PokéShiny FindsRegional cardbacks: same blister, different market
The same toy was sold in several markets on different cardbacks. Sealed, each one is a
different item; loose, the figure is exactly the same. That is why PokéFig tracks them as separate
SKUs when sealed and duplicates nothing when loose.
This guide is for identifying yours by looking at the cardback, which is where the difference
lives.
The rule people get backwards
The language on the disc does not tell you the language on the card, or the other way round.
One blister proves it: the European BF-6 (Meowth + Gengar) has the French cardback and holds
one English disc and one trilingual — plain #94 Gengar and #52 Miaouss Meowth Mauzi. And
BF-4, on the very same cardback, holds two English discs.
It works the other way too: on the EN/ES/IT cardback for Vaporeon + Jolteon the discs read
#135 Jolteon and #134 Vaporeon, English only. The Spanish and Italian live on the card,
never on the pog.
The practical takeaway: to know which market your piece came from, read the card. The disc
will not tell you.
The three documented European families
1. Power Pokés — red cardback, four languages
The most common one. The tagline block carries three languages and the product name adds Dutch:
«Attrapez-les tous! / Gotta catch 'em all! / Schnapp' sie Dir alle!»
«Jeu du Pog-Pokémon / Pokémon Power Competitie / Power Pokés»
«Avec un balle Pokémon et 2 pogs · Met Poké Bal en Battle Disc · Mit Pokéball und Power-Scheiben»
French, English, Dutch and German. The line name itself changes — in North America it is
«Battle Figures», here «Power Pokés» — so a blister that says *Power Pokés* is European even when
the BF code matches.
2. Figuras de Combate — EN/ES/IT cardback
«Battle Figures / Figuras de Combate / Personaggi da combattimento»
«with Poké Ball and Battle Discs · con Poké Ball y discos de combate · con Poké Ball e dischi da combattimento»
«Gotta catch 'em all! / ¡Hazte con todos! / Acchiappali tutti!»
English, Spanish and Italian. A separate family, not a variant of the red one: same product,
different market. BF-19 (Gloom + Vileplume) exists on both, which proves they coexist.
3. Wicked Cool multilingual — seven languages on two lines
On the «4.5" Battle Feature Figure» the cardback groups the language codes and splits out the one
where the name changes:
EN FR ES NL PT ITLAPRAS
DELOKHLASS
English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian and German. German gets its own line
because the Pokémon is named differently there — that layout quirk gives the European cardback
away at a glance.
How to identify a loose lot
Without a cardback the piece alone almost never says where it came from: **a pog has «Hasbro»
written nowhere on it.** What identifies it is what came with it:
- The launcher, with «BattPoke» moulded into the grey screen. Careful: on the card that
same launcher is sold as *Poké Ball Blaster* (US) or *Power Blaster* (Europe), so searching for
«BattPoke» finds nothing. The moulded name and the printed one do not match.
- The poster «Master the entire world of Pokémon!», with the illustrated Pokédex from #01 to
#70. It is the line's standard insert.
- The clear cylindrical tube with a red cap, which is where the discs came in.
The launcher's colour does not tell you the region: red belongs to the FAO Schwarz 1998
exclusive, which is American, and Europe got purple and teal.
What we still do not know
- A European EN/ES/IT cardback is cited for more blisters than the two we have photographed.
Photos missing.
- The EU-EN pairing with cm/kg on the front of the disc is documented and photographed, but we
do not know which cardbacks it shipped on.
- Of the five sets in the Applause «Battle Playset» — plush, VS format — we only know one:
#01 Bulbasaur vs #60 Poliwag.
If you own any of these, your photo is worth more than any listing: a cardback with legible text
is the only thing that settles these questions.