TF foils - More scans of the rarest not-sought-after promos posted

[ununtrium]

Everyone is going on about Hunters Block Masterworks here and online league promos there, but hardly anyone is interested in the "TF" promo foils. Maybe this is because they were issued as non-English versions only, but this is just a wild guess...

• To which purpose were they issued?
  It was initially believed that these cards were issued as prize support for European DGMA tournaments. This is only partly true. In fact, there had been a specific agreement between Decipher and its foreign distributors so that they could print (on their own) a few foils in their respective languages. It was like a reward for international players that had been supporting the game throughout the years. That's why they were never released in English. Most likely, they only exist in French, German and Italian. Part of them was available through product redemption offers, the other part was available as prize support for winning tournaments. For more details see below.
• What does "TF" mean?
  It makes most sense to suppose that it means something like "Tournament Foil".
• Which cards were issued as TFs?
  These are the 9 cards that were issued as TF foils:
  12TF1   Confronting the Eye
  12TF2   Brutal Easterling
  12TF3   • Troll's Keyward, Keeper of the Beast
  12TF4   Coif
  13TF1   • Gimli, Lord of the Glittering Caves
  13TF2   Banners Blowing
  13TF3   Assault Commander
  13TF4   City of Kings
  13TF5   • Grima, Footman of Saruman
  As the German, Italian and French sets seem to be made up of the same cards, only differing in the languages used, it stands to reason that these 9 are the only TF cards issued.
  
• Can you post scans of your cards?
  I invite everyone who has TF foils and scan capability, to post hi-res scans of their cards in this thread. I posted all my TF foils I've managed to scrounge together so far, below.
• In what quantities were the cards available?
  TF1 & TF2 were printed in relatively large quantities, they were like commons (if you want to call very small print runs that were hardly distributed "common"...). One had to go to local stores, buy LotR product so points could be earned. Those points called "Mathoms" could be redeemed at the national distributor in exchange for TF1 and TF2 (at least in France). In Germany you had to have had good connections to the German distributor. Because the game's popularity was already in decline, when these cards came out, one can assume that only a very few of these are in circulation.
  TF3 & TF4, that's a different story. They were tournament rewards. The winner would end up with TF4, the runner-up with TF3. There were already fewer tournaments at that time in France (and the rest of Europe for that matter...), so it can be assumed that they are even more rare. It is uncertain how the TF5 was distributed.
• How much do you want for yours? :hey:
  I am always interested in any TFs I do not have. The French 13TF5 is the only one left. Please make me a cash offer if you have one to sell.

I will collect the various questions and hopefully lots and lots of answers to these in this post to keep things organized  

Cheers!

[rubbercarp]

I'm not familiar with these. What does TF stand for?

[ket_the_jet]

Tournament foils. They were only released in Europe. Germany and France had some and there was a Greek card,  I seem to remember.
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,2933.0.html
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

Mr. Lurtzy posted a link to one a while back...
-wtk

[MR. Lurtzy]

All known info is in the link ket posted above. There are 9 so far identified. But, there could be more... no one knows.

[ununtrium]

Tournament foils. They were only released in Europe. Germany and France had some and there was a Greek card,  I seem to remember.
-wtk

I am very intrigued by this Greek card. ket, can you remember more about it? The Greek promos use Greek type, so they should look significantly different from the other promos.

[ununtrium]

!!!Update!!!!

I got very interesting news from France about the TF foils:

On the completeness of the card list:
"You have that list right on TLHH, there are only 9 existing TFs. I can guarantee that."
 
On the reason for the release of these cards:
"There was a specific agreement between Decipher and foreign distributors so that they could print (on their own) a few foils in their respective languages. It was like a reward for international players that supported the game throughout the years. That's why they were never released in English. As far as I know, they only exist in French, German and Italian."
 
On how many were printed and how players were supposed to get them:
"I don't have the exact figures, but TF1 & TF2 were printed in large quantities, they were like commons. We had to go to our local stores, buy LotR product so we could earn some points. Those points called Mathoms (I have no clue what it stands for) we could redeem them at our French distributor (Hexagonal) in exchange for TF1 and TF2.
TF3 & TF4, that's a different story. They were tournament rewards. The winner would end up with TF4, the runner-up with TF3. There were already fewer tournaments at that time in France, so you can assume that they are rare. It is uncertain how the TF5 was distributed."

I doubt that it was any different in Germany or Italy. BTW, it seems highly unlikely that there are any Greek TF foils. Greece was never as big a market as Italy, France or Germany, so Decipher most likely issued just 0P80 and 0P81 in Greek type set.

I assume that this system (TF1 and TF2 being distributed as some sort of redemption offer and TF3 and TF4 as tournament prize support) applies to both the 12TFs and the 13TFs.

Good stuff, this!

Now we need the corroborate this by folks "in the know" from Germany and Italy. WHERE ARE YOU, PEOPLE ?

