5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Charizard Pokémon Card
Pokémon Trading Cards ate up a lot of my time, money and patience as a child. In all of my years of trading, battling, and out-right thievery, one card managed to allude me, Base Set Charizard. This card was, of course, the best card in the entire game. Ok, let me rephrase that, this card was the most sought-after card in the game. It had tons of HP, an amazing attack, and was of course awesome looking.
Sadly, in competitive play this card was supremely outclassed, especially when a jerk ass showed up with his Blastoise and literal waterfall of energy cards. Even though this card is old and outclassed, it still holds a special place in nearly everyone’s heart and if it isn’t special to you, you at least know about it. Here’s 5 facts that you probably didn’t know about one of the most famous trading cards of all time.
- The original illustrator for this card is Mitsuhiro Arita. He’s the second most prolific illustrator for the Pokémon Trading Card Game. He’s also famous for doing illustration for Final Fantasy XI.
- From the Base Set alone, there are 3 different variants of this card alone. Their is the first edition, the “shadowless” version, and the Unlimited run.
- The “shadowless” variant is from the print run directly after the first editions but before they finalized their card designs and gets its name from the lack of a drop shadow underneath the portrait. This makes it look flat unlike the Unlimited run where the shadow makes the portrait appear to come off the card.
- This card inspired Ashley McKenzie to take up judo after he lost a fight and had his Charizard card stolen. He has since gone on to win several championships and even make it to the 2012 London Olympic Games. He was beaten early on and then appeared on Big Brother. He got 5th there.
- This card has been reprinted several times in other sets or used as promos. Sometimes with alternate illustrations or tweaked wording but this is one of the few cards that refuses to die. The prices on thee cards vary but still the Base Set, first edition consistently fetches over $100 on eBay auctions.
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Ah, Pokemon cards. Magic the Gathering’s goofy technicolor younger brother.
Compared to older Magic cards, older Pokemon cards are not terribly valuable. The reason being is that older Magic cards tended to be over-powered and game-breaking, whereas older Pokemon cards are nearly useless in standard play today.