I got up semi-bright and early to hit Origins; as I was walking about a block away from downtown, I was attacked by a Bee(drill?). OUCH!!! Anyhow, I got a chance to try out the TFG which is due around August 15 for release. Let's look back on the "original" Kaiyodo/Tomy trading figures first:

I see a lot of similarities there; I have a good number of these in my collection. Charizard and Treecko stand out as similar poses to the new set. Kaiyodo's sculpts are amazing! I would really like to get more information about the rules of this game (I can't read Japanese!). It is a lot different than the new game. One of the scans above shows a sample game "board" (there are more than several, as they came out in 3 sets; set I (12 figures) and then the next year, a set II-A and set II-B(six figures ea.)). Each piece starts with 3 color-coded (keyed to energy types?) discs on the bottom of the figure; the bases rotate/click with the attack or move points (similar to Heroclix?). The game board is coded by energy/type, too. I am guessing if you land on a type-friendly space, you get a battle advantage-? The new game, however, has a spinning aspect--luck; I would like to see how this stacks up to the Tomy game, which on first glance, seems more user strategy than the roll of a die concept. The rules were on Tomy's Japanese website when the figures were issued several years ago; however, no one posted an English translation. I'll try again to hit up a Japanese colleague for some help. Most of the people I know are too-busy grad students and I hate to impose... Now, compare to the new, upcoming set:

One thing that surprised me when I visited the Pokemon kiosk was that the several staffers I talked to there were completely unaware (or acted so) of the prior Tomy/Kaiyodo figures. In fact, in prior years, the staffers were often surprised when I mentioned stuff about Japanese items. I am wondering if the staff hired are just employees or actual fans. Pokemon USA is really, really hard to contact via e-mail; I imagine with the tons of inquiries, they just can't keep up. Hence, it would be nice if the employees were a little more knowledgeable (myself, I don't know as much as you think-!)... For the $35 I paid to get into Origins, this year was a semi-disappointment. The dealer room just didn't have a lot this time; there were fewer CCG dealers. However, a nice find was one dealer who had imported trading figures, so, people who were willing to shell out $12 for a 2-figure booster pack got a taste of what is coming next month. I lucked out and got a rare and an uncommon, well worth the somewhat high price. I spotted a Piplup and a Pikachu walking around to greet the players; I high-fived the Pika and the pretty blond lady escorting Pika noted "she's wearing you on her shirt!" :) PUSA did hand out a promo card, a Charmander Ditto; here's someone's e-Bay scan:

Ebay Auction

Congrats to the Pokemon Nationals champs!

Pika!

Loretta