This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

It has spawned T-shirts, DVDs, a magazine and even a live world tour. Now BBC2's Top Gear is seeking to extend its grip on the nation's consciousness with a Pokemon-style trading card game aimed at children and young teenagers.

Top Gear Turbo Challenge features 276 cards to collect. The cards include ratings of cars reviewed on the show based on "speed", "toughness" and "coolness" and quotes from the presenters along with links to online games.

The game launches with a partwork magazine in 52 parts, Top Gear Turbo Challenge, with a cover-mounted pack of nine cards. Trading cards will be available to buy separately – at £1.50 for a pack of nine – with the "ultimate" sub-Zero Stig card appearing in one in every 1,000 packs.

A gaming website, topgearturbo.com, features games based on challenges featured in the show, including a race against a French high-speed train and a mission to reach the North Pole in a 4x4 quicker than a dog sled.

Publisher Duncan Gray said: "Top Gear Turbo Challenge is tipped to be one of the biggest launches of the year and we're confident boys and girls aged 7-14 will be clamouring to be part of this new craze. Top Gear Turbo Challenge is not only a highly collectable magazine; it's also a brilliant new trading card collection and gaming website.

"As a business, BBC Magazines is very excited about the opportunity to bring this new product to market and we confidently expect it to drive significant retail sales value through all participating retail channels."

Top Gear has become a global phenomenon since it was relaunched with presenter Jeremy Clarkson eight years ago, broadcast in more than 100 countries and claiming a global audience of 350 million.

As well as Top Gear magazine, the long-running BBC2 show, presented by Clarkson with Richard Hammond and James May, has spawned spin-off merchandising including DVDs, CDs, books, clothing, mugs, calendars and key rings. Top Gear merchandise also includes a "V8 roaring vibrating engine pencil sharpener", a "speaking bendy-limbed Stig doll" and a "Stig soap on a rope".

But the show has also faced accusations that it is running out of steam, with producer Andy Wilman admitting recently that its current incarnation was "nearer the end than the beginning".

Clarkson and Wilman have a stake in the Top Gear brand, through their company Bedder 6, an unprecedented joint venture between the Top Gear presenter and producer and the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide.

The first issue of Top Gear Turbo Challenge magazine will be on sale on Wednesday, at a reduced price of £1.50. Subsequent issues will cost £2.50, with issues two and three including a free The Stig helmet card collection holder.

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