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By: Oliver Copeland
- Published:
- Last Updated: February 9, 2024
"Furthermore, whenever I bring it up, it's met with immediate skepticism."
Old Cosmos Vs. New Cosmos
The ‘Cosmos’ holofoil pattern is the oldest in the TCG, beginning in 1996. And today, we still see cards produced with this exquisite holo pattern. But there are two different versions.
Sometime in 2013, the Cosmos pattern changed. It basically got updated to look more modern and earned itself the nickname ‘HD Cosmos’. The original holo pattern is often called the ‘Retro’ or ‘Pixel’ Cosmos, but I’ll just refer to them as ‘Old’ and ‘New’ in this article.
Interestingly, the Energy cards from Pokémon 151 were found to have both holo patterns. One of the first to notice this was my friend, Dan Scime, who wrote to PokéBeach about it. (Check out episode 02 of the podcast!)
Furthermore, the chances of pulling an Old vs. a New Cosmos Energy wasn’t clear, but both Dan and I have more Old than New holo patterns.
The Promo Cards Have Different Holofoil Patterns
It’s almost common knowledge now that the holo Energy cards from Pokémon 151 have two different holo patterns, but the promo cards do as well.
There are 6 promo cards with the Cosmos holo pattern:
Poster Collection
- Bulbasaur
- Charmander
- Squirtle
Zapdos ex Box
- Electabuzz
Alakazam ex Box
- Abra
- Kadabra
Each of these cards have the Cosmos holo pattern and can be found in two different variants, with the exception of one…
I think things may change as more cards are printed, but before the dust settles, we’ve yet to see a Kadabra with the New Cosmos holo pattern. It’s not clear why Kadabra is an exception but user Llyrwenne on efour has suggested that it is a kind of ode to Kadabra’s return to the TCG after 20 years.
It’s been only 5 months since the release of Pokémon 151, and the Bulbasaur/Charmander/Squirtle with the New holo variant was just discovered this past weekend, by yours truly. This suggests that the variant (the Old Cosmos, in this case) didn’t even exist until consecutive print runs of the set.
Therefore, keep your eyes peeled, we might see a New Cosmos Kadabra.
Do You Need These For A Master Set?
Great question. This isn’t up to me, but actually the community.
The hurdle here is actually getting these variants to be common knowledge. They are not officially recognized by The Pokémon Company or the grading services. Furthermore, whenever I bring it up, it’s met with immediate skepticism.
Personally, I will be collecting these as this is wonderfully exciting for me, but I wouldn’t blame someone if they deemed this phenomenon as a misprint and moved on.
Final Thoughts
What does this mean moving forward for the hobby?
If this is unintentional and goes unresolved, we could very well see Cosmos variations in future promo cards. And, in fact, there are even some past ones popping up.
A perk of being a holo pattern collector is that you can actually check the promo cards before you buy, since they are visible in the package. So for now on, I’ll be checking!
5 thoughts on “Pokémon 151 Secret Variants (Cosmos Foil Patterns)”
I’ll be updating this article when/if a New Cosmos Kadabra is discovered. aAnd as I collect more cards I’ll add more photos.
I just looked and I have two Electabuzz promo’s, one with new and one with old, if you’d like to see.
Hey Mel, if you want to share your cards with our community, feel free to join our Discord channel. You’ll find a link in the footer of this page. I’m always online and you’re always welcome!
I was curious if you have added the no star holo alakazham to the list? There have been several of these cards showing up in boxes with the old cosmo abras.
I haven’t heard of these! This sounds like a misprint