Black & White Booster Box

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here with my very first booster box opening ever!!
This is a first for both my Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures and for myself personally.

This is a booster box of the Black & White base set, bought during a clearance sale at Chaos Cards over a year ago for £59.99!

This booster box was VERY good to me as you will see from the plethora of great pulls that I got, as well as the fact that it was cheaper than usual and due to some weird factory error, had an extra booster pack in it!

Lets get straight to seeing what pulls I got, but be warned there is a lot!

You can check out my video opening of this box on my youtube channel (separated into four parts: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4).

Lets start with the rares. I got many that I still needed for this collection, putting me VERY close to having all of them (just missing one now!)

Naturally I did get a bunch of repeats so I did not include those ones in the photos.

If you think getting all these rares is impressive (and by booster box standards, it's not); then wait till you see all the reverse-holo rares I managed to get:

None of these I got as repeats. 

You may notice that they do not have the energy symbols in the background like more recent ones. That trend did not start until Emerging Powers, the set straight after this one. That means that Black & White base set is the only set in the BW series that has no energy symbols for its reverse-holos.

Now for the actual holos!

I managed to get both pairs of Serperior and Samurott.

I get what they were going for with the 5ban graphics artwork, but I definitely prefer the other arwork.

Sadly there were only two Emboars to get in this set and I managed to pull the one I already had, bummer!

And now for the pieces de resistance! 

In this booster box I managed to get not one, not two - but three ultra rares!!

(well technically the Pikachu is a secret rare)

I have no idea if this is common in Black & White booster boxes or if getting an extra booster pack is how they insert secret rare cards into the box, but I'm glad!

Out of the three, Zekrom full art is the only double. I actually got one all the way back in my very first Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures episode. The texture on this one does seem to be a little different though, slightly more bumpy.

Reshiram is the full art I did not have for this set. It looks like the standard pose for a Reshiram, but I can understand how at the time these must have been fantastic to get. And honestly, I'm still ecstatic to have pulled it! 

Nothing to say about this one except SECRET PIKACHU GFBLT*@£%!!!

Love it.

I don't really know how to sum this opening up other than to say HELL YEAH!

I got so many cards that I'm now very close to finishing my regular Black & White set collection (the reverse-holos still need work of course). Also getting an extra pack and three ultra/secret rares is fantastic. These cards may not be worth much individually, but that does not in anyway take away from the joy I had of pulling them and now owning them.

This was my first booster box opening, but will be by no means my last. Please stay tuned for future TCG merchandise openings, I have a feeling that they can only get better! (Pretty sure I just jinxed it by saying that haha)

Bye!

Opening 4 Legendary Treasures Booster Packs

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here with a short but sweet adventure, all part of my Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures.

As those who have been following me might remember I spent some time in China, and whilst over there came across some places that sold Pokémon booster packs. They're cheaper there than in the UK, so I brought a bunch of them back with me. Of that bunch were four Legendary Treasures booster packs. They cost $30 HKD each, that's about £2.50 each, not bad!

Lets open them up and see what's inside.

As usual check out my video opening here or just scroll down to see what pulls I got.

I didn't have much of a choice in pack artwork. Not a problem considering I still have an entire booster box of these packs to open for a future adventure!

Here are the rares and the reverse-rare that I got.

The way Legendary Treasures works is that you can end up with both a holographic AND a rare in in the same pack (the former replaces the reverse-holo that'd usually be there)

I managed to get two holos out of four packs, not bad at all! (and it gets better!)

Legendary Treasures also has a subset known as Radiant Collection. You have the potential of getting some pretty unique cards in this set, such as this full art Shaymin-EX! It's both badass and cute.

AND THAT'S NOT ALL!

I also got a hold of this wonderful ultimate rare Darkrai-EX!!

I actually got this in the same booster pack as the Zekrom holo.

It's a reprint of the same Darkrai-EX that you can find in Dark Explorers.

Nice to have none the less.

So yes, not much to say really, these wonderful pulls should speak for themselves!

I'm really glad to have gotten this Darkrai-EX, even though it's a reprint and not worth much in terms of sales, it is a card I none the less needed for my collection. Same goes for most of these pulls really!

Thanks for reading/watching, see you next episode Trainers!

Sylveon Collection Box

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here with a wonderful opening.
I give you the huge, jam packed and fun Sylveon Collection box! It comes with multiple promo cards (9 of them!! All based on the Eeveelutions), a figurine (the only XY TCG figure to make it to Europe), a sneak preview Fairy Energy card (obviously no longer a big deal haha) and four different booster packs (Next Destinies, Dragons Exalted and two Legendary Treasures)!

Here is the large box. It cost me £15.95 and was bought from Chaos Cards.

As usual click here to check the video or scroll down to see the contents and pulls I got.

