Complete Campaign, April – September 1998
Much like how the Original Campaign had rolled over into Blue, so Blue pivoted straight into Complete. With 243 unique stamps on offer spread across six months’ worth of sheets, the Complete Campaign was Shogakukan’s most ambitious yet. Complete was the last of what I consider to be the Pokéstamp original trinity, or the publisher’s back-to-back-to-back 1997-8 campaigns with a joint, recognisably uniform presentation from sheets to stockbook to Member Card. As it happened, the epithet “Complete” was somewhat tautological, for OG and Blue had equally featured all 151 Kanto Pokémon. “Complete” was just… more complete, with some fancy bonus elements. Let’s take a look.
First, as opposed to Blue, only GSLM Years 1-6 took part this time, with Learning Kindergarten sidelined like it had been during the Original Campaign.1Learning Kindergarten rather offered 5×2 sheets themed around a specific evolution line, such as Clefairy or Charmander (see here LINK) Interestingly, Complete materials are somewhat less abundant on the secondary market than are OG and Blue sheets and stockbooks. Which might point to greater emotional attachment on the part of ex-participants in the campaign, or could potentially indicate that popular enthusiasm for Shogakukan’s stamp drives understandably wavered by this point, with the unchanging formula getting a little stale. (Sky-high sequential Trainer IDs don’t however support this take; more on that later). It might even be an, err, complete coincidence.
This is not to say that the Complete Campaign failed to innovate entirely. Take sheet size: A full sheet of stamps was now a rectangular 10×5 to replace the conventional 6×6 grid. Complete featured six unique sheets, each officially named after the first regular top-left portrait: Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Pikachu, Clefairy, and familiar universal closer Mew (September 1998), now in a woodland setting. Altogether, this made for just shy of 300 stamps of which, as mentioned, 243 unique. Complete’s precise GSLM rotation is unclear to me – insufficient data! – but with five standard sheets to six grade-years, monthly duplication was unavoidable.2If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that Years 1 and 6 carried identical sheets each month, for the age gap between their respective audiences is widest and the odds of readers jumping between the two from month to month (to discover duplicate sheets) thus minimal.
Complete Campaign Blastoise sheet. Note the 2×1 “Story Series” stamps.
Complete’s stamp sheets are noteworthy in two further respects. First, some 30 of its offerings came in the form of “super wide” 2×1 stamps.3GSLM April 1998, Year 3 dubbed them “Super Wide Poly Sheets” (超ポリュ−ムワイドシート) Known as the “Story Series” (ストーリーシリーズ), these stamps transcended simple portraits to depict charming scenes and action poses instead. Taking their inspiration from well-known RGBY videogame locations, we find a menacing Mewtwo flanked by Hypno and Kadabra inside Cerulean Cave, Aerodactyl with Kabuto and Omanyte perched on top of pedestals inside the Pokémon Lab, or Weedle, Kakuna and Pikachu chilling inside Viridian Forest – the latter’s design faithfully mirroring Keiji Kinebuchi’s famous Pikachu TCG promo. Notably, up until this point, deviant formats had been the sole preserve of Mew and select non-campaign miscellaneous sheets.
Second, besides the Story Series, Complete debuted the inclusion of multiple unique stamps per Pokémon. Take Charizard, which appeared twice in the campaign: Once as a Fire type on its namesake sheet, and once tucked away in a corner of the Pikachu sheet, now classified as a Flying type. Or Bulbasaur, which was both on the Charizard sheet (Grass) and on the Blastoise sheet (Poison). Only elements of the Pokémon Kanto starter lines were given such special treatment this time; it would fall to the next campaign, Stadium, to really run with the idea. That said, it’s clear that Complete marked the beginning of free-er Pokéstamp experimentation that, in a bid to keep things fresh, moved away from the rigidity of one stamp-dex entry per Pokémon.
Complete Campaign Pikachu sheet. Note the Flying-type Charizard in the lower-left.
In keeping with this apparent resolve to up the ante, Complete delivered the fanciest stamp stockbook to date. Released the usual month into the campaign in May 1998, it was quite naturally dyed a deep blue, perfect for a not-blue campaign (cough). In terms of mascots, Charizard once again muscled out Blastoise to stand in the middle of the booklet’s fully-evolved Kanto starter trio cover print (poor Venusaur, ever slighted). Newly added to the stockbook was a special foldout page with dedicated space to stick those broadside 2x1s as well as a disappointingly landmarkless Kanto “Monsters Area Map” of which I frankly don’t quite understand the purpose. It looked cool, I suppose.
