Pokémon 30th Celebration has one of the coolest misprints I’ve ever seen, on one of its prettiest and most valuable cards. The Mew Special Illustration Rare card, which shows the Pokémon curled up at the base of a tree surrounded by flowers, creates a tranquil scene. But this misprint transforms the tone completely, by dowsing the image in blood red ink.
The card, which went viral on social media when it was posted earlier in the month, preserves the Pokémon itself quite nicely. But the background, down to about Mew’s midriff, is totally transmogrified into something quite sinister. The clash between the peaceful nature of the original and this dark red ‘Halloween version’ has drawn tons of attention to the misprint. Social comments joke that the red is ‘scalper blood’ – due to the belief that 30th Celebration was a bad set for scalpers.
What makes this badass misprint even more interesting is that it’s not just a one off. More recently, another user shared a pic that seems to show the card’s double – or rather, its opposite. That is, it’s not an exact match. On this card the red seeps up from below, giving the unsettling impression that the mythical Mew is sinking towards it. If anything, I think this is even cooler than the first.
Misprints are an interesting category of Pokémon card collecting all of its own, and misprint collectors are particularly thirsty for unique errors – not just the average miscut or misaligned card, but something truly unusual. This definitely seems to fit the bill.
But what caused the effect? The most likely explanation we’ve found is that this is some form of tape error. Misprint enthusiast Brehella, who bought the second card shown here, explained in their Instagram post that red tape used to attach one row of material to the next was missed by quality control and made its way into circulation.
Because two different versions exist, they surmise that the tape was “stretched between two rows of cards”, presumably creating one row with red at the top and one with red at the bottom. If true, this means there could be a few more cards with this ‘problem’ lurking in unopened packs.
While most of the focus has been on Mew, it seems this isn’t even the only card affected with the red layer, as Brehella has a similarly-afflicted Salamence in their collection, while other fans have reported seeing Pikachu and Meowth cards with the effect.
Source: Wargamer
