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!

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!

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!

Lucario Plasma Blast Triple Blister Pack

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here, continuing my Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures!

This adventure we open up the Lucario blister pack for the Plasma Blast extension. I bought it along with the Genesect blister pack for £17.45 from Chaos Cards.

This cool looking pack comes with one promotional card, a coin and three Plasma Blast booster packs.

As usual, click here to check out the video opening of this blister pack or simply scroll down to see what pulls I got in more details. Or do both. Your choice really! =D

Lets start off with the promotional card you are guaranteed to get... providing you choose the Lucario pack of course... Lucario!

It's number BW85 of the BW Black Star Collection set.

I got four pulls out of the three booster packs. The least interesting of which is this Reuniclus.

I have about three of these already, so another one was not really welcomed! (something I hate saying because I try to appreciate all cards for their artwork and collectibility) 

I got two holographic cards. The Machamp I have already, but it looks really cool so I don't mind a second one.

I also got this lovely Blastoise. I LOVE the artwork on this one. The soft light blue colouring, the cool pose that highlights dinosaurian features, the splashes of water everywhere and that soft looking textured skin that makes it seem like a vinyl toy. I've wanted this one for so long and now I have it!

The Blastoise made me very happy, but arguably the best pull was this ace spec card!

For the uninitiated, ace specs are ultra rare Trainer cards that are very powerful, so much so that you can only have one in a deck. They are a short lived mechanic in the TCG scene, but look visually very striking. I quite enjoy them for that reason.

So yeah, an overall very good opening. I may own half of these cards already, but the ones I didn't have more than make up for the others.

Guys and girls, thanks for watching/reading! Stay tuned for my next adventure!

Hoenn Collection Box

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here, happy as a clam, because today I bring you not only a box with lots of lovely promotional stuff, but also some great booster pack pulls!

Today I open the Hoenn Collection Box, the last piece of Pokémon TCG merchandise I purchased before starting this PTCGOpA.
I bought it from Chaos Cards for £14.95. A decent price for something that offers so much extra promotional stuff.

Here is the box with all the lovely goodies displayed. Three XY promo cards, a pin, a Jumbo card and three booster packs!

Before I go on showing you images of the contents I will tell you that I got some very good pulls. If you want spoilers, keep scrolling down. If not, click here to check out the video opening of this box and join in the suspense with me!

Lets start off with the contents we know I'm going to get in the box:

The Jumbo card with the pin. The Jumbo card is of Primal Kyogre-EX from Primal Clash, which is played in the same manner as a Mega card for the mechanics of the TCG (well, for the normal sized card anyways, Jumbos are not tournament legal!)

A more detailed look at the pin. It has all three Hoenn starters together, very cute!

The three Hoenn starters as XY promos! It's very hard to say which of these cards is my favourite they all look so good.

The Torchic and Mudkip came out fine, the Treeko sadly has a visible dent on the back of it because of the packaging (curse you Nintendo!)

And now finally for the contents, in reverse order of both coolness and openings:

A Honchkrow rare from Phantom Forces. Easily the least exciting card I got in this box, but a card I do not yet own none the less. 

A Full Art AZ trainer card!! I actually pulled this guy from the very first Phantom Forces booster pack I've ever opened, talk about good luck!

It also happens to be the first full art trainer card I've ever gotten!

As if AZ wasn't enough, this box keeps giving. A Mega Kangaskhan-EX from Flashfire. But not just any old ultra rare M Kangaskhan-EX, oh no; a SECRET RARE Mega Kangaskhan-EX!!

You can tell it's a secret rare because of the gold bordering on the card as well as this cards number in the set (109/106. 106 is how many cards are in the set; any cards that go beyond that are secret rares)

Needless to say, I am overjoyed. I was happy enough to get three promotional cards from this box, so imagine my surprise when I get both a full ultra art rare and a secret rare card!

I'm not actually a fan of these secret rare cards' designs since they're the exact same one as the ultra rares but with a gold framing, that's all. But I'm just so happy to have gotten a secret rare card in a box like this that I ended up not caring at all. Just what I needed after a long dry spell of pulls.

Well this was exciting. Do you think the next adventure can top this? Stay tuned to find out!

Till next time Poké-trainers!