Culture: Game: Card Game
Your Mate Top Trumps   (+14, -2)  [vote for, against]
Top Trumps with Polaroids of Your Mates

It's as easy as that....Take lots of polaroids of your pals...Invent some categories eg. Fatness, Height, Age, Arsehole, In a Fight, Bad Hairdo. Throw in a few strange and complicated rules eg. If a card is played and 'Arsehole' is chosen as the category and you have yourself as your next card, when it gets to you slap your card of yourself down screaming, "No. I'M the Arsehole" and gather up the cards. Another possibility is to 'Bird the fight' ie. if the category coming round is In a Fight and you have a female card in your hand, throw down your card shouting 'Bird' and the round is drawn. Gather a bunch of said buddies around. Open a few cans. Hours of hilarity ensue. And while you're at it, try not to offend anyone that's playing.
-- ChewTheBeef, Aug 15 2001

Top Trumps http://www.nineiron.co.uk/tramps.htm
How a card game conquered the UK's playgrounds. [Aristotle, Aug 15 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]

(?) Canoe Club Top Trumps http://www.su.ic.ac...uide/toptrumps.html
These people already produced their own joke Top Trumps cards. [Aristotle, Aug 15 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Trumperama http://www.trumperama.co.uk/
This could be the definitive Top Trumph site, showing a lot of the various trump card brands and series but sadly no dates. [Aristotle, Aug 15 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]

(?) Prostitute Top Trumps http://www.jezuk.co...gTrumps/starterPack
I read about schoolkids playing this! [Pallex, Aug 15 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]

No argument from me.
-- angel, Aug 15 2001


i can just see the look on my 'pals'' faces when i invite them around and ask them to pose for the 'fatness', 'arsehole' and 'bad hairdo' cards so that we might play 'trumps' before we leave for a night on the town.

I'm sure the polaroid of 'in a fight' will prominently feature me.
-- benfrost, Aug 15 2001


of people at the opening when they walk into an empty room! 'confused', 'into minimalism', 'here for the free booze' hee hee
-- benfrost, Aug 15 2001


You only have one polaroid per mate. You then judge them on the categories above against your other mates. Someone whose hair is particularly bad will usually win on bad hairdo for example. Your tallest mate will always win on height. One photo per person and judge them accordingly on the categories.
-- ChewTheBeef, Aug 16 2001


I've seen this done, sort of, at a mate of mine's work - although not with polaroids. All their business cards have different stats on them like Drinking Capacity or Mouthiness. Not quite fully baked, but turning a light golden colour.
-- Guy Fox, Aug 16 2001


It really does hinge quite heavily on having a scooby what Top Trumps is in the first place.
-- ChewTheBeef, Aug 16 2001


Ah, Top Trumps, they were the days...I had dinosaurs, space rockets, endless sets of cars, aeroplanes. Great idea.

"try not to offend anyone that's playing"

I rather thought that would have been half the fun of the game...
-- -alx, Aug 16 2001


No scoobies from me either.
-- angel, Aug 16 2001


It's a British thing. It was popular in the 70s and it has become popular again now (see links).

It is just like regular Trump games but you take special pre-printed packs and instead of winning by having the highest card in the chosen suit you win by your card having the best value in the chosen statistic. The set I remember most fondly was the Dr Who set that featured Darleks, the Master and others.

A Half-Bakery Top Trumps set is a possibility of course.
-- Aristotle, Aug 16 2001


We seem to be big on nostalgia at the moment. Good idea, ChewTheBeef. The words "Pontiac Firebird, 7443cc" are forever emblazoned on my memory.

Now there's a good suggestion, Aristotle.
-- DrBob, Aug 16 2001


'It's a British thing.' So am I.
'It was popular in the 70s'. That explains it; I left school in '73.
Another wonderful invention from the company that bought us the Stylophone. If you go to [Aristotle]'s second link, don't be tempted to click anything; pop-ups abound.
-- angel, Aug 16 2001


It was popular in the 80s as well. Unless I'm a decade older than present evidence suggests.
-- -alx, Aug 16 2001


alx: Top Trumps were first published in 1977 and were discontinued in 1983, so yes they did extend into the 80s.
angel: I've found a better second link. There are actually quite a few sites like this around the internet so this idea is fun but also regrettably baked.
-- Aristotle, Aug 16 2001


They were surely never discontinued in 1983...I was buying them well into the 80s. Unless someone took over the name (or it was Top Trump substitutes I was buying).
-- -alx, Aug 16 2001


The prostitute top trumps game is crazy but it shows how kids can use any readily available material for games. In London two whole industries revolve around distibuting these cards and removing them afterwards - I'm not suprised that this almost unlimited resource should be put to the best use.
-- Aristotle, Aug 19 2001


Love the Idea! - & I agree that the idea WOULD be to upset everyone! A couple of years ago the Sunday Sport "Newspaper" did Page 3 "Glamour Models" Top trumps with categories such as: Tits Shaggability Hair colour (Blond beats Brunnette beats redhead etc) - it passed a few idle moments in the pub! (Baked idea then!)

A word on Stylophones - my mate went to a Rolf Harris (God) gig and handed him a 'Phone on stage. Rolf bashed out a couple of lines from 2 Little Boys then passed it back. ROCK AND ROLL!!!
-- gnomethang, Aug 19 2001


Now if only I had more than two mates....
-- Strangepants, Nov 30 2002


Dunno, I've just logged in for the first time in 8 years and it's still the greatest idea I've ever had
-- ChewTheBeef, Aug 01 2009


I can very much see someone implementing this idea as a Facebook app. Most people have enough mutual friends and 'friends' on there with photos to create decent-sized packs, and it has the perfect combination of pointlessness, silliness and feel-good nostalgia to become a runaway success.
-- imaginality, Aug 03 2009


I made what my friends and I call "Executive" Guess Who when I was at school, which was basically Guess Who with our faces on it. Good solid fun.
-- theleopard, Aug 03 2009



random, halfbakery