Landorus Promotional Blister Pack - End Chapter

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here and welcome to my last merchandise opening for Pokémon TCG Opening (Season 1). To wrap up this fun journey I opened up a Plasma Freeze Triple Blister Pack - Landorus. To check out the video click here.

Here's the pack, which I bought on ebay for £9.99. A little pricy but the postage was free so over all not bad, especially since this is a ridiculously hard blister pack to come across, either being out of stock or very expensive:

And here's what you are guaranteed to get in the pack, aside from the three Plasma Freeze booster packs of course:

A Team Plasma's Landorus (Therian Form) BW79 promo card and a Team Plasma coin, which has the same design as the one I got from the Team Plasma Box but a different colour.

And here are the 'prizes' I got from the booster packs:

I got a lovely holographic Reshiram, a rare Team Plasma's Weavil, a rare Team Plasma's Steelix and a reverse-holo Team Plasma's Muk. So four rare cards out of 3 blister packs, not bad.

So I'm pretty happy with the blister pack, I got a really cool promo card and a bunch of rare cards that I never had before! (I thought some might be doubles but it turns out I was wrong.)

Aaaaaaaaand that's it, my journey has ended. I'll do one last post to wrap up my experience as a whole, but for now I will say this was a lot of fun and I certainly plan to -and indeed will- do again. Indeed I already have some merchandise stockpiled for a Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures Season 2. But I won't be getting round to doing this for about 6 to 12 months because I will be moving abroad to work for that time period, so it'll be rather hard to do this at the same time due to lack of youtube access, official Pokémon TCG merchandise and time. Hopefully that means it'll build up a lot of suspense haha.

I won't be totally gone from this blog though, I still plan to update on occasion about other passions of mine if possible so make sure to stick around.

But for now- thanks for the viewership, I'm happy that people were willing to view, subscribe and comment on my videos, to be there along with me on this journey. I hope it was as much fun for you as it was for me.

Thank you and until next time!

Emerging Powers Promotional Blister Pack (Minccino) - Calm Before the Storm

Hi all!!

The Amateur Collector here and today I'm just opening up on little checklane blister pack, the third and last one from the three that I bought off of Card Team for £5.95. To check out the other two here: first blister pack and second blister pack.
This blister pack has one Emerging Powers sample pack, an actual Empowers Powers booster pack and a sweet promo card. To check out the opening video click here.

So without further ado:

The promotional card

Minccino BW13, and I have to say probably one of the cutest cards I've ever seen.

The Emerging Powers booster pack swag

A rare Gothitelle and a reverse-holo Thundurus.

I must say I've noticed that I have good luck with rare reverse-holographic cards, I feel like I get them more often than not. Though I must admit in this case I would have liked it if the cards were reverse, since I already have a rare Gothitelle but still need a holographic Thundurus. As for the promo Minccino, I think it has become one of my favourite cards for the B&W Black Star Promotional series, it's so cute, the background is colourful and the artwork is simple and effective. 

Well, I'm happy enough with this blister pack, not the best pulls for £5.95 but the promo card more than makes up for it.

I've titled this post "Calm Before the Storm" because my next post will be my last one for Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures (season 1) and I like to see this single blister pack opening as I kind of "breather" before the last opening.

So see you soon! 

7 x Plasma Blast Booster Packs - Disappointment

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here and today I've opened seven loose booster packs from the Plasma Blast set.

As you can probably tell from the title to this blog, this wasn't the greatest of my adventures so far, in fact probably the worst. If you're still interested in seeing what I got watch the video here or keep reading on this post.
I bought these booster packs on ebay for £16.50, a really good price, but unsurprisingly they were weighed. Now to be honest I can't be that mad, they were cheap and I still got a bunch of cards I didn't have, but I just hate that people could be so dishonest. It also means having to spend more in the future to be able to get holos/ultra rares.

Oh well, here's what I got!

Here are all the rare cards I got. I scanned six of them because I got Reuniclus as a double.

Thankfully to make up for the lack of holos I got two rare reverse-holos. I'm particularly fond of the Haxorus. Dragon Types look really good in reverse-holo.

And that's it, I think all that needed saying has been said for today's adventure. I'll reiterate what I said in a past post, I'm going to avoid buying loose booster packs off ebay from now on, it's just not worth it. 

See you guys next time! 

Keldeo Box - Smile on my Face

Hi all!

Amateur Collector here and today I've opened this fantastic Keldeo Box set.

