Identifying your edition of Clue (Parker Brothers)

If you have read this blog for any length of time you know that I'm prone to go off on all kinds of tangents. I did collect boardgames at one point, primarily Avalon Hill and SPI. Most of those games are long as I moved away from the collecting aspect of our hobby. There is an exception; Clue by Parker Brothers.

Yes, there are plenty of editions of the game Clue or more properly in England Cluedo. The original was published by Waddingtons in England as Cluedo (although the original presentation was as "Murder" I believe). It was brought to the US in 1949 and the US publication rights were purchased by Parker Brothers.  I periodically search through eBay to see what versions are out there and slowly increase the collection. Nothing drives me crazier than mis-identified versions being touted as 1st editions, even copies published as late as 1963 are identified like this, but I do understand why this happens.

The first edition of Clue was published in the US in 1949, it consisted of a small box containing the pieces and the board was separate from the box. The board was displayed in stores and when you purchased it they gave you the box of pieces. There are actually two versions of this 1949 edition. One says the "Great Detective Game" on the front and the other says the "The Sherlock Holmes Detective Game". Later in 1949 the long game box that we are familiar with was introduced with all the components in the box. Again there are two variations of this version; Great Detective and Sherlock Holmes. So within the first year of publication there are 4 variations of the box, the game itself remained the same. The boxes are an odd shade of green which fades very badly to a light grayish green.

This is a picture of the 1949 re-production and the color is a little lighter than a mint first edition.

The next edition was published in 1956 and this one is often mistaken as a first edition. While the copyright on the board says 1956 the rules are still copyrighted 1949. Definitely not a first edition, the orange box is the first dead give away and followed closely by the 1956 copyright on the board. I have a couple of versions of this box and I'm not sure if they are really different colors or if the orange faded in an odd way.

The other edition that is sometimes identified as a 1st edition is the 1963 "Hanna Barbara" edition. I call it this because its the edition I grow up with and the artwork on the cards is done in a very cartoon style. I'm not sure why this is sometimes called a first edition as the rules have at least two copyright dates and the board has a 1963 copyright on it. This version is still pretty common yet I have seen it on sale for as much as $45 dollars, I would maybe pay $10 for a mint or near mint copy and no I don't want to buy your's!

The next edition came out in 1972 and pretty much this one and those that followed are pretty easy to find. This is one of those games that just about every household had on their game shelf at one time or another. There are also a ton of licensed variations; Alfred Hitchcock, Scooby Doo, Disney's Haunted Mansion, even an "The Office" version. However, one of the more sought after editions was created by the Franklin Mint. This is one I'm still looking for at a reasonable price (I have since acquired a copy of this for less than the original retail price, quite a coup since I have seen it sell of well over $1,000 on a number of occasions).

I think those are 24K gold plated pieces! Its been a while since I have looked for this one.

I'm not at home so I don't have access to my own collection so I have borrowed a lot of pictures off of other websites. There used to be a number of really good websites out there with a lot of information but it looks like they have disappeared into the ether. The one "good" site that I did find I considered rather poor as far as content was concerned. I guess I will have to start photographing my own collection and shoving the information into an obscure corner of my website, hoping that it will help those trying to figure out what edition of Clue they own.