PFC US · cartela roja (Pokémon USA, 2001)

💡Did you know?

• ◆The packaging has now been read, and it's a CARD, not a box: a black blister card with “POKÉMON FIGURE COLLECTION” in red lettering, ©2001, and on the back the national Pokédex number in MonColle's hexagonal plate (“#011 METAPOD”) next to “Distributed by Pokémon USA, Inc. Manufactured by Tomy.” with Pokémon USA's address at 400 Madison Avenue, New York. So it's not TPCi (which didn't exist until April 2009) and not Hasbro, whose product with these same molds was the Battle Figures blister with discs. Two things the piece corrects: it reached US mass retail — it carries a K·B Toys price sticker — not just the Pokémon stores; and its barcode is a Tomy JAN (prefix 4904810), not the Pokémon USA 820650 UPC used by the 2008-2012 cards, which is the quickest way to tell the two families apart. On top of that, pokemoncenter.com listed them as singles at $3.95-4.95 in one contiguous 001…251 inventory block: that's why there are exactly 251 with no gaps, unlike Japan, which split them into black (1-151) and yellow (152-251). Note: Metapod #011 is not among the 44 figures the wikis document, so the line goes well beyond that list. Most photos are still Tomy's official 2001 reference of the same mold.