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This was the only fake sent in by a viewer of Pokémon Aaah! to actually fool me. This created such a stur in the Pokémon community, no body knew what to think. This was no doubt the biggest thing to come out of Pokémon Aaah! so far. This page will give you the day to day news from my site.
01/03/2000
What the smegging heck?! Did this just come out of nowhere or what?? Team Rocket is going to be released this Saturday?? Gwah!
A quick reminder, it was originally said that a different set, "Base Set 2" (which is a reprint of cards found in the Base and Jungle sets) was going to be released before Team Rocket. BS2 was going to be released in February and Team Rocket was going to be out in May. Magazine rumors later stated that TR and BS2's dates are going to be switched (TR in Feb, BS2 in May). But it seems WotC has pushed everything forward!
The Echidna tells me this:
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Okay, after I e-mailed you this aft, I got to thinking... what better time to announce a release date for Rocket cards than on January 8th, Mew Day. So I went down to the card shop that has the Pokémon League and asked my friend if he had heard anything about BS2 or TR. Well, guess what he said? (This is BETTER than BS2 news.) He received his shipment of Mew Cards (500 if you're wondering. He said he'd give me pretty much as many as I wanted) and along with that he got two boxes of Team Rocket Cards, limited and unlimited that he can't start selling until the 8th. That's right! Team Rocket cards will be available on January 8th! Of course, what kind of friend would he be if he didn't let Ole Ech get a pack or two early. After much pleading and begging, I convinced him to sell me one (First Edition, of course) as long as I SWORE not to tell anyone where they came from and I couldn't use them in the tournament yet either. Anyway, here are some specifics that I've learned: • As before, the composition is 7 Common, 3 Uncommon, and one Rare. In my pack I got: Common Uncommon Rare • The Evolutions are indeed called 'Evil'. Looks like there is going to be more bad press for Pokémon in the near Future. Parents will have a Field Day with THAT one. I hate to see what will happen when Neo comes out here! =) • There are 82 cards in the series, so it looks like they've done the Holo-Non Holo Crap again. After reading Card Lists, My guess is that all the Holo Pokémon are Non Holo too, as well as Rainbow Energy and the two Trainers. • There are Three different packs. Jessie, James, and Meowth. The background is a Light and Dark Blue Mix with a spotlight shining from the bottom. • As I said above, there is a 1st Ed. and Unlimited Series, both available on January 8th. To keep the size of the email down, (I only have a 33.6 =( ) I'm only sending you the scans of the Package and 'Prepare For Trouble'. Till then... Prepare For Trouble! Ech Out! |
Here is what was included in Ech's email:
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I'll have to go out and hurry to buy my box!
Thanks once again to The
Echidna for providing these
red
hot images!
01/04/2000
People have been telling me and Ech, "Yeah! What gives with this Rocket stuff. The Ech said he bought one pack, but then he's got two packs on the page!!"
Well, it's a mistake on my part, I neglected to state that one of the two pack scans were on a separate email. The Ech sent me the Jesse pack and the card scan on Saturday, however I didn't get to hardly any of my email until after my Sunday update (remember, I partied hardy that Saturday night). The Ech also sent me an email on Sunday, which I also didn't get to until it was time to do my Monday update. And it was yet another case of my memory failing me again because I forgot to post his Sunday email yesterday (I only posted his Saturday email).
Oh well. Here's Ech's Sunday email:
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Hey Nick, I was able to get another pack out of the store! Yaaa! This time I'm sending you the scan of the James Pack. I'll send you scans of more cards as soon as I get a chance. Pack II: Common Uncommon Rare Cheers! Ech |
Ech didn't provide me with a scan for his Non-Holo Weezing (yet) because of his crappy as smeg slow modem. But I'll see what I can do.
Well, that's all the info on Rocket I have. Check back tomorrow for some new Rocket stuff!
01/05/2000
You know what, I'm beginning to think that all this Team Rocket edition is all fake. However I could be wrong, considering how a lot of things fit. Anyway, here's what I think:
It's seems like a fake because:
• Why did the Ech only send me 3 scans?
