CLUE "Silver Line" Edition

alwaysPeacock · Post by **alwaysPeacock** » Mon Jul 24, 2017 4:40 pm

Looks like this year's special edition: https://www.instagram.com/p/BW5z4bgj5ge/

That's from Toys "R" Us Last Vegas. Hopefully it's not an exclusive, and we'll all be able to get one at our local stores/online.

EDIT: here it is on TRU's website.

Looks pretty, though I'd prefer the board in grey tones with color accents (start spaces mainly). Looks like the Master Detective weapons again, plus the poison. Invitations, like the 50th anniversary, a lovely black notebook...and the ? figures from the last edition...huh...

Still, the box is almost exactly how I'd pictured a special edition of the new game, in my head. The facade of the mansion looks great in greyscale.

cluedoking123 · Post by **cluedoking123** » Mon Jul 24, 2017 5:26 pm

Well I'll be heading to Toys R Us on my way to work on Wednesday lol

Murder by Death · Post by **Murder by Death** » Mon Jul 24, 2017 6:06 pm

Nice find, but I can't say I'm all that impressed. The plastic pawns from the 2011 game are not very encouraging (That's got to make @alwaysPeacock crazy -- why not the Cluedo figurines?). It's basically a standard game, in black and white, with what appear to be shrunken versions of the Master Detective weapons. For $30. I think I'll pass until the price drops. And what are those 6 little hatchet looking things? -- never mind, those are the clips for the Invitation cards to attach the detective notepads. And here's a thought ... if you're giving us the Poison token as an option ... how about giving us Mrs. White as an option!? Or maybe just giving us Mrs. White instead of Dr. Orchid for this "deluxe" game?

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.js ... =121373686

http://www.toysrus.com/graphics/product ... enh-z6.jpg

CluedoKid · Post by **CluedoKid** » Mon Jul 24, 2017 10:51 pm

Though suspect pieces are so ugly, they hurt my eyes.

alwaysPeacock · Post by **alwaysPeacock** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:22 am

The suspect pawns are hideous. I'd probably replace them with the Cluedo figures, or pick up some wooden pawns from the game shop near my house. I could almost understand Hasbro using up their stock of 2011/13 figures for this edition, but they've obviously had to go to some expense to replace the clear figure with a pink one. This would have been a great opportunity to integrate the new figures into the US market, but I digress. *beep*, even wooden pawns on "silver" bases would have been better...

The "hatchet things" are the clips to hold your notepad to your invitation. It's exactly like the 50th Anniversary edition's notebooks in that respect.

What I mostly love is the box. It really is almost exactly how I thought a deluxe version of the new game would look (I'm a little unnerved by how much it resembles my imagined box art. Clearly Hasbro has mind reading technology...or they've become very predictable). I don't love the big magnifying glass, but I see how it ties in with the other titles in the Silver Line.

The new board doesn't completely work with the silver theme. But, I know from using the Hitchcock and 1st edition Harry Potter boards how tricky monochromatic Clue boards can be. I think they've found a decent middle ground approach.

Murder by Death · Post by **Murder by Death** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:46 am

Maybe the box will look better in person. I'm not that impressed so far. I think I'd rather see the suspects in black and white as well. I assume the room cards are in color as well, but I wonder about the weapon cards -- I wonder if they've been redesigned to reflect the MD weapons set, since they obviously had to add the poison token? Anybody notice the card backs look like the Limited Gift Edition card backs? Interesting Hasbro would use a Winning Moves design, rather than a black and white version of mansion artwork used on the standard game cards for this edition.

These plastic tokens appear to be muted colors compared to the 2011 edition -- "silvered" if you will -- so they may all be brand new for this edition, not just the pink one. The cards also appear to be "silvered". It's a real shame they weren't translucent figurines from the Cluedo edition instead. Better yet, pewter figurines mounted on colored bases like the 50th Anniversary edition.

alwaysPeacock · Post by **alwaysPeacock** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:36 am

The card backs may very well be a greyscale image of the mansion, though. Remember this is new Clue in a spiffy box, so it's still going to have the bonus cards, which we know are the ones with the magnifying glass on the back. Much like the promotional photos for the 2016 game, only one card back is on display here. The die closest to Me. Green's card has a magnifying glass on display, so it's a safe bet the bonus deck is included in this as well.

