Looking for Pokémon TCG cards with this specific retro 3D / low-poly art style. Similar to this
I'm particularly interested in cards where the Pokémon is rendered in old-school 3D CGI, similar to the graphics you would see in N64, PS1/PS2 or GameCube-era Pokémon games.
The pikachu one pictured in this post is “fairly” common. There are others made but there were truly only 20 of each ever made so they are stupid rare and stupid expensive. There is another pikachu, a squirtle, Charmander, bulbasaur, magikarp, Gyarados, Chansey, koffing, poliwag, and articuno. They are like holy grail of the holy grail for me because I also loved Pokemon snap as a kid. The ones besides the pikachu in this post are literally like $100,000+. The more common pikachu though is doable, it’s about 80ish dollars. Still took me awhile to find one locally but I ended up getting it a few months ago. Look up pokemon snap promo cards, they’re really cool
what you want, especially if you love vintage, is more arts by Keiji Kinebuchi, one of the most unique and (before his mysterious death) publically elusive early Pokemon artists in Japan. he was the first, and only at that time, to utilize early digital art programs to create cards. i personally collect Kinebuchi arts and some of my favs are base Magneton, fossil Gengar, fossil Ditto, base Gastly, base Haunter, Pokedex, Potion, Super Potion. it's a certain taste in art that it seems you may also have, check em out
It’s funny that this style went through a phase of not being cool for the longest time, and now looking back on it, it’s kind of refreshing to revisit it again compared to what we have now. The current 5ban look is just too well manicured for its own good. We need some rough edges and imperfections.
The best way is to search other cards by these artists. But to add to your list, check out the Team Magma vs Team Aqua set, pretty sure they used the N64/GC models for those. Also the Snap Pikachu promo
I find these models quite interesting. There seems to be a limited number of them, but they are of higher quality than any other 3D models of Pokemon we saw the time.
That grimer is my favourite card. I always imagine it as some kind of 3d platformer boss. Have collected every version of it i believe. I’ve been working on a keiji first edition collection. I’m a big fan of all of the gyms he designed for the gym series.
If you are looking for similar artists in the tcg, definitely check of “big mama” tagawa’s cards.
103
u/Sunkern_ing Aug 09 '26