(stock picture I got online, forgot to take pic of my own!)

If you don't want any spoilers and want to see the video of this box being opened click here.

I bought this box in store at Forbidden Planet for £12.99, which was a slightly cheaper alternative to some online stores. This box is pretty awesome; in it you get a promo card, a jumbo card, 3 booster packs (2 Dragons Exalted, 1 Noble Victories) and a figurine! Not bad at all.

And so here's the content of this box all laid out for you to see:

These are the promotional cards you get in the box, the small one on the left is a Keldeo BW60 and the one on the right is a jumbo print of Keldeo-EX from Boundaries Crossed. Notice how Keldeo looks slightly different in box pictures, that's because Keldeo-EX here is in its Resolute Form. The Black Star Promo card looks fine, but I find it rather boring for a promotional card.

This here is the Keldeo figure on its base. It is a fantastic figure and one of the main reasons I got this box. Although I don't care much for Keldeo as a Pokémon, this figure is so well detailed and in a great dynamic pose that I had to get it. This Keldeo is also in its Resolute Form.

And last but not least, my pulls from the booster packs:

From the Dragons Exalted packs I got an Ambipom and Gyarados, two rares cards that I unfortunatly already have, but to make up for that I also got a reverse-holo Garchomp and reverse-holo Gyarados. The holographic card at the top is a Bisharp from Noble Victories.

Overall verdict: As usual I've got bad luck with Dragons Exalted booster packs, but the reverse-holos made up for that a little, and I'm very pleased with the holo Bisharp. Five rare cards for three boosters isn't bad at all. I'm very much in love with the figurine and hope that Nintendo continue this trend of making high quality collectable figurines to go with some of their TCG merchandise. There's loads that I need to get now and it'll probably be hard (and expensive) to track them down and obtain, in packaging or not. But hopefully I'll be able to. I know I've at least got my eyes on those new ones for X&Y.

So yeah, thanks for reading and until next time. Hopefully I get more good stuff!

Noble Victories Promotional Blister Pack (Scraggy) - Quick Detour

Hi all!

Amateur Collector here and today we're going to take a quick peak at what I got in a checklane blister pack. This was the second blister pack out of three that I purchased from Card Team (the opening of the first can be found here). It cost me £5.95, a little expensive but that's hardly surprising considering how hard it is to find. Here's the video for those who are interested in seeing the blister pack opening.

In this pack you get one promotional card, a Noble Victories sample pack and one ordinary Noble Victories booster pack.

And without further ado, here is what I got:

The BW25 Scraggy looking very cute though slightly mischievous, and a Reuniclus that I got from the booster pack

I'm pleased with this blister pack, although it was slightly costly I did get a cool promo and a rare card I didn't own. And that's it for today! A really short post indeed.

See you next time for more Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures!

18 x Various POP Series Booster Packs - Pop Party!

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here and today I'm opening up a few POP Series booster packs, 18 of them to be precise, from various different series. Little history now! These are exclusive promotional packs that were usually only available at official Pokémon Organized Play (POP) events, though eventually they were also available with promotional merchandise (but still hard to get a hold of). There were 9 sets released until they were cancelled a few years back, each set only containing 17 cards to collect but due to aforementioned rarity and that fact that each booster pack only has 2 cards in them they're very hard to complete.
Anyways, I managed to get a small amount of them from two different sellers on ebay. I got six booster packs (three Series 1 and three Series 2) from one seller for £2.90 and the rest from another (two Series 7, six Series 8 and four Series 9) for £4.30.
Check out the booster pack opening video for this here.

Here's a picture of each of the booster pack art:

Although the chances of getting rare cards are really low I did manage to get a few, including an ex!

A wonderful Tyranitar-ex from Series 1. A Probopass from Series 8 and a Raichu from Series 9.

You'll notice that none of these are holographic (even the Tyranitar-ex!), that's because none of the rare cards you get in POP booster packs are holographic, regardless of rarity or specialness. But there are alternate versions of some of these cards that are holographic and that you usually got with other merchandise (like in tins).

Well, not much to say really. I'm very happy with these pulls, especially considering the low rare:common ratio in these packs.

It makes me very hopeful for the what little merchandises I still have to open... yep I'm nearing the end of this journey so stay tuned! Bye!

Team Plasma Box - Lovely Box of Villainy

Hi all!