WARNING: about half of the video is blurry. My camera got damaged and so sadly half the footage turned out blurry (it does get fixed half way through though)

Anyways, lets start off with the promo cards. There's a lot of them and I'll be taking a look at them individually, so expect loads of pictures!

Lets start off with the mon that starts off this line; Eevee!

This one is a reprint with new artwork of the Plasma Freeze Eevee.

What's interesting to note is that there is no specific artist credited with the artwork for the Eeveelotuion promo cards (except Sylveon). The credits simply go to the Nintendo Art Team.

Here is Vaporeon. All the cards (again, except for Sylveon) have a background motif to go with their typing or attribute. I will admit though, I don't know how the flower/ribbons link to Vaporeon! (unless they're lily pads?)

The artwork is very simple for these cards (except of course, you've guessed it, for Sylveon).

They have a kind of paper cut-out look to them. I quite like it.

I love that Flareon is just lying down waiting for someone to come rub its belly.

A very natural look.

I find that the background patterns remind me a lot of Christmas or Birthday gift wrapping with the repetitive pattern, glittering and shapes chosen.

I find the motif of moons and stars in the background suit Umbreon very well.

In fact this is probably one of the most apt background for the Eeveelutions out of all the cards.

The 'paper cut-out' look suits Leafeon's leafy appearance very well. Its tail looks very flat, which is how I've always imagined it to look.

All the evolved Eeveelutions' cards are reprints of Dark Explorers cards, except for... well you know already.

Everyone has a favourite Eeveelotuion, but they decided to focus on one in particular to be the titular star of the box.

The Sylveon box was coming out just before the new series (and Gen) of cards were going to be released. This is why the box had a Fairy Energy (a new type introduced in both the video games and TCG) and a Sylveon promo even though this particular promo was not originally part of the other Eeveevolution set of promotional cards.

This card is in fact an XY promotional card, whereas all the others in the box are BW cards.

Whereas the others have the Nintendo Art Team as illustrators for them, this one has 5ban Graphics, continuing the boring trend of having 5ban Graphics do all the Gen VI artwork (this is something I've ranted about many times already).

It is none the less a nice card, but does stick out (in a bad way IMO) to the others a bit too much and really does not look as nice as them.

Something Sylveon related that I really did look forward to in this box however was this fantastic figure!

The E.U has banned the import of TCG merchandise with figures in them due to hazardous parts, so sadly many new boxes have Jumbo cards as replacement. But for some reason or another this one did get the A-OK (and boy am I glad it did!). It looks so cute, beautifully sculpted and well painted. Unlike the Black & White TCG figures it does not come with a bottle-cap base sadly, but does have a cool looking tree stump instead.

And look! It goes well with the cherry blossom deco that's in my sister's room.

Now on to my booster pack pulls, FINALLY (haha):

Dragons Exalted continued the trend of giving me bad pulls with Roserade.

The Reuniclus was not welcomed either, it was also a repeat!

Thankfully Legendary Treasures can come with both a rare and a holo, so I still managed to get some good pulls. One in the form of this Landorus holographic rare and the other in the form of an...

... Ultra rare Mewtwo-EX!!

What a great pull. This is a reprint of a previous card, however it still goes for about £10-15 on ebay it seems, being easily one of the more expensive ultra rare cards you can pull from Legendary Treasures. Plus it looks cool.

Wow, what a long post and opening! I thoroughly enjoyed this unboxing, despite the terrible video quality (again, sorry!).

I'd have to say the figure, the BW Eeveelution promos and Mewtwo-EX were my favourite parts (so many favourites!). The Sylveon promo did not get me as excited, but it's still great to get for my collection.

Thanks a lot for reading guys! Or watching if you happened to check out the video (seriously you must have had some patience to do that!).

Check in again on Wednesday for another Pokémon TCG Opening Adventure!

Bye!

Greninja Phantom Forces Checklane Blister Pack

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here with just a small adventure for the day.

This time round I have a single Checklane Blister Pack of Greninja to open. It was bought at Card Team for £3.45, which was the cheapest I found it at (at the time anyways, maybe it has dropped/increased in price now?)

This blister was released around the time Phantom Forces was the newest set being sold, so naturally the booster pack you get in the blister is from that set!

You also get a promotional Greninja card and a coin.

Click here to check the video opening of this product or simply scroll down if you just want to see the cards.

So here are the promotional items. You get this really cool Greninja, number XY24 for XY Black Star Promos collection. You also get this (reverse?) reflective Pikachu coin. It looks really cool, but at the same time offputing, and I can't quite put my finger on why I feel that away about this coin haha.

The one and only rare I got from the booster pack was this normal rare Honchkrow.

Meh.

So the pull I got from the booster pack was a double of a card I had already, but the promotional card more than makes up for it. That Greninja looks wonderful! I love that they chose to change its typing to Darkness, maybe this'll start a trend of seeing other starter mons make use of their dual types (I want a Colorless Charizard!). I also really like the ninja motif they went with for the artwork. Plus the style reminds me of the Ken Sugimori artwork you use to get all the way back in Gym Heroes and Gym Challenge. If you haven't seen those artwork I really recommend you go check them out, they're not your typical stock art Ken works!

