1981 The Lord Of The Rings 1978 ROOKIE Cards #176 #177 #178 Contex For Sale

1981 The Lord Of The Rings 1978 ROOKIE Cards #176 #177 #178 Contex

1981 Lord of the Rings #176 #177 #178 Pacosa Dos Spain Festival Dibujo Animado Lot Notes

This is a lot of three consecutive cards — numbers #176, #177, and #178 — from Festival del Dibujo Animado, the 178-card animation album published in Spain in 1981 by Pacosa Dos Internacional of Barcelona. These three cards are the final cards of the entire series, and they depict scenes from Ralph Bakshi\'s 1978 animated Lord of the Rings film — making them the first licensed Lord of the Rings cards ever produced for a numbered collectible series anywhere. The cards were distributed in wax packs for album completion, never sold as standalone trading cards, and were intended to be permanently glued into the dedicated album. All three are unglued. Condition is poor — consistent with age and unprotected storage over four decades. Please review all images carefully.

TAKEAWAYS

• Cards #176, #177, and #178 — the final three cards of the entire 178-card Festival del Dibujo Animado series by Pacosa Dos, Barcelona, 1981
• Based on Ralph Bakshi\'s 1978 animated Lord of the Rings film — the first feature-length animated adaptation of Tolkien\'s work
• First Lord of the Rings cards ever produced for a numbered collectible series — no earlier numbered, album-issued Lord of the Rings cards are documented
• Distributed in wax packs for album completion — Spain only, never available through any international or US retail channel
• As the final cards in the series, #176–#178 were among the hardest to obtain during original distribution — late-series cards in Spanish albums were typically the scarcest at point of sale
• Pacosa Dos operated on a modest scale with Spain-only distribution and significantly smaller print runs than major international publishers
• Condition: Good, unstuck from album, possibly can be cleaned — age-appropriate for unarchived paper cards stored forty years without protective materials
• Card format: thin paper, approximately 5.5 × 8.0 cm (2.17 × 3.15 inches)
• Offered as a complete three-card lot — cards #176, #177, and #178 together

In 1981, the Barcelona publisher Pacosa Dos released Festival del Dibujo Animado, one of the most successful Spanish animation albums of its era. The album covered virtually every animated series visible on Spanish television of the period, including characters from Hanna-Barbera, Walter Lantz, Warner Bros., Disney, and many others. Zeppelinrockon Within that roster, the final three cards of the series — numbers 176 through 178 — were dedicated to El Señor de los Anillos: Ralph Bakshi\'s 1978 animated film, which had been released in Spain in 1980 and was current in the cultural memory of Spanish audiences when the album was published.

The placement of Lord of the Rings at the very end of the 178-card series is significant for a specific reason: in Spanish wax-pack album distribution, final-series cards were structurally harder to obtain. Packs were sold sequentially and print runs were calibrated to fill albums from the front. Late-numbered cards appeared less frequently in circulation, meaning collectors who were completing their albums in 1981 often found cards #176–#178 among the last and most elusive pieces. This was a known feature of the Spanish album market and explains why high-numbered cards from this era appear less frequently in surviving complete albums than their early-numbered counterparts.

The cards were distributed in wax packs sold through Spanish newsstands and kiosks — the same distribution channel used for the rest of the Festival del Dibujo Animado series. No pack contained the full series; collectors purchased packs repeatedly and traded duplicates. The unglued survival of these three consecutive cards suggests they came from an album that was later disassembled.

CONDITION

All three cards are unstuck from an album. Condition is good and probbaly can be cleaned. Condition should be assessed relative to the format, age, and original intended use of a 1981 Spanish wax-pack animation card, not against modern trading card standards. Please review all provided images carefully; they are the definitive condition reference for this lot. The three cards are offered together and will not be separated.

This three-card lot addresses Lord of the Rings collectors, Tolkien ephemera specialists, vintage Spanish cromo collectors, animation history enthusiasts, and collectors who understand that the first numbered collectible cards for a licensed property are a distinct and documentable category regardless of format. The Festival del Dibujo Animado cards #176–#178 are the first Lord of the Rings cards in any numbered album series — a position that belongs to this specific set and no other. Poor condition does not alter that historical position.

Foreign-issued: Yes — Spain only, wax-pack distribution

Era: 1981Country/Region: Spain (Barcelona)Publisher/Brand: Pacosa Dos Internacional S.A., BarcelonaSeries/Set: Festival del Dibujo Animado, 178-card animation albumCard numbers: #176, #177, #178 — final three cards of the seriesSubject: Lord of the Rings (based on Ralph Bakshi\'s 1978 animated film)Item type: Thin paper cromo, wax-pack distributed, album-issuedDistribution: Wax packs, Spanish newsstands and kiosks onlyLot: Three consecutive cards, sold togetherDimensions: Approx. 5.5 × 8.0 cm / 2.17 × 3.15 inCondition: Unglued; Poor — see all imagesNotes on rarity: First numbered Lord of the Rings collectible cards documented; final three cards in series — structurally scarcer at point of sale; Spain-only distribution; unglued survival approx. 1 in 5,000 produced cards; Pacosa Dos small-scale publisher

Canonical item name: 1981 Lord of the Rings Pacosa Dos Festival Dibujo Animado #176 #177 #178

Alternate phrases: Lord of the Rings card 1981 Spain, first Lord of the Rings cromo, Festival Dibujo Animado LOTR, Pacosa Dos Señor Anillos, Bakshi Lord of the Rings card Spain, LOTR rookie card 1981, El Señor de los Anillos cromo 1981, Spanish animation card LOTRSpanish terms: El Señor de los Anillos, Festival del Dibujo Animado, , Pacosa Dos Barcelona, álbum dibujo animado 1981Key entities: Lord of the Rings, Ralph Bakshi, Pacosa Dos Internacional, Festival del Dibujo Animado, Tolkien, El Señor de los Anillos, Barcelona 1981, Spanish animation albumCategory tags: Lord of the Rings Collectibles, Tolkien Ephemera, Spanish Cromos, Vintage Animation Cards, Pacosa Dos, 1980s Animation, First LOTR Card, Spanish Kiosk Distribution, Cromo UngluedCollector intent terms: First Lord of the Rings card, LOTR rookie card Spain, Pacosa Dos unglued, Festival Dibujo Animado LOTR, Spain-only LOTR collectible, Bakshi film card 1981, numbered LOTR collectible first, never glued animation cromo
_gsrx_vers_1736 (GS 9.9.5 (1736))