Here are all of the MetaZoo Errors and ‘Happy Accidents’ that have surfaced to date. Tap any image to enlarge it.
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HAPPY ACCIDENTS | ERRORS
METAZOO’S
HAPPY ACCIDENTS
HOLO MIKE-GOLD CARDS_
FACTORY CARD SORTING DIVIDER
MORE ABOUT tHIS
- It is presumably a divider card used when sorting out MetaZoo cards in the printing factory or some other MetaZoo card sorting facility.
- They are found, extremely rarely at that, in certain booster packs. No idea how many got accidentally distributed.
- This is the front of the card. The back of the card is identical to all other backs of MetaZoo cards to date.
- It is a holographic divider, and it’s way prettier than the ‘Terra Cards_’ divider just below.
NON-HOLO MIKE-TERRA CARDS_
FACTORY CARD SORTING DIVIDER
MORE ABOUT THIS
- It is a presumably a divider card used when sorting out MetaZoo cards in the printing factory or some other MetaZoo card sorting facility.
- They are found, extremely rarely at that, in certain booster packs. No idea how many got accidentally distributed.
- This is the front of the card. The back of the card is identical to all other backs of MetaZoo cards to date.
- It is a non-holo divider, and let’s be honest, it’s super boring in comparison to the ‘Gold Cards_’ divider above. But still insanely rare.
‘RELEASE DECK 5’ FACTORY CARD SORTING DIVIDER
MORE ABOUT THIS
- It is a presumably a divider card, specifically for one of the Release Event Boxes, used when sorting out MetaZoo cards in the printing factory or some other MetaZoo card sorting facility.
- They are found, extremely rarely at that, in certain Release Event Boxes. It is unclear which set it was found in. No idea how many got accidentally distributed.
- This is the front of the card. The back of the card is identical to all other backs of MetaZoo cards to date.
BLANK METAZOO CARD
MORE ABOUT THIS
- The front of this MetaZoo card is entirely blank. The one above was opened from a UFO Spellbook, but blank cards exactly like this one have been found, very rarely, in MetaZoo booster packs since Cryptid Nation: Base Set.
- A perfect clean slate for a custom MetaZoo artwork card!
METAZOO x WPT BLANK PLAYING CARD
MORE ABOUT THIS
- This blank card came out of a gilded Nightfall Playing Card deck. Its edges are purple, however the backside of the card is also blank (and does not contain the normal Nightfall Playing Card backside). This is not known to have happened often.
CHIBI MOTHMAN CRAZY HOLO BLEED
MORE ABOUT THIS
- The holofoil on this card can be seen throughout the entirety of the card, as if a layer of ink has been skipped in the printing process. It is the equivalent of a reverse holo and a full holo combined, and then some. Holo bleed does show up on many MetaZoo cards, however it is never even remotely this prominent.
- This card was pulled from a Cryptid Nation 2nd Edition pack, live on firemanwill’s whatnot channel on August 5, 2022.
- This card has since been graded by CGC, sporting a pedigree that states “Featured on metazoohq.com,” and you can have a look at the card cert page here. 🙂 Nice one, @eco8gator!
CN2E PEELING BOOSTER PACK WRAPPER
MORE ABOUT THIS
- Due to an error in processing, the exterior opaque printed wrapper was easily peelable from the transparent cellophane wrapper it was meant to be glued to for some of the Cryptid Nation: Base Set 2nd Edition booster packs. This made it possible to see all of the cards in the pack without actually opening it.
METAZOO’S ERRORS
ILLUSTRATED BY zPLACEHOLDER
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- The illustrator’s name didn’t make it onto the Twin Meteor & Shock Aura sample cards, and remained as the placeholder text while being edited. Notice the “Illus. zPlaceholder” on the bottom-right.
- The actual illustrator for the Twin Meteor & Shock Aura cards is Poncho.
2020 HALLOWEEN WENDIGO MISSING AURA COST
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- The aura cost (found top-right) on the Halloween 2020 Wendigo card is missing.
