Pokémon Monday: Gotta Fake 'Em All – Celebi’s Wild Chinese Bootleg Card

Hello everyone, and welcome to another installment of Pokémon Monday! Today we're going a bit more modern fake and taking a look at this Chinese knockoff of one of my favorites (notice my trend toward the mystical)—Celebi!

Fake chinese Pokémon card depicting Celebi, a grass mystical creatire floating through the air.

What's Up With These Fake Chinese Trading Cards?

The allure to these specific cards for me is in the fact that they look so different from the typical bootlegs you see advertised to English-speaking audiences. Most of those end up being 1:1 clones of their legitimate counterparts.

These Chinese fake trading cards though, try to be something almost completely different. Instead of mimicking the real deal, they change the layout, some of the icons, and even utilize a seemingly more vibrant color palette. (Also, on a side note, those little Pokéballs on the bottom corners are so cool).

Deciphering The Madness


I can’t read Chinese myself, but with some help and a bit of research, I found that this fake Pokémon card speaks volumes:

  • On the top left: 完全 is indicating that this card is "Complete" (Perfect, or perhaps full power)


  • Top Right (HP): 605? Definitely some bootleg blasphemy here... 605HP, bootleg classic right there, inflating the HP to ungodly amounts.


  • The Orange Bars To The Right Of Celebi: "攻击力: 72542 // 防御力: 60581" Both of these stats are indicating attack power and defense power, and of course in the usual fake card fashion, they're absurdly high. 72,542 attack, and 60,581 defense? Are we playing Yu-Gi-Oh! now? How does this even work on a Pokémon card?


  • Bio Box (Golden Banner Right Below The Art): "食梦神奇宝贝：身高0.7公尺，体重23.5公斤"—Dream-eating Pokémon: Height 0.7 meters, Weight 23.5 kg. — So is this Drowzee now? As far as I know Celebi doesn't eat dreams. Unless in this fake trading card world it does...


  • The First Attack Box: 不明秘技 – “Unknown Secret Technique”—Nothing more than vanity it adds nothing but sounds cool. Typical fake card stuff. 这轮进攻中，对手的神奇宝贝全部受到60点伤害而雪拉比也受到40点伤害。"This round, all of the opponent’s Pokémon take 60 damage, and Celebi takes 40 damage." Nutty effect for the Pokémon TCG if you're actually attempting to play with the card. Every Pokémon takes 60? That’s practically a Magic: The Gathering boardwipe… or a Raigeki, if you’re more Yu-Gi-Oh! inclined (iykyk). The 47 to the right is just there to be there, most likely intended to make the card look somewhat legitimate.


  • The Second Attack Box: 穿越时空 – “Time Travel” or “Crossing Time and Space” nothing much to this one, they slapped a 36 onto it most likely to add to the "legitimate" appeal.


  • Bottom Flavor Text: 从前作进行通信，与雪拉比同类的幻型神奇宝贝。— "Communicates with previous works, a phantom-type Pokémon similar to Celebi." 
This is a rough translation and does not appear to make much sense. Anyone familiar with the language open to interpreting this? 

There's a lot to decompress here, and it's all pure fake card goodness. Between the bizarre stats, and the off the wall translations, this fake chinese Celebi card certainly pulls some weight.

(As far as the history goes on this series of bootlegs, I don't have much to offer on that front. I browsed the web a bit trying to make some sense of these cards, and found many buried listings of similar fake cards on Chinese sales sites, furthering the ambiguity of these fake trading cards.)

A fake chinese pokémon card sitting on a wooden backdrop

Analyzing The Back of A Bootleg

There's not nearly as much to break down on the back, but it still offers some pretty interesting insight into the world of fake (modern) Pokémon cards.

It appears that the fake card wants to look like it has a Japanese card backing, but completely flops as the color saturation is wrong. Purely wrong. There is absolutely no way anybody would look at this and think it looks real. Especially when directly next to a Japanese card. 

Also, I am not sure if you notice, but the card sizing is a bit off as well, the sleeve that it is in is a regular DragonShield Matte, and there's a bit of  empty space in the bottom. In my collecting journey thus far I have witnessed a variety of size weirdness, ranging from Pokémon cards the size of Yu-Gi-Oh! to ones that are completely their own.

🔥The Bootleg-O-Meter🔥

The Bootleg-O-Meter is a totally-not-scientific ranking system in which I will grade a card (or an object) on the basis of it's bootleg glory. The bootleg item will undergo rigorous (again, non scientific) examination and be graded in each of these categories on a scale of 1-10, and at the end, will receive an OFFICIAL Bootleg-O-Meter rating.

Bootleg glory is determined by a few individual factors... those being:
  • Authenticity Delusion: Does it try to pass as real? (1 indicates that the item is trying too hard to appear authentic, 10 indicates that it is original in almost all respects)
  • Bootleg Brilliance: Is it fun, funny, or just... weird?
  • Print/Production Quality: Is it QUALITY?
  • Totally Subjective Vibes Check: Does it make ME happy?

So let's go in on this whacky fake Celebi Pokémon Card:

  • Authenticity Delusion: It's got to be ranked at a solid 5/10 here. The card is clearly modeled after a modern day Pokémon trading card, and to an untrained individual they might assume that this is what a Chinese Pokémon card looks like. However, as someone who collects and sees the cards all the time, it is clearly fake. Hence the 50% here. I do dig the appearance of the card, it is just real looking enough that it still looks like a Pokémon card, but also bootleg enough that it is worth a slot on Pokémon Monday.

  • Bootleg Brilliance: 4/10 here, not because the card isn't brilliant or anything like that, the fake Celebi certainly has a bootleg elegance to it, but it isn't seeking to be fun, funny, or weird. It is it's own thing all together. I don't have a lot to say here, as the card is what it is. The translations are a bit weird, but as an English collector looking at the card as it is, the card lacks the funniness of mistranslations immediately, and appears pretty mellow compared to some of the more classic bootlegs you'd see floating around.

  • Print/Production Quality: It pains me here, but I have to give it a 4/10. The card is failing so far, I know, I'm sorry. But the print quality is lacking. The card is flimsy, and has a strange matte texture, almost like printer paper. It is objectively a poorly printed card (look at the back). Once it's sleeved though you'd never notice, so I'll give it that. This is a theme I notice that is common with many of the bootlegs I have looked at as well.

  • Totally Subjective Vibes Check: 8/10, Now, I know I have been super harsh on little Celebi here, but this is where I'm giving it some points. I love the vibe the card gives, the interesting artwork, the little icons on it, the absurd attack and the weird flavor text. I dig the different appearance the card has compared to other modern day Pokémon trading cards, and I think it certainly warrants a spot on Pokémon Monday. I love the almost exclusiveness that these Chinese fakes have, as they are very difficult to source here in the States, and I am excited to take a look at more!

Final Score: 5/10

Ultimately, this fake Chinese Celebi card checks some of the bootleg boxes
  • It's different enough
  • It's interesting
  • It's exclusive
But it does not check them all, thus the score. It is a bit too exclusive to hit for many bootleg collectors, and it happens to be a bit boxed in, too niche for regular TCG collectors, but not niche enough for many bootleg collectors.

Got a bootleg you think deserves the spotlight? Comment below and let me know.



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