I have been trying to get hold of this catalogue (without breaking the bank) for a while and I was pleased to get one a few days ago for a reasonable price. The first surprise when I opened the envelope was how small it is- A5 size not A4 as I had assumed. But its packed with lovely pictures of sets from 1977.
This catalogue features 32 of the 49 sets first issued in 1977, all klickies having fixed wrists.
Most of the booklet is given over to ten Steck old buildings and castles, sets 3440 to 3448 and 3450. Each has a whole-page photo of the building and accessories alongside a picture of the set box. These pictures are great for confirming the set contents (for some reason, only 3447 features in the Datenbank-Setinhalt on Klickywelt, usually an excellent place to see pictures of the contents of sets in the 1974 to 1990 period .
On the facing page opposite each building is a ‘comic strip,’ a series of drawings depicting a story centred on the building in question. I found most of these stories quite hard to interpret (most have no words) and also unfunny. For example the story for 3450 involves a knight riding up to the castle on his horse, drawing water from the well and tipping it into the horse trough, then (in the final picture) the horse follows him up the steps into the castle and asks for a glass of wine (pictogram)! Maybe I am not attuned to the humour of the mid-70s German graphic designer?
The final double-page spread illustrates 12 ‘single klicky’ sets, 3 sets with 5 klickies and 3 sets with 7 klickies and 4 accessories sets (no klickies); all 22 sets are on a ‘medieval town’ or ‘knights’ theme. The catalogue covers 32 out of the 49 sets released in 1977 in Germany (the other 17 sets being 5 car sets, 3 van sets, a truck, a plane, a helicopter, a caravan, a garden furniture set, a stagecoach and 3 western buildings).
The cover is a lovely diorama showing several of the buildings. (I removed some of the blemishes with Photoshop(R).)
