#750 AMIGO - WWF QUARTETTS Nr. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 (1992 and 1993)

I am fascinated with these card sets by Amigo released in 1992 and 1993. Amigo is one of the greatest German card and board game makers. It is surely among the top 5, and because wrestling was hugely popular in that country by the early 90s, Amigo released 8 WWF quartetts with the corresponding license of the copyright owner.

I am not sure how this all started, by I think the first 4 came all at once into the toyshops in 1992, while the other 4 came one year later, a sign that the first four were selling very good. There are at least two editions of each of the 4 first sets, as you can see above, so, at least the first 4 were reissued at some point. Note that some boxes have a signature on the cover, other not (the ones without the signature are reissues), and some cards have in the back of each card a wrestler and text or only text. The example above even has a different cove picture (Papa Shango instead of the Ultimate Warrior).

The numbers 5, 6, 7 and 8 are much more difficult to find. I have number 6 only. I´ll buy the other 3 as soon as I find them.

Each set contains 32 cards, plus two instruction cards and three promotional cards (wrestling publications, other Amigo games, and wrestling videogames). Those promotional cards, are very difficult to find, if you are a die-hard "completist". The 32 cards build 8 families, with 4 members each, but in this set, the "family members" are not related in any way... One card shows one wrestler or one tag team, and the next card another wrestler. You can play the classic game with the families or using the back of the card you can play a sort of paper-scissors-rock game with one action on the back of each card. Here “Press” wins “Pin”, “Pin” wins “Body Slam” and “Drop Kick”, an so on…

The game complexity or fun is, in my case at least, unimportant. I just like looking at the great pictures showing wrestlers in action. The pictures are amazing, official promo pictures taken by the WWF themselves. All 32 wrestlers or teams are really well known, and there are no repetitions. The problem is that in the next quartett, you find the same 32 characters, but, fortunately, different pictures. If you collect all four sets, you could have 128 pictures of very famous wrestlers, and 256 pictures with all 8 card sets. In the second set, however, there are a few new wrestlers that were not present in the first 4 sets.

SET 1:

SET 2:

SET 3:

SET 4:

SET 6:

UPDATE1 (JAN/2017): I found set number 8, unfortunately without the promo cards, and with the box a bit beaten, but otherwise great condition!

UPDATE2 (Nov/2019): Here's Set Nr. 7! Also without the promo cards and with some use marks on the box. Now let's go for Nr. 5!

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: WWF QUARTETTS Nr. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8
• Year: 1992 and 1993
• Company: Amigo Spiele (Germany)

#749 GUISVAL – FANAL/ DISPLAY COLECCIÓN CAMPEÓN and SERVICIOS PÚBLICOS (Around 1990)

 

These are two displays from the very early 90s by Guisval, as the cars were still made in Spain. I have talked about these display items many times over the entries dedicated to Guisval, but these are the first I actually buy. I got them through a friend who saw them in a shop. For that year, the models included are quite old-fashioned, and include casts that were already used in the early 80s.

 

 

The first of the two is a "campeón" collection, that is the 3 inches, ordinary collection by Guisval. It contains 24 cars, in plastic blisters, many of them are double, triple or even cuadruple. Note that interestingly, the bottom three come in slightly bigger blisters, because they are bigger models (vans and pick-ups). The yellow display should have some cardboard decoration on both upper sides, but they are lost, or maybe removed if the cars were originally placed in another display and the picture did not fit the cars anymore.

 

The cars from these years suffer from metal-fatigue or zamak pest and sometimes are found broken, even if mint in box. This is the case of the pick up at the bottom, center column or the second car in the center column (a golden Seat Ronda).

 

All cars come with rally stickers, and with either 4 spoke wheels or 8 point wheels, which are two of the latest wheel models used by Guisval.

 

The models are (by row and column)

• Opel Kadett (Vauxhall Astra) - Matra Simca Bagheera - Ford Sierra
• Porsche 928 - Seat Ronda - Matra Simca Bagheera
• Matra Simca Bagueera - Renault 11 - Peugeot 205
• BMW 323i - Renault 21 Nevada - Citroën BX
• Opel Corsa - Ford Sierra - Seat Ronda
• Seat Ronda - Mercedes 190 - BMW 323i
• Ford Sierra - Opel Kadett - Ford Sierra
• Renault Espace - Toyota Hilux - Renault Espace

The second display has a bunch of trucks (either Volvo or Magirus Deutz) together with one Jeep Willis, one Land Rover, several pickups (Toyota Hilux and Datsun), two Renault Espace and a camper van. I love this set, because most of these vehicles came with plastic accesories like canopies, tow hooks, or construction items and these are usually lost in played toys. It is diffcult to get some of them complete.

 

 

 

Here, the wheel mixture is more complex, because we find the 4-spoke wheel and the typical “truck wheel” (small circle surrounded by 5 points and big circle), together with the classic wheel used in the Jeep Willis.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: 2 FANALES/ DISPLAYS COLECCIÓN CAMPEÓN AND SERVICIOS PÚBLICOS
• Scale: Cars around 1:64, trucks around 1:100
• Year: Around 1990
• Company: Guisval (Spain)
• Size: approx. 7 cm each