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!

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!

Pikachu Boundaries Crossed Checklane Blister Pack

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here.
Today I open a hard to come by product. The Raichu Boundaries Crossed Checklane Blister Pack. Ok, it's not the rarest of items, but it's not easy to come-by either. I found only one in stock at Card Team for £6.95 (the only blister pack they had at this price).

The blister pack with two promotional cards, a booster pack and a sample pack (both for Boundaries Crossed)

Lets see what I got in this then!
Click here for the video or scroll down bellow to see what I pulled.

Here are the two promotional cards. The Pikachu is part of the Black & White Black Star Promos collection.

The Raichu is simply a reprint of a card from the Next Destinies set with an alternate holographic pattern (the original is an uncommon that doesn't even have a holo background!)

These are the pulls I got from the booster pack. A rare Keldeo and a reverse-holo rare Whimsicott!

Both are cards I did not possess.

So this blister pack was a little pricy, but at least all the cards I got were ones I did not previously have. I am especially happy with that promo Pikachu, would you believe I've seen it sometimes go for £7 or more??

Thanks for reading/watching. Stay tuned for the next episode of my Pokémon TCG Adventures! Bye!

Opening 6 Dragons Exalted Booster Packs

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here with another opening. Today, as part of my Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures I've opened up 6 Dragons Exalted booster packs from the Black & White series. I got them on offer from Kool Kingdom for £13.70. They were originally £15.90 and would have probably cost me over £20 if I tried buying them in a retail store.

I actually originally wanted to purchase some Dark Explorers booster packs when I placed the order, but it turned out that the online store had run out of them, so I instead choose Dragons Exalted packs; a slight bad judgement on my end since I have historically terrible luck with this set! (I have opened countless packs and have only gotten one EX to show for it). Sadly this time is no exception =(

Click here to go to my youtube channel and see the pulls for yourself.
Or simply scroll down to see what cards I got.

Lets first start off with some regular rares

Sadly I got 5 rares out of 6 booster packs! That's not a good ratio.

However I am glad to say that out of these five I only own two of them already (Houndoom and Seismitoad).

I  managed to pull a fair number of rare reverse-holos. 

I suppose this makes up for the lack of EXs in some way.

And here is the one and only holo that I got; Hydreigon.

So in some ways these really weren't the best of pulls. On the other hand, I did basically get 9 rares out of 6 booster packs, with 7 of them going straight into my collection. That's really not bad despite the lack of EXs.

Yeah. 

In retrospect, I really did enjoy this opening.

Thanks for reading! 

Stay tuned for more adventuring!

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!

Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures 2 - The Lost Episodes - Xerneas Collection, Ampharos Triple Blister Pack & the Delphox-EX Tin

Hi all!

Today I bring you an opening of three different TCG merchandise! These openings will be exclusive to my blog... mostly because the video recordings were corrupted =/

Let me list what I opened up:

- The Ampharos Plasma Storm Triple Blister Pack, bought for £6.51 on ebay over a year ago. A VERY good price for a triple blister pack. It comes with a promo card, a coin and three Plasma Storm booster packs.

- The Xerneas Collection Box, bought in combination with the Yveltal Collection box from Card Team for £25.45.

- The Delphox-EX Kalos Power Trio tin from Summer 2014, bought together with the Chesnaught-EX and Greninja-EX tins for £28.75, also bought from Card Team.

Unlike usual - no youtube video this time round sadly! Simply scroll bellow to see what goodies I got in these products!

The Black Star Promo BW67 Ampharos and a coin of what appears to be either Black Kyurem or White Kyurem (I'm really not sure which it is!)

In this blister pack I managed to get two rares and a holo. This Manaphy looks so cute!

Delphox-EX looks really cool. It's not one of my favourite starters design wise, but this image looks really cool. It came in the Delphox-EX tin and is promo XY19

This tin of four booster packs came with five rares. One a normal rare (Azelf) and a reverse-holo rare (Staraptor)

The three other rares were holographics. A Team Plasma Kyurem, a Dusknoir and a Greninja from Plasma Freeze, XY and Flashfire respectively.

The promotional cards in the Xerneas Collection box were this XY05 Xerneas card and a Jumbo card of the exact same card.

The three booster packs in the Xerneas Collection box had these goodies. 

Sadly no holos or ultra rares, but it was four rares out of three packs.

Altogether the pull rate out of ten booster packs was pretty average (4 holos out of ten packs). They were all holographic cards that I needed too so I'm happy. I'm especially happy with the promos of course, the cards I generally aim to have when buying these kind of products. The Ampharos card stock quality isn't great but at least it wasn't damaged. 

I apologise for not having a video of these openings, I try to keep Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures at the bare minimum consistent and hate how many errors and such have already occurred over the span of the adventure so far. But I'll keep trying to to make it entertaining and bring you all fun and suspenseful pack openings. I hope you can bear with the hiccups that have occurred already or may occur in the future and continue enjoying and supporting my contents. 

And with that said, stay tuned for the next adventure and further fun! Thanks for watching =)
Bye!