#68 TOP ASS – TOLLE GESPANNE and HEIßE ÖFEN TRUMPFS (Ref. 3051/3 and 3069/3) (1989)

Another very popular game for children in german-speaking countries, apart from the Quartett (#55) is the Trumpf. Aparently, this game is also very popular in other European countries, surely because of it’s reduced price, and because it’s size, that makes it a great toy to take away and to play anywhere. In Spain, however, they are not very spread, and I only got to see a couple of them as a kid.

The game is originally based in an American card game called “War”. The game consists of a deck of cards with a given subject, for example: sport cars, jet planes, or Rainforest animals, there are thousands of subjects to choose from.

In each card, a game-subject matter is depicted, together with a few stats. For example, if we are talking about cars, typical stats would be top speed, HP or weight. The deck is shuffled, and each player receives the same number of cards in a pile. They are only allowed to see the top card in that pile. In his/her turn, a player just needs to read aloud one of the stats in the card, then the rest of players read the value in the same category: the one with the highest attribute wins all the cards in the round, and puts them under his/her own pile.

The winner of the game is the player who gets all cards in the deck in his/her own pile. Players without cards must leave the game.

When a set of cards is played a few times, skilled players usually get familiar with particular cards, and recognise which parameters are more likely to win a round, adding a memory factor the game. Depending on the subject, this can also be an educational game, which is probably another factor that has contributed to increase its popularity.

The decks of cards are usually marked in groups of 4, so they can also used for playing quartets.

The trumpfs I want to present today are made by ASS (Altenburg Stralsunder Spielkartenfabrik) in 1989. The same set was usually released during many consecutive years, changing only the back of the cards and the first card of the set, make it more fashionable. “Heiße Öfen“ (lit. hot oven) is the german term for a very powerful car or motorbike while “Tolle Gespanne” means cool motorbikes with sidecar.

The same sets were released for the first time in 1974 or even sooner, and they continued to sell at least until 1993. By that time, the cars and motorbikes many already look a little old-fashioned, and it was probably replaced by a similar-themed trumpf.

Tolle Gespanne - complete set of cards:

Heiße Öfen - complete set of cards:

Personally, I find old trumpfs very nice, because of the pictures of old cars, that were modern at the time.

UPDATE (Sep/2023): I found and bought another deck with the same title (Heiße Öfen) and almost the same pictures. Families A to C show different newer cars, while the other cards are the same. This one carries reference number 3052/2, instead of 3069/3. I do not understand how does this numbering works.

 

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: TOLLE GESPANNE and HEIßE ÖFEN TOP TRUMPFS (Ref. 3051/3 and 3069/3)
• Year: 1989
• Company: Vereinigte Altenburger und Stralsunder Spielkarten Fabriken A.G. (Also ASS) (West Germany)