[ununtrium]

Just a quick update:

I talked to a fellow forum member from Germany and this is what he had to say about the German TFs: "Die sind in deutsch von Universal Cards aus Aachen gedruckt worden. Ich habe halt in Aachen gespielt und kannte damals Leute aus dem Shop. So wie ich das mitbekommen habe gab es nicht viele davon. "

Now, for those not fluent in German: The TF foils were printed under license by Universal Cards in Aachen. Only a very few were printed and because the German tournament scene was already faltering at that time, it was very hard to get at the cards. You pretty much had to know somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody working for Universal cards

[ununtrium]

Hi!
I finally found the time to scan my TF foils. These are for reference and proof that they exist. As is unfortunately the case with scans, the foil effect is hardly visible, but you get the drift. I have yet to figure out how to best photograph foils and catch their foil effect, but when I do, I will post my results.

So, here are my French TF foils:

















I am still missing the French 13TF5, so if anyone has this card, please let me know. I am very interested in aquiring it.

kralik, feel free to use these images to add to the database, if you will.

Cheers, everybody!

[ununtrium]

...and here are my German TF foils - a complete set!!!



















Even if it does not show in the scans, all the cards are foils.

Cheers, everybody!

[ununtrium]

...and here are my Italian TF foils - A complete set as well!!!



















Many thanks to a dear forum member from Italy who supplied me with the complete set.

Again, kralik, feel free to use these images to add to the database, if you will.

Cheers, everybody!

[Gil-Estel]

I'm impressed, really am. Nice work.

[ununtrium]

I'm impressed, really am. Nice work.

Many thanks, Gil-Estel. It is quite hard to come by any information on these, especially because there were very few people around in 2005 who knew about these cards in the first place. And more and more people forget about the details of distribution etc., so it gets harder as time goes by.

I contacted the German distributor, but the people in charge of LotR TCG had already moved on to other jobs and were not available for comments. Thanks to a fellow player from France I was able to get much information on things in France back then.

I have yet to contact the Italian distributor and ask a couple of friends in Italy, but I am not holding my breath for any new insights...

It seems like the ways in which the TF foils were actually distributed, varied slightly from country to country. E.g. the French 13TF5 was hardly distributed at all and in a rather obscure way, whereas in Germany the TF foils seem to have been distributed along the lines of "in-store trading" as well as through tournament prize support.

Only Italy seems to have distributed the TF foils "properly", i.e. given them out to players as a set.

I can only implore and beseech anyone who knows anything about these cards, that is not already covered in this thread, to post their information here as well as to clarify or rectify any information posted here.

[ununtrium]

A quick update that corroborates previous assumptions:

A friend from Italy told me that the TF foils were prizes in local tournaments in Italy, too. The nine cards were the only ones printed in Italy, too, so this further supports our hypothesis that no other cards were issued as TF foils.

The Italian distributor was Nexus Games, but they have moved on in the same way as Universal Cards in Germany.

For me this only leaves open the matter of the TF foils I am still missing. If anyone has any of these TF foils for sale, I am very interested in buying them!!!

[ununtrium]

A stash of German TFs has recently surfaced on ebay. I was able to secure a couple of sets and to fill a couple of my needs. I added the German TFs 13TF2, 13TF3 and 13TF4 to my collection and finally got around to making and posting scans of these cards. Cheers!

This leaves only two cards on my TF want list: the French and German versions of 13TF5. If anyone has one of these cards - or even both - please do drop me a line. Many thanks.

[MR. Lurtzy]

Shame he doesn't have 13TF5. I've been searching for these for ages.

[ununtrium]

IIRC, there was no clear way of distribution for 13TF5. It was not handed out as a tournament prize or the like. It could very well be that they were never given out to players and may only surface when stashes of these are unearthed somewhere and put on ebay. It seems like only the Italian distributor handed out complete sets of these cards.

[ununtrium]

Just a quick update. Finally got my hands on a German 13TF5 (it does not show in the scan, but it is a foil!):



Now I just need the French 13TF5. If there is anybody out there who wants to sell or trade theirs, please let me know!!!

[Eukalyptus]

I had good relations with the folksfrom Universal Cards and did several con weekends with them in Germany promoting LotR and Wars. Also through the Rat von Bruchtal program which was awesome btw. One day between Black Rider and Bloodlines I received a big stack of TF 1 and 2 to give out during tournaments. I don't know if every td got them, but I guess not. They weren't very popular at that time, either. I honestly can't remember if TF 3 and 4 were amongst the cards I received, but I remember that I had them (and have again).

[ghhhk]

So...I'd love to track down the rest of these that I don't have.  Let me know if anyone has seen any.

The ones I have are:

12-4 Italian
13-3 Italian
13-1 German
13-2 German
13-3 German
13-4 German

Apparently there are 27 total...I'd love to find the other 21

Thanks!

ghhhk