The Yugioh Trading Card Game is finally entering the road to hit its 25th anniversary and with this special occasion comes an array of unique and special products, and mayhaps even more importantly, some very familiar ones making a return.
If you’re even somewhat of a yugioh fan let alone someone that’s hardcore, I’m sure you would agree looking at this special Dark Magician card on the right. This is a stainless steel card of Dark Magician that can be obtained through lottery application for 16,500 yen (tax included). The campaign is already underway so if you’re interested visit the official site for more information on this link : https://www.konami.com/yugioh/25th/
Another cool collectable is a full set of palm sized figurines of Pot of Greed and its other cousin pots and jars! Included are also 14 OCG Ultra Rare Paralell holo cards of all these Pot related cards for 17,600 yen. Orders are accepted until the 29th of January 2023.
It’s in Japanese, but this link will take you to the buying page directly: Buy Link
Other products such as 25th anniversary sleeves and new mats will also be released and you can find more about the complete list of products from the official 25th anniversary page. As cool as some of these new products are sometimes the return to the familiar is the best way to celebrate.
Possibly the most important additions to celebrate this 25th anniversary is reprints of the first 4 original starting sets of 2002 and also adding the first iconic and legendary set of 2004 Invasion of Chaos. These packs have indeed been reprinted a few times in the more recent past inside of Legendary Collections and they’ll also be making themselves available in them again; however the biggest difference this time is they’ll be sold as standalone products either through loose packs or possibley even as typical 24 pack booster boxes.
Depending on who you ask, the re-release of these packs comes with big pros and big cons, but I’d say the positives outweigh the negatvives by a long shot. The most obvious positive is the returning availability of these classic packs which means standard pricing and easier access to your every day buyer. As a fan and lover of old school yugioh, this personally excites me as well as with easy availability of these packs means an easy way to revisit classic yugioh formats, old school yugioh drafting events and another chance to collect a lot of iconic and classic cards that are otherwise extremely expensive in their original prints due to their age and rarity.
On the other hand for the hardcore players that invested or just bought their original counterparts for big sums of money this could seem like a slap in the face. However, I do believe Konami made the right steps to mitigate that issue as much as possible. If you note the above images, these new reprint packs feature a 25th anniversary stamp which is already a big differentiator from the original packs. Another difference is the Konami and Yugioh logo on these reprint packs and of course, obviously they’re not 1st Edition. Nevertheless, the existence of these packs will still be a factor in the fluctuating prices of the original unlimited prints.
Another big difference and a big negative personally for me, is that all of the normal monsters from these reprint packs will feature the “normal” text next to their type as part of another difference between new and old cards, a change that I’ve always thought of as ugly and unecessary. With these differences and likely others more to consider, these 25th anniversary reprints will be by no means the definitive versions to have from these sets but rather the most budget option to get access to cards from these sets.
Another negative on a different context, is the omission of 2003 sets getting rerpinted again and jumping straight to 2004 with Invasion of Chaos. This is likely only to make the printing job easier for Konami since these specific 5 sets are getting reprinted in another edition of Legendary Collection too.
In spite of the cons noted, it is still fantastic that these sets are repinted in this manner and there seriously wouldn’t be any other more iconic method to celebrate 25 years of yugioh than with the first 4 original sets and Invasion of Chaos as an extra bonus.
If you’re interested in these classic sets in terms of cards and how they staggeringly shaped every format from 2002-2003 The Original Yugioh Era is the yugioh book for you. From decks, strategy notes and analysis this is the most comprehensive method to endulge yourself and learn everything about old school yugioh.
Check out my book on this link and thanks for reading this article! The Original Yu-Gi-Oh! Era The Ultimate unofficial Guide – Book (Amazon)
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