Evil Wand #177: The Dragon Quest Monsters Sticker from Enix's 1998 Monster Encyclopedia Series
A Collector’s Sticker Rooted in a Landmark Monster RPG
This sticker is an officially licensed piece of Dragon Quest Monsters merchandise released by Enix Corporation in 1998, the same year the game itself launched on Game Boy in Japan. It belongs to a monster encyclopedia-style sticker series, with each card presenting a single creature from the game’s roster alongside its core data: monster number, type classification, and gender symbol. This particular sticker features Evil Wand, monster #177 — a Material-type creature (known in the Japanese game as bussitsu-kei), depicted as a skeletal, elongated figure with a distinctive tall head, wide-open mouth, and small purple spikes. The ♂ gender symbol printed on the card is no cosmetic detail; in Dragon Quest Monsters, every creature has an assigned gender because the breeding system — pairing two monsters to produce a new one — sits at the heart of the gameplay. That the sticker includes this data point is a direct reflection of the game’s mechanics.
The sticker carries a blue circular emblem marked “48” and a navy border around a stone-textured background, with the official ©ENIX 1998 copyright clearly printed. While the exact distribution format — whether it came packaged with candy, gum, or through a capsule vending machine — cannot be confirmed from the item alone, the design style, licensing marks, and production period are entirely consistent with official Japanese shokugan and collectible sticker goods of that era.
The Game, the Era, and How These Stickers Fit In
Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry’s Wonderland was released in January 1998 for the original Game Boy, with a Game Boy Color version following the same year. It is a spin-off of the main Dragon Quest series built around the character Terry, a supporting figure from Dragon Quest VI (1995), and tasks players with collecting, training, and breeding hundreds of monsters. The game arrived during the height of Japan’s monster-collecting boom, with Pokemon having launched in 1996 and a broader wave of creature-based games and media following. Dragon Quest Monsters became a major hit in Japan and grew into a long-running franchise spanning sequels, anime adaptations, and international releases — the first Western entry, Dragon Warrior Monsters, reached North America in 2000.
In 1990s Japan, sticker and card sets tied to popular game and anime franchises were a staple of children’s consumer culture, sold alongside candy in convenience stores, tucked into snack packaging, or dispensed from 100-yen capsule machines. The tradition traces back to iconic products like Bikkuri Man stickers in the 1980s, and by the late 1990s, franchises like Dragon Quest, Pokemon, and Digimon were all represented in this format. These items were produced for the domestic Japanese market and were not officially distributed abroad.
Akira Toriyama and the Legacy Behind This Item
Every monster in the Dragon Quest series — Evil Wand included — was designed by Akira Toriyama, the manga artist and illustrator globally recognized for Dragon Ball. Toriyama served as character and monster designer across the entire Dragon Quest franchise, giving the series its distinctive visual identity. Following his passing on March 1, 2024, international interest in officially licensed goods featuring his artwork has grown considerably. This sticker was produced under Enix’s sole copyright, before the company’s 2003 merger with Square to form Square Enix — making it a product of the Enix era specifically, with the original Enix branding intact.
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