NintendoThe Legend of Zelda Trump Playing Cards (Japan Import)

Let me start with I own quite a few decks of cards. I've bought a number of specialty decks (e.g. Star Wars themed, etc). Sadly, I find most of these decks are largely made to sell the name and/or artwork - not to actually be played with (at least, they feel like they wouldn't last long - I haven't actually risked a deck to find out).These cards on the other hand are wonderful. Now, keep in mind I have just bought these recently so accept my feelings on their durability with a grain of salt, however that being said, I think these would last for some time. I believe they're plastic rather than the typical paper I'm used to. They have great flexibility and spring back into position instantly and they shuffle quite easily.This deck appears to be "Bridge size": meaning they're a little narrower than a standard deck of poker cards.They come in a hard plastic case for storage which itself is packaged in a flexible plastic box.As to the designs themselves: they're beautiful. Many decks I have only have unique backs, court ("face") cards, aces, and jokers. Each card in this deck has special artwork, however. The letters/numbers on the card corners and the suit symbols themselves are stylized and look very nice while still being easily discernible (in the case of the suits, each symbol bears the mark of the "Triforce").Each suit bears artwork from a specific game: Spades is the original Legend of Zelda, Diamonds belong to Ocarina of Time, Hearts are The Wind Waker, and the most recent, Skyward Sword, gets Clubs.Each King bears the primary villain of the game, Queens are Princess Zelda, Jacks are Link, and Aces bear a primary item from the game (e.g. the ocarina for Diamonds/Ocarina of Time). On the "pips" one of the suit symbols as been replaced with something from the game it belongs to (e.g. one of the Diamonds on the 7 has been replaced with the Bow & Arrow from the game). There are two jokers, both have a [different] image of Tingle. I'm not sure which games their artworks are taken from, but if they're from games represented in the rest of the deck it would have to be Wind Waker and Skyward Sword.I'd like to add here that while the large suit symbol on the Aces have been replaced with an item from the game, the suit is still displayed in the corners under the "A" on these cards, so you won't have to recognize the item and match it to the game to know which suit it's from. (And the back of the cards is shown as the product picture, so I won't bother describing that.)In summary, I think the ~$20-25 it's currently being listed for is quite reasonable with it being an import. It's a beautiful and (appears to be a) well made deck that you could actually play with without destroying after a game or two. If you're a fan of Zelda or just collect cards this is a great deck to get.

These cards were awesome! For twelve dollars, I thought maybe something would be defective or they tore easily, but these were great! They were very thin, but like the flexible thin and not the touch-it-and-it-will-tear thin. The cards are great, the designs are creative and varied, with Ocarina of Time themed cards for diamonds, Skyward Sword for clovers, Wind Waker for hearts, and the original Zelda for spades! Jokers are Tingle (no surprise) from Majora's Mask and Wind Waker. Link is the jack, Zelda is queen, and Ganondorf/Girahim/Ganon are kings. Very nice cards, I played Solitaire with them and the extra images aren't confusing or anything. They bend easily but are like laminated or something so they won't tear, and are overall great quality cards. One thing I don't love about them is that they are the kind of thing that you can't help but want to put back EXACTLY perfectly with all the right sides up and the cards in order and all that. Also, the box was a bit wacky and hard to open (for me at least). You have to hole down the little clip thingys that keep the lid on, and pull off the top really carefully. The clip thingys are on the BOTTOM half, remember that when you try to open them or you will end up like me and waste about ten minutes trying to pry open the lid. Some other seller is doing these for like $87, don't get those. Even if those ARE a tiny bit better, it's not worth the extra seventy dollars they cost. I got the $12 ones and I really like them!! Ten out of five stars, this is awesome!

Awesome deck - saw the same deck in the Nintendo shop in Tokyo!

I saw these cards a while back on Amazon, and disregarded them. While the idea seemed awesome, the inconsistent art style of the "Links" on the back and the random art used on on each face pushed me away.More recently, I found some fan made Zelda playing cards, one set found on Fan Gamer and another from Soren Kalla art which were excellently made in a style that referenced the classic Bicycle cards. I ended up back on this page and this time, noticed that these were official cards from Nintendo and they were in limited stock - I had to get them.All my similar Zelda cards came in the same time frame, and I evaluated the others before I got to the official set, which gave me a bias of what to expect. Torn the wrapping, opened the pouch, and cracked the jewel casing (which the other cards didn't have, so a bonus to this set). I pulled off the top card which was Tingle Joker card, which felt a bit thin and flimsier than I expected - but that reminded me of the extra info cards or jokers you sometimes see in other card sets. So I thought nothing of it. Second item was a green folded paper with Japanese writing, Nintendo Logo and warning labels - I pulled it aside. I then became surprised and disappointed that the set of cards themselves felt just as thin as the Joker cards. They felt flimsier than the fan made cards that had thicker, canvas style paper. They even seemed flimsier than your standard Bicycle cards, though it has been years, maybe a decade since I've touched regular cards, so my memory could be wrong.The card backs have me split (no pun intended), An instant nostalgia trip occurs as you see the Links from various past Zelda games. The gold painted on the back is much like the gold used color special gold editions of Zelda games and systems - it's definitely "Gold" and not orange-yellow paint. However, the completely different art styles of the Links immediately make me feel as if these cards were made by an amateur Zelda fan making a collage, and not something officially sold by Big N.The faces are great, and the actual suits are nicely detailed on each card, instead of just the ace. However, that "amateur fan art" styling hits you in the face again as you see at least one suit on each card is replaced by an asset from the game - characters, items, sprites. It's awesome to see these items again, and admittedly, you may be able to appreciate these more as great conversation pieces if you were to actually play using these cards and talk about moments from the series, but the items used are a bit haphazard and doesn't always make sense. For example, one of the heart cards replaces a hear with a Zelda heart container while another Diamond card replaces a diamond with Din's Fire from Ocarina of Time. However, another diamond card uses the yellow Keaton mask, and another uses an ocarina. One of the clubs uses a butterfly net. It doesn't seem to make sense, other than the fact that it is an Anniversary deck that intends to reference the series. Thankfully, each suit only references on specific game in the series - so the spades only have NES Zelda sprites.The royal face cars are excellent, featuring main characters from the prospective series represented in the suit, and they all have a Triforce in the background, painted with the same gold as seen on the back.These cards are probably best used in a couple games with Zelda lovers, then no more to preserve the artwork and nearly eliminate risk of the cards being torn or damaged. The most hardcore collectors should already have this, but if you fancy Zelda memorabilia, then this is a very nice addition to your collection - They aren't perfect, though.