Stadium, November 1998 – April 1999 (5+1 sheets)
In August 1998, Nintendo released the Pocket Monsters Stadium for Nintendo 64. As the franchise’s first 3D battler, it marked a giant leap forward: For the first time, three-dimensional models replaced sprites to have creatures duke it out in equally multidimensional arenas.1A feat famously made possible by future Nintendo president Satoru Iwata reverse-engineering, then porting the Red & Green battle system in the record space of just one week. Revolutionary though this was, Stadium only supported 40 of Kanto’s 151 Pokémon for use in gameplay, the remainder intended to have been unlocked through the abortive 64DD add-on. Unsurprisingly, then, this limited pool of Pokémon gave Stadium 1 the trappings of a glorified tech demo, and as a result the oddball, rough-and-ready title was quickly superseded by the much completer and more fondly remembered Stadium 2 in April 1999.2Simply released as “Pokémon Stadium” in the West.
Still, as the first ever Colosseum-style Pokémon brawler, Stadium 1 made a considerable splash in Japan. It’s hard to imagine now, but to a generation of Pokéfans, watching their favourite creatures animate attacks in three dimensions was an “overwhelming”, even formative moment.3See also this retrospective on Famitsu: https://web.archive.org/web/20250123013618/https://www.famitsu.com/article/202408/12478 Quite understandably, Stadium 1’s groundbreaking novelty made the game an attractive target for publishing house Shogakukan to latch onto and anchor yet another of its beloved Pokéstamp campaigns. So naturally, they did.
A somewhat blurry Kaichou breaks down the Stadium Campaign in GSLM November 1998, Year 3.
Like in prior stamp drives, Shogakukan’s Grade-Specific Learning Magazines (GSLM) would host this fourth iteration. And when the campaign kicked off in GSLM November 1998, it predictably fell to the goofy persona of the Fan Club Chairman, or Kaichou, to announce the Pokéstamp Stadium series and act as its figurehead.4For the first time since the launch of the Original Campaign way back in April 1997, GSLM readers had been given a one month stamp-breather: Complete wrapped up in September 1998, and October 1998 only carried a non-campaign FlySurf Pika sheet. The result was a verdant two-page spread in, among others, GSLM November 1998, Year 3 that, supervised by an endearingly polygonal rendition of the Kaichou, touted a genuine innovation. This newest campaign wasn’t to repeat the done-to-death, slightly dull Pokédex-like portrait stamps that had characterised the Original, Blue and – to a degree – Complete campaigns. No sir. Stadium was to revolve around novel videogamey “CG Type” Pokéstamps.
Specifically, this go-around bumped up the stampage to a whopping four uniques per Pokémon: Three high-octane snaps to showcase any particular Pokémon’s three (of its four) standard Stadium moves in the game’s battle mode, plus one trusty full-body shot thematically capped in Stadium during a lull in the action. Take Charizard, who was depicted using Fire Spin, Swords Dance, and Flamethrower. Or Snorlax, portrayed using Amnesia (flat on its back with question marks overhead) Rest (snoozing), and Headbutt (in-your-face close, Prime-style). In this manner, Stadium expanded on Complete’s Story Series groundwork to deliver an array of even more dynamic, character-rich Pokéstamps that were exciting not merely to ogle, but also for what they implied (play N64’s Pokemon Stadium, it’s fantastic!). Nintendo must’ve been pleased.
Complete quartets of Charizard and Blastoise stamps pasted into Stadium’s “stampbook”. Blastoise is shown using Bubble, Hydro Pump, and Skull Bash respectively.
Snorlax and Articuno stamp sets (the latter shown using Mist, Blizzard, and Bubble Beam).
Stadium’s stamp sheets looked a little different too, their format returning to a compact 6×6 grid from Complete’s 10×6. As divulged per the “5 big secrets” in the aforementioned GSLM November 1998 issue, there were to be 157 total Stadium stamps. A number which, you’ll gather, perfectly equals all of Stadium 1’s 40 Pokémon multiplied by four, minus three (for Ditto only received a portrait stamp). In turn, these 157 stamps (plus duplicates) were divided up between five main sheets, which we’ll christen the Pikachu, Scyther, Electrode, Pinsir and Cloyster sheets after the namesake stamp positioned in the top-left corner of each.
