The Story Behind Mario & Luigi Pikachu Cards

September 18, 2023 lasttimeago pokémon

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Promotional cards are always a big part of any Pokémon set release. The more common promo cards are bundled with products such as single-pack blister promo cards, Pokémon box promo cards, and insert promo cards for Elite Trainer Boxes.

Some promo cards are vendor-specific and are only available when buyers purchase from The Pokémon Center or another specific big box vendor.

These vendor or store-specific cards are more difficult to get your hands on than the product promotional cards due to their limited quantity and store-by-store availability. You don’t have to look further than the rush by Pokemon enthusiasts to get their hands on the Van Gogh Pikachu promotional card which recently crashed the Pokémon Center’s website.

In the fall of 2023, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam began an exhibit running through January 2024 featuring popular Pokemon characters such as Pikachu, Eevee, and Snorlax. These characters are portrayed as subjects of some of Van Gogh’s most famous works. This reimagining of famous art pieces, combined with the world of Pokemon was an instant hit.

It was so much of a hit that it led to intermittent crashing of the Pokemon website and all stock of Van Gogh and Pokemon items being sold out in less than a day. Though this promo card fiasco generated a lot of attention, it isn’t the only collaboration promo that caused waves of excitement among Pokemon fans.

Mario and Luigi Pikachu Crossover

The Pokemon Company’s parent company, Nintendo, has never been shy to have crossovers between their most popular IPs. From Mario Party to Super Smash Brothers, combining their franchises has been a lucrative way to engage multiple fanbases.

For their crossover in late 2016, Nintendo combined their famous plumbers with a little, yellow, electric mouse in a Japan-specific collaboration that mesmerized collectors.

For this collaboration, officially released exclusively in Japan on October 29, 2016, Nintendo paired Pikachu with Mario and Luigi in a set of special collaboration boxes. This collaboration combined the number 1 (Pokemon) and number 8 (Mario) highest-grossing media franchises in history. With as many Mario and Pokemon fans as there, these products were guaranteed to be a massive hit.

Mario Pikachu Promo Cards

Let’s look first at Mario Pikachu Special Box, which included a set of 64 Mario Pikachu card sleeves, a Mario Pikachu deck case, and 2 promotional Mario Pikachu promo cards. The box artwork by Kouki Saitou mixed the Mario and Pokemon genres by recreating characters from Super Mario World using Pokemon characters.

While the cards and deck box are always popular, collectors naturally gravitated to the 2 promotional Mario Pikachu cards. These promotional cards were part of the XY card set, and thus have XY as part of their card/set identities.

The first Mario Pikachu card (XY-P Promo 293) is more of a standard-form card, similar to what fans and collectors have come to love over the last 25 years. This standard, promo holofoil card features Pikachu wearing Mario’s red hat, shirt, and overalls along with a thick, black, bushy mustache. The background is a yellow, red, and brown line design paying homage to both Pikachu and Mario’s signature colors. White Pokeballs are peppered over the background of the card.

The second Mario Pikachu card (XY-P Promo 294) is a full art card. Full art cards were first introduced to the Pokemon TCG during the Pokemon Black and White expansion and differ from standard cards as they allow the illustrator to use the entire card to sketch the character.

For this full art card, we see Pikachu, dressed up as Mario, mid-jump with a tower looming in the background. This action shot looks very similar to Mario’s jumps in the game and pays homage to the red-shirt 

The final touch on these cards is the Mario Pikachu stamp on the lower right-hand corner. These stamps are used for special release promos and can be found on other cards such as the 25th-anniversary set, various McDonald’s promos, GameStop and Best Buy store release cards, and Pokemon Center exclusive cards.

It is always fun to see all the artists who lend their skills to creating the artwork for the card sets. In this case, frequent Pokemon card artist Kouki Saitou took full responsibility for the box and contents as all cards, sleeves, and boxes were illustrated by Kouki.

Luigi Pikachu Promo Cards

Of course, Nintendo couldn’t forget about Mario’s clumsy brother Luigi and created a matching Luigi Pikachu Special Box. This box again features a set of Luigi Pikachu card sleeves, a deck case, and 2 promotional Luigi Pikachu cards. Kouki Saitou was the artist for the Luigi items so the cards and box are very similar to the Mario Luigi box.

Again, the first Luigi Pikachu card (XY-P 295) is a standard Pokemon card. It features Pikachu in Luigi’s green shirt and hat, overalls, and a thick, w-shaped black mustache. The background has a yellow, green, and brown stripe pattern mixing the color palettes of Pikachu and Luigi. Again, white Pokeballs pepper the background, and a Mario Pikachu stamp sits at the bottom right-hand corner of the art section.

For the second Luigi Pikachu card (XY-P 296) we get another full art card. This card again features Pikachu as Luigi, with the same tower as a background. However, this card stages Luigi Pikachu in a mid-jump and waving motion as Luigi Pikachu winks toward the collector. 

Current Pricing for Mario Pikachu and Luigi Pikachu

When you pair two of the highest-grossing media franchises to create special promotional products, prices will go through the roof. The initial sale of these boxes ended during the 2016 fall season. Now, the only way to get these cards is through resale, but full boxes are hard to find.

For graded PSA 10 versions of the cards, you can expect to pay: $1,500 for Mario Pikachu (XY-P 293), $5,500 for Mario Pikachu (XY-P 294), $1,300 for Luigi Pikachu (XY-P 295, and $3,200 for Luigi Pikachu (XY-P 296).

Obviously, you can get them cheaper if you are willing to buy the raw cards, but for collectors looking to add Mario Pikachu and Luigi Pikachu to their collections, the PSA 10 may be the way to go!