Anyways, thanks for reading and watching! Stay tuned for more Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures pulls and blog rants!

Smell ya later!

Kyurem-EX 2012 Tin

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here with another good opening for my Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures!
This time round, we open up a Kyurem-EX Spring 2012 Tin that I purchased at the fantastic price of £9 on ebay! This was a very lucky purchase because I saw this tin going for £20+ on other websites.

Here is the tin itself. A very beautiful light blue mixed in with some dark greys, complementing Kyurem's colouring very well.

Inside, you get the titular promo card, a TCGO card for the promo and four booster packs (2 Next Destinies, one Emerging Powers and one Noble Victories)

I'll be now moving on to the contents, if you'd like to watch the video of the tin opening click here.
If you'd rather just see pictures, keep scrolling down!

Of course we start off with the promo. This Kyurem-EX is part of the BW Black Star Promos and is number BW37

I got a bunch rares that I still needed.

And I got two holographic cards, both legendary mons that I still needed.

I'm loving the sparkilliness (that a word?) of Moltres.

So I may not have gotten any ultra rares, I did get many cards that I still needed. And two holographic cards out of four boosters is above average! 

Stay tuned for the next adventure folks, thanks as always for reading/watching!
Bye!

Reshiram Box

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here.
For this adventure I opened up a Reshiram [figure] Box! I got it from Infinity Games for the decent price of £17.09.
I very much have been looking forward to opening this box because I friggin love these figures that come with TCG merchandise. They're well sculpted, detailed and very often dynamically posed.

Here is the box! It comes with a Reshiram figure, a Reshiram promo card, a TCGO for that Reshiram promo and four booster packs, all of them Emerging Powers.

 As usual, before we proceed I must warn you that there will be spoilers of what cards I pulled from the booster packs. If you'd rather enjoy the suspense of the openings then check out the video on my youtube channel.
If you're not fussed eitherway, then scroll down to check out my pulls as well as the box's contents.

Lets start off with the promo card:

This is Reshiram BW23 for the BW Black Star Promos collection.

The artwork is different, but it basically a reprint (one of many) of the original Reshiram card that appeared in the Black & White base set.

Here is the figure! I love the mid-flight pose it has and how they use the tail as a base to hold that pose. It's very detailed too! (which is admittedly not very evident in this poor quality picture, sorry!)

I got three rares and one rare reverse-holo. I actually needed most of these cards so this is not necessarily a bad set of pulls.

I did manage to pull one holo though, and one that I needed still. The Beartic looks very ferocious, though I can't help but feel that they could have done more with the artwork. Oh well, early Black & White sets had fairly bland artwork, it can't be helped (though I don't think poor Beartic will ever be a holo again!)

So this wasn't a bad opening at all. I'm not missing many cards for my Emerging Powers collection, and these cards helped shrink my wants list a bit.

Mega Metagross-EX Premium Collection

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here with a fantastically luxurious Mega Metagross-EX Premium Collection box opening for my Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures (S02)!
I got this box at the fantastic discounted price of £24.75 from Chaos Cards, instead of the usual £35+ it can cost. This is because I not only bought it as a pre-order, but also made use of my membership discount.

Shall we see if this box was worth the purchase?
As usual, check out my video on youtube or scroll down to see the pulls I got.

Here is the MASSIVE box. It was so big that barely 1/3 managed to fit on screen when I was filming the opening.

This "Premium" box is the first of its kind. It must have been popular because Nintendo have started releasing others (Mega Diancie-EX Premium Box is currently out)

This is the back of the box, which lists everything you can get within it.

The battle matt is a cool addition for those who enjoy playing the game competitively. 

These are the promotional goodies you get in the box (minus the matt).

Here is a close up of the two promotional cards; my main aim for getting this box in the first place (that and all the booster packs).

As expected from the XY series of sets I got mostly rare cards sadly.

I did manage to get a reverse-holo rare in the form of Spiritomb though. A very lovely card that works well as a reverse.

I got two holographic cards. The Heliolisk from Phantom Forces and a Carbink from Flashfire.

Both very nice cards, though unfortunately I do own the Carbink already.

I do think the idea for this premium box is a cool one. It's nice to see Nintendo aiming for the player demographic of Pokémon TCG with this merchandise that provides a matt and a play set of promo cards (not sure just how playable these cards are though)

I am saddened that I got no ultra rares from this box. There is not guarantee in these kind of products to get anything of the sorts though even with all those booster packs, unlike in a booster box. Still, it's a shame. At least the box wasn't as ridiculously expensive as it could have been!

Hopefully next time I can pull something more exciting! Stay tuned for the next adventure, bye folks! Thanks for watching/reading!