#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.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

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

#571 TIGER QUARTETT- TIERE (Nr. 73), 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?

FACTS AND FIGURES:

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

#337 TIGER QUARTETT – RENNWAGEN, SCHNELLE EISEN, TOLLE FLUGZEUGE and OTHERS (Around 1978)

These quartett decks are very rare and their origin has been unknown for a long time. They are also a bit mysterious, since most deck are identical to other card decks made by the Austrian cardmaker Piatnik, with a few exceptions, which are identical to some sets made by the German cardmaker FX Schmid. The only difference between them is the cover card (Titelblatt in German).
How is this possible?

In the quartettblog.wordpress.com there are a couple of entries dealing with “Tiger”.
According to this great blog, the Tiger Decks were made approximately between 1972 and 1980. The first series is dated 1972 and include several sets with a 2-digit reference number. Later series are dated by the end of the 70s and have 4-digit reference numbers, and even later, more sets were released without reference number. So, the cards presented here today date from the late 70s.

After some comment left by Christian Falkensteiner (the famous Matchbox collector) in that same blog, it seems clear that “Tiger” is the store brand of the famous German supermarket chain ALDI (HOFER in Austria). This theory hasn’t been proved yet, but it seems quite plausible: Aldi buys from Piatnik and FX schmid some card sets (maybe leftovers, discontinued, old stocks?) and resells them just with a new cover card that unifies the collection.

That supermarket chain is famous because almost everything you can find there are store brands and therefore you can fill your basket for less money than in normal supermarkets. We guess now, that these card sets were less expensive than their Piatnik/FX Schmid counterparts. Today it is the opposite, they are much rarer, and collectors pay higher prices for them. They’re very rare to find.

SCHNELLE EISEN:

The first of my three sets is the “Schnelle Eisen” set with Reference Number 4259. A very curious set, since it mixes cars, motorbikes, formula ones, race boats and more. It has 8 families, 32 cards, plus cover. It was originally a Piatnik set, maybe you can recognise the pattern at the back of the cards.

RENNWAGEN:

The second set is “Rennwagen”, without reference number (it belongs to the third group, as we enumerated it before). Again: 8 families and 32 cards plus cover. This set is also a Piatnik reference, the pattern at the back of the cards is very common and was shared by Piatnik and FX Schmid.

 TOLLE FLUGZEUGE:

The third set is called Tolle Flugzeuge, also without reference number, and also 8 families, 32 cards + cover. When I carefully studied the cards, I though the cards had been changed/mistaken by it’s previous owner, because the back of the cards has the FX Schmid logo. It was a bit of a disappointment, and I am still not sure, if these are the original cards (anyone who also has this set can confirm it?) Note that the Boeing 747SP on the cover card doesn’t match with the rest of the planes in the set that are warplanes.

UPDATE: Chris from quartettblog.wordpress.com thinks the set could be original, since there are some sets with the same Titelblatt, but different content. This way, under the title "Tolle Flugzeuge" (in English: "Cool Planes") we could find several different sets from Piatnik or FX Schmid.

UPDATE:

This set "Exotische Tiere" (Quartett Nr. 4245) is based on the deck with the same name made by Piatnik (Nr. 4214) from 1976. Something you might not know, is that with the "Tiger" Brand, there were also normal decks available, like the one in the picture, which is a 24 card deck for playing Schnaps (see first and last pictures).

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: EXOTISCHE TIERE (Nr. 4245), SCHNELLE EISEN (Nr. 4259), RENNWAGEN and TOLLE FLUGZEUGE
• Year: Around 1978
• Company: Tiger (Germany, Austria)