The actual box can be seen in the Instagram link in my original post. It's clearly shiny/"metallic" in person, and you'll see the Toys R Us exclusive seal is on the opposite side of the box top. So the promo photos may very well not reflect the final product entirely. In fact, the layout is so similar to the promotional photos for the 2016 game, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just a digital mock up based on the working designs.

I will also add: if I open that shiny, $30 box and there isn't a proper tray insert for the components, I'll feel cheated.

Murder by Death · Post by **Murder by Death** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:44 am

Meh. I took a closer look at the box in that Instagram photo and it's still not that exciting to me. I did notice it looks like the background sky of the mansion picture appears to have a holographic effect, with maybe a shifting color effect. That at least does tie into the overall game design better. What's funny is that in black and white it reminds me of the Bate's PSYCHO house.

I see what you mean about the card backs. Yes, there will likely be bonus cards, so the playing cards will likely have the mansion, maybe even with the holographic effect seen on the box (nah). And looking more closely at the suspect cards, the blue background is gray, so I suspect the weapons cards to likewise be gray. It's funny it took a monochrome depiction to link it to the LGE in my mind, but it's not the primary card back so that's probably another reason I didn't notice the similarity before.

The box is certainly capable of holding a proper tray insert, and both the 50th Anniversary, and more recently Secrets in Paris, had them. Unlike he 50th Anniversary there's no tin that doubles as a dice cup to hold the weapons, just a cloth bag, so that doesn't bode well for an overly accommodating tray solution. And the box extreior looks very similar to Secrets in Paris construciton.

Still for this price a nice plastic insert would be helpful, and the box seems thick enough to have one. Then again, I'd already feel cheated based on the tokens alone. I wonder if there will be a more complete rule book, as included with the U.K. Edition, not to mention the 50th Anniversary?

I'm sure you're right that the promo artwork is just mock ups. That holds out hope that the weapons tokens are the full-sized ones which came with MD and the 50th editions. And maybe the pawns/tokens will be nicer? Maybe even the Cluedo ones? I'm still frustrated that they haven't included a Mrs. white card as an option (particularly for this monochrome edition), now that we know they have the artwork and backstory. Especially since there's an optional poison card and token -- no reason not to have an optional character card. Since they detective notes in the photo don't have 7 suspects, I'll assume that's a lost cause. What we need is a picture of the box back ...

One final though -- isn't ToysRUs a big European brand store as well? If so, why no Cluedo "exclusive"? Is is just a US only exclusive?

alwaysPeacock · Post by **alwaysPeacock** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:00 pm

I'm wondering where you're getting the impression the weapon tokens are smaller than usual. To my eyes, the ones in the promo shot look identical to the 50th anniversary set (other than the revolver, which is back to its Master Detective mold). I say this based on seeing the poison bottle next to a suspect pawn, but also aware this photo may not accurately reflect the final product.

I agree about Mrs. White. They have art for a card, they might as well get some use out of it. The classic board layout would be easy to modify to have a central start space (if it's a concern that the other two possible start spaces are too close to doors), much like the pool in DTS, though modeled more like the 2011 game (logo with doors) or the mobile version (stairs).

I want to believe this has better suspect tokens in real life, but I'm not hopeful. Even if this is just a digitally assembled mock up (with a simple color change for the clear white pawn to pink), I can see why they would use these. Of the modern pawn designs, they're the most gem-like, with a translucent shimmer that would, in theory, complement something marketed under a "silver line" label. And they're bound to be cheaper to mass produce than millions (or just thousands) of copies of 6 completely different figures.

Murder by Death · Post by **Murder by Death** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 2:43 pm

alwaysPeacock wrote:I'm wondering where you're getting the impression the weapon tokens are smaller than usual. To my eyes, the ones in the promo shot look identical to the 50th anniversary set (other than the revolver, which is back to its Master Detective mold). I say this based on seeing the poison bottle next to a suspect pawn, but also aware this photo may not accurately reflect the final product.

I agree about Mrs. White. They have art for a card, they might as well get some use out of it. The classic board layout would be easy to modify to have a central start space (if it's a concern that the other two possible start spaces are too close to doors), much like the pool in DTS, though modeled more like the 2011 game (logo with doors) or the mobile version (stairs).

I want to believe this has better suspect tokens in real life, but I'm not hopeful. Even if this is just a digitally assembled mock up (with a simple color change for the clear white pawn to pink), I can see why they would use these. Of the modern pawn designs, they're the most gem-like, with a translucent shimmer that would, in theory, complement something marketed under a "silver line" label. And they're bound to be cheaper to mass produce than millions (or just thousands) of copies of 6 completely different figures.

