Free Gift Transfers with Confectionery

Page Thirty-four of Thirty-four pages

Duplo / Hanuta: Astérix — PR259 [1976-1978]

(includes surprise update at the bottom of the page)

The Game Board

Ferrero released this simple dice board-game twice; first in 1978, & then, with minor variations but the same set of transfers, again in 1981. Thanks to funcity32 & django8620, you can see for yourself how it works; you buy your Duplo chocolate wafer biscuits, collect the free transfers inside the packets, & rub them down in the right place on the 'board' (which is just a nice piece of glossy folded paper).

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Top left corner, when folded flat. Photo courtesy of django8620

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Photo courtesy of funcity32

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Photo courtesy of django8620

There were forty-two transfers to collect, but in the 1981 re-issue you had to collect doubles of sixteen transfers in order to apply them on the back as well as the front — which of course would take you slightly longer. The other difference in 1981 was that the transfers were also available in Hanuta, as well as Duplo. This is the 1978 version.

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Photo courtesy of django8620

The Transfers

Ferrero had released two sets of Asterix-Tattoo transfers earlier, in 1976 & 1977; it's been stated that the designs for the three sets of transfers were the same, but you can easily see that's not true by a quick glance at these examples from 1976 & 1977:

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…But that's all you're going to see here of those years! I have no idea who printed them, but skin tattooze are easy to print & there's no reason to suppose it would have been Letraset.

The instructions on the back of the 1978 Letraset Asterix Rubbel-Bild are still copyright dated 1977, & I haven't found a counter-example image from the year before, so possibly the 1977 & 1978 image sets ARE identical. But definitely not the 1976 set!

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For fun, here's a section of my uncut sheet — showing just the backs. Because I know how interested you are in these things.

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Three examples with their backing papers on:

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…And three examples without their backing papers:

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And for the grand finale, the full uncut sheet:

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This sheet has been framed on the wall in my youngest's bedroom for years & years. It's a parent's duty to traumatise their kids.

Okay; I know what you're thinking: how does this sheet square with the paranoid conspiracy theories which claim that certain Free Gifts in a collection are extremely rare, or its antithesis which claims that all Free Gifts are equally common?

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You'll be pleased to hear I've done the maths for you, & the answer is — "C: none of the above".

Which adds up to 121 transfers (it's an eleven-by-eleven grid). So nine transfers are only half as common as the most popular four, but there's no outrageous chicanery going on.

Unexpected Bonus

These much larger transfers (six times the size!) are on the same "Asterix Rubbel-Bild" backing papers, which leads me to believe they are somehow the same promotion — but I haven't been able to find out how they fit in. Obviously you're not going to rub them down on the board game! Perhaps they were mail-away prizes, or something; no doubt we'll find out for sure eventually, as we always do.

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As you can see, there are eight different figures. I acquired several badly cut-up sheets, & from all the evidence I was able to recreate the original uncut sheet:

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Oh, alright, if you really must know: each of the figures appears three times, apart from the druid — four times.

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Picture Credit: The SPLAT Scan Archives — funcity32 — django8620