Mario Quiz Cards (partially lost educational flashcard designs based on game franchise; 1995-1997)

From The Lost Media Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Box Front.jpg

The front of the box set.

Status: Partially Lost

The Mario Quiz Cards are a set of educational flash cards that were officially licensed by Nintendo. The cards were produced by Atlas Editions and Newfield Publications in 1995. The art was created by cartoonist Gary Fields. The cards are all part of different decks; each of which has 20 cards from 18 different categories.

Atlas Editions/Newfield Publications

Atlas Editions is no longer active, as seen on their website. Atlas Editions acquired Newfield Publications sometime during the production of these cards. This is seen by the 2 box variants (one with the Newfield logo and the other one with the AE logo). The 1998 website of AE/Newfield does not list the quiz cards, which implies that they stopped selling them sometime in 1997/1998.

Illustration

Illustrations for all of the quiz cards were done by cartoonist Gary Fields. Interestingly, older cards do not credit him at all, whereas cards from 1996/1997 have illustration credit in the bottom left-hand corner on the front of the card. Each card has unique art not seen elsewhere, inspired by Super Mario World. Many of these cards are infamous for their unusual depictions of the Mario universe (Ex: Luigi reading about Hitler, Bowser worshiping Al Capone, Mario and Luigi protesting nukes, etc).

Sample Packs

Certain sample packs of the quiz cards were mailed at random to promote the cards. When opened, they have a red paper with a promotion, in which one can get the box, manual, dividers, 40 cards, and tattoos for 24.95. This was then mailed to the company. It also includes prices for the monthly card packs. A different purple pamphlet also exists, but it’s unknown what this one contains.

Documentation

There is currently no documentation of the cards in magazines such as Nintendo Power. This makes sense considering the little documentation there is about them. Children's magazines from 1995-1996 are a possible lead as to where these cards could have been advertised.

Codes

Numerical codes can be found on the back of each card, around the bottom right corner. The card drafts also have these codes. New information reveals that they indicate deck and card numbers. Each deck had 20 cards, so the highest number of decks x 20 may reveal the total card amount. Sometimes decks were skipped, so the amount may be inaccurate. It’s unknown if any decks were skipped for this set. The D2 or D3 parts of the code usually reflect languages. The existence of 2 different codes could suggest a connection with a different Tintin quiz card set that was made by Atlas. The existence of codes in draft cards suggests that deck numbers and card numbers were decided early on during production.

Ordering Cards

Based on the existence of sample packs and an ad for Star Trek Universe cards found in a magazine,[1] it's assumed that the company operated primarily through mail services and magazine adverts to promote their products. There are currently no known TV commercials from the 1990s regarding these cards. Sales could have begun as early as 1994 and most likely ended in 1998. New information suggests that calls could be made to order the cards (as one could call AE and ask them for other quiz cards not related to Mario).[2]

Card List

Deck Status
Deck 1 Partially Found
Deck 2 Partially Found
Deck 3 Found
Deck 4 Found
Deck 5 Found
Deck 6 Found
Deck 7 Found
Deck 8 Found
Deck 9 Found
Deck 10 Found
Decks 11-22 Existence Unconfirmed
Deck 23 Partially Found
Deck 24 Partially Found
Deck 25 Partially Found
Deck 26 Found
Deck 27 Found
Deck 28 Found
Decks 29-31 Existence Unconfirmed
Deck 32 Found
Deck 33 Found
Deck 34 Found
Deck 35 Found
Deck 36 Found
Deck 37 Found
Deck 38 Found
Deck 39 Found
Deck 40 Found
Deck 41 Found
Deck 42 Found
Deck 43 Found
Deck 44 Found
Deck 45 Found
Deck 46 Found
Deck 47 Found
Deck 48 Found
Deck 49 Found
Deck 50 Found
Deck 51 Found
Deck 52 Found
Deck 53 Found
Deck 54 Found
Deck 55 Found
Deck 56 Found
Deck 57 Found
Deck 58 Found
Deck 59 Found
Deck 60 Found
Deck 61 Found
Deck 62 Found
Deck 63 Found
Deck 64 Found
Deck 65 Found
Deck 66 Found
Deck 67 Found
Decks 68-73 Existence Unconfirmed
Deck 74 Found
Deck 75 Found
Deck 76 Found
Deck 77 Found
Deck 78 Found
Deck 79 Found
Decks 80-91 Existence Unconfirmed

Gallery

External Links

References