Pudgy Penguins Joins Kakawow, Sells Out Debut Card Presale in Hours

Pudgy Penguins said on July 15 that it is joining Kakawow's collectible-card platform, calling trading cards "one of the world's biggest entertainment categories" and framing the move as bringing "Pudgy Penguins, Pengu, and Web3 IP to a new audience" alongside Disney, Marvel and Harry Potter — three franchises Pudgy said already sit on Kakawow's platform. Within about three hours, the first Pudgy-branded presale on the platform had sold out.

What Kakawow actually is

Kakawow is a trading-card brand operated by Suplay Inc., a company founded by Alex Huang and established in 2022, according to CGC Cards, the grading service that verified Kakawow's cards and became its official grading partner. CGC describes Kakawow as having "partnered with major pop culture brands to create trading cards for the world's most popular franchises, including Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, National Geographic, Warner Bros. Discovery, Sanrio and more" — separate product lines Pudgy's cards do not appear in. Retailer TCGHobby lists Kakawow's existing Cosmos-line Marvel set as "an officially licensed Marvel collectible series" and separately sells a Kakawow Cosmos Harry Potter set — corroborating, though not from Kakawow itself, that the Disney/Marvel/Harry Potter names in Pudgy's post describe real, pre-existing Kakawow product lines rather than a crossover with Pudgy-branded cards. Kakawow's own account announced the deal as a partnership "between Suplay Inc. and Pudgy Penguins" — naming Suplay, not Kakao Corp, the Korean internet company, as the business behind Kakawow.

The cards Pudgy announced

Pudgy described the release as "Kakawow's 1st Edition card sets," spanning three rarities: a Base Series, Premium Serialized Hits, and 1/1 Chase Cards — including a Grail 1/1 card autographed by Igloo Inc. CEO Luca Netz, who called it part of Pudgy's "Asia expansion." A separate post framed the same launch around community-owned IP, saying the cards put "community-owned IP...into the hands of more collectors around the world," with card art featuring holder-owned Pudgy Penguins.

The same day, Pudgy retweeted presale platform DYLI announcing that the "Phantom Pudgy Penguins Collectible Cards Series 1" presale — a Pudgy-Kakawow collaboration by DYLI's own naming — had sold out. DYLI's own posts explain the mechanics: it partnered with Pudgy Penguins and Suplay — Kakawow's parent company — to run the presale, offering 200 boxes at $99 each (MSRP $110), each containing 10 packs and 50 holographic cards, with a factory-sealed case available at a 10-box order. DYLI said it may restock "if additional allocation becomes available." Presale boxes can now be bought and sold on DYLI's secondary marketplace ahead of redemption, though DYLI has not said when redemptions open.

"Phantom" is not a new label Kakawow invented for Pudgy — TCGHobby's listings show Kakawow selling Phantom-line Warner Bros. cards before this deal, and another specialty retailer lists Phantom-line Disney cards too. Whether the "1st Edition" rarity tiers Pudgy described in its own posts (Base Series, Premium Serialized Hits, 1/1 Chase Cards) map exactly onto the $99 Phantom Series 1 boxes DYLI sold, or describe a broader Kakawow card line tied to the same launch, is not something either company's posts spell out.

Part of a larger retail push

The Kakawow deal is the latest node in Pudgy Penguins' physical-goods expansion. The project has said its toys and merchandise cross 10,000 retail stores across the UK, US, Asia and Australia, pushed its Vibes trading-card game into Target and Barnes & Noble locations, and launched weekly live shopping streams on TikTok and Whatnot. Not every consumer-facing bet has stuck — Igloo Inc. shut down Pudgy Party earlier this year to consolidate around Pudgy World. Kakawow adds a second collectible-card channel alongside the existing Vibes TCG line, and a first-time entry into Kakawow's Asia-Pacific collector network, which Luca Netz framed as expansion into that region specifically.

What's not yet confirmed

Kakawow and DYLI have not disclosed a redemption date for the sold-out Phantom Series 1 boxes, only that secondary-market trading is open in the meantime. Neither company has said whether more Kakawow-Pudgy series are planned beyond this first release, or whether the "1st Edition" rarity structure Pudgy described is a distinct product from the presale boxes DYLI sold. DYLI's own presale-terms post points buyers to fuller box-content and redemption detail, which Pudgy has not otherwise summarized.