Amateur Collector here and today I'v opened this wonderful little piece of Pokémon TCG merchandise; the Team Plasma Box.
I won it in a bid at £7.50 from a seller on ebay, plus £2.30 for postage. Altogether that makes £9.80, not at all bad when you consider it goes for £17.99 at retail (at least from what I can tell from the GAME store price label still stuck on to it, which is where I assume the seller originally got the box from.)
For that cheap price I got 3 booster packs, two promotional cards, a Team Plasma coin and a jumbo card. My first jumbo card ever, in fact!
Click here to watch the video of me opening this box up.

And here's the contents, promotional items first then booster pack contents:

First off, the two promotional cards: both Plasma Pokémon, both full arts. There's the fierce BW74 Giratina and the sinister BW73 Darkrai. Both these cards are beautiful with the lightning effect in the back and the "finger print" pattern covering them like full art cards from regular sets do. The box also came with a nice coin for the game with the Team Plasma logo on it.

And here we have the jumbo card. It's a reprint of the same Darkrai card that already comes with the box, which I put next to it to show the size difference. It's fully glossed which is nice, but doesn't have the 'finger print' pattern it's smaller counterpart does.

Here's the contents of the booster packs: a rare Staraptor from Plasma Freeze, a rare Team Plasma's Giratina from Plasma Storm, a rare Escavalier from Noble Victories, a reverse-holo Team Plasma's Druddigon from Plasma Storm and a reverse-holo Kyrurem from Noble Victories.

So as you can see, although I got no holos I did get a large number of rares, all of which I still needed. My favourite out of the lot will have to be the Team Plasma's Giratina, I found it very fitting I should get one in the Team Plasma Box. I'm also happy with all the promotional cards this box provided, especially the jumbo card even though it got rather warped in the box (nothing that can't be fixed by sticking it in-between some heavy books.)

So with a smile on my face I end the update here.

Thanks for reading/watching and see you in the next adventure log!

Bye!

10 x B&W Series Booster Packs - No Thrills (part 1 & 2)

Hi all!

Amateur Collector here and I'm continuing with my adventure. Like all great journeys there are occasional lulls that occur along the route, not everyday can be a jam packed adventure full of excitement. Today's adventure is such an occurrence. I wouldn't mind so much but sadly this happened for an adventure I was hoping would be full of energy and excitement. The plan was to open up 10 booster packs from various Black & White series for two videos. I did not expect great cards necessarily but at least a small handful of holographics. Sadly as you will see, this did not happen. This is possibly due to the source of where I bought these booster packs: ebay. I have had some good luck with ebay purchases but this turned out not to be one of them as you will see.
Click here to see the video - part 1.
Click here for part 2.

For the video I opened up five booster packs, four of which were from Boundaries Crossed and one of which was Plasma Freeze and in the second I opened up three Dragons Exalted and two Black & White booster packs.

I was very hopeful that with 10 booster packs there'd be some decent ratio for a holographic and for the first five packs I was very lucky with the amount of rare reverse-holos I got; see yourselvest:

First five booster packs (Boundaries Crossed and Plasma Freeze)

I got no holographics. Thankfully these are all cards I still needed naturally, but it would have been exciting to have gotten at least one holo. But hey, look at the artwork on these cards, they are really nice, especially the Toxicroak who looks very dynamic. 

Also can't complain too much since in four of these five packs I got rare reverse-holos!

Pretty happy I got a Plasma's Metagross and two Meloetta. Just wish that at least one of those Meleotta would have been a normal holo.

At this point I was happy with the pulls I got which are quite impressive in terms of quantity (also bizarrely a lot of Psychic types). But I'd soon find out that this small piece of luck was going to run out. As you can probably guess by now, the cards were weighed. It became obvious after opening up the remaining five packs:

From Dragons Exalted and Black & White

No holographics at all. Not even any rare reverse holgraphics. Although these are cards I don't have it is still sad that I only got normal rares, especially considering how expensive booster packs are nowadays.

I may be jumping the gun a bit by saying these packs were weighed, perhaps I just have very bad luck (it's possible!) but considering I got them from ebay I can't rule out that possibility. Oh well, live and learn. I still ended up with a bunch of cards I needed and you guys got some videos. I'm just sorry it wasn't more of a thrill to watch than I'd hoped for you guys.

Hopefully the next adventure will yield some better results and will make for better entertainment. Stay tuned to see what it is!!

TTFN!

