The Safari Zone HD Remaster project is a way to recreate the original “Safari Zone Guesstimation Card List” I made many years back, but to also bring a fresh new look to the original Vending Machine set! Afterall, the original Vending cards were never released as a whole in English (not counting a few Black Star Promos), and my original English version cards are definitely looking a bit long in the tooth after all this time.
This project originally started with GC|Linkinboss—a regular on the PA! Discord—posting a few Vending cards using my Neo Gendai blanks… which I then thought that maybe they’d like to straight-up help remake the original Safari Zone? GC|L was totally onboard, and so here we are!
To get an idea of how much has changed since the original Safari Zone Guesstimation Card List release and this Safari Zone HD Remaster project, take a look at these Weezing cards:
Now as with the original version, the goal is to reproduce what Wizards might have done had they released the Vending Machine cards in an actual English set. For this, we would try to reproduce not just the card text based on how the game text would’ve been written back then (so no text stating “Special Conditions”) but also updating card rarity and giving them card numbers based on that rarity. To add one more bit of realism, we’re pretending this set was released between Neo Destiny and Expedition, and thus between February and September 2002; this means some Vending cards that were turned into promos, but they ended up included anyway (As some of these end up as a holo). There may be other surprises and minor adjustments as well, but these will also be based on what we felt Wizards might have done with the cards that they had access to… as a reminder, Wizards had rights to every Japanese card released at the time, even if they never actually released them in the end.
So wait, why is this set out of 134 cards when the original Safari Zone was only out of 108? As mentioned, the goal was to recreate what Wizards might have done if they had released Vending cards as a full set. Since certain cards were missing (such as the Stage 1 forms of the Kanto Starters) we thought it would be a good idea to include other cards that Wizards had the rights to print in order to make it a viable set for stuff like Drafts and Collectors. In the list of cards we’ve included where the card originally came from; the sole exception was Charmeleon which we pulled from Base Set because we found that there literally was NEVER a normal—i.e. non-Dark or non-Owner—Charmeleon card printed (promo or otherwise) between Base Set and Expedition. How weird!
RARITY GUIDE:
- ☆ = Rare Holo
- ★ = Rare
- ◆ = Uncommon
- ● = Common
- ☆☆☆ = SECRET RARE!
…SURPRISE! As per tradition with the last 2 Neo Sets, there were a few secret rares thrown in, an idea that WOTC certainly appreciated, as they also did it with their own’s Dark Raichu, so why not? And what better duo to fill that role than the elusive Mew and Mewtwo, which we bestowed with a reverse holo a la Southern Island Promos.
Finally, at some point in the future, we MAY have a physical, proxy release of Safari Zone cards. Like, if you ever wanted to play with original Japanese Vending Machine cards in your deck, but can’t read Japanese… well, we might have a solution for you! GC|Linkinboss whipped these up for kicks and giggles, and they look awesome! Maybe one day they’ll be in your hands as well?