Together these sheets appeared as inserts in five consecutive GSLM issues between November 1998 and March 1999 in Years 1-6 as well as Learning Kindergarten. All were moreover outfitted with the familiar cutout “Club Marks” in varying colours that players could collect and submit to Shogakukan in exchange for (potential) prizes (see below). Finally, as was tradition, the campaign concluded with a “secret” Mew sheet in April 1999 that, besides a large portrait of Mew, also included an equally big Surfing Pikachu and a giddy, dashing Bulbasaur.5For whatever reason, Mew seemingly wasn’t included in issues of April 1999’s Learning Kindergarten. As one might expect, the Stadium stockbook had room to accommodate these “secret” stamps on “special” pages, bringing the campaign’s actual unique stamp total to 160.
All 5+1 Stadium sheets. Note how the Club Marks are missing – evidently, the sheet’s original owner applied to Shogakukan for a stockbook and Trainer ID.
Ah, the stockbook. Or rather, the ultra premium Stock Book DX. A visual and informational upgrade over Complete, this ring-bound collection log had a lovely encyclopedic character. Not merely because of its vertical orientation, but more so for how it presented Stadium’s action stamps as well as providing meta-campaign information.
Let’s start with the Stadium sections. We’ve already seen how the stockbook grouped together a Pokémon’s four available stamps on a single page to make for what I can only describe as battle prowess microgalleries. Each of these 20-some pages also contained flavourtext that hyped up the Pokémon and stamp designs while overtly marketing the N64 Stadium game. Take Charizard, whose information read:
“Enjoy watching Charizard battle with unmatched grandeur in these four stunning, breathtaking stamps! When you have them all, it’s truly impressive! I hope you will experience it soon too!”6「リザードンがいさすがにさましく戦う姿が楽しめる、 美しく迫力満点のこの4枚! それがすべてそろった時は感動もの! キミたちにも早く体験してほしいわい!」
Or Articuno, whose blurb stated:
“A storm of colorful bubbles engulfs the screen through Bubble Beam! This terrifying yet beautiful PokéStamp is pure artistry! Don’t miss out on this mesmerizing shot!”7「色のシャボンが嵐のごとく蔽におそいかかる「バブルこうせん」!! その恐ろしくも美しいポケスタは、まさに芸術的!! この魅惑の1枚、とり逃すなよ〜!!」
Selection of completed pages from the Stadium Campaign’s stock book.
I have to admit, if there’s any single campaign’s stockbook I’d like to own, it’d be Stadium’s. There’s just something viscerally impressive about it. Even across space and time, one can sense that this Stadium compendium succeeded in replicating the wow-factor of trawling a 3D Pokédex without, of course, actually subjecting fans to the gruesome slog of completing a Pokédex. If I had to draw a comparison, I would imagine that the giant animatronic Pokédex at the erstwhile PC New York gave fans a similar sense of wonder. No mean feat for a stamp collection to even invite the comparison!
In any case, stockbook DX did much more than to tickle imaginations, for it also fuelled the collector brain by including a veritable treasure trove of Pokéstamp metadata. In what was labelled “PokeSta Perfect Data”, the Stadium stockbook’s supplementary pages chronicled – it would seem – every Pokémon stamp sheet released up to that point, providing sheet name, release date, and grayscale sample illustrations. Not since Pokémon Wonderland 1997 its “PokeSta Perfect History” and “All Sheets Collection” had any specific source attempted to exhaustively document the myriad primary and auxiliary PokéStamp sheets that came out willy-nilly throughout the late 1990s.8Pokémon Wonderland Vol 1, released August 1997, had provided historical stamp data through to October 1997. A collection checklist was included in the back. And lastly, the ring-bound Stadium album stated an intention to stay relevant and future-proof, noting how “future events” were to come with addable stock pages. Whether this promise of expandability was borne out in practice, however, I’m not sure – I’ve never seen any bundles of post-1999 pages for the stockbook DX appear on online marketplaces, and Y2K’s Gold & Silver Campaign moreover sported its very own flimsy, classic-style stockbook. Occam’s Razor says that Shogakukan did not support DX for very long, if at all.
A page of PokeSta Perfect Data (left) showing FlySurf Pikachu, among others. Prize information for tweezers, stick glue and a magnifying glass is on the right.