Luxio Promotional Blister Pack - Enjoying the Journey

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector and as usual I have a nice little piece of Pokémon TCG merchandise to open up. Today it's the Next Destinies Luxio triple boosters blister pack (at least that's what I'm calling it, I have no idea what the official product is called haha). I bought this blister pack off of ebay (which you've probably noticed by now, is where I buy most my items with various degree of luck) for £4.70, just a little over half price! This blister pack, as you can probably guess by the long name I've given it, comes with a promotional Luxio card, three Next Destinies booster packs and a coin.
To see the video of the blister pack being opened click here.

I must say, I was quite happy with this blister pack. First off, here's the expected promotional swag:

     

The Black-Star Promo Luxio BW34

and

a cool Munna coin

And here's what I got in the booster packs:

A very cute holo Cinccino, a holo Articuno, a rare Jellicent and a reverse-holo Amoonguss

Four rare cards in three booster packs, two of which are holographic? Not bad at all if I do say so myself! I especially like the Cinccino, the brigh bold colours, the simple rounded art style and the holographic pattern fading into a portion of the background; really nice.

So yeah, I'm pretty happy! Pulls like these keep me hopeful about the rest of the merchandise I still have to open.

And on that pleasant note, I'll end this post.

See you all in the next installment!

3 x D&P Series Booster Packs - Catching Up on Old Times (part 2)

Hi all!

Amateur Collector and welcome back for the second installment of the opening of six random booster packs. Today I'm focusing on the three Diamond & Pearl series booster packs; one Diamond & Pearl, one Diamond & Pearl Mysterious Treasures and one Diamond & Pearl Great Encounters.

Before I continue let me remind you that you can watch the video of me opening these packs on my youtube account here.

As mentioned in my last blog, these booster packs were bought in a lot of 6 booster packs, the other three being from the Ex-Series. The ebayer I got them from has been blocked, so there is the potential these cards were fake, but I checked them out and they seem to pass the all the tests I know. But I'm not expert, so I can but hope they are legit. Well, with that said, here's the swag I got:

The two on the left hand side are from the Great Encounters pack, a lovely Lapras and a revers-holo Slowking. The top right is a Chimeco from Mysterious Treasures. I love the background for that card but I do find the CGI a little too obvious. The last card is a Medicham from the first D&P set.

I'm happy to have gotten four rares from three booster packs, but it would have been nice to have gotten one holo at least. But hey, beggars can't be choosers, these are all cards I did not possess and I am thankful to now.

Anyways, that's it for today, be sure to scroll down to see the first part of this "oldschool" booster packs opening.

Till next time, ciao!

3 x EX-Series Booster Packs - Catching Up on Old Times (part 1)

Hi all!

Amateur Collector here and for today's blog I have the first part of two of an opening of old booster packs. I bought 6 booster packs off a seller on ebay for £13.52, three of them were from the EX-Series, the other three from Diamond & Pearl. I've recently discovered that the seller's account was shut down for some dubious reason, but the cards don't seem fake to me (they pass all the tests I know)... I'm not expert of course, but hopefully they're not!
Anyways, today we'll be focusing on the Ex-Series which I was really excited about opening. I got out of the Pokémon TCG around the time e-Cards were being introduced. Aside from a handful of booster packs I bought out of curiosity several years back (and some singles I got as part of bundles) I've not opened any Ex-Series booster packs at all, so it'll be interesting to see what kind of cards I get.
So the three booster packs I opened were from various sets; one Ex-Legend Makers, one Ex-Holon Phantoms and one Ex-Power Keepers.
Click here if you want to see the video of these packs being opened on my channel.

These are the booster packs.

And here's what I got!

I only got one holo out of three booster packs, but that at least proves to me these weren't weighed (whether they're fake is another issue I'll have to look into more deeply). I got a Metal Energy in the Ex-Power Keepers booster pack, a jolly Wobbuffet in the Ex-Legend Makers and two rares in the Ex-Holon Phantoms pack, the reverse-holo Zangoose and a very beautiful holographic δ-Species Vileplume. I really like the holo pattern on these Holon cards, it's nice they tried something so new and different.

Anyways, nothing more to add really. I'm pretty happy with this haul of cards to add to my collection. In the future I definitely want to try opening more booster packs from the third wave of Pokémon cards, if only they were easier to come across and cheaper!

Oh well.
Until then, look forward to the blog of the next set of booster packs I've opened! I'll try to post and upload the video tomorrow!

