#197 FX SCHMID – SUPER MINIS: HORROR, SPUK and PINOCCHIO QUARTETTE (1979)

 

I just acquired (two or three weeks ago) this three card decks and I can’t wait to share it with you,. They are quite a rarity, and I think some of you will find them very interesting.

And it’s the theme, what I find amazing: One of them is Horror-Quartett and a second one is Spuk-Quartett (Spuk = Spook in German). The third one is Pinocchio, that belongs to the same series, but is more ordinary, because there are so many quartets dealing with tales and fables. The first two sets can also be played like a “trumpf” game.

Instructions for the Horror and Spuk Quartetts

The first one is a collection of monsters and horror movies’ or novels’ characters… the pictures are amazing, because they are not drawings, they seem to be real pictures of silicone or latex masks… very funny, I wonder where did they take them!

SUPER MINI: HORROR QUARTETT:

The second one is, in my opinion, even better because it has very good drawings from monsters, ghosts, witches, and more. This artwork-style was very common from the 60s to the 80s, and I find it fascinating. Some of these artworks are really scary, so the deck could not be suitable for very small children. Please click on the pics to enlarge them (eventually with right click and then "see picture").

The families are: 1) Witches, 2) Beasts, 3) Demons, 4) Monsters, 5) Idols and 6) Avenger Ghosts.

The characteristics of each monster are: height, weight and “dangerousness rank”. Each card includes a short description of who or what it is depicted.

SUPER MINI: SPUK QUARTETT:

The Quartetts were made in 1979 by the company FX Schmid from Munich. We already talked shortly about them in the entry #131. These quartets are released under the “mini” series, so its size is approximately one half of the size of a standard playing card. The cards are a little small for adult hands, but perfect for small children (who, otherwise have problems with keeping all cards in their hands). The Pinocchio game is really adapted from a “normal” quartet released in normal size a couple of years before.
 

Another peculiarity, is that these quartets have only 6 families (that’s 24 cards), much less than the usual quartets with 8, 9 or 10 families, and the trumpf-game variables are only three instead of the normal 6.

SUPER MINI: PINOCCHIO QUARTETT:

Instructions for Pinocchio Quartett

In the second picture of this article, we can see that the case is marked with a Kästner & Öhler (Austrian department stores) price tag of 15 Schilling... that's around 1,05 Euros.



FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: SUPER MINIS: HORROR, SPUK and PINOCCHIO QUARTETTE
• Year: 1979
• Company: FX-Schmid (Germany)