#1096 TOP TRUMPS – ECO VEHICLES (PROMOTIONAL) (2007)

Before the electric cars really became a real option for everybody, the interest in this kind of vehicles was already very high.This promotional deck (Marches Energy Agency from the UK) is a proof of that.

Out of the 30 cards that this deck comprises, not all vehicles are electric. Some are just low-consumption petrol or diesel cars, there is also a Hydrogen-powere Honda, a Biodiesel Volkswagen and other vehicles powered by BioMethane. There is even a bicycle, that, of course, has the lowest CO2 emissions and the lowest fuel costs among all of them. Tesla was already a major player in this market and is represented with their Roadster model, but the rest of the brands are either Japanese (Honda, Toyota) or European (VW, Citroen, Vauxhall/Opel, Mercedes, Mini Cooper, Aixan, Reva...). No trace of Chinese makers. Of course, the deck is from 2007, in these 18 years, the panorama changed radically, and it is still changing. The EU Commision recently approved a plan to allow the combustion motor beyond 2035, after having arrived to that compromise to ban them more than 10 years ago. How this will result nobody knows.

Back to the card deck, it is made by Top Trumps, the current leader in this kind of toys. Top Trumps is currently a trademark of Winning Moves from the UK (part of the Hasbro group), and has all relevant licences of the time, which are continuously extended and updated. A complete history of the quartet decks and the Top Trump trademark in the UK can be read here: History of Top Trumps | Top Trumps Game History. 

The deck comprises 30 cards, but they are not sorted in families or in any other way. I present them in the pictures with no particular order.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name:  ECO VEHICLES (PROMOTIONAL)
• Year: 2007
• Company: Top Trumps/Winning Moves (United Kingdom)

#1090 CLIFFORD SERIES – SNAP CARD GAME (Around 1950)

Snap is a classic card game for two or more players. The cards are shuffled and dealt evenly, and the players keep them face-down in front of them. Then, at the same time, all players turn the top card of their stacks and place it in a second stack next to the first one. If two or more of the cards show the same picture, the first person to call “Snap” takes the stacks of upturned cards that show the same picture, and puts all those cards under his or her face-down stack.

If someone calls “Snap” by mistake, or if you cannot agree on who was first, the cards are put in the middle of the table and the game continues. If in a future round the upturned card is the same as one of the cards in the middle of the table, you must call “Snap Pool”, and in that case you win the cards in the pool.

These simple rules allow the card deck to be themed with an infinite number of designs. This deck shows portraits of cowboys and Indians, 9 different in total, and has 56 cards (4 of each). The drawings are caricature-like, typical of the 1950s, or maybe the early 1960s, when Western movies were still very popular around the world. It is difficult to date exactly, since the box is unmarked.

Since 1923, Clifford produced many card decks for adults and children, with games such as Snap, Rummy, Happy Families, Old Maid, or Pantomime in many different versions. I found a short but informative history of the company here: Clifford Toys — The World of Playing Cards. Sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s, the company became Clifford Toys.

Thanks to Steve for the present!

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: SNAP CARD GAME
• Year: Around 1950
• Company: Clifford Series (United Kingdom)

#1063 SCHMIDT SPIELE - MOTORWELT (8329) and SPEEDWAY (8338) (Around 1989)

These two sets were made by Schmid around 1989, although the interesting part is that one of them includes a title card with the Berliner Spielkarten logo. I don't know what was the relation between the two brands, I think the company Berliner Blatz Group is the owner of both brands, but I'd like to know more about the relation between both companies. 

The first deck is Motorwelt, and includes 32 cards with cars available at the end of the eighties. There are cars in all price categories, from a Renault 5 to a Lamborghini Countach.  The Spitzen-Trumpf (the most powerful card in the deck) is the Porsche 959, which wins all other cards in several categories.

The cover card indicates that there is a Battleships game on the back of the cards, which is something I do not quite understand. I have other sets with this game as well, but If you play this game, you´ll have to write on the back of the cards and, this way, spoil the deck. Or maybe this was intended, so children buy the next quartet game?

The second deck deals with motocross motorbikes. The most remarkable feature of this other deck, is that each card has a piece of information about the machines in the photographs or about the sports in which they are used. Honestly, I am impressed by some of these racing events, like the speed race in snow or the others with sidecar. It must be very impressive to have seen that live. I am not sure if these competitions are still hold or not. Unfortunately, there technical information on each card refers to the motorbike, not to the pilots/drivers, which would have been very interesting too.

Again, the Spitzen Trumpf is a BMW motorbike with Sidecar. Germans are, of course, favouring their own brands against foreign ones. 

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: MOTORWELT (8329) and SPEEDWAY (8338)
• Year: Around 1989
• Company: Berliner or Schmidt Spiele (Germany)

#1057 PIATNIK - MOTORPOWER GIFT BOX (Around 2000)

I always try to put a limit to my collections, and in the case of card decks it is the presence of a barcode in the box. If it has a barcode, I consider it is "too new" to be collected. However, I keep making exceptions when I find cards that I like, especially if they are car/racing/Formula 1-themed.

I bought this box in a flea market in 2015. It was made by Piatnik in the early 2000s (I could date the set paying attention to the car models and especially to the formula one teams and sponsors). It contains three technical quartet decks, the same that were also available loose, but the box adds some value to the set. It was probably intended as a gift-pack or something similar. At this time, the individual sets were sold for very few euros, so I also assume that this box was also quite affordable back then. The deck included are:

Let´s check the cards one deck after the other.

Cars (Nr. 422829)

Formel 1 (Nr. 422928)

Motor Show (Nr. 423826)

Interestingly, none of the cars that appear in the outer box is also represented in a card of any of the three decks.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: MOTORPOWER GIFT BOX includes (CARS No. 422829, FORMEL 1 No. 422928 and MOTOR SHOW No. 423826)
• Year: Around 2000
• Company: Piatnik (Austria)

#1045 FX SCHMID – GRAND PRIX, PS AUF SCHIENEN and BUSSE (1984 and 1985)

This entry will be a lazy one, as I will only be presenting three new mini decks of cards made by FX Schmid, similar to other I have shown in the past and which have the checkered flag pattern in the cover card. The “Minis” in this entry are slightly more modern (see #857 and #858, which includes a more modern version of Grand Prix), and I also showed some big decks with the checkered pattern before (see #736).

As usual in the mini quartet decks, there are only 6 families instead of 8, and that makes 24 cards plus the cover card.

The first two were released in 1984, the last on in 1985. I like them all a lot, especially the one with buses, which is a not so common theme for a quartett game.

GRAND PRIX (No. 56510.0) from 1984

PS AUF SCHIENEN (No. 56510.0) from 1984

BUSSE (No. 50044.6) from 1985

This cover card has the copyright in it, not the other two.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: GRAND PRIX, PS AUF SCHIENEN and BUSSE (No. 56510.0, 56510.0 and 50044.6)
• Year: 1984, 1984 and 1985
• Company: FX Schmid (West Germany)