Gen 1 checklist: all 151 original Pokémon

What the 151 means

The 151 is a Pokédex range, not a single product. Generation 1 lists every species in that range, with a few of the sets each one appears in. That page is the checklist I use. It is not the same object as the Base set, which is 102 cards and includes trainers and energy. People mix those two counts. I keep them apart so the binder has the right number of slots.

The Pokédex binder note is the same method for all 1,025 species. This note stays with the first book, because the original 151 is the binder I am most often asked about. The long guide explains why this is a generation binder and not a set binder.

Where the original 151 show up

A species from Kanto can appear in the Base era and again in a set released decades later. Pikachu is the obvious one. Charizard is the other. The species page lists the printings. Any one of them fills the slot. I do not need the oldest copy, and I do not need the newest.

Sets in order help when I want the old ones on purpose. The Base series is Base, Jungle, Fossil, and the sets around them. If I am building a set binder of Base, that is a different project with 102 slots. Cards from that project can also fill a generation slot, once, if the species line is empty. I do not cannibalize a set binder to decorate the generation binder. The spare copy does that job.

The Base set is a list, not the whole 151

Base has 102 cards. Some of the original 151 are not in that list. Later Base-era sets add more of them. A generation binder does not wait for those older sets. A modern common of a missing species is a finished line.

I still like opening the Base list, because the collector numbers are how I learned to read a card. Number order, then the name, then the set symbol as a check. When a bulk box claims to be 'all the originals,' I do not trust the claim. I trust the generation page and the cards in my hand.

One line at a time

I work the checklist from #001 downward only when I am in a patient mood. More often I take the next empty line the box can fill. The order in the binder stays numerical even when the order I find the cards does not. Pocket #050 does not move to the front because I found it on a Tuesday.

A line is done when the card is sleeved, in the pocket, and logged. Then I look at the next hole. One hundred fifty-one is many afternoons and also not a mystery. Bulk from almost any era has Kanto creatures in it. The work is matching, not wishing.

I keep the generation page open beside the box and I tick nothing in my head. The creatures I think I own are not always the ones in the binder. Mew and the starter lines are the ones people assume are done. I check them anyway. A binder missing #001 because the Bulbasaur is still sleeveless in a tin is not a finished 151, even if the rest of the pages look full. The last ten holes usually take longer than the first fifty, and that is normal. Those are the species my boxes happen to lack, so I leave them empty rather than invent a substitute card.