issues about some items of my collection... • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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issues about some items of my collection...
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aia
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Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 6:58 am

hi there!

i'd like to have confirmation about some "particular" details i discovered on some of my items:

1) i have a B1 (brown cover) that is 2/3 mm higher than all the others modules... i supposed that there was a standard size for all the TSR pubblication, but this is an exception (the only i found!)... is it normal? (the width is just the same as all the others)

2) my companion box has no TSR logo on the lateral side... all the d&d boxes i have, have the logo on the right part on it (i'm referring to the long side) but this one... is it normal? (this one was bought in the '80s in london, so it's probably an english print...)

3) i recently bought an expert set with dice and crayons (still in their unopened plastic bag)... afaik, no dice neither pencil were available with blue box (elmore artwork printing)... is it correct?

tnx in advance to everyone and ciao

NetRodent
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Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 9:12 am

2) My Companion boxed set has the angled TSR logo on the right side of the box but not the left. All of my other boxed sets in the BECMI series have the logos on both the left and right sides.

3) I'm pretty sure when I bought my Metzer Expert boxed set new I'm pretty sure it contained a bag of dice. A check of the back cover, confirms that it was supposed to include a bag of dice. I have no idea if the Cook Expert set came with dice or not.

Kingofpain89
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Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 10:21 am

I have two brown B1's and one is a bit taller than the other. Pretty sure it has something to do with the differences between the 4th and 6th printings. Not sure which I have though. There have been several past threads discussing the size difference of the earlier modules. You might want to do a search to see if you can come up with any more information. This one I checked is regarding some differences between the printings of S1:

viewtopic.php?t=2426&highlight=taller

ExTSR
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Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 11:17 am

Some of the crossover TSR modules came in a "tallboy" 1st print, corrected/shortened in the second. (Examples: A1 thru A4 & Q1.) I think the first full-color B1 had the same characteristic.

Dunno about Companion boxed sets; I wrote 'em but never examined 'em.

My sets (BECMI) came with precolored dice or (more often) none at all, iirc; in any event, the crayon color-your-own versions were from the previous editions.

deimos3428
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Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 11:54 am

ExTSR wrote:My sets (BECMI) came with precolored dice or (more often) none at all, iirc; in any event, the crayon color-your-own versions were from the previous editions.

Really? My BECMI Basic set definitely came with crayons/uncolored dice; perhaps that was uncommon, and/or a Canadian thing?

I remember crayoning them, as the Basic set was the first set I owned. It was a white crayon, with a grey paper wrapper. I believe the dice were light blue.

ExTSR
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Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 12:23 pm

I'm often wrong. ;> As I said, I just wrote 'em.
If I was right all the time I'd be on the Valuation board.

Basic may have been a transitional, going from crayons to pre-inked.

Anyone?

grodog
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Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 12:35 pm

This highlights the need to list out components in the box sets (dice, crayons, RPGA and Dragon flyers, modules, et al), so that folks have a fair idea of whether a box set is complete or not.

Allan Grohe ([email protected])
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https://www.facebook.com/BlackBladePublishing/

deimos3428
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Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 12:56 pm

ExTSR wrote:I'm often wrong. ;> As I said, I just wrote 'em.
If I was right all the time I'd be on the Valuation board.

You owe me a coffee and an isopropyl monitor wipe! :lol:

FormCritic
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Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 1:06 pm

grodog wrote:This highlights the need to list out components in the box sets (dice, crayons, RPGA and Dragon flyers, modules, et al), so that folks have a fair idea of whether a box set is complete or not.

Based on what Tim Kask told us, I doubt that there was a systematic approach to the dice in each box.

I get the impression that they just used whatever they had on hand...some with crayons, some loose, some in small bags...depending on which supplier and what was handy.

Remember Tim's story of the burst crate of 20-sided dice?

If you could find some TSR paperwork about dice purchases, you might have a link to the order that different print runs of the box sets appeared...not editions....print runs.