How, then, did players acquire this special Stadium stockbook? In contrast to the first three Shogakukan stamp campaigns, Stadium’s exquisite stockbook was not tied in with any GSLM issue. Rather, the luxurious volume was acquired only through mail order by – you guessed it – affixing the Stadium sheets’ five brightly coloured Club Marks to a pre-prepared postcard and submitting them to Shogakukan. Interestingly, the most junior GSLM magazine to participate in the campaign – Learning Kindergarten – offered a lightweight alternative to the stockbook DX: a “Pokémon Encyclopedia of Eternal Stars”. Best identified, less gloriously, as a collection poster.9Both Learning Kindergarten December 1998 and January 1999 appear to have included this particular poster. See audiovisual section for an image. Its primary purpose was much the same as the stockbook DX – to paste all of Stadium’s stamps and marvel at the complete collection – but came bereft of the complex additional information that, quite possibly, might be off-putting to the youngest of participants. This way, the Stadium Campaign was kept accessible to all levels despite a more mature bent. Or so was the idea, anyway.
Stadium Trainer’s Card ft. “Your Pikachu”.
The stream of goodies didn’t stop there. In addition to the stockbook, successful applicants could expect to receive a (slightly dull) Stadium edition “Trainer’s Card” with Pikachu on the front and nothing but a Club Mark and purple swirls on the back (not even a Kaichou portrait!). In what was perhaps a nod to the then-recent release of N64’s Hey You Pikachu and inevitable commemorative stamp sheets that could, by the way, also be added to the stockbook DX, the electric mouse on the Trainer’s Card endearingly represented “Pika-chan”, or your Pikachu.10「おや。ピカチュウ)」. Cute. But I don’t know that it really hit home.
In any case, the unique ID Number printed on the inside cover of each stockbook was the gateway to even more, albeit minor, prizes. Successful applicants were automatically entered into a lottery to win any of a stick of glue, magnifying glass, or stamp tweezers. Geeky. Incidentally, the highest known stockbook ID is #54833. Which, the attentive reader will note, is a sharp dropoff from the 600.000+ TIDs on record during the Complete Campaign. I frankly struggle for an explanation of this poor turnout. Was the stockbook DX not appealing enough? Were the additional prizes of a simplified Trainer’s Card and collector equipment simply too nerdy for many to bother? Or had Pokéstamp fatigue set in after two years of practically continuous campaigns?
The Stadium stockbook highest ID No.: #54833.
My sense is that Stadium was simply too arcane and inaccessible to the average GSLM reader. Take the stockbook, which required a six-month wait to acquire – far too long for the average gradeschooler’s attention span. Or the prizes of a magnifying glass and tweezers, which are perfect for adult philatelists but completely useless to young Pokéfans who simply wanted to haphazardly stick cool illustrations into booklets, not caring about condition. There’s a reason why so many Original, Blue and Complete stockbooks on online marketplaces are unfinished and rich in hastily applied sellotape. Indeed, driven by desire to innovate, Stadium delivered a cool-as-beans campaign but lost sight of the need for simplicity to engage and captivate its core audience.
Whatever the case, it’s evident that the results shook Shogakukan, for Stadium’s innovations notwithstanding, the publisher returned to a perhaps more tried and tested stamp format for the fifth campaign in the series: Gold & Silver. But first, let’s take a look at a brief prerelease, stampy “pre-sheet” intermezzo.
NAVIGATION:
Complete Campaign < > “Pre-Sheet” Intermezzo
Audiovisual
Pikachu Stadium sheet. GSLM November 1998, Year 3.
Stadium Scyther sheet.
Stadium Electrode sheet.
Stadium Magneton sheet.
Stadium Pinsir sheet.
The Stadium “Stock Poster” is shown in the blue inset at the bottom. GSLM January 1999, Learning Kindergarten.
Stadium stock poster. GSLM December 1998, Learning Kindergarten.
Stadium Campaign binder-form stock book, cover.
Stadium stockbook and the Shogakukan envelope it came in.
Years 1997-2000 stamp campaign stockbooks. Note Stadium’s small form factor.
Kaichou presents the Stadium stock book. Note ID #029422.
Stadium stock book. Note ID #025847 – different from above.
Stadium stock book showing past sheets as part of its “Pokémon Stamp Perfect Data” section.
Stadium Campaign “Trainer’s Card” graced by a portrait of LV.35 “Pika-chan”.
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