The Pocketeers List
James Masters June 2000. Last update July 2006
Shown below in three parts are all the Pocketeers that were released
in the UK that I have evidence for in chronological (category number) order.
|
.jpg)
|
Part 1 - Early Pocketeers.
The original "eight great Pocketeers" and the six that followed
that initial success. All of these came in a packet like "Golf"
on the left from which the game was normally removed by opening the bottom
of the box.
Subsequent packets were like "RAT-A-TAT" on the
right. These were redesigned and had no top so that the game could
be pushed upwards out of the packet via the other new feature - a hexagonal
hole in the bottom. The more popular old games continued to be produced
but now came in the new packets.
Part 2 - Continuing in the same
vein. Fourteen more followed by the three anomalous blue-boxed
Smurf Pocketeers
Part 3 - The last three batches.
Fifteen Pocketeers finish the set.
|
.jpg)
|
There were five listed that I didn't manage to collect as a child;
four of these were from the original eight Pocketeers and of these Crossbow
and Blowpipe in particular turned out to be extremely rare. However,
thanks to the wonderful ebay, that situation was rectified in 2003. The total
number of pocketeers is 46. Of these, only 3 are clones - Big Match, The Derby
and Casino.
Although I was fairly sure I had all the Pocketeers, over the
last few years I have gathered proof of this
from Palitoy Trade Catalogues of the time.
The category numbers are intriguing - they are obviously unique
but there are many gaps in the list and the final two batches did not use them.
It isn't clear why this is. I had thought that the extra numbers were re-releases
of early Pocketeers but this doesn't seem to be the case. Aside from the large
gaps, missing numbers are 31279, 31280, 31284, 31286, 31326, 31327, 31328, 31331/2.
If anyone has a clue what these are, please let me know.
After the last batch listed above, no more games by Palitoy under
the guise "Pocketeer" were made. However, TOMY did later
market some US pocket games directly into Europe - see the Other
Games page for more info.
James Masters Home Page
james at masters.me.uk