Usagi Yojimbo trading cards

[Gaffey]

After seeing the Usagi Phantom card I started to wonder why there isn’t an Usagi Yojimbo trading card set.

Base set
Rare base cards - 1 per pack (kind of like the Marvel Masterpiece ‘94 gold signature series)
Sub sets - Heroes & Villains/Usagi through the years
Sketch cards - (various artists plus Stan)
Memorabilia cards - (cut up pieces of Albedo #2) (no he didn't!!)
Acetate or Die-cut cards - Women of Usagi
Bonus card - Lenticular Usagi slash

Am I missing anything?

Ok I got carried away. A base set would be cool.

[Stan Sakai]

There was a 9 card set by (I think) Comic Images. It reprinted images from the UY books. They were a bit more expensive, but they were on a thicker stock than most cards and one of them was signed.

Dark Horse also put out a free set of 9 cards, using book covers and misc art such as the stylized logo. They also did a bunch of "signature cards", a little bigger than regular trading cards and used as free promotional giveaways at cons.

[Gaffey]

There was a 9 card set by (I think) Comic Images. It reprinted images from the UY books. They were a bit more expensive, but they were on a thicker stock than most cards and one of them was signed.

I've never seen these. Perhaps Mr. Hubbell could provide a scan. Steve?

I was hoping you would someday have trading cards like Sergio did with Groo in the mid 90's. I used to love opening packs.

[Steve Hubbell]

There was a 9 card set by (I think) Comic Images. It reprinted images from the UY books. They were a bit more expensive, but they were on a thicker stock than most cards and one of them was signed.

I've never seen these. Perhaps Mr. Hubbell could provide a scan. Steve?

I was hoping you would someday have trading cards like Sergio did with Groo in the mid 90's. I used to love opening packs.

Speaking of the Groo card set, I had always wished that Sergio would do a companion set featuring all his other comic characters, including Cain, Able, and Eva (from House of mystery / House of Secrets / Plop), T. C. Mars, Catnippon, Mighty Magnor, Fanboy, Alfred E. Newman and the Mad Magazine crew, Smokehouse Five, Buzz & Bell, etc.....

[Gaffey]

Thanks Steve.

Is there anything Stan related you don't own? That's impressive.

[Steve Hubbell]

Thanks Steve.

Is there anything Stan related you don't own? That's impressive.

1. The first Space Usagi ash-can published by Mirage
2. The Westfield Newsletter (March 1993) published by Worlds of Westfield Comic Distributors.

(image from Usagi Yojimbo Cover Gallery)
3. Any of the Usagi Yojimbo trade collections in hardcover or paperback (technically, I've bought all the paperback editions, but I gave them as gifts to my two nephews).
4. any of the Rawlbrazzle APA featuring Stan's "Ten Little Critter's" story starring Terry Miyamoto: Investigative Reporter.
5. any animation cels from Usagi's appearances on the old or new TMNT cartoon series.
6. misc. t-shirts, prints, convention programs, etc - that I know of.

Abayo....

[Gaffey]

4. any of the Rawlbrazzle APA featuring Stan's "Ten Little Critter's" story starring Terry Miyamoto: Investigative Reporter. Abayo....

Good luck on this one.

I wonder if Stan was asked to contribute to the Rowrbrazzle memory book?

[tokage]

but it could be funny having a uy based collectible card game

or only collectible cards more than 9...

[Mayhem]

I was thinking similar thing... maybe along the lines of the rules from SNK's Cardfighter Clash for example?

For those who've never played the game, it's an incredibly simple, but beautiful and complex strategy game to go through. In the original game, there are just two types of cards: characters and action cards. You can play up to one character per turn to table, and play any number of action cards as long as you can pay for them (see below).

Characters deploy on table, and there can be at most three present on either side at one time. Each character has a power rating (used to directly fight with), a soul point rating (used to fund team attacks and playing action cards) and some game text. This could either activate when the card came into play (triangle symbol), be permanently active until the card leaves play (circle symbol), or can be triggered as an action during your turn (square symbol, which makes the character unusable until the start of your next turn).

Characters fight by comparing power ratings. The one with the higher rating wins, but their power is reduced by the power of the losing character eg. 800 versus 600 means 800 wins, but is now only 200.

Soul points allow you to combine two or even three characters in one attack against one opponent character. A way of "breaking through" the power and doing overdamage. In a similar way to Magic:TG, each player has 3000 damage in the beginning. Not putting a character up to block an attack, or taking overdamage reduces this.

The game is over when one player has no damage left. If you run out of cards in your deck, it is reshuffled and replayed, hence you can never run out of cards.

Well that's a quick explanation. There's a lot more going on including characters being able to "backup" others for example. If you can find a Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld cheaply, I really suggest buying the game. Killer ap

So for example, we could have Usagi here...

Miyamoto Usagi
Rarity: A (a five point scale from D to S)
Power: 800
SP: 4
Text: [triangle] May take Jotaro or Katsuichi-Sensei into hand from deck.

Or our favourite kittycat...

Tomoe Ame, Bodyguard
Rarity: A
Power: 700
SP: 3
Text: [circle] Will take damage instead of Usagi or Lord Noriyuki if on table.

Something like that. The possibilities are really endless to be honest

[Gaffey]

There was a 9 card set by (I think) Comic Images. It reprinted images from the UY books. They were a bit more expensive, but they were on a thicker stock than most cards and one of them was signed.

I received an e-mail back from Comic Images and they stated there were about 500 sets with approx 200 of them having been signed. Of course they didn't have any in stock.

[shaxper]

There are also between ten and fifteen cards from the old TMNT cartoon trading cards (series 2) devoted exclusively to the first Usagi Yojimbo episode. I have them somewhere around here if anyone wants to know more.