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Top trumps

Top trumps first came on the scene in the 1970's and were originally made by a company called Dubreq who were later bought by Waddingtons in 1982. The original Top Trumps were supplied in the now familiar red plastic boxes with clear perspex lids and the first titles were about ships, military aeroplanes and dragsters. Each card carried a set of statistics which were not only fascinating but allowed school children to play games against each other comparing statistics in order to win each other's cards.

A playground craze was born and before long Dubreq was producing a whole range of Top Trumps with many different themes. The cards were traded among children in the playground until the mid 1980's when production of the cards slowed down and eventually ceased. This was not due to a lack of popularity but was actually because of the increasing costs of producing the cards as licensing costs to use copyright images soared.

However, in 1999 Winning Moves bought the rights to the Top Trumps name and re-invented the game with a whole range of new titles including The Simpsons and Lord of the Rings. It seems that the game is just as popular today as it ever was.


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Do You Remember Top trumps?

Do You Remember Top trumps?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    anyone got a pack of horror trumps? they used to feature characters like dracula, frankenstein etc and had categories like killing power
  • Anonymous user
    on
    the best set by far were the Horror ones. They did two different sets. I think one had Dracula on the front and the other had The Devil Priest on. Check out the price of these on Ebay nowadays ..super expensive!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I think the "Chieftan Tank" was pretty unbeatable in the Tank version.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I had a football version. Specifically remember Vince Hilaire and Colin Bell (think he had the most appearances.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Didn't all sets have a card which could win on every aspect? which meant whoever was dealt it would always win. I remember playing once with my sister & she seemed to have the best card but all the others were weak, meaning I would win all of these just to loose on the best one.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Top Trumps Comprised of a deck of cards, each card had a set of stats and specs of the decks theme, eg ww2 tanks. Dealt out after being shuffled, 1 person picks a stat (eg: top speed) and the other gives their speed and basically the best one gets the others lower card. Winner then gets to choose the next stat after placing the just played cards to the bottom of the deck. Game ended when someone had lost all their cards. Many a playtime was spent playing with, WW2 tanks, planes, jets, cars, even special horror decks and mini top trumps.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Thanks to the re-issue of these cards, my 10 year old son manages to beat me every time. I've even tried to memorise each card - but to no avail