See you guys soon.

Plasma Storm Promotional Blister Pack (Drifblim) - Back in Action

Hi all!

Amateur Collector here and after a small leave of absence I'm back to continue my Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures. During that time I didn't blog I was having another adventure abroad, one which resulted in some nice little collectable treasures being found of which I'll speak more of in another blog post.
For now the adventure is opening a promotional blister pack! This is one of three promotional blister packs I purchased at Card Team and will be opening at various times throughout the journey. For today's adventure I chose the Plasma Storm Blister Pack with promotional Drifblim card (video here). This pack contained 2 loose cards, a sample pack for Plasma Storm and an actual Plasma Storm booster pack. Here's the swag I got from this blister pack:

The two cards you get loose in the blister pack are a Drifloon from the Dragons Exalted set, it is a non-promotional card. The other is a rather happy looking Drifblim BW64 Black Star Promo. The last card you see on the end there is the rare card I got in the booster pack; a Plasma's Druddigon.

I won't bother showing what I got in the sample pack since, well, they're not worth showing! (though in having said that, I did get cards I needed for the set from it).

Overall not a bad blister pack, I'm happy to have gotten the promo card and quite a few cards I didn't have (rare, uncommons and commons).

Next I'll be uploading old videos I pre-recorded to upload during my time abroad but never got to and I'll be blogging about the stuff I bought during that time too. So look forward to those!

Till next time.

Forces of Nature Collection! Box Opening - Braving the Elements

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here and for today's adventure I've opened up this promotional box for the Pokémon TCG called Forces of Nature Collection!
If you don't want any spoilers, stop reading now and go check out the box opening on youtube.

In this box you get not one, not two, but three Black Star Promo cards! All of them are part of the titular Forces of Nature trio, also nicknamed the Genie trio. You also get 3 booster packs in this box. I have no idea if the selection of these booster packs are random, but for this box I got one booster pack from the HGSS series (Call of Legends) and 2 from Emerging Powers. This box was bought from Chaos Cards for £22.95 (that's roughly $36 USD), which is quite expensive but it is hard to find. Plus Chaos Cards was the only place I had found selling it at a reasonable price (seriously, Amazon.co.uk has them going at £80+ !!)

Anyways, now on to he more interesting stuff; the pulls I got.

First are the 3 promotional cards: Thundurus BW41, Tornadus BW42 and Landorus BW43. All three of these mons are in their Incarnate Forms- forms I have to admit I'm really not a fan of. However, these cards themselves are fantastic. Making two of them reverse-holos was a good idea, it really sets them apart from all the other promo cards in my folder. And Landorus as a full art... brilliant! He may look ugly, but he looks damn imposing too. 

The three cards we have here are the ones I got from the booster packs. The first one is a rare Typhlosion from Call of Legends. The two others are from Emerging Powers; holographic Virizion and a rare Simipour. I like the styilised bold art on Simipour, but sadly am not fond of the Pokémon itself. Not pictured: I also got a reverse-holo Ferrothorn.

Well, even though I got three promos and 1 holographic I can't say I'm too happy with the pulls in this box. They aren't bad per se, but for £22.95 I'd have liked at least one ultra-rare or even just a Pokémon I like more...

Oh listen to me, I'm acting like a spoilt brat haha. I had none of these cards to begin with so I'm happy to add them to my growing collection none the less!

I'll end here. Thanks for reading, hope you weren't too bored by my ranting. Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts down bellow or to check out my Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures so far on youtube.

Till next time, sayonara!

2 x Plasma Freeze Blister Packs - Fun Adventures in the Blistering Cold

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here and I'm begging forgiveness for the punny title, I couldn't help it!
For today's adventure I've ventured into the freezing lands of the Plasma Freeze promotional blister pack openings (erg, I'll stop, that's not even a good one!) If you want to watch the video without spoilers, stop reading now and click here.

These blister packs each contained a promotional card and a coin (more details bellow)

I got them on ebay for very cheap, £4.70 ($7.50 USD) for both, essentially getting 2 for the price of one. Now sadly as you can probably tell from the picture above the packaging is slightly worn and the cards within by extension ended up somewhat bent too, though thankfully not creased, scratched or ripped. It just means I'd classify them as Near Mint/Excellent rather than Mint really, and I can live with that. Now here's what I got:

The two on the left are the promotional cards, one being an alternate foil of Moltres from Next Destinies and the other being a Black Star Promo Electrode (BW76), underneath them are the game coins that came with each blister and that last card is a rare Quagsire from the booster pack. Not bad, until you see...

