Top Trumps


Top Trumps is a card game first published in 1978. Each card contains a list of numerical data, and the aim of the game is to compare these values to try to trump and win an opponent's card. A wide variety of different packs of Top Trumps has been published.

Gameplay

A pack of cards is based on a theme, such as cars, aircraft, books, boats, dinosaurs, or characters from a popular film or television series. Each card in the pack shows a list of numerical data about the item. For example, in a pack based on cars, each card shows a different model of car, and the stats and data may include its engine size, its weight, its length, and its top speed. If the theme is about a TV series or film, the cards include characters and the data varying from things like strength and bravery to fashion and looks, depending on the criteria.
All the cards are dealt among the players. There must be at least two players, and at least one card for each player. The starting player selects a category from their topmost card and reads out its value. Each other player then reads out the value of the same category from their cards. The best value wins the "trick", and the winner takes all the cards of the trick and places them at the bottom of their pile. The winner then looks at their new topmost card, and chooses the category for the next round.
In the event of a draw the cards are placed in the center and a new category is chosen from the next card by the same person as in the previous round. The winner of that round obtains all of the cards in the center as well as the top card from each player.
Players are eliminated when they lose their last card, and the winner is the player who obtains the whole pack. Some variants of the rules allow 'three card pick', whereby a player who has only 3 cards remaining is allowed to choose any of their three cards to play with. Typically, this lengthens the game considerably.

History

German company Altenburg-Stralsunder launched their own brand of trumps known as Ace Trumps in 1976/77. The Dubreq Top Trumps was a card game popular with adults and children in the United Kingdom in the 1970s and 1980s, especially among boys, for whom it was a popular playground pastime. The topics tended to reflect this, and included military hardware, modes of transport and racing cars. The packs tended to be priced so that children could collect new packs by saving pocket money for a few weeks.
The original Top Trumps was launched in 1978, with eleven different packs selling at 50p each, published by a company named Dubreq. Dubreq was also known for the Stylophone. Dubreq was taken over by Waddingtons in 1982, and they continued manufacturing packs until the early 1990s. The packs from this period are now collectable.

Winning Moves UK and Winning Moves Germany

Modern relaunch

In 1992 the rights to the game were purchased by Winning Moves UK, who relaunched the game. The topics covered are more diverse, and include:
In these new packs a description or biography of the item on each card is included, as well as the statistics and numerical data. The cards may deliver camouflaged learning, or learning through play, as reading about the facts on the cards, and enhancing memory and maths skills through the use of comparing the data, adds an educational benefit.
Many of the packs are, like their predecessors, becoming collectable, especially those sold for limited times, or which were specially commissioned as promotional packs.
Winning Moves UK split their packs into categories based on licenses and the age range they are aimed at. The categories used include Classics, Specials, Juniors and Limited Editions. They have also introduced a new range called Very Specials which has had two packs so far, the Royal Wedding pack and the upcoming Festivals pack.
Winning Moves UK have also released some Collectors Edition packs including multiple packs in a set. The Collectors Editions include "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Gift Set" including the three Lord of the Rings decks and nine exclusive Super Top Trumps cards. A "Doctor Who 45 Years of Time Travel" pack has also been released.
A "Wedding Pack" created for the director of Winning Moves, Tom Liddell, was distributed at his wedding. A very small number was produced, and the sentimental value to the limited owners renders the Wedding Pack the rarest pack.
There are multiple football packs released each year, for clubs including Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. One-off packs for Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Hull City, and Everton have also been released.
Winning Moves UK also released two Politicos packs, one in 2007 and one in 2008. These were given out at political party conferences, and featured politicians such as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
There have been two Ultimate Packs released by Winning Moves UK. These are the Red and the Black packs. The red one is older than the black and is now out of print. These were not available in shops and were only available by winning the Monthly Prize Draw on the Top Trumps website.
Many of the newer packs have a "Summit Challenge" game on the reverse of the bar code card. These cards have questions with boxes to put answers in on the information about the pack.
A special 'Cool Christmas' pack was given out to members of the Top Trumps forums. This had 19 playing cards and a 10% discount for cultandcool.com inside as well as a message from Top Trumps.
Since 2017, the manufacturing of Top Trumps packs has taken place at St Austell Printing Company, St Austell, Cornwall.

International packs

Exclusives

Different countries sometimes make exclusive packs for that country or others that speak the same language. Some of these are for TV shows or other things exclusive to that country although there are some packs that would be popular elsewhere, such as the French Scooby-Doo and French, German, Italian and Belgian Asterix pack.
English-speaking countries have sold some of their packs through the online Top Trumps shop and were unavailable elsewhere. These are the All Blacks pack, only available in New Zealand and the Cricket Australia pack, only available in Australia. Only 500 of each were imported and sold in the shop.
These two packs were exclusive to the US until they proved to be quite popular so they were sold in the UK. There are some variations to the cards in the packs between the American ones and the English ones.
  • Sealife in Danger available in the US.
  • Wildlife in Danger available in the US.
There were 300 of the US Wildlife in Danger pack imported and sold in the PTT Shop. The American Sealife pack was never sold in the shop. An English version of the pack was printed and sold, along with the Wildlife in Danger pack.

UK

5000 Limited Edition 'Borderlands 2' packs were created in August 2012. These cards were offered to independent video game retailers who let customers pre-order the Borderlands 2 video game. They will never be available to purchase as a stand-alone item.
Scotland
The Scottish packs are exactly the same as other UK packs. There have been some promotional packs given out in the Daily Record, a Scottish newspaper. The packs so far are: Scottish Football The Club Collection, Heroes of Scottish Football, Max Speed Supercars and Marvel Ultimate Villains. There are 39 cards given away as well as a tuck box in the first giveaway and a 'How To Play' card. Four cards were given away each time. The Marvel Ultimate Villains only had 40 cards to collect.

Iceland

Iceland's Top Trumps are owned by Nordic Games which is the sales department within Iceland. These packs are the same as the Winning Moves releases.

Japan

A number of packs have now been released in Japan. These are sold through vending machines, as are most Japanese cards. They come in Booster Packs from the vending machines, or you can buy boxes of the cards.
The packs are:
These cards are unique as some of them are horizontal and some vertical. There are also 55 cards in each set instead of the normal 30. These cards are co-owned by Carddas.

Malta

Malta Winning moves had made a pack on Politics from Malta. This came with a special Smart Santa collector card, which did not have stats on and was not a Top Trumps card. There is also a promotion with the pack for the first person who gets all cards in the pack signed by the people on each card to win six free flights, courtesy of Air Malta, to any European destination.

United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates has released a pack based on the animated TV series Freej. This was only available in the UK through an occasional free gift. They are distributed by Pluto Games but are still Winning Moves packs.

United States

Two formerly exclusive packs were printed in the United States, which later became available around the world: "Wildlife in Danger" and "Sealife in Danger". Several booster packs of cards have been exclusively released in the United States, including two "Bugs" packs, which are due to become a stand-alone pack, "Incredible Instruments", "Mysteries", "Bronx Zoo" and "Oakland Zoo". These were sold in eight-card booster packs, with a front title card. The two zoo packs were released in limited numbers as promotional materials for their namesake zoos. Another US exclusive was the "New York" pack. They also had two Soccer packs, Soccer Stars and Soccer Stadiums.