MISSING BRILLIANT ‘COSMIC AURA’ AURA ICON
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- The aura type icon (found top-right) is missing on the Brilliant Aura ‘Cosmic Aura’ cards. This holds true for all of the full holos and the non holos.
POISON CARD / FACTORY DIVIDER CARD
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- This was a card being used as a divider while sorting cards in the sorting/printing facility. They are not related to MetaZoo whatsoever and were not meant to be found in booster packs; but some did slip through the cracks for Cryptid Nation 1st Edition.
- These divider cards do take up an actual slot in your set of cards, meaning yes, you do lose out on an actual MetaZoo card in that pack.
THE GOOD SAMARITAN / FACTORY DIVIDER CARD
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- This was a card being used as a divider while sorting cards in the sorting/printing facility. They are not related to MetaZoo whatsoever and were not meant to be found in booster packs; but some did slip through the cracks for Cryptid Nation 1st Edition.
- These divider cards do take up an actual slot in your set of cards, meaning yes, you do lose out on an actual MetaZoo card in that pack.
DINGED DINGBELLE PROMO
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- This is the only card that I remember ever coming by where the artwork illustrator credit on the bottom-right of the card does not have “Illus.” in front of the artist’s name; which in this case is Poncho.
- While on the topic of Poncho, and not at all considered an error, but an interesting thing about their artist name over past sets is, they used to be credited as ‘Alfonso Alvarez’ on some sample cards, with some cards having ‘PONCHO’ (in all caps), and other later cards having ‘Poncho.’ It has since returned back to ‘PONCHO’ for Nightfall and Wilderness. This is also just something I happen to notice while putting MetaZoo HQ together.
1ST EDITION SQUONK WITH QR CODE
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- The QR code, found at the bottom right of the card (just above the card set number), was found on all of the Kickstarter Cryptid Nation cards, but were removed in the next set release; 1st Edition Cryptid Nation. However that being said, Squonk kept his QR code in 1st Edition as seen above. To our knowledge, this is the only card that has a QR code in 1st Edition.
- Thanks goes out to Discord user @metazuul for sharing their collection, which is when I noticed the QR code on the card and asked for further details.
INCORRECT ILLUSTRATOR
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- The First Anniversary Celebration Promo card states that it was illustrated by Poncho, however the true artist of this illustration is Victor Larson.
OFF-CENTER CUT CARDS
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- The cards were not centered when being cut out of the uncut sheet during manufacturing, therefore border sizes vary by thickness on all sides. You may notice that some cards have even been cut on a bit of an angle.
CHINESE CHARACTERS EMBOSSED INTO CARD
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- Seen top-left on this reverse holo UFO card, there are Chinese characters that have been embossed onto the card, straight from the factory.
RED INK SMUDGE
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- An error in printing has caused the red ink to smudge across a large number of Wakinyan cards in Cryptid Nation: UFO; but not all of them. (Left represents true colors, right has ink smudge encircled in yellow). There are other examples of ink smudges occurring in past MetaZoo releases as well.
SQUARED-OFF & FOLDED CORNER
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- Something happened during the printing process that caused one of the corners to become folded before the corners were rounded through cutting, causing said corner to keep its original squared-off edges. It also extrudes further than the final cutting of the remainder of the card.
- This has been known to happen in both the Cryptid Nation: Wilderness and the UFO sets, as seen above.
OFF-CENTER GOLD RARITY STAR
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- The holofoil gold rarity star, found bottom-center (circled in yellow above) has missed its mark by a long shot on this one.
DOUBLE-PRINT WILDERNESS & UFO SET ERRORS
WHAT’S THE ERROR?
- Several of the cards found in the Cryptid Nation: Wilderness Big Box Edition & UFO releases had a very interesting double-print error, where there were actually two entirely different card illustrations printed onto a single card.
- 1st card: Pocket Dimension Orb shows the ‘Whirling Whimpus’ illustration within its orb.
- 2nd card: Drowned Sea Orb shows the ‘Lady in Red’ illustration within its orb.
- 3rd card: Explosive Rabbit and Prism Aura mixed into one.
- There are 8 pictured here in total, but surely there are many more out there to be found.