• Why isn't any of this stuff appearing anywhere on the official
Pokémon TCG web page or on eBay?
• Why is Evil Persian an uncommon when it's supposed to be a
common?
However it also seems real because:
• I talked to several local card shops about this, some
said they had no idea (they could be hiding it though), however one
of them said that they would get Rocket stuff this weekend. I've had
several sources say the same thing.
• All the text information (card numbers and stuff) all fit into
place. More than fit into place, they fix and are glued into place.
Everything seems to be right!
• WotC pushes stuff very early (players might remember how the
Jungle edition was pushed from August 1999 to June 1999). Rocket
coming out on the 8th sounds right since: • it's been 3 months
since the least set came out (Fossil came out in October '99) and
WotC releases sets every 3 months or so, • January 8th is the
day for Pokémon, new TV episodes appear on that morning and
the Mew promos are available, and • Base Set 2 coming before TR
doesn't sound right since it'll be out before the original Base Set
and Jungle packs are all sold out.
Personally I really hope this isn't a fake. First of all I'd like to get my hands on some Rocket cards (more like a box of cards). Secondly, I'm going to look like some dumb fool if it ends up being a fake. The trickster being tricked? How's that going to look? That, and I'm going to be getting a lot of flame emails that I don't want.
Also, I really don't know what else to think. But I do have some theories on the actual images I was sent. Maybe the Ech doesn't have a scanner (even though he says he has one). He's just looking at the cards themselves and putting together a picture of what they look like on his computer. The idea of using the TV characters on the cards is a little far fetch'd, however the packs might actually have Jesse & James on them. Most likely it'll have the Jes & Jim from the "Prepare for Trouble!" card. As to why the look like they're scanned, maybe the Ech did that on purpose, to try to fool me. I don't know.
Hmmm... I'll have to talk to the Ech about it. As soon as I get any info, I'll tell you about it!
01/07/2000
Article 1:
Apparently, I've been played for a sucker. The Ech has fooled me.
Yesterday was my first day in school after Winter Break. When I met up with all my friends, I got some comments on the TR cards. I was brought to the conclusion that... yes... THEY ARE FAKE. Or at least as far as I can tell they are. Let me list some of the bits of info I pieced together from my friends comments:
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• That Uncommon Evil Persian was a real dead giveaway. I was too wrapped up in the thought of the set coming out this weekend, I thought that it was nothing but a packing mistake. • On the "Prepare For Trouble!" card, the copyright info is "(c)95 - 99 Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK, (c)99, 00 Wizards". But if you look at the first card from Wizards in the year 2000 (the promo Mew), it has the copyright info of "(c)1995, 98, 99 Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK, (c)1999, 2000 Wizards." Hmmm... small difference there. • Also on the PFT! card, the font sizes a different. Not this can be argued that WotC changed the font sizes (like they did between 1st Ed. Base and 1st. Ed. Jungle).... but I have my doubts. • On the James card, the "11" on the sentence "11 Additional Game Cards" is off by a lot. |
These are the facts that stick out. There are also a bunch of minute differences in the cards (like the middle image of the PFT! card is off center). But there are some things still left unexplained, or other stuff, like:
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• Why did all those card shops say that TR was going to be in on Saturday? Or did they just talk about the Japanese TR set? • What if the "scans" I got were actually artist renditions of the actual cards? • If WotC did do the font changes (like they do so many times with a new set), could the PFT! card just be an example of WotC's regular font changes? Could the Copyright info also be part of a change? |
Well, except for those unexplained details, it's clear now that the cards are just fakes.
