Nov
2024
Tales from storage: collecting cards and counterfeiting
I've exposited plenty of times on this blog about
how I was very much swept up in Pokemon fever -- my brother and I bought the
games, watched the cartoon, collected the figurines, amassed whatever other dumb
trinkets and doodads that were available, so it's only
natural we also picked up the Trading Card Game as well.
I... don't think we ever actually played it. I don't know anyone who did back in
the day...! As much as the franchise invited discussion and shared activities
among kids, I get the impression we feared being robbed more than daring to
share activities among our peers. I feel like there's an allegory in there, but
I'm too tired to pursue it.
What I'd almost forgotten about were these print-outs my brother and I must have
made of the then-recently announced Generation 2 starters, presumably pasted on
top of energy cards. They were already woefully unconvincing back in the day,
and look even more diabolical after a couple decades worth of water damage.
Can't say it isn't Aesthetic™ though, especially on the Croconaw card.
Looking at these card kind of feels like a childhood
captured in amber: all the idle whims and silly notions, the short-sightedness
and lack of thinking behind the activities you get up to, because you're young
and have no responsibilities. I might've been bitter thinking how much was spent
on things I never used, only to be chucked in a shed and left to rot.
How did we get some stinkin' many? Were they sold at the local newsagents? Were
we picking up packs every time we went to Toys R Us? There were close to two
hundred or more of these bloody things, and yet I simply have no memory of how
they fit into our hobbies and habits back in the day. We sure as hell didn't
play or trade them! That would've required a social life!
I guess we must've just collected them for the sake of collecting them, and
maybe petered off once we'd gotten our favourite Pokemon -- Drowzee for myself
and Poliwhirl for my brother. I recall making an edit of the Drowzee card with
bumped up damage, despite never touching the actual battling portion, and a
friend telling me it'd still be useless. It's almost like you need to know how
to play the game even when you're cheating!
I've said before how I dropped off of the series come Gold & Silver -- I was truly obsessed with that first game, but there came a time that I had to ask myself, am I having fun? I think knowing "gotta catch 'em all!" was a Sisyphean quest that would only keep moving the goalposts with every new game, with every new wave of merchandise... even my idiot young self knew when to cut his losses.
Also in the lot were a bunch of Topps' Pokemon cards, as well as a bunch of
Spanish Dragon Ball GT
trading cards from Panini: mostly screenshots from the anime (including one of
Goku with his willy out), but some look to be promo art with translucent
see-through backing.
Admittedly cards that are just screenshots from TV shows are the
farthest thing from exciting these days, but in the days before we had
convenient digital access to most things, there's something to be said for
reliving favourite moments through photo stills. A trinket to show my love for a
thing, a memento of a fleeting media experience; the nerd equivalent of a
postcard.
Shout at your computer screen if I've told this
story before, but holidays to Spain were where my brother and I were introduced
to most anime we'd later seek out: Escaflowne, Dr. Slump, Albert J. Kwak... but
seeing all the action figures of these spiky-haired bozos in tunics and gi, our
first thought was: oh, this must be related to Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon!
This was also perhaps the first symptom of our perpetual hipster-ism (or hype
aversion as the kids call it, you can't teach an old dog new tricks), as by the
time Dragon Ball Z finally reached English shores, we'd already had our fill.
Between the toys, the Spanish VHS of GT's first episode, and speculating on how
events pieced together based on the random episodes we caught on hotel
television, we already had every discussion we could have wanted.
I am going to put myself in front of a bullseye by asking: are discussions about
power levels really any different than arguing over what football team is
better? We already had heated debates over Sonic versus Knuckles, we were not
going to go down that well again; school was fraught with enough conflict
without choosing to include it in water cooler talk.
I've collected cards as part of my Bomberman research, but I've no strong feelings for them. I can definitely see the appeal in the hobby, having won a match or two of Magic: The Gathering with a loaner deck; it's not a hobby I'd willingly pursue (I've too many vices as it is!), but I like seeing people have fun with it. My visit to Q-Con Belfast during the summer was mostly just people-watching, and seeing a quartet of nerds on the train getting very animated over their Yu-Gi-Oh deck builds was extremely charming.