Latios-EX Full Art!

The last card I got was the full art Latios-EX and it was so unexpected that I stared for a little while before remembering that I had to end the recording of the booster pack openings haha. Definitely a great pull considering how little I payed for the blisters and that I won't have to worry about buying this guy independently for the collection (which would be pricy!)

So, a very nice way to end this adventure for today and look forward to what the next one holds. Hope you guys stay tuned. Bye!

6 x Plasma Blast Booster Packs - Opening Newest Set for New Adventure

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here and for today's adventure I have opened up 6 booster packs of Plasma Blast, the latest set in the Pokémon TCG, part of the Black & White series. I was really excited to open these packs since I have no cards from this set at all. But, even so, I have to admit it wasn't the best batch. Click here if you'd rather watch the video of me opening these up.
If not, read on.

Here's what I got:

I'm happy to have gotten all these cards since I needed them all, but I won't deny I would have liked at least one more holographic than I got here. I guess I'm being greedy though, I'v clearly been spoiled by the great openings I'v had so far :P

And besides, that Sigilyph is beautiful - the linear pattern looks pretty good and shiny. 

Anywho, I'm thinking of maybe doing questions or some other method to give away codes for the Pokémon TCGO, what do you guys think? Let me know in the comments.

Well for now, have one for free haha: TSV-73DL-6NB-NW8. 

Enjoy what's left of the weekend and see you guys next time.

Shining Palkia + Legend of Korra

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here, and in case the title for this post wasn't clear enough, I'm going to do a quick update on two things I've recently done: downloaded the event Pokémon Shing Palkia for my 5th Gen games and watched the premiere of Legend of Korra: Book 2 - Spirits.

The first is fairly simple, in a lot of countries now there is currently a download event going on for 5th Gen Pokémon games (Black, White, Black2, White2) where you can download the legendary Sinnoh Pokémon Palkia, as a shiny! It's what I did today by going down to a GAME shop (in the UK). For everyone else, I suggest you go over to Serebii.net and check their Event Database to see where you can download this critter in your home country (hurry up though, it's only going for about 2 weeks, maybe less in some countries, after that is a different event which I'll mention when it starts).

Secondly, the season 2 premiere of Legend of Korra was on yesterday and I'm sure that you've all checked it out already. If not, WHAT? WHY NOT?! GO NOW!
Seriously though, it is one of the better animated series to have come out in a very long time and it's hard not to fall in love with it immediately (along with its parent show Avatar: The Last Airbender). I was very happy that LOK was renewed for a second season after the first one had finished because I truly feel it was a strong and successful sequel to ATLA, and although I could have lived with it being a one off I really can't complain with the decision to continue it either.
So, was the start to Book 2 - Spirits any good? Hells yes.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there weren't any flaws. The animation looked sub-par in certain areas and the flow of the story was somewhat choppy. But I'll give them a pass for that because once the action started it looked so beautiful. Clearly that's where a lot of the budget went and I'm glad it did. As for the story and how it flowed, I guess they're going to try to cram in as much stuff as possible into each episode which is not surprising since they only have 14 episodes to tell that story and develop the characters in. I have a feeling they will fall slightly short on this like they did in the first season, but if that's the only problem then I can live with that. Considering the subject matter and world building I think it's amazing they even manage to do as good as they did in season 1, so I won't hold it against them in the least.

Anywho, the episodes ended on a good cliffhanger and I can kinda guess the direction this series' socio-political subject matter is going to go in, so I'm very eager for next week's episode.

Charizard G LV.X Tin 2009 Opening - Hopeful for the Journey Ahead.

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here and I am pleased to announce my (official) first Pokémon TCG opening!
As promised in my last update, what I choose to open was going to be a tin, and a very special one at that. And here it is, a Charizard G LV.X 2009 Fall Tin:

I won this tin in a bid on ebay, it was the last item I got before beginning this little project but I'm starting off with it to make up for the lack of video for the other tin I opened (and was meant to start off with).

I won the bid at the reasonable price of £22. I say reasonable because this is an old tin now and when I have come across it online it was usually being sold somewhere between £29.99 to £45+, so yeah, very fortunate to have gotten my hands on it.

Well enough babbling, here's what I pulled:

Naturally, the Charizard G LV.X Promo DP45 that came with the tin

Some cool rares...

