The PokeKyun concept pack came out on Friday the 29th and I was there at the Mega Tokyo Pokemon Center, bright and early, for card fun and festivities! The train ride in to the city was especially smushy because for some reason every time trains would go through this one specific station on my train line, the doors wouldn’t open and they literally had to turn each train off and on again, leading to delays upon delays. But I did it for Pokemon!

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Aside from the card packs themselves, there were two bonus items that came out on Friday that were card related. Bonus item 1 were these Premium PokeKyun Box Sets.

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This display features the contents of the premium box (sheet of stickers, card sleeves, deck box, long box, Shaymin EX card). The cards in the back are samples of the cards that are available through the concept pack.

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Item number 2 I didn’t know about until I saw it in person.

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This mini binder set is exclusive to Pokemon Centers and 7-11. Each set comes with 1 mini binder to store you cute cards in as well as two packs of PokeKyun cards.

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I had to buy one of the binder sets for myself. Here is one side…

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..and the back with Diancie.

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I am not primarily a card collector and I don’t play the game. With that said, I do collect cards for my two main Pokemon collections (Minccino and Espurr), plus random event cards and cards with artwork that I find especially cute (usually Mew related). Sometimes when new expansion packs are released, I’ll buy a couple packs for fun. I’ve bought 1 box of cards one time in my life, and it was for the Shiny Collection that came out February, 2013.

With the incredibly adorable Sylveon artwork (plus the inclusion of Espurr and Meowstic cards) I was sold on this set. Plus, I love the extra super duper cute sets, like Shiny Collection! I bought my second ever box of cards on Friday and excitedly brought it home to open.

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Similar to the Shiny Collection, the PokeKyun box features the main artwork on the front

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and previews of individual card art in little frames along the sides.

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Out of all the artwork featured, this little mischievous Charmander was my favorite :3

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Before opening the contents of my box, I started with the two random packs included with my mini binder.

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My luck is notoriously atrocious, but the first pack I opened had the Full Art Sylveon card, and everything was right with the world.

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Skipping ahead to having finished opening all the packs in my box, here are some highlights from the cards I pulled. I love Altaria, and this card is only cuter with the inclusion of Sylveon (Sylveon makes everything cuter).

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Dedenne family! I hadn’t realized the full art Pikachu card counted as the Pikachu in this set, so at first I really did think they put Dedenne and Raichu next to each other on purpose.

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Puff family! I love the art for Swirlix, especially the little macaron figures and how pleased Swirlix looks.

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I am a huge fan of the “story” card sets, and as a bonus, mischievous Charmander!

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Meowstics getting all cute and cuddly.

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Espurr is one of the queens from the set. The art style is perfect and Espurr looks especially adorable!

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Out of my 1 box of cards, I pulled 3 full arts (RR) and 1 non-full art EX (R) – and yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, my box of cards had another Full Art Sylveon.

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Pikachu Full Art is my second favorite after Sylveon.

I managed to pull everything except for 3 cards: Non full Art EX Flareon, Full Art Flareon, and Non Full Art Sylveon EX. Not so bad!

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The Pokemon Center was handing out these little Valentine’s Day message cards to everyone who bought card related merchandise. You pull out the little foldable cardboard envelope, put your card in the middle, fold the envelope around your card…

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Give this to someone you like with a little message written on the back if you so choose. The concept is really cute (as is everything from this set). Plus, they have downloadable versions here if you don’t live in Japan but still want to give cards as gifts to your friends or crushes or loved ones!

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As a bonus, here is my Shiny Collection x PokeKyun comparison!

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The PokeKyun box was slightly bigger than the Shiny Collection box, and then I realized it’s also because PokeKyun has 20 packs per box while Shiny Collection had 15 (this also explains why PokeKyun was more expensive).

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Reminder why I bought the Shiny Collection box in the first place.

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One of the main differences between the two sets is the inclusion of the charm rarity system for PokeKyun.

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Shiny levels between the uncommon cards is pretty much the same.

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The biggest difference between the sets can be seen with the Full Art cards. None of the Full Arts from Shiny Collection have detailed backgrounds, but they do have bigger glitter and more hearts.

Pokemon, never stop giving us cute stuff! Also, more Minccino, please.