The rest of the booklet was of fairly standard design. As always, the Fan Club Chairman was printed overleaf to enthuse would-be collectors about the project (see Original and Blue) and oversee an explanation of Complete’s inflated Pokédex. The Kaichou equally made his routine appearance on the final page by the now-familiar Hall of Fame and Member Card posting space (see below), alerting participants to the existence and purpose of prize-grabbing Club Marks. In an interesting detail, Complete stockbooks now printed their grade-year magazine of origin (小四④/小五⑤ etc.) in the top-right corner of their covers. As far as I know, this served no purpose beyond signalling script difficulty,4GSLM introduces tough to read Kanji gradually by grade-year. The contrast in text difficulty between, say, Years 1 and 4 is quite noticeable. for the Campaign’s prize pool was shared between all six participating grade-years, as we shall see shortly.
Complete Campaign Charizard-themed stockbook. Story Series foldout with region map at the bottom.
Campaign prizes, then! By now you’ll know the drill: Collectors could affix six Club Marks to a GSLM submission form and send it to Shogakukan in exchange for a fancy Daisuki Club Member Card (coloured a neon green this time). On the front of the card, there was space to leak one’s personal information to everyone who cast eyes on the piece of plastic. On the back, we find the Kaichou‘s Pikachu-coddling portrait accompanied by pat-on-the-back congratulatory paean to signify that you, the budding Pokémon philologist, had succeeded in sponsoring Shogakukan to the tune of six consecutive GSLM issues. Err I mean, had collected 243 unique Pokéstamps!
The front also bore a six-digit number – the Trainer ID (TID) – that we think was issued sequentially, in chronological order, to successful applicants. (We’ve previously discussed the significance of TIDs in the Introduction here). Complete‘s highest known TID exceeds 600.000 – 603749, to be exact – which if we assume indicates a minimum completion rate is somewhat problematic. Going off a healthy mid-1998 Year 1-6 GSLM circulation that pushed 2 million copies a month (see again the Introduction), then a figure of 600k+ completions demands a ~30% GSLM buyer campaign completion rate. While possible, is this also plausible, particularly given the readership’s presumed decline in stamp interest between OG and Complete and Stadium‘s lacklustre performance, which came right after?5Stadium’s highest known TID runs in the 50.000s. I’m not sure.
Blue (top) and Complete (bottom) Fan Club Member Cards.
Thanks to some lovely photographs of the September 1998, Year 4 issue derived from an auction site, we know that other Complete prize incentives existed. It’s impossible to say “stamp” without saying “Chairman”, and for the occasion of touting the campaign’s wares, grandad donned a mustard fedora to replace his usual black one. The prizes, in turn, were nothing to scoff at, and those who mailed in all six sheets’ Club Marks entered the draw to win:
– Special Pokémon stickers (300 winners)
– Pikachu “ride” stamper (150 winners)
– Stamp badge set (50 winners)
– N64 Pokémon Stadium (20 winners)
– Fearow and Rapidash (10 winners)
GSLM September 1998, Year 4. Note the Chairman’s tropical appearance. Rapidash and Fearow loom large.
Copies of Pokémon Stadium, wowza! You might not expect it at first glance, yet the real eyebrow-raiser here is the presumed grand prize of Kaichou Fearow and Rapidash. Clearly intended to be a big deal, the September 1998 Year 4 issue even included a manga short all about the Chairman and his Fearow.6Potentially all of that month’s GSLM grade-years did. Distributed to only 10 winners via, we think, Green or Red cartridge mail-in, these two event Pokémon are the ultimate enigma of modern-day Poké-preservationism. Not a single one has ever been found, and with Generation 1 batteries dying or long dead, chances are we never will.
So! With that covered, let’s turn our attention to the campaign that shook up an increasingly stale formula: Stadium.
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NAVIGATION:
Blue Campaign < > Stadium Campaign
Audiovisual
The Chairman advertises the Complete Campaign. GSLM April 1998, Year 1.
Complete Campaign Charizard sheet. Note the 2×1 “Story Series” stamps.
Venusaur sheet, Complete Campaign.
Complete Campaign Mew sheet, GSLM September 1998.
Complete Campaign Charizard-themed stock book. Note how it says コンプリート over Blastoise’s head in order to differentiate it from the OG stock book with similar art.
Kanto Daisuki Club Member Cards. Original (black), Blue (blue) and Complete (green).
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