Anime where kids use cards to summon monsters

Question

There was an old anime perhaps around 1990-2000, where the main character, a kid, with his friends transported into an unknown realm to fight monsters. I don't know the plot but they battling the monsters by summoning monsters from a card by inserting it to a device with 6 colored led light.

Each card has its own colour which represent the monster attribute (there are 6). A humanoid-lizard warrior monster with fire attribute and red skin is the main character's ace card. When a card inserted, the device's LED will light up correspond to the card colour.

Bakegyamon has similar mechanism but it isn't the anime I'm looking for.

There is no card game involved. Edit : turns out it's a card game anime filler season

Answer 1

I first thought about Duel Masters. This season has such a similar device:

There's a card game involved though.

Answer 2

I think what you are looking for is Bakugan:

The original series ran between 2007 and 2008, with multiple sequels.

https://bakugan.fandom.com/wiki/Bakugan_Battle_Brawlers

There are six elements the Bakugan could be: Pyros, Aquos, Ventus, Subterra, Haos and Darkus:

The main character is Dan Kuso, who fights with his Pyrus Dragonoid named Drago (who goes through numerous evolutions during the series', some of which are humanoid):

In the second season, New Vestroia, he visits the homeworld of the Bakugan, named New Vestroia. There they use Gauntlets to activate Ability Cards or Gate Cards:

There are also some really cool toys!

Answer 3

Not an anime, but a western cartoon based on a Danish card game, Chaotic.

Chaotic tells the tale of a teenage boy named Tom and his friend Kaz. They both play the Chaotic Trading Card/Online Game. Kaz always tries to tell Tom about a secret code to play for real which Tom refuses to believe. While playing online Tom receives the special password. When he enters the password into his game scanner he is transported to a place called Chaotic that is able to take him to another world where the characters, locations and items in the card game came to life.

From the description of the original card game:

Creature Cards are cards that players choose to make up their armies. These cards have up to six possible background colors based on the "tribe" with which creature is associated. The tribes are listed as "OverWorld" (Blue), "UnderWorld" (Red), Danian (Brown), Mipedian (Yellow), M'arrillian (black), and creatures unaffiliated with any tribe, called "Tribeless" (White). Certain creatures have abilities that are either active at all times ("Innate"), activated at will, triggered by certain circumstances or events, or activate when specific creatures are on the field ("Brainwashed"). Unlike the actual game, the animated series depicted creatures having to manually carry all of their Battlegear and their Mugic with them.

Tom's favorite character is Maxxor.

Maxxor is one of the toughest, bravest, and wisest creatures of the OverWorld, making him fit for his title of leader. Maxxor specializes in Earth and Fire type attacks, which he uses to defend his home: Kiru City. On top of his already impressive skill set, Maxxor is also a great Muge, making him a powerful ally in combat.

Trailer

Answer 4

It's a little outside the time frame you mentioned but that sounds a lot like Kaijudo. It was a 2012 television show based on a card game made by Wizards of The Coast about a boy named Raiden who discovers Kaijudo, a martial art where you channel mana to summon creatures with the aid of a dueling gauntlet, makes friends with a red dragon-like fire creature that becomes the creature he unusually summons, and frequently travels to the creature world which is where much of the series ends up taking place. It's not an anime but often gets mistaken for one because of the name and because it's a relaunch of the Duel Masters anime.

Aside from that or Bakugan which was mentioned by somebody already, the only other thing I can think of that comes close to your description would be one of the Digimon series, possibly Fusion, but that one's also outside the time frame you mentioned.

Answer 5

That reminds me of Digimon Tamers. Being transported to a (digital) realm is a Digimon thing and in this series they had cards to improve their Digimons.

In this poster, you can see the device they are using and the main character's humanoid-lizard warrior monster with fire attribute and red skin.

Answer 6

Mushrambo / Shinzo This is the anime you're looking for. But there's no fire monster the size of a person there. The main character himself turns into a guy in armor.