The "1st issue" print as well as a number of the "2nd issue" prints vary in design a little from their "3rd issue" counterparts. Later on these final form Pokemon would finally make it to the Pokemon TCG in the Jungle and Fossil sets.
The same was true for Dragonite, Gengar, Hypno, Pidgeot, Rapidash and Sandslash, these Pokemon were left out despite the precense of their pre-evolved forms. Blastoise, Charizard and Venusaur were the 'cover Pokemon' for this set and are featured on it's booster packs - check out the gallery to see them.Īn interesting point about the Base Set is that it contained several Basic Pokemon, but didn't contain the evolved forms of some of those Pokemon for example Caterpie, Clefairy, Doduo were included in the set but their final forms Butterfree, Clefable and Dodrio weren't. This set is one of few to this day to include energy cards for Fighting, Fire, Grass, Lightning, Psychic and Water and it also introduced our first special energy card the double colorless. This set is to date the only one not represented by a symbol. The Base set contained a well rounded mix of Pokemon, all from the original 150 and bears no bias to any particular type(s).
The set contained 102 cards in both the Japanese and English versions and although it was released in Japan on October 20th, 1996 it didn't see it's English version released across the west until years later when it finally landed on January 9th, 1999 in the U.S.Įven when the Base Set was first introduced a lot of U.S retailers were skeptical about it and as such it wasn't properly stocked until a couple of months later in March/April 99.
The Base Set was the very first release of Pokemon cards and theme decks for the Pokemon Trading Card Game. Japanese Variations / Set List / Other Cards / Images & Videos Quick menu: Overview / Print Versions / English version vs.