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Animal Families
This is the original set, and first appeared in October 2009. It ran for two and a half years until April 2012. Despite such a long timespan (all the other sets were available for a maximum of 12 months) these are the hardest cards to find.
The image above is from the www.bearnibbles.co.uk, back in 2011. Note the images of the bear, squirrel and birds, reminiscent of the cards.
This set came too early for my eldest son to collect, so the information and images of the sets has kindly been provided by John Cotton, Chas Chaplin, Robert Greenland and Emma Livett. We are retrospectively trying to collect these cards, so if anyone has any they would like to swap or sell, then drop us a line at yoyobearcards@mail.com.
The set consisted of fourteen animal families of five cards each, plus five homes. This made a total of 75 cards. The fourteen families are Bear, Bird, Squirrel, Hedgehog, Owl, Mouse, Rabbit, Spider, Bat, Badger, Mole, Bee, Beaver and Wolf. The table below shows who was the head of each family.
The cards were numbered on the reverse, using a complex double numbering system - i.e. each card was assigned two numbers, one for the front, and the other for the reverse. The first card, titled ‘Mr Bear’, is numbered 1/150, the second card 2/149, the third card is 3/148, up to the last card which is numbered 75/76. For more details on the numbering system see here
The image below shows the first family of five. Hovering the mouse over the family names below (or tapping them if on a tablet or phone) will display the remaining cards in each of their families.
Last Updated: 22nd May 2020.
| Bear | Bird | Squirrel | H'hog | Owl | Mouse | Rabbit | Spider | Bat | Badger | Mole | Bee | Beaver | Wolf | Home |
|---|
The backs of the cards were somewhat plain, and consisted of two interesting animal facts per card. The reverse of three cards is shown below:
The variants that exist are due to errors in which some cards have text on the reverse which was intended for a different obverse. This would appear to have been quite common, if my own limited experience is anything to go on. Based on the 30 cards I now have, there are 2 doubles and these both have different backs. For more detail on this numbering variation, see here.
There was also a swap facility back in those days. Another capture from later in the same year (2011). This appeared towards the end of the Animal Families card issues. The new set that was about to emerge was Forest Games. "Swapsies are back" implies that the swap facility come and goes.
Another interesting fact to emerge from looking at old web pages is the range of flavours of yoyos that were available back in 2009. It is quite different to todays selection. The photo above hints at some new flavours that are about to emerge. Back at the start of it all in October 2009, there were just two flavours - Strawberry and Peach. By mid 2010 they were joined by Raspberry, and at the start of 2011 Blueberry was added to the lineup. So by 2011, the four available flavours were Strawberry, Raspberry, Blueberry and Peach.
As far as I can determine, there were no collector's pack, and neither was there any prize for completing the collection. This would change, of course....
