#573 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE – LADYBIRD BOOKS (1984 and 1985)

I have 5 out of 6 books from this series. They were printed in 1984 (or 1985 if the German translation) in different languages: At least English, Dutch and German. I found mine in flea markets and I hope I can still find the sixth one. Mine are in German, and the one that is missing is "Die stählerner Gigant".

Ordered by publication number, the titles are:
2985-0 Die Schwingen des Unheils
2986-0 Eine Falle für He-Man
2987-0 Skeletors Eisblockade
2988-0 Der stählerne Gigant
2989-0 He-Man und das ungeheuer
2990-0 Castle Grayskull in Gefahr

Later, there were two more titles released. One of them is called "He-Man and the Asteroid of Doom". The other one "He-Man and the Lost Dragon". These are rarer, and to my knowledge are only available in English.

They are written for children by John Grant and are beautifully illustrated by Robin Davies. The stories are simple and involve a few characters each, including monsters and secondary characters from which there was never a figure made. The pictures of these characters (also vehicles and landscapes) are very interesting and add some interesting background for playing or even for customizers.

The books are more or less A5-sized, hardcover and intended for children´s hands. They have 43 pages each, more than 50% of them are illustrations, the rest are filled with text. With a big font, the text is easy to understand. Nevertheless I had to search for a few words in the dictionary each time (German is not my mother language), so not really an easy thing for children, kids younger than 10 will probably learn a few words in each book.

There was a similar book collection published by Golden and also licensed by Mattel.

#572 TIGER QUARTETT - MOTORAD WM (4241), TOLLE JETS (Nr. 4253), LOKOMOTIVEN and MOTO CROSS WM (Around 1978)

Just the pictures of three more quartets, see previous entry for more information!

TOLLE JETS (Nr. 4253) - Based on Tolle Jets by Piatnik? (later reissued with a few changes as "Flugzeuge" Nr.4243)

MOTORAD WM (4241) - This card is a Piatnik quartet, probably a later versión of the deck shown here (#351), which had the number 4233. Both sets share a lot of cards, but there are a few ones which are different.

MOTO CROSS WM - Based on Piatnik's MotoCross WM Nr. 4249

UPDATE 1 (May/2017) Added Lokomotiven. Thisdeck is based on FXSchmid Dapfloks, only the cover card does not match the theme... Ithink this was normal in Tiger Quartets, because with a more generic title like Lokomotives, they could sell different sets.

UPDATE 2 (Dec/2023): Three more decks. The boxes are partially broken, but the cards are unused of in very good shape. Let´s check them one by one:

HOBBY FLITZER: A Piatnik deck

WINDJAMMER, actually a FX Schmid deck

SCHIFFE, also from FX Schmid, Pay attention to the 7D card. Was this also like this in the original set? Tiger Quartett had also offered Schiffe (No.76), but that one was based on a Piatnik set, completely different from this one without reference number.

FACTS AND FIGURES: 

• Name: MOTORAD WM (4241), TOLLE JETS (Nr. 4253), LOKOMOTIVEN, MOTO CROSS WM, HOBBY FLITZER, SCHIFFE and WINDJAMMER
• Year: Around 1978
• Company: Tiger (Germany, Austria)

#571 TIGER QUARTETT- TIERE (Nr. 73), STÄDTE (Nr. 74), SCHIFFE (Nr. 76) and RENNWAGEN (Nr. 79) (1972)

 

I have bought a few more decks by Tiger, and I will present them in this and the next entries. There is not much to add to the introduction made in entry #337, the only difference is that this time I have two decks which are older than those shown in the first entry.

I remember there were at least 3 "releases", each one characterized by a reference number (either 2, 4 or no digits). According to quartettblog.wordpress.com (very nice blog in German, recommended!), these three releases were:

1972 (2-digit reference number): Schwarzer Peter (Nr. 71), Blumen (Nr. 72), Tiere (Nr. 73), Städte (Nr. 74), Tierbabies (Nr. 75), Schiffe (Nr. 76), Flugzeuge (Nr. 77), Autos (Nr. 78), Rennwagen (Nr. 79)

Late 70s (4-digit reference number): Motorrad WM (Nr. 4241), Exotische Tiere (Nr. 4245), Tolle-Jets (Nr. 4253), Tierbabies (Nr. 4256), Schnelle Eisen (Nr. 4259)

Late 70s (No reference number): Airlines, Autos, Auto-Cross, Auto-Rennsport, Crazy Cars, Dicke Brummer, Dragster, Formel 1 WM, Hobby-Flitzer, Klassische Renner, Lokomotiven, Militärflugzeuge, Miniflitzer, MotoCross WM, Motor Monster, Motorräder, Motoryachten, Rennfahrer, Rennwagen, Schiffe, Schnelle Eisen, Schwarzer Peter, Sportwagen-Stars, Tiere, Tierfamilien, Tolle Autos, Tolle Bauten, Tolle Coupés, Tolle Flitzer, Tolle Flugzeuge, Weltrekord Fahrzeuge, Windjammer, 200 km/h-Club

SCHIFFE (Nr. 76) -  based on "Schiffe" by Piatnik (Nr. 4242)

RENNWAGEN (Nr. 79) - based on "Rennwagen" by Piatnik (Nr. 4229)

 

These three cards promoting other Piatnik sets were in the box of "Rennwagen", but I cannot assure, that they were originally included, or if they were put in afterwards.

In the first entry dealing with Tiger decks, there was another versión of "Rennwagen", but they are completely different decks.

UPDATE (May/2017) Added Tiere Quartet (Nr. 73), based on a newer version of Piatnik's Tier Quartett (Nr. 279) - Box is maybe not the original one. This deck has only 6 families... Or is it not complete?

UPDATE2 (Nov/2019) Added Städte Quartet (Nr. 74), based on Piatnik's No.287 It looks slightly newer than the deck shown some years ago, see #183. Note that the numbering is different in each deck, although the cities are the same.

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: TIERE (Nr. 73), STÄDTE (Nr.74), SCHIFFE (Nr. 76) and RENNWAGEN (Nr. 79)
• Year: Around 1972
• Company: Tiger (Germany, Austria)