Tazos are round circular disks, which are found in packets of chips

Potato chip

Potato chips are thin slices of potato that are deep fried...

 made by Frito-Lay

Frito-Lay

Frito-Lay North America is the division of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets and sells corn chips, potato chips and other snack foods. The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips,...

 and its subsidiaries around the world. The idea behind Tazos started out similar to Pogs

Pogs

Pogs is a game that was popularized during the early 1990s. The word "pog" also refers to the discs used to play the game. The name originates from POG, a brand of juice made from passionfruit, orange and guava; the use of the POG bottle caps to play the game pre-dated the game's commercialization...

, whereby each Tazo contained a score value, and a game was played to 'win' Tazos from other players.

Tazos have been released in several different formats, ranging from the original circular disks, to octagonal disks, and in later years, to resemble more of a collectible card

Trading card

A trading card is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing and a short description of the picture, along with other text...

. In additional to the traditional game, some Tazo series feature small incisions around the outside, allowing players to fit them together and build things. The Star Wars

Star Wars

Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...

 series also included additional pieces which allowed players to construct notable space ships. Another tactic that can be done with the incisions during gameplay, is to insert 2 Tazos together, and push down on the second one so it spins across the table. The player who can make it go almost to the edge and then come back won the game. Players could bet so if one lost, they would also lose their Tazo too. This is not necessarily a common rule, but sometimes is agreed upon for fun by the players.

Tazos are traditionally made from a plastic base, but some series have been produced from cardboard or aluminium (such as the Australian

Australian Tazos

Tazos were first released in Australia in 1995 with the Looney Tunes set, since then Australia the TAZO series has grown with various themes which include various The Simpsons sets, Beyblades, Star Wars, Marvel Heroes and in the last few years AFL and NRL footy sets....

 Yu-Gi-Oh!

Yu-Gi-Oh!

is a Japanese manga created by Kazuki Takahashi. It has produced a franchise that includes multiple anime shows, a trading card game and numerous video games...

 Metallix series.

Tazos series

Tazos started out with a set of 100 tazos featuring the images Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...

 characters and 124 Tiny Toons tazos in 1994. Other sets from around the world include Chiquito de la Calzada

Chiquito de la Calzada

Gregorio Esteban Sánchez Fernández , known as Chiquito de la Calzada, is a Spanish flamenco singer and actor, although he is more famous as a stand-up comedian...

(1994, set of 20), Disney (1994, set of 91), Pocahontas (1994, set of 50), Los Caballeros del Zodiaco Saint Seiya (1994, set of 40), The Simpsons

The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

 (1995, set of 100), Looney Tunes (1995, set of 100), Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon, known as , is a media franchise created by manga artist Naoko Takeuchi. Fred Patten credits Takeuchi with popularizing the concept of a team of magical girls, and Paul Gravett credits the series with "revitalizing" the magical-girl genre itself...

 (1996, set of 100), Pokémon

Pokémon

is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...

 (1999, set of 51), Dinosaurio (2000, set of 51), Pokémon 2 (2000, set of 100), Pokémon 3 (2001), Cubi-Tazos featuring Scooby-Doo (TV, 2001, set of 24), Medabots (2002, set of 70 classic and 70 metalix), Dragonball Z GT (2003, set of 60 metalix), Yu-Gi-Oh! (2004), set of 101), Mucha Lucha (2005, set of 150), Mucha Lucha 2: La Revancha (2005, set of 180), Los Simpsons The Simpsons

The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

 (TV, 2006–2007, set of 144), Bob Esponja SpongeBob SquarePants

SpongeBob SquarePants

SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...

 (TV, 2007, set of 163 plus 5 in Cheetos), Pokémon 4 Generación Avanzada (2008, set of 235), El Tigre: Las Aventuras De Manny Rivera

El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera

El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera is Nickelodeon's first ever flash animation series produced for Nickelodeon and Nicktoons Network. The first screening of the show was on January 19, 2007 in the first ever Nickelodeon Creative Summit held in San Juan, Puerto Rico as a special treat for the...

 (2008, set of 200), WWE (TV, 2009, set of 176), Bakugan Battle Brawlers

Bakugan Battle Brawlers

is a Japanese action adventure anime television series produced by TMS Entertainment and Japan Vistec under the direction of Mitsuo Hashimoto. The story centers on the lives of creatures called Bakugan and the battle brawlers who possess them...

 (TV, June–August 2009 in packages of Cheetos in India, set of 26), Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon (TV channel)

Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...

 (TV, 2010, set of 195), Shrek

Shrek

Shrek is a 2001 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, featuring the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow. Loosely based on William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture book Shrek!...

: Para Siempre Shrek Forever (film, 2010 in packages of Cheetos in Peru), Bakugan Battle Brawlers (TV, 2010 in Cheetos Sorpresa in Peru with the slogan "Descubre el Poder de los Tazos" Discover the Power of Tazos, numbered set of 120), Star Wars

Star Wars

Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...

, Australian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 and National Rugby League

National Rugby League

The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...

 and Beyblade

Beyblade

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takao Aoki. Originally serialized in CoroCoro Comic from 2000 to 2002, the individual chapters were collected and published in 14 tankōbon by Shogakukan...

s

Countries

Tazos have been released around the world, in packets of chips including Cheese Tris, Cheetos, Cheetos Sorpresa, Chizitos, Doritos, Lay's Potato Chips, Piqueo Snax, Smith's Potato Chips, Thins, Twisties, Uncle Chips (India), and Walkers.
Countries that have had Tazo releases include:

• Argentina
• Australia
  Australian Tazos
  Tazos were first released in Australia in 1995 with the Looney Tunes set, since then Australia the TAZO series has grown with various themes which include various The Simpsons sets, Beyblades, Star Wars, Marvel Heroes and in the last few years AFL and NRL footy sets....
  
  
• Colombia
• Bahrain
• Brazil
• Chile
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• Estonia
• Greece
• Guatemala
• Hungary
• India
• Indonesia
• Israel
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Pakistan
• Panama
• Peru
• Poland
• Portugal
• Puerto Rico
• Saudi Arabia
• South Africa
• South Korea
• Spain
• Turkey
• United Kingdom
• United States of America
• Venezuela

Collectors and Enthusiasts

The world's biggest collector of tazo's is Matthew Tipping. Tipping has collected more than 2 million tazos over a period of 20 years