I just realized the fallacy with my request for an optional Mrs. White card, which we've discussed before -- there's no starting space for her. Again, easily remedied, but not without changing the existing board artwork. Not a huge issue in of itself -- it could be as easy as adding a Mrs. White start space right next to Dr. Orchid's, albeit one space closer, but then so is Peacock, and then that makes this edition "special" over the regular version, at least more than just the monochromatic treatment. The new weapons tokens are nice, but not really enough to justify the $30 price tag, especially with the cheap plastic tokens.

My reasoning behind my observation that the weapons tokens look smaller than the original MD versions is the relative size compared to the dice -- and remember those plastic tokens are not that large. Here's a picture of the regular TCMG promo -- the tokens appear about the same size to me. Again, this could simply be the scale reflected by a digital marketing mockup and not the actual sizes. But there's no reason to believe in the era of modern 3D printing that they went back to the original molds. If I had to guess, they probably scanned in a set of actual MD tokens, shrunk them down to conserve on metal and created new molds for this game.

As for the playing tokens, I totally understand the argument for "jewel-like" playing pieces, done as cheaply as possible. But again, they already have the molds for these 6 suspects, and like the weapons, there's no reason they couldn't pour pewter in them instead of plastic, and mount them on "jewel-like" colored bases like the 50th Anniversary edition. Definitely not as inexpensively, but certainly justifying the price-tag. Heck they could even charge more ... once you're committed to paying $30, paying an extra couple of bucks is not going deter someone ...

Black · Post by **Black** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 5:28 pm

CluedoKid wrote:Though suspect pieces are so ugly, they hurt my eyes.

Totally agree, mostly because when the pieces are translucent - it is a little difficult to tell the difference between the Purple, Pink and Red.

alwaysPeacock · Post by **alwaysPeacock** » Fri Jul 28, 2017 8:01 pm

This site has a brief overview of the three Silver Line games, with some closer looks at the components. Unfortunately, the ugly ? suspect tokens are a reality (though it looks like they may have been made with a shimmery/glittery plastic, but it's hard to tell if that's just the lighting). I'm also not thrilled the cards haven't been given a silver foil border -- the border effect (identical to the borders on the Monopoly board) looks really cheap, IMO.

On the bright side, the weapons look great, and if the Monopoly and Scrabble boxes are indicative of the entire line, Clue should have a decent tray & thematically matching rules booklet (no idea if it's the fuller Cluedo layout or the truncated Clue version though).

I still love the box, and if a better deluxe edition doesn't turn up before the holidays, I'll still probably pick this up when there's a good coupon or sale.

(Also, I despise those rounded Scrabble tiles! They look plastic, too, which just sounds like players begging the tiles to slide all over if the board gets bumped.)

Murder by Death · Post by **Murder by Death** » Sat Jul 29, 2017 12:33 am

alwaysPeacock wrote:This site has a brief overview of the three Silver Line games, with some closer looks at the components. Unfortunately, the ugly ? suspect tokens are a reality (though it looks like they may have been made with a shimmery/glittery plastic, but it's hard to tell if that's just the lighting). I'm also not thrilled the cards haven't been given a silver foil border -- the border effect (identical to the borders on the Monopoly board) looks really cheap, IMO.

On the bright side, the weapons look great, and if the Monopoly and Scrabble boxes are indicative of the entire line, Clue should have a decent tray & thematically matching rules booklet (no idea if it's the fuller Cluedo layout or the truncated Clue version though).

I still love the box, and if a better deluxe edition doesn't turn up before the holidays, I'll still probably pick this up when there's a good coupon or sale.

(Also, I despise those rounded Scrabble tiles! They look plastic, too, which just sounds like players begging the tiles to slide all over if the board gets bumped.)

Thanks for that link. At least the weapons are confirmed the correct original larger size, confirming the marketing photos are indeed digital mock ups with the weapons scaled incorrectly. I've already got several sets of these weapons so they don't really get me that excited..

I'm not sure what you mean about the cards -- you Say you're not thrilled they haven't been given a foil border, but they have. I take it you meant to say they "have" been given, and don't like the foil border? One place the foil doesn't work is on the grid squares where they meet the room -- since it doesn't go across the doors, it appears as though the space adjacent to the room door is part of the room -- that should be good for a few family arguments during a game.

Odd that the Clue game video didn't show the booklet as both the monopoly and scrabble did. I'm not entirely sure how nice the tray will be. All three of these games look cheap. The clue game dividers could just as easily be cardboard as plastic.

