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![]() Quaker Pack-O-Ten “Warplane Cards”
Overview During 1957, the Quaker Oats Company of Chicago, Illinois, issued a set of 27 “Quaker Pack-O-Ten Warplane ” airplane cards. The set was very similar to the World War II era R112 sets issued by the Leaf Gum Company and the Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin. The cards were of the “playing card ” format with rounded corners. These glossy thick-stock cards measured 2¼ × 3½ inches. The fronts of the cards featured USAF and USN military aircraft from the mid-1940s through the mid-1950s. The Backs the cards featured a brief descriptive text about the subject aircraft. ![]() Typical F279-18 “Quaker Pack-O-Ten Warplane ” card front.
It appears that the primary marketing strategy that Quaker used to promote this airplane card set, was to include “sample ” cards in their “Quaker Pack-O-Ten Cereals ” boxes. The “sample ” cards were actual cards from the F279-18 set that were “over-stamped ” in red ink on the reverse side with the phrase: “SAMPLE CARD SEE OFFER ON BOTTOM OF THIS PACKAGE. ” It appears that were at least four of the “sample ” cards. ![]() Typical F279-18 “Quaker Pack-O-Ten Warplane ” (sample card) Back.
Most likely, Quaker used the same format that they used for their 18-card “Braves of Indian Nations” card set offer shown below. It appears that a “sample card” was inserted into the “Quaker Pack-O-Ten Cereals” box. It does not appear that anything other than the “sample” cards were included in the boxes. Using the Order Blank from the box, plus 10¢ the young collector could obtain the complete “Warplanes” 27-card set via mail-order directly from the Quaker Oats Company. When the padded enveloped arrived from Quaker, it had a return address of: Pack-O-Ten, Box 712, Chicago 77, Illinois. A special thanks to Dan Goodsell of Mistertoast.com for the following “Pack-O-Ten” box graphic. ![]() Typical Quaker Oats “Pack-O-Ten” Cereal Box The F279-18 “Mystery Set” Just when you think everything is under control, there always seems to be some unanswered questions. The reason we have two F279-18 “Warplane” 27-card sets listed is … there is an identical set of 27-cards with blank Backs. We' do not know the genesis of these cards. They might be “pattern” or “proof” cards from the printer or publisher, or just a set of error cards. During this era it was a common practice for a publisher to offer the same card set to more than one customer. A prime example of this practice is the “Aircraft Recognition Card“ PLC series. During the early 1950s, sets were issued by Carnation Corn Flakes, Hood Country Peach Ice Cream, 3-Minute Oats, Whitman Publishing and the Oak Manufacturing Company. All of these “Aircraft Recognition Cards” sets shared the same color photo/artwork. The Carnation Corn Flakes, Hood Country Peach Ice Cream and the 3-Minute Oats sets were borderless PLC designs with rounded corners. The Whitman sets were also borderless, but had square corners. However, the “Premiere Trading Cards, Airplanes” set was of a conventional trading card design with square corners and substantial borders around the airplane photo image. The Backs of the cards all had simplistic three-view OML (outer mold line) drawings of the subject aircraft, along with a brief narrative about the aircraft, and their product name. If anyone knows the history of the F279-18 “plain” Back set, please let us know. Image Guide Behind each of the “thumbnail” images lies a 600-dpi image of the card fronts and Backs. ![]() ![]() ![]() Boeing B-47 “Stratojet”
Checklist We have included two versions of checklist: (1) the web version shown below, and (2) an Adobe® Acrobat® PDF 8½ × 11 inch format checklist.
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