The 1959 Doyusha Menko Sadaharu Oh, 1993 BBM Ichiro Suzuki, 1996 Bandai Carddass Charizard, and 2013 BBM SCM Shohei Ohtani all share the same origin: Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun, where the earliest cardboard versions of global icons often show up first. Issued through Japan’s unique card ecosystem - menko, BBM, and Carddass vending machines - these pieces captured key beginnings long before the rest of the world caught on.
Oh’s menko reflects postwar Japanese baseball culture, Ichiro’s BBM marks the rise of modern stars, and Ohtani’s SCM #206 is widely viewed as his first issued card. Charizard’s Carddass release extends the pattern beyond sports, capturing Pokémon at its earliest stage before becoming a global phenomenon.
The pattern is hard to miss: In the Land of the Rising Sun, icons rise on cardboard first - and the rest of the market follows later.