And those playing tokens look even worse than I remembered. I'm still not that impressed with the box. It looks kinda cheap and cheesy in this video. All things considered, I'd rather pay a bit more and get something more like the Barnes and Noble Onyx editions of the classic games.

I really don't care for the Monopoly game -- it's way too colorful given the monochromatic color scheme. At a minimum, the hotels and houses should have been black and white, if not silver. Community chest and chance should have likewise been monochromatic. The only color should have been the properties and money.

alwaysPeacock · Post by **alwaysPeacock** » Sat Jul 29, 2017 1:45 am

Is that foil on the cards though? It looks absolutely flat in that close up of Dr. Orchid's card -- like a printed, silver colored border with highlights to suggest a silver shine. Nearly identical to the Monopoly space edges:

As for the tray, I'm fairly certain it's just one solid plastic mold. Monopoly has the banker's rack built in, and Scrabble has the individual slots for the letter racks. I'd assume Clue has some recessed rectangle for the cards, a larger & deeper rectangle for the notes/invitations, and a larger space for the bag of tokens & dice. A simplified version of the 50th anniversary tray, probably.

I won't pay full price for this edition, but I like it enough to grab it at a discount. Re: my love for the box art, I'll admit the big magnifying glass is unforgivably tacky. This whole series would look better without those large features slapped onto the covers. But the house looks great in greyscale, especially without the suspects posed around it. I'll happily use this to decorate a shelf where I don't have enough books, maybe trot it out for fancy game nights when I don't want to risk marring one of my legitimately deluxe editions.

Now, if B&N do an Onyx line again, and include Clue this time around, I will pay whatever they want because those games were truly gorgeous. It's a shame Hasbro's own Clue was so poorly designed when B&N did those games, though I'm sure they could have licensed the classic game instead.

Not that it makes them less awful, but I'm fairly certain these have been made with some kind of glitter infused plastic:

They're better than the DTS era slabs, if only marginally...

alwaysPeacock · Post by **alwaysPeacock** » Sat Jul 29, 2017 1:59 am

Thought: when Cluedo got revamped in the '90s, Waddingtons started using grey plastic figures of the suspects which slotted into colored bases. In theory, couldn't Hasbro have made a nicer game at a reasonable price if they'd taken a similar approach with this edition? Cast the new suspect figures in the same silver/grey plastic (fitting for a so-called "silver line" edition), and have them slot into translucent/shimmery plastic bases of the appropriate colors. Boom, a game suddenly more worthy of a $30 price tag, without the added expense of metal/multicolored playing pieces, and utilizing something Hasbro already has at their disposal (the character molds).

Yeah, it's not as inexpensive as the route Hasbro took with reviving the ? figures. But it's better.

Murder by Death · Post by **Murder by Death** » Sat Jul 29, 2017 10:12 am

I think that is a printed metallic silver/foil on the cards and Monopoly board, the same as it is on the box. This seems to be a new/cheaper printing technique for the process. I could be wrong, but if it's not then the Monopoly board really doesn't have any foil on it at all, in the way the Clue and Scrabble boards have their entire playing surface grids made out of it. I think it's just the way it photographs, but I do think it's probably more reflective in person. It's kind of like the cards included on the Restoration Hardware silver deluxe edition, where the foil doesn't have any shine in photographs, but clearly does in person.

Looking at the box covers, you can see the gray/silver outlines are clearly reflective when he lifts the box lid and the light changes across the lid. Yet there's still clearly printed shading on the reflective areas. So I'm back to the printing technique, where they may have printed the reflective layer, then printed the shading on top of it. It's that shading that's kind of cheesy if so and cheapens the foil look, here. Or, it is what you think it is and it's not reflective at all.

They could have easily done the UK gray tokens with colored bases (made out of the same plastic as the Scrabble trays), but again, as you pointed out, 7 individual molds are still more expensive than one mold in 6 colors. Not to mention those UK figurines had to be assembled by the customer -- something I don't see them expecting a modern customer of a premium Silver Line edition doing today.

alwaysPeacock · Post by **alwaysPeacock** » Sat Jul 29, 2017 1:02 pm

I'll just have to see the cards in person to really know. While I can see the boxes shine in the video, along with the foil on the Scrabble board, I barely see any of the same effect on the Clue & Monopoly components (except maybe the Monopoly logo on the board).