... and these fantastic pulls!! An ultra rare Torterra LV.X from Diamond & Pearl and a secret rare Moltres and holo Swampert from Platinum: Supreme victors! 

Needless to say, this tin was fantastic and well worth the price. I now eagerly await the next opening for this journey for which I think I'll open up a few booster packs. So look forward to that.

But until then make sure to check out my youtube channel, including the video to this tin opening, at: The Amateur Collector.

Don't hesitate to leave a comment bellow!

See ya next time!

Mewtwo-EX 2012 Tin Opening - Journey Off to a Bad Start!

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here and I have started my journey to open up Pokémon TCG merchandise and share it with you. Starting with this tin which I bought in store at Forbidden Planet for £12.99 (cheaper than most places online!):

Or so I thought... sadly things aren't off to a great star! I filmed the opening of the Mewtwo-EX tin but for some reason the camera either didn't record or the file was lost somehow. D'oh!

It's a real shame too since in the very first booster pack of the tin - which was also my very first Black & White booster pack ever- was awesome.
Luckily I have a scanner, so I can still share my swag with you all:

The Mewtwo-EX Promo BW45 that came with the tin

                                        

These are all the rares that I got, with the bottom two being Reverse-Holos

 And finally the very first rare card I opened, in all its awesome awesomness:

            Zekrom Full Art                   

I was a little disappointed with the rares since I already have two of them (they came in a bundle I bought at a flee market) but this Ultra Rare Zekrom more than makes up for them. I'm also really liking the Reverse-Holo Marowak, the Fighting Energy logos in the background look really cool.

Anyways, sorry again for not being able to show a video of this, but I've already planned the next opening which I think will more than make up for that (hint: it's another tin).

Also as a way of apology here's a code to use for the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online: XTS-FD3E-BW7-NXH.

Let me know in the comments bellow who managed to get the code!   

See you guys for the next opening, hopefully this time it'll work!

Pokemon TCG Openings - Adventure Begins!

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here and I am eager to share with you a little project I'm going to get started.

But first a little exposition. (if you're not interested in that, skip to the 4th paragraph!)

One of my all time favourite franchises is Pokémon. I've been a fan of it ever since it came out in my country. I had always enjoyed comics, cartoons, toys, etc- when I was young but Pokémon is what solidified my love for these things. Pokémon Red was the first video game I ever owned, The Electric Tale of Pikachu was the first manga title I ever owned and the original Pokémon cartoon is what renewed my interest in Japanimation. Needless to say, I owe a fair amount to this franchise.

Sadly there is one thing I failed to keep up with and that was the Pokémon TCG. It's something I would have continued pursuing for all these years if not for other interests, money and peer pressure. Yes sadly it got continuously hard to find others to play with as time went on, and increasingly more expensive to continue buying too.
But no more, i say!
My interest was peeked again when I started looking up the value of some of my old cards to sell off, but instead came across loads of sites and videos of peoples' collections. In particular videos on youtube of people opening up boosters packs brought on a flood of nostalgia and I just fell back in love with these cards.

And so this is where my project comes in. Over the past month and a half I have been stockpiling a little collections of Pokémon TCG merchandise, all unopened! What I plan to do is to record me opening them up one by one and uploading the videos onto youtube and here, so as to chronicle and share with everyone my re-discovering of the Pokémon cards! I plan to have a steady flow of videos throughout the weeks to upload of booster packs, promotional boxes, blisters, tins and whatever else I got my hands on. This will include cards from all sorts of different sets, from old to new- I have a lot of catching up to do after all!
And here's a taster of what I have to open:

So if you're interested in sharing in the adventure don't hesitate to follow me on this blog and/or subscribe to my youtube account at The Amateur Collector.

Let the journey begin!

Blog Start!

Hi all!

I'm the Amateur Collector and this is my blog.
I'm a self confessed geek and have an interest in most things related to fandom. This includes but is not limited to games, sci-fi, animation, toys and collectables, comics and more.

I'm just an average person in real life with little time and disposable income. But I decided despite of that I should still follow my hobbies and interests, even if I only get to delve into them from time to time. And so, I have started to this blog to chronicle and share in my (albeit slowly) growing collection of stuff, and I have a little project to start this going which I'll post in my next blog update- straight after this one!

For now, don't hesitate to follow if you're interested in geek-related paraphernalia and are curious to see what kind of things I'll be putting up!

Till next time!