This one causes more arguments than it should. Somebody says Fossil is Cosmos holo, somebody else says Fossil is Starlight, and a third person says Starburst. They are not all describing the same thing, and at least one of them is usually talking about a different language version without realising it.
The patterns, briefly
The WOTC era used a handful of distinct foil treatments. The two that matter here are:
- Starlight, the original 1999 pattern, with visible star shapes scattered through the foil.
- Cosmos, which drops the stars and uses circles and dots instead. This is the pattern most people picture when they hear the word Cosmos today, because it carried on into modern sets.
Starburst is a nickname you will see used for the early star pattern, which is exactly where the confusion starts. Some collectors and some databases use Cosmos and Starlight interchangeably for the 1999 look, and others treat them as two separate things. There is no official name for either, so both camps have a point.
What English Fossil actually has
English Fossil holos use the Starlight pattern, the same as English Jungle. That is the normal card you will pull out of a pack or buy from a UK seller.
There is one wrinkle. A small number of English Fossil holos exist with the Cosmos pattern instead, which came out of an unofficial Wizards of the Coast release rather than the standard print run. If you have an English Fossil holo that looks like circles and dots rather than stars, that is what you are holding, and it is worth a closer look.
What European Fossil has
Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese Fossil holos all use the Cosmos pattern across the board. So if you buy a Fossil holo from a European seller and the foil looks wrong to you, it is probably not wrong. It is probably a German card.
| Version | Foil pattern |
|---|---|
| English Fossil, standard | Starlight |
| English Fossil, unofficial release | Cosmos |
| Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese | Cosmos |
Two other Fossil variants worth knowing
- Zapdos exists with corrected artbox artwork, because the original printing carried an evolution box error that was later fixed.
- Aerodactyl exists with a prerelease stamp, an extra Unlimited variant on top of the normal card.
Fossil has 15 holos, so between the language versions, the prerelease stamp and the Zapdos correction, a genuinely complete Fossil holo run is a much bigger project than fifteen cards.
A checklist that separates the runs
Our Fossil kit tracks 1st Edition, Unlimited and Cosmos separately, so you can see at a glance which version of each holo you actually own. Includes 72 printable placeholders in A4 and US Letter.
Free download
The WOTC Variant Cheat Sheet
One printable page covering all six English sets of 1999 and 2000: the four Base Set print runs, holo counts, release dates, the checklist columns you actually need and the errors worth knowing. Keep it in the front of your binder. No email required.
Download A4 (PDF)Download US Letter (PDF)
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Related guides
- The Jungle no set symbol error, explained
- Base Set print runs: 1st Edition, Shadowless and Unlimited
Sources and further reading
Made by Pokemom is an independent fan project. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Nintendo, Creatures Inc., GAME FREAK, The Pokemon Company or Wizards of the Coast. Card names and set names are used only to describe which cards a checklist covers.