This is an odd time to release a "premium" (very loosely using that word, here) line of games. For the most part, it's back-to-school season in US retail. Not really when I'd imagine most people are shopping for gift items like this. Perhaps Hasbro knows Winning Moves or B&N or Restoration Hardware has something better coming along for the holiday season, and they (Hasbro) just wanted to get their own version out in front of people first...

cacums · Post by **cacums** » Sat Jul 29, 2017 1:42 pm

alwaysPeacock wrote:Thought: when Cluedo got revamped in the '90s, Waddingtons started using grey plastic figures of the suspects which slotted into colored bases. In theory, couldn't Hasbro have made a nicer game at a reasonable price if they'd taken a similar approach with this edition? Cast the new suspect figures in the same silver/grey plastic (fitting for a so-called "silver line" edition), and have them slot into translucent/shimmery plastic bases of the appropriate colors. Boom, a game suddenly more worthy of a $30 price tag, without the added expense of metal/multicolored playing pieces, and utilizing something Hasbro already has at their disposal (the character molds).

Yeah, it's not as inexpensive as the route Hasbro took with reviving the ? figures. But it's better.

I always loved the '90s Cluedo and Passport to Murder specifically for their pieces.

I'd love to see the Super Cluedo Challenge busts come back into play. Maybe if they do a 1949 game with the iOS art. (fingers crossed)

Murder by Death · Post by **Murder by Death** » Sat Jul 29, 2017 2:21 pm

alwaysPeacock wrote:I'll just have to see the cards in person to really know. While I can see the boxes shine in the video, along with the foil on the Scrabble board, I barely see any of the same effect on the Clue & Monopoly components (except maybe the Monopoly logo on the board).

This is an odd time to release a "premium" (very loosely using that word, here) line of games. For the most part, it's back-to-school season in US retail. Not really when I'd imagine most people are shopping for gift items like this. Perhaps Hasbro knows Winning Moves or B&N or Restoration Hardware has something better coming along for the holiday season, and they (Hasbro) just wanted to get their own version out in front of people first...

Agreed, we won't know until someone gets this game. The only difference between the card and Monopoly board and the box covers is that the former are stationary, or otherwise not influenced by shadow or reflection, and the box lids are tilted to reflect the light, likewise with hands reflecting on the scrabble board.

This appears to be a Hasbro manufactured game, so it's odd there's no corresponding Cluedo edition. However they did the same thing with the Secrets in Paris, with no Cluedo counterpart. That might suggest another universal edition coming for the holidays. This Silver Line edition seems to be destined to sit on store shelves for the long haul. Again it seems pretty odd to introduce it for back to school at this price, rather than the holiday season. And I'm not sure why TOysRUs would want to take up valuable shelf space waiting for the holidays to roll around.

But what else could they offer that's nicer than this? I suppose another wood box edition exclusive for Target? Or a tin? And how much more would they charge!?

Could it also be possible that they plan to introduce the Silve Line editions internationally, but are rolling them out as they make them from one factory, starting with the US and completing the international distribution by the holidays? Certainly we have more shelf space to accommodate them in our big box stores here in the US than elsewhere in the world.

One thought about buying this edition ... This is the only time the MD/Super Cluedo weapons set have been reproduced in silver (minus the horseshoe). So that means the classic revolver, and lead pipe are unque collectors items to this game. Worth and extra $18-20? Hard to say ... I suspect we'll see a few sales at ToysRUs before the holidays ...

alwaysPeacock · Post by **alwaysPeacock** » Sat Jul 29, 2017 5:17 pm

cacums wrote:
alwaysPeacock wrote:Thought: when Cluedo got revamped in the '90s, Waddingtons started using grey plastic figures of the suspects which slotted into colored bases. In theory, couldn't Hasbro have made a nicer game at a reasonable price if they'd taken a similar approach with this edition? Cast the new suspect figures in the same silver/grey plastic (fitting for a so-called "silver line" edition), and have them slot into translucent/shimmery plastic bases of the appropriate colors. Boom, a game suddenly more worthy of a $30 price tag, without the added expense of metal/multicolored playing pieces, and utilizing something Hasbro already has at their disposal (the character molds).

Yeah, it's not as inexpensive as the route Hasbro took with reviving the ? figures. But it's better.
I always loved the '90s Cluedo and Passport to Murder specifically for their pieces.

I'd love to see the Super Cluedo Challenge busts come back into play. Maybe if they do a 1949 game with the iOS art. (fingers crossed)

The busts would be very cool to see in