Evolved Action Tins Review

Decided to review products as well as single cards. The first review will be on the Evolved Action Tins, which feature the fully evolved Unova starters: Serperior, Emboar, and Samurott.  This a follow-up to the Black & White Preview Tins that featured the base forms of the Unova starters.

The display of the tins look amazing. Serperior is on its side facing left with small green circles of light around it. Emboar  is in a bending position with what looks like preparing a fire punch. Samurott is standing foerce with some water around it. Each front lid of the tin is black, white, and depending on the tin version, green, red, or blue. The tin’s sides have all 3 of the starters on it.

The first thing inside in the tin is obviously the holo promo card that is shown. It is it the reprint of the BW set Holographic Unova starter final forms with Abilities. Serperior heals damage, Samurott reduces damages, and Emboar allows you to attach as any energy as you have (which is the best IMO).

When the promos were first revealed, Pokemon.com accidentally put out versions of these cards with attacks of the non-ability versions of the starters. Tons of people over at PokeBeach started bitching profusely over it before the errors got fixed. LOL!

Anyway, back to the tin, above the packs there is the code that gives you 3 packs and the promo on Pokemon TCG online (the 3 packs composite over the booster packs that do not have codes). Which is just amazing. At the time of writing, trollandtoad is unaware about the 3 codes and are currently selling them for $1-2 (at once for 50 cents! I know a few people who bought many of them shortly after noticing). Either way, good move on PTCi for having these kinds of codes.

As for the packs themselves, the back of the box said it contains 5 packs. European version apparently contain 4 packs. I bought all 3 tins from trollandtoad and yet ine the only contain 4 packs and not 5. How is that possible? Where’s my extra pack? Oh wait there it is! I just don’t count Triumphail packs as real booster packs, since those are worse than PoP packs.  The worthwhile packs included are 2 Emerging Powers, a Black & White one, and a Call of Legends one.  Emerging Powers has codes while the others don’t (compensated by the tin code). Good amount of packs, but only one booster is actually amazing, the rest are either meh or Triumphail.

Here are my pulls (your pulls WILL vary, this what I got):

Serperior tin

TM:

Aron

Cubone

Magnemite

Swablu

Venonat

Wailmer

Yanmega (non-prime)

Inidgo Plateau

Lairon (reverse)

Kricketune (rare)

……best set in the format, huh…….

CoL:

Vulpix

Eevee

Slowpoke

Mareep

Relicanth

Lost Remover

Jolteon

Quilava

Oak’s New Theory (reverse)

Umbreon (holo rare)

Not bad

BW:

Lillipup (non preview)

Joltik (30 HP)

Venipede

Pansear

Sandile

Pluspower

Grass Energy

Munna

Emboar (non-ability, reverse)

Reshiram (regular)

Cool pulls

EPO: (1)

Cotonee (#10)

Gothita (#44)

Woobat

Drilbur (common)

Emolga

Tranquill

Crushing Hammer

Swadloon

Ducklett (reverse)
Gothitelle (non-ability)

Not as bad as Triumphail, but still sucks

EPO: (2)

Sandile

Woobat

Cotonee (#9)

Emolga

Ferroseed (#70)

Zorua

Cinccino

Max Potion

Krokorok (reverse)
Leavanny (#8)

Better. Then again this set is not all that good anyway.

Emboar tin

TM:

Bellsprout

Bronzor

Swablu

Venonat

Nidoran (Male)

Nidorina

Piloswine

Rescue Energy (Best card pulled from this “set”)

Diglett (Reverse)

Carnivine (Rare)

What a waste of a pack

CoL:

Mawile

Cyndaquil

Tangela

Magmar

Totodile

Seviper

Copycat

Magby

Water Energy (reverse)

Jirachi (holo)

I like.

BW:

Snivy (#2)

Patrat (#77)

Deerling

Timburr(#58)

Panpour

Duosion

Herdier

Professor Juniper

Whirlipede (reverse)

Zoroark (holo rare)

Sweet!

EPO: (1)

Gothita (#44)

Cubchoo (70 HP)

Drilbur (common)

Basculin (common)

Pansage (common)

Drilbur (uncommon)

Sigilyph (#42)

Ferrothorn (uncommon)

Excadrill (rare, reverse)
Scolipede(rare)

No comment

EPO: (2)

Roggenrola(#49)

Roggenrola (#50)

Cotonee (#9)

Klink

Rufflett (#86)

Audino

Whimsicott (uncommon)

Sawsbuck

Tornadus (FULL ART!)

Best pull so far!

Samurott tin

TM:

Diglett

Nidoran (Female)

Yanma

Bellsprout

Gastly

Kangaskhan

Pidgeotto

Marowak

Wailord (reverse)

Drapion (holo rare)

Fuck this booster

CoL:

Koffing

Magikarp

Phanpy

Pidgey

Clefairy

Research Record

Flareon

Riolu

Shiny Deoxys

Cleffa

That was awesome.

BW:

Pidove

Joltik (40 HP)

Solosis

Oshawott (#27)

Scraggy

Gurrdurr

Simisear

Boufallant (uncommon)

Minccino (reverse)

Sawk (rare)

I guess this balances out the good pulls from before

EPO: (1)

Petilil

Ducklett

Venipede

Darumaka

Gothita (#45)

Watchog

Boldore (#52)

Sawk

Cheren (reverse)
Thundurus (holo rare)

Satisfying

EPO: (2)

Sandile

Roggenrola (#49)

Darumaka

Sewaddle (40 HP)

Pidove

Bianca

Sigilyph (#42)

Pokemon Catcher (!)

Vullaby (reverse)

Simisage (rare)

Catcher, FTW!

Overall, the pulls I got are good. Serperior tin gave OK pulls overall (Reshiram being the best card), but Samurott was better (Catcher and Shiny Deoxys). Emboar was the best by far (Tornadus FA, Zoroaark, Jirachi, and Rescue Energy).  Had worse tin pulls before (Reshiram and Zekrom tin pulls yielding Serperior and Reuniclus as the best cards).

Finally, the last, but not least, item inside the Evolved Action Tin are the figurines. They look really good. Serperior is posed on its belly (has long ears and a huge collar). Emobar has its arms up with it blowing fire (I like how fat it looks, reminds me of myself). My favorite of figures is Samurott with shell sword sticking up (and 4 big whiskers).

In conclusion, the tins are pretty good. I find better than previous waves of tins (starters and dragons) in terms of content. It has more packs, but most of the packs of somewhat decent, one is good, and the other is beyond pathetic. Obviously this was released at a relative time where the only good set recently released was Black & White, so the pack structure is not the best (replacing Trimphail with a BW would have been better).  This tin benefits you most as a online player.

My pick is Emboar mainly because I like the card and pokemon better than the other 2.

The tins are worth buying. If you are the fence of buying this, I suggest you b a if you don’t already have or if you are into Pokemon TCG Online. You’ll get 5 packs and a promo. All 3 tins are good to get.

P.S. If you are Pokemon TCG Online, also buy as many tin codes from trollandtoad as possible. It is quite a bargain right now (Serperior and Samurott go for $1, Emboar $2).