Lt. Surge's Raichu

Lt. Surge's Raichu is card 28 of 132 in Gym Heroes, released in August 2000, a Rare. It is a Stage 1 Lightning-type with 70 HP.

As a Stage 1, it evolves from Lt. Surge's Pikachu, which places Lt. Surge's Raichu deeper in its line and means most collectors hold it alongside the cards it evolves from.

Lt. Surge is the Electric-type Gym Leader of Vermilion City, a former soldier nicknamed the Lightning American. Lt. Surge's Raichu is part of that themed lineup.

Illustrated by Ken Sugimori. Sugimori is the lead character designer of Pokémon itself, so his card art carries the tight, on-model look that defined how the creatures appear in the games.

The fully evolved Pikachu. Larger, orange-yellow body, with a long tail. Rare in the wild; usually requires a Thunder Stone evolution. Base Set holo Raichu is one of the famous "where is mine" cards. Its print run had inconsistent centering, and a famously rare prerelease variant exists.

Lt. Surge's Raichu is a non-holo Rare. In Gym Heroes, value concentrates in the holo rares, so a Lt. Surge's Raichu trades modestly, though a clean, well-centered 1st Edition copy in PSA 10 is scarcer than the print run suggests and carries a real premium. Check the live price above for the figure by grade.

Gym Heroes shipped in 1st Edition and Unlimited, with no Shadowless print. The trainer-prefix naming runs across the set, and the 1st Edition Lt. Surge's Raichu carries the Edition 1 stamp and a premium over Unlimited in matching grade.

Non-holo Rares like Lt. Surge's Raichu are easier on surface but no kinder on centering. Wizards-era cards were less protected than the holos, so high-grade Lt. Surge's Raichu survivors can be scarcer than expected, with edge whitening the usual cap.

For Lt. Surge's Raichu, check centering by eye, edge whitening on all four sides, and surface under angled light. Non-holo Rares from this era are cheap enough that a PSA 10 submission on a clean Lt. Surge's Raichu can make sense.