Mark

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faro
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Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 7:42 pm

deimos3428 wrote: You owe me a coffee and an isopropyl monitor wipe!

aia
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Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 3:34 am

grodog wrote:This highlights the need to list out components in the box sets (dice, crayons, RPGA and Dragon flyers, modules, et al), so that folks have a fair idea of whether a box set is complete or not.

from my side, i can grant you that foreign editions of expert set elmore artwork (such as the italian one i have bought in 1985) had no dice neither crayons!

i'm 100% sure of this! ...i recently bought an english/american version and in it i found dice precolored (6 dice, even the d10 which is not present in the previous sets; all of them are pale blue) and two crayons; i'd say from the shape and consistency, there're wax pencil, both of them black and wrapped with a gray paper...
i'm also sure that the set came with some leaflet in it (iirc it was an RPGA adv but i'd check it a second time!)

anyway, tnx a lot to everybody!!!

btw, what does it mean BECMI???

killjoy32
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Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:53 am

aia wrote:btw, what does it mean BECMI???

wild guess...

BECMI

Basic Expert Companion Master Immortal ?

Al

Are we nearly there yet?

ExTSR
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Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 9:19 am

Yep, what Al said... shorthand for the five boxed sets of D&D rules that I wrote in the 1980s, all visually characterized by the Elmore cover art. Commonly used since it's pronounceable, I guess.

BEx or B/X refers to the two sets by Moldvay/Cook which immediately precede mine.

aia
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Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 4:08 am

ExTSR wrote:Dunno about Companion boxed sets; I wrote 'em but never examined 'em.

ok, then i can take a picture of what i've found (let's say a comparison with all the other sets and the companion...)
the only thing i was able to figure out is that companion was bought in UK... maybe at cherry hinton there was another way to print box covers... :roll:

ExTSR wrote:My sets (BECMI) came with precolored dice or (more often) none at all, iirc; in any event, the crayon color-your-own versions were from the previous editions.

afaik, only basic had dice and crayons... this sounds strange to me... in any case i'll provide a pic of what i found in the blue box!

ciao

aia
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Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 3:24 am

ciao guys, i'm back with a couple of pics... one of the missing logo on the box and another of the dice bag...
to point is that i have no access to any hosting website (damned firewall!) and i can't place them online... so i kindly ask you to shoot me an email and i'll reply with with the images!

my address is: axel.boucher(AT)poste(DOT)it

ciao

aia
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Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 3:35 am

ok, here i am... back with pics!

in this one you can easly see that there's no TSR logo on the side of my companion box (i checked in a shop that it'd generally be present instead)...

what can you tell me about this strange thing?

while in the second one you can see the dice i found in two different sets:

the dice without bag are from a basic set (just the one on the top of the plie of the first picture!), while those in the bag are supposed coming from an expert set (just the one on the middle of the pile of the first picture!)

is it correct?

deimos3428
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Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:52 am

aia wrote:the dice without bag are from a basic set (just the one on the top of the plie of the first picture!), while those in the bag are supposed coming from an expert set (just the one on the middle of the pile of the first picture!)

is it correct?

Trick question! There are two "basic sets" in the photo. :wink:

The bagless dice are from the basic set on the top of the pile, a "Holmes" basic set (circa 1979 or thereabouts).

The bagged dice are from either the red box (Mentzer Basic, 1983) or dark blue box (Mentzer Expert). I think. I've never seen that particular color combination of bagged dice before -- they may well be from the red box after all.

aia
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Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 11:21 am

deimos3428 wrote:Trick question! There are two "basic sets" in the photo.

ohhh... com'on... i was enough claer in my question... are you an attorney?

deimos3428 wrote:The bagless dice are from the basic set on the top of the pile, a "Holmes" basic set (circa 1979 or thereabouts).

The bagged dice are from either the red box (Mentzer Basic, 1983) or dark blue box (Mentzer Expert). I think. I've never seen that particular color combination of bagged dice before -- they may well be from the red box after all.

therefore you're confirming my theory! one (w/out plastic bag) is older than the second one (in plastic) and furthermore the second one could come both from a red box or blue box (elmore artwork)!

ok, many tnx and one doubt is now solved!

who can help me with the other question?

what about lateral logo on green box???

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