sprite, 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. 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 be individually packed. According to a public 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. If other boxes are the same, then Part 1 Prism and Title cards are equally rare, and are only slightly more rare then the regular cards, of which there are ≈1.35x more copies per card on average. Since it is unknown whether the same regular cards are duplicated in each box, it is possible that some of the 69 regular cards are equally as rare as the Prism and Title cards while others are doubly as common, averaging to the ≈1.35x ratio overall. Carddass Part 2 is 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 set 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 versions for all of its 75 Pokémon, and Part 2 also contains both red and green versions of its remaining 76. 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
The card numbering below is in the same order that the checklist cards show, with indexing starting at 0.
The set contains 1 Title Card, two Pokédex checklists, and 45 unique Pokémon in red & green variants, of which 6 are Prism cards.
Title and checklist cards
| 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) |
Pokémon cards
| Set # | Pokédex # | Name | Front (Red) | Front (Green) | Back | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Bulbasaur | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 2 | 2 | Ivysaur | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 3 | 3 | Venusaur | 
|
|
|
Prism card (プリズムカード) |
| 4 | 4 | Charmander | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 5 | 5 | Charmeleon | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 6 | 6 | Charizard | 
|
|
|
Prism card (プリズムカード) |
| 7 | 7 | Squirtle | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 8 | 8 | Wartortle | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 9 | 9 | Blastoise | 
|
|
|
Prism card (プリズムカード) |
| 10 | 10 | Caterpie | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 11 | 11 | Metapod | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 12 | 12 | Butterfree | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 13 | 15 | Beedrill | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 14 | 16 | Pidgey | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 15 | 17 | Pidgeotto | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 16 | 18 | Pidgeot | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 17 | 19 | Rattata | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 18 | 20 | Raticate | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 19 | 21 | Spearow | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 20 | 22 | Fearow | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 21 | 25 | Pikachu | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 22 | 26 | Raichu | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 23 | 27 | Sandshrew | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 24 | 28 | Sandslash | 
|
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|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 25 | 29 | Nidoran♀ | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 26 | 30 | Nidorina | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 27 | 31 | Nidoqueen | 
|
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|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 28 | 34 | Nidoking | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 29 | 35 | Clefairy | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 30 | 36 | Clefable | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 31 | 37 | Vulpix | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 32 | 38 | Ninetales | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 33 | 39 | Jigglypuff | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 34 | 40 | Wigglytuff | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 35 | 41 | Zubat | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 36 | 42 | Golbat | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 37 | 45 | Vileplume | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 38 | 47 | Parasect | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 39 | 48 | Venonat | 
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|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 40 | 49 | Venomoth | 
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|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 41 | 50 | Diglett | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 42 | 51 | Dugtrio | 
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|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 43 | 52 | Meowth | 
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|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 44 | 53 | Persian | 
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|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 45 | 54 | Psyduck | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 46 | 55 | Golduck | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 47 | 60 | Poliwag | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 48 | 61 | Poliwhirl | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 49 | 62 | Poliwrath | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 50 | 63 | Abra | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 51 | 64 | Kadabra | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 52 | 65 | Alakazam | 
|
|
|
Prism card (プリズムカード) |
| 53 | 66 | Machop | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 54 | 67 | Machoke | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 55 | 68 | Machamp | 
|
|
|
Prism card (プリズムカード) |
| 56 | 69 | Bellsprout | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 57 | 70 | Weepinbell | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 58 | 71 | Victreebel | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 59 | 72 | Tentacool | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 60 | 73 | Tentacruel | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 61 | 74 | Geodude | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 62 | 75 | Graveler | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 63 | 76 | Golem | 
|
|
|
Prism card (プリズムカード) |
| 64 | 77 | Ponyta | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 65 | 78 | Rapidash | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 66 | 81 | Magnemite | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 67 | 82 | Magneton | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 68 | 83 | Farfetch'd | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 69 | 84 | Doduo | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 70 | 88 | Grimer | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 71 | 89 | Muk | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 72 | 98 | Krabby | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 73 | 99 | Kingler | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 74 | 126 | Magmar | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
| 75 | 127 | Pinsir | 
|
|
|
Standard card (一般カード) |
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.
Carddass News Magazine
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. |