These two quartet decks were made in 1973 and 1975 respectively and deal with exactly the same topic: World Championships in Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing.
That époque was dominated by Giacomo Agostini in 500cc and 350cc and by Ángel Nieto in 125cc and 50cc. The Italian pilot was 15 times world champion and the Spaniard was 13 times world champion. At that time it was allowed to participate in different categories at the same time, I guess nowadays it is impossible to reach such a number of world championships.
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| Agostinis and Read cards - Note Agostini was still "only" 14 times World Champion. He would win again in 1975. |
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| Ángel Nieto with Derbi and Bultaco cards |
Piatnik is a cardmaker from Austria, and Austria was never a great power in this sport. Germany has had more World Champions, but it is still far from the first positions in this rank. Precisely in the early 70s, the German pilot Dieter Braun was World Champion (1970 in 125cc and 1973 in 250cc), so this might have been one reason why Bielefelder Spielkarten wanted to have such a deck in their catalogue. Or maybe it is just motorcycle racing is attractive for children.
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| Piatnik focused in Austrian Pilots (W. Schmied, H. Bartol, K. Auer, M. Wiener). Yugolasvian motorcycles Tomos were also present in this deck (pilot: A. Bernetic) |
Many pilots appear in both decks, although Piatnik focuses in Austrian pilots, while Bielefelder Spielkarten chose more German pilots, including some from the National German Championships, and also from the motorcycle with sidecar World Championships (where Germany is the leading country in number of championships, won between 1954 and 1964 and also between 1967 and 1976).
Here are the pictures of the Piatnik set:
Piatnik's set includes two extra cards,called "Supertrumpfkarten". They are played on their backs (not their faces) and win any trick. Although it doesn't add much to the game, and some people decided not to use them, so in sets with this feature, the extra cards are sometimes missing.
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| These are the two "Supertrumpfs" included in this set. |
And here are the pictures of the Bielefelder Spielkarten/Joker set:
FACTS AND FIGURES:
- Name: MOTORRAD-WM (Nr 4233) and MOTORRADWELTMEISTERSCHAFT (Nr 0284)
- Year: 1978 and 1975
- Company: Piatnik (Austria), Bielefelder Spielkarten/Joker (Germany)
The Piatnik game Motorrad WM 34 Blatt 2x Supertrumpf is from 1978, not 1975!
ReplyDeleteThese are not in the document I am talking you about, so I guess I dated them according to the information on the cards. I'll change the date for the Piatnik set right now. Thanks!
ReplyDelete