Introduction
The second Deep Dive of Collexy is on the Jungle Set. Please check our previous article to brush up on the terminology we will use in Deep Dives. This article will only cover the English structure of Jungle. The Japanese structure will be covered in the future in a separate set of Deep Dives. There are only two structures, the English structure and Japanese structure.
In this article, we will provide an incredibly detailed overview of English structure of the set, the different “standard” variants of the cards in Jungle and the “unique” variants of the cards.
Structure
Factory Set
Jungle was released in English on the 16th of June 1999. Jungle is the second Pokémon TCG set and is part of the Wizards of the Coast era (“WOTC era”), which ran from 1999 to 2003.
Card
Jungle contains three kinds of cards: Pokémon card and Trainer card. There are no Energy cards in Jungle.
A Jungle card meets the following criteria: the set symbol is a sketch of a plant and the set number in the bottom right corner is /64.
Pokémon card
The Snorlax (11/64) above is an illustration of what a Pokémon card in Jungle looks like. As you can see, in the middle on the right there is a sketch of plant and in the bottom right corner the number is /64. The number 64 indicates the amount of cards, or Masters, in that specific set.
For an in-depth analysis of the card structure, please see the Deep Dive of the Base Set as the structure of the Pokémon cards during the Wizards of the Coast Era (“WOTC Era”) remains very consistent throughout the era.
Trainer card
In Jungle, just like the Pokémon cards, the Trainer cards structure does not change in the WOTC Era.
The Poké Ball (64/64) above is the only Trainer card in Jungle. As you can see, in the bottom right there is a sketch of plant and in the bottom right corner the number is /64.
Variant Parameters
1. Language
Jungle (English structure) was printed in 7 different languages. The following 7 languages followed the English structure of Jungle (as explained in the introduction the other structures like Japanese are not covered):
- English
- Dutch
- German
- French
- Italian
- Spanish
- Portuguese
2. Edition
The following languages have one single 1st edition-variant and one unlimited edition-variant:
- Dutch
- German
- French
- Italian
- Spanish
- Portuguese
3. Holofoil pattern
Jungle has 16 Masters with the rarity Holo Rare, which means all variants of these Masters will have a holofoil pattern.
The holofoil patterns of the variants of the Master can differ between Starlight Holofoil pattern, a holofoil pattern with stars, and Cosmos Holofoil pattern, a holofoil pattern with circles. The variant on the left has the Starlight Holofoil pattern and the variant on the right has the Cosmos Holofoil pattern.
As a general rule, the Starlight Holofoil is used solely in English. The Cosmos Holofoil is used in the following languages:
- Dutch
- German
- French
- Italian
- Spanish
- Portuguese
4. Print
Every English Master of the 16 Holo Rares have at least 3 different variants: the first edition-variant, the unlimited edition-variant and the unlimited edition variant without the set symbol. For all other languages, there are only two variants, the first edition-variant and the unlimited edition-variant.
The Masters with a different rarity have, in principle, 2 different variants in all languages, the first edition-variant and the unlimited edition-variant.
5. WOTC Copyright years
Only the English variants have “© 1999” as Wizards of the Coast Copyright years.
All the variants in other languages have “© 1999-2000” as Wizards of the Coast Copyright years.
Special variants
We have now discussed the English structure of Jungle. We have concluded that there are at least 14 variants per Master in Jungle.
As mentioned earlier, in English every Holo Rare has one more variant with the “No Symbol Error”.
For some Masters, there are more Variations which we will now discuss.
Clefable 1/64
Clefable (1/64) is the first card that has a variant with the prerelease stamp as the Raichu (14/102) of Base Set was an unofficial release as a result of Raichu sheets ending up on the printer together with Clefable of Jungle.
These variants were awarded to participants of the Jungle prerelease tournaments in July 1999.
Butterfree 33/64
Butterfree (1/64) has a special variant where the 1st edition-stamp was not printed correctly, resulting in the “1” looking more like a “d” than a “1”.
Meowth 56/64
This variant of the Meowth could be found in boxes of “Fruit by the Foot”, fruit rollups branded as Pokémon Rolls, in the United States. These boxes contained Bulbasaur (Base Set, 44/102), Charmander (Base Set, 46/102), Pikachu (Base Set, 58/102), Squirtle (Base Set, 63/102), and/or this special variant Meowth (56/64).
Click here for more trivia information about the “Fruit by the Foot”.
Pikachu 60/64
This is the first card (60/64) that was issued with a stamp of a stylised “W”. In total there were 7 cards from 6 expansions with this stamp. This card was issued as part of The Duelist Magazine, issued in September 1999.
Fun Facts
Electrode 18/64
Even though Electrode of Jungle (18/64) received a brandnew artwork from Mitsuhiro Arita, due to an error the old artwork of Mitsuhiro Arita (ie the artwork of Electode the Base Set (21/102)) was used.
This was never corrected.
Rapidash 44/64
Both variants of Rapidash (44/64), the 1st edition variant and unlimited variant had the instruction “Put Rapidash on the Stage 1 card” even though the correct instruction should have been “Put Rapidash on the Basic Pokémon”.
This was never corrected.
Seaking 46/64
Both variants of Seaking (46/64), the 1st edition variant and unlimited variant had the instruction “Put Seaking on the Stage 1 card” even though the correct instruction should have been “Put Seaking on the Basic Pokémon”.
This was never corrected.
Pikachu from Jungle (but not really)
This Pikachu card is confusing to say the least.
This card is not a part of Jungle as you can see in the bottom right corner where there is no number /64, but simply “1” which refers to the first card in the Set Wizards Black Star Promos. However, the 1st edition variant has its provenance in a prototype Jungle booster pack. This prototype Jungle booster pack has the text “Capture the rare Pikachu card! Look on inside wrapper!” which could refer to this 1st edition variant.
It could be an error or an oversight, currently it is not yet clear.
Conclusion
As the second Set ever of Pokémon, Jungle is quite a small but fun set. Especially the No Symbol Errors of all the Holo Rares in the set are supercool to me. One of my favorite overall cards, as I love Prerelease and Staff cards, is the first ever Prerelease card, the Clefable prerelease-variant.
If there is any error, omission or unclarity, please send let us knowby sending an e-mail to [email protected] and we will take a look at it!
This guide was fun to put together and hopefully you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. See you at the next Deep Dive on Fossil!
Tom