Pokémon has endured as one of Nintendo's most successful franchises for about two decades, with the company recently revealing that there have been 200 million copies sold for the core Pokémon video game entries. Taking into account spin-offs, the number further balloons to 279 million units.
Pokémon is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and the latest addition to the festivities features one of the franchise's most popular spin-offs.
The Pokémon Company International, in partnership with the United Kingdom-based artist Quentin Devine, has unveiled the world's largest Pokémon trading card. The card boasts measurements of about 33 x 23 feet (10 x 7 meters) for a total area of 770 square feet (72 square meters).
The trading card is actually a mosaic, and making it an even more amazing feat is the fact that it is made up of 12,987 individual regular-sized Pokémon trading cards. According to the official Pokémon Facebook account, where pictures of the massive card were posted, the project achieved the world record for becoming the biggest mosaic ever created out of trading cards.
Of course, the largest Pokémon trading card would feature Pokémon's biggest star. The Pikachu card created by the mosaic is a replica of the original card for the trading card game, with the artwork drawn by Game Freak illustrator Ken Sugimori.
"We are incredibly excited to have secured this highly ambitious world record, and are thrilled to have worked with renowned artist Quentin Devine to bring the mosaic to life," said The Pokémon Company International Marketing Director Anthony Cornish.
The mosaic is Devine's largest one so far, with the artist previously creating similar projects such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa from fan self-portraits and the Queen of England from pennies. No information was revealed on how long it took to complete the Pikachu mosaic.
Adding to the festivities later on in the year will be the planned releases of Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, along with highly anticipated augmented reality video game Pokémon Go.
