Trading Card Games

And Why They Matter

I know most of you think the term “TCG” is (historically) a relatively new term for the trading card industry, as the influence of trading card games (led by Pokémon) is so prevalent in our industry that many stores now focus heavily on modern TCGs. What I find interesting though is that many older cards from “TCGs” are so affordable relative to “standard” trading card issues. Take for instance many vintage character cards from playing card decks (technically “trading card games”). In my opinion, many of these cards are extremely overlooked by collectors, especially in high grade. Such sets for classic cartoon characters (like the brands featured on CartoonCardz.com) date back nearly 90 years as there were multiple Disney playing card sets featuring iconic characters starting in the late 1930s such as the Silly Symphonies card set and then even a Canasta card game in 1950. Starting in the 1960s, both EDU-CARDS and Whitman Publishing produced many such trading card games, including games featuring iconic Disney characters (1964 Whitman Disneyland Set), Bugs Bunny and other Looney Tunes favorites (1966 Whitman set), Superman and Batman (1966 Whitman sets), The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Pinocchio, and Scooby-Doo (EDU-CARDS sets) and many more. 

By the early 70s, Mattel produced trading card games for Superman, the Lone Ranger, the Harlem Globetrotters, Tarzan, Scooby- Doo and Archie. From our research, it appears that the Scooby-Doo and Archie sets contain some of the earliest licensed trading cards of characters from these 2 incredibly popular series.

In the mid 70s, there were many oversized cards included in board games produced by Milton Bradley, such as the Snoopy Card Game (1974) and the Marvel SuperHero game (1978).

By the mid to late 70s there were many more standard sized “TCG” sets also produced including several different Hallmark Peanuts card games (1975), and multiple playing card games from Hoyle Products featuring Hanna- Barbera characters. In 1979 Milton Bradley made a board game called none other than the “Cartoon Cards” matching game (1979) that also features many Hanna-Barbera characters. That sounds like a game we would certainly enjoy here at CartoonCardz.com.

Well, I think you get my point. “TCGs” have been around for a very, very long time…even ones of iconic characters. Don’t overlook them… you might even want to “catch ‘em all.”