Article
2:
Shucks. I guess there are no unexplained details. Yesterday, I got an email from The Echidna. Here's what he has to say:
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It's a fake. Unfortunately the whole Team Rocket series coming out on January 8th WAS something that I made up in the twisted little world that is my mind. All I was really looking for was recognition for my skills at making fake cards, and I indeed did get that. I mean if you look on almost every major website, it's the current center of discussion. That's all I ever really wanted. Of course, fooling people was fun too. Now I know that not all of you fell for it, but judging from the email I got, I'd say that about half of you were fooled, which I think is great. But I must heed warning to all the rest that I didn't get. I WILL get you. Just remember, this is pretty much my FIRST Big Scale Hoax, so I think that a 50% achievement rate is pretty good for a first shot. And don't worry, I already have an idea for my next prank. => So then, why did I come clean now? Well, I WAS planning to reveal all on Saturday, but there was a flaw in my plans. I was losing people. People were starting to second guess things, and that was my downfall. Well, my REAL downfall was myself. I felt that I started out strong with the Pack images and a pretty convincing (IMHO) card, but I didn't have backup. What I SHOULD have done is made about 30 cards plus the three packs, PLUS a picture of my HOLDING the packs, and slowly let more images slip as time went on. Time was my problem. I didn't have enough 'evidence' to keep things going, and I was overwhelmed with how long it takes to make a convincing Translated card. I had all the scanned images, but I didn't have to time to 'translate' them. Sure I COULD have used Nick15's card backs, but then it'd be obvious that is was fake. If I had done all my work FIRST, then things may have been a bit different. Errors. Yes, I did make a few of those too. The most noticeable was Persian being an Uncommon. I have no idea why the hell I said that either, but it got out and people REALLY started asking questions. As for the people that said my font was wrong or were asking why there was a white star on the Rocket Card, I say this: "Next time do your research better." One small error that no one picked up on though was the copyright info. I had to wing it because I knew that it would be ©2000, but I wasn't sure the exact wording. Unfortunately I saw the Mew card after everything had gone to 'print'. I wasn't really worried about Wizards denying all knowledge of it because you got to remember, they're in it for the buck, and what better way to get publicity than to pull a surprise release? It's happened in the past, and I'm sure it will happen in the future. In closing I would like to thank everyone that took the time to email me, even if it WAS to say what a bloody Moron I was. I would especially like to thank all you that fell for my little hoax, you know who you are. =) And I would like to thank Philippe Van Lieu, aka Nick15 for pretty much falling for it. I TRICKED THE TRICKSTER! At least to some extent. I mean even the 'Father of Fakes' was second guessing himself there. =) Thank you all, and don't hesitate to email me, even to tell me what a jerk I am and how I've ruined your life. I love mail. I mean who knows, maybe my instincts were correct and TR WILL come out on Saturday. I know I hope they do. =) Sincerely, |
Well, I guess this clears some things up. I admit, fancy falling for me! I was fooled royally!
If any people out there should get ultra made over this, think about it. The only thing you might have lost was time. You didn't lose any money or cards, and no one got hurt (physically)... so it's a safe thing. Kind of stirred things up a bit, didn't it? I'd be surprised if Ech's prank paid off and TR did come out on Saturday... kind of some wacky surprise that WotC was planning. Hmmm....
As for you webmasters out there putting a bad word to my name (you know who you are), please read this.
I do realize that I, the fake wizard of the 'net, has done some fake stuff like this in the past. But if you're a constant visitor to Pokémon Aaah!, you would have read the part after I revealed the Mew Screenshot deal where I said that I would never do anything like this again (because I knew that the "Little Boy Who Cried Wolf" case would catch up to me sooner or later). So I (that's me) wouldn't do anything of the sort again, however that's not stopping someone else who sends me info.
I was as much of a sucker to all this as you were. I can now tell that someone out there (who's close by) is as good or better than me with fakes. But this goes to show that I need to carefully look over all the info I get for fear of someone trying to trick me again.
Of course, this also shows how people are too
quick to jump to conclusions. Not that I meant it to be like this
(none of my fakes are meant to be this anyway), but then
people are all blaming me for this TR stuff, even thought that:
1. I was tricked.
2. The Echidna was the one who sent it, not me; and
3. Just because all this stuff came from my web site, so it's an
instant blame on the webmaster.
I guess some people just didn't understand any of the above 3 factors.
So put a little thought on what you're saying, instead of thinking with your feet and saying any old word that comes out.
