Tolkien Artists Trading Cards

This article is looking at Trading Cards which feature Tolkien related images by Tolkien artists. Trading cards are collectors cards which are purchased in blind packs contains a small number of random cards. The cards are then traded between collectors to obtain the full set. Some cards are rarer than others and there can also be very rare additional chase cards over and above the main set.

This article is focusing on artist specific trading cards and will not include any of the specific Tolkien trading card series i.e. Topps Lord of the Rings movie series, Cryptozoic Hobbit movie series etc, or any of the Trading Card Games i.e. MECCG, Decipher Lord of the Rings movie TCG etc (these are extensive and a specialist area in their own right).

It is also not featuring any movie promotional Trading Cards, there are quite a lot of these and they will be in a separate article.

What makes this difficult is that artists often produce trading cards of all their art, not just the Tolkien related images, so you have to pick out just the Tolkien images, which can be hard, particularly if they are not prolific Tolkien artists. Note: not all Tolkien artist have produced trading cards, in fact most of the major ones (Ted Nasmith (see last entry below), John Howe, Allan Lee being the biggest) haven’t.

The biggest Tolkien artists with Tolkien related Trading Cards are the Hildebrandt Brothers, who were the biggest Tolkien artists of the 70s. Some of the first official Tolkien calendars feature images by the Hildebrandt brothers.

The first Hildebrandt Trading Cards were produced by Comic Images in 1992 (90 cards) and featured 2 Tolkien cards.



The Hildebrandt Comic Images series 3 Trading Cards from 1994 (90 cards) featured 30 Tolkien cards.




As part of the release there were also a Foil cards set (6 cards) featuring 4 Tolkien related cards.



There was also a Chrome Chase subset as part of the release, this was of only 3 cards and all were Tolkien images, it was titled ‘Creatures of Tolkien’.



The Hildebrandt Best of Comic Images series Trading Cards from 1996 (90 cards) featured 13 Tolkien cards. These were all Chrome cards.



The series also featured a Magna Chrome subset (3 cards) featuring 1 Tolkien card.



In 2002, there was a Tolkien Art Collectors Preview set. This was a limited edition boxed set, of 2000, which featured 6 cards.



Also in 2000, there was a 2 card limited edition Tolkien set, of 1000, with both cards being signed, one by each brother.



Finally there was a Hildebrandt Lord of the Rings Keepsake collection featuring 6 large cards, the set was limited edition and came in a pack which also had a preview card featuring all 6 images.



The next artist with Trading Cards featuring Tolkien was Michael Kaluta. Kaluta was the artist for the 1994 Tolkien calendar.

The Kaluta FPG Series 1 card set (90 cards) from 1994 featured 11 Tolkien related cards.



The Kaluta FPG Series 2 card set (90 cards) from 1995 featured only 1 Tolkien related card.



A Tolkien image was also on the packaging of a limited edition uncut sheet of Kaluta cards. There were no Tolkien images featured on any of the cards in the sheet.



The next artist with Trading Cards featuring Tolkien was Darrell Sweet. Sweet was the artist for the 1982 Tolkien calendar and also did the covers for some US Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion book releases.

A FPG set of Sweet Trading Cards (90 cards), produced in 1994, featured 7 Tolkien related cards.



There were also 2 Tolkien related Sweet cards in the 1995, General Colossal cards set (50 cards). These were large sized cards.



There was also a large promotional card for the set featuring Tolkien images.



A Tolkien image was also on the packaging of a limited edition uncut sheet of Sweet cards produced in 1995. I do not know if any of the cards in the sheet featured Tolkien images.



The artist Chris Achilleas has not produced much Tolkien art, but has done a few interesting images.

A FPG set of Achilleas Trading Cards (90 cards), produced in 1992, featured 3 Tolkien images.



The set also had some Silver Foil cards, featuring 3 Tolkien images. No pictures.

The set also had some Gold Foil cards, featuring 3 Tolkien images. 2 cards shown.



There was also a set of Achilleas Colossal cards (50 cards), produced in 1995, featuring 2 Tolkien images. These are large cards. A Tolkien image was also used on the cards packaging.



The next artist with Trading Cards featuring Tolkien was Mike Ploog. Ploog worked on the concept art of the Bakshi Lord of the Rings movie.

A FPG set of Ploog Trading Cards (90 cards), produced in 1994, featuring 4 Tolkien images.



The next artist with Tolkien related Trading Cards is Michael Whelan. Whelan only produced 1 Tolkien image and that featured on a card in the Whelan Comic Images Adventures In Fantasy set (90 cards), produced in 1993.



Finally we have artist Frank Frazetta, he produced a few Tolkien images, however only 1 has featured on Tolkien cards.

It was in the Comic Images set of Frazetta Trading Cards (90 cards), produced in 1991.



And was also in the Chrome Best of Frazetta set (90 cards), produced in 1994.



There are a couple of other card sets to mention.

The first is a set of cards of David Wenzel art from the Hobbit graphic novel. These are not specifically Trading Cards as they were produced as a single pack. There are 36 cards produced in 1993.



The second is a set of 24 carrot gold cards released by Danbury mint. These again are not specifically Trading Cards as they came as a full set. There are 12 limited edition cards in a special binder. The images are by the great Tolkien artist Ted Nasmith.



If anybody knows of any other Tolkien Artists Trading Cards please let me know.