Collector Club
A possible Pokémon 30th anniversary Topps trading card set has been teased after Sarah Natochenny, the voice actor of Ash Ketchum, posted an Instagram story showing a sheet of signed sticker autographs ready to be applied to what we can only assume are trading cards.
The stickers look extremely similar, if not the same to the Topps Chrome-style autograph labels familiar to collectors across other Topps lines. Within hours, collectors were speculating that the signatures could relate to a Pokémon 30th anniversary release, given the franchise’s milestone anniversary coming up on the 27th February 2026.
At the time of writing this article there has been no official confirmation from The Pokémon Company or Topps, and the post remains a tease rather than a product announcement… But with the post coming 3 months exactly from the anniversary, all signs point to a brand-new Topps set.
A welcome blast from the past should Topps and Pokémon combine once more
For long-time collectors the combination of Topps and Pokémon has carried real nostalgia. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Topps produced non-TCG Pokémon trading cards in multiple formats, including foil Chrome versions that reinterpreted animated artwork, episode scenes and character and Pokémon portraits.
Those sets sat alongside Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s own trading card game products, and they helped introduce many UK collectors to Pokémon cards on newsstands and in toy shops. A modern Topps release tied to the 30th anniversary would echo that earlier era while using contemporary autograph and parallel conventions that are common in sports and entertainment products today.
Autograph stickers from voice actors or creators would mark a departure from standard Pokémon TCG releases, which rarely feature signed content. If Natochenny’s stickers are indeed for a licensed anniversary product, collectors could see a checklist that leans into the history of the franchise, potentially combining character-driven designs with signed cards from notable contributors.
Considering Topps are leaning extremely heavily into entertainment and pop culture at the moment with sets for Disney, Star Wars, Labubu, VeeFriends, Dune and Garbage Pail Kids, it would hardly come as a surprise to see Pokémon added to the list as the trading card behemoth flexes its muscles.
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