Collecting Tiger Quartets can be very frustrating. They are usually a bit more expensive than other quartets from that era. Most card sets are from Piatnik games, but there are also sets from FX Schmid games.

There is very little documentation about the variations, and you can never be sure whether the quartet you just bought was really produced that way, or whether you've fallen victim to a scam.

But perhaps that's part of the appeal. That's why I bought a few airplane card games and tried to analyze them. I also found and incorporated information from Quartettportal.at and toysfromthepast.blogspot.com.

Variant 1: Airplane Quartet No. 77 – Eagle F15 A

The cover is numbered 77. The back is blue with white airplanes. The categories (Jumbo Jets, Private Jets, etc.) are at the top. Category 6 is called "Fighter Aircraft" and card 6B is the "McDonnell Eagle F-15A". The technical data is printed in black.

Variant 2: Airplane Quartet No. 77 – Dassault Mirage IV

Unfortunately, I don't own this version; I only found it on Quartettportal.at. It's similar to the version above. However, category 6 is called "Fighter Aircraft I" and card 6B is the "Dassault Mirage IV". Otherwise, I haven't noticed any differences.

Variant 3: Great Jets Quartet No. 4253 – Landscape format

Variant 3 already features the new cover, but the card set itself is still in landscape format. You can see that card 6B is again the "McDonnell Eagle F-15A" card, and the category is also called "Fighter Aircraft" (as in Variant 1). However, this time the category text is positioned at the bottom instead of the top (compare the texts "Jumbo Jets" and "Private Jets"). Furthermore, the text for the technical data is now red. The back of the cover is blue.

Variant 4: Great Jets Quartet No. 4253 – red back

I find this version the most beautiful. The back of the cover and the back of the card set are the same red color. Card 1A is the Boeing 747E-4A. Interestingly, the dot has been removed from the cover. I have two of these four-card sets. It's therefore safe to assume that this version was actually sold this way back then.

Variant 5: Great Jets Quartet No. 4253 – blue back

On Quartettportal.at I found a similar version to version 4. Here too, the back of the cover card is red, and the period in the name "Tolle Jets" is also missing. The back of the card set is the same as version 4, only in blue. The card set itself is the same as in version 4.

Variant 6: Great Jets Quartet No. 4253 – Diamond Back

In this version, the back of the card set has a blue diamond pattern. The text on the back of the cover is also blue. The name "Tolle Jets" on the cover itself again includes a period. This time, the weight is missing from the technical specifications.

In this version, map 1A features the "Boeing 747". However, other new aircraft have also been added (maps 4C and 6C). Furthermore, some maps have been renamed (e.g., map 8B from "Zlin Z50 L" to "Zlin 526 Akrobat").

I have two copies of the card game, and this version is also available on Quartettportal.at. Therefore, it can be assumed that this is the version that was sold back then.

Card 1B is also interesting: the thrust is listed as 2 x 7260 kp, although the image clearly shows four engines. Another peculiarity of this aircraft is that one engine appears to be larger than the other three.

Variant 7: Great airplanes – blue diamond

This version already has the new cover. The text on the back of the cover is red. The back of the card set is a blue diamond. The cards themselves are the same as in version 6.

Variant 8: Great airplanes – blue airplane back

This variant was also found on Quartettportal.at. It corresponds exactly to version 7, but with the blue airplane back.

Option 9: Great Airplanes – FXS Sport Airplanes

This is another very interesting variant. The cover is identical to variants 7 and 8. However, the card set is from FX Schmid. They didn't even bother to change the back. It's hard to say whether this variant actually existed.

The print date on card 1C reads: MII 1698577

The aircraft on map 6B can also be found in the other versions. Here, however, it is designated Zlin Z 526.

Option 10: Great Aircraft – FXS Fighter Jets

Another variant was found on toysfromthepast.blogspot.com. The cover is again the same as variant 9, and the card set is from an FXS game; however, the card set only depicts fighter planes from the Second World War.

CONCLUSION

It's difficult to say exactly which versions were actually available for purchase back then. It would also be interesting to know the chronological order of the individual card sets. Which version(s) do you own? Are there any other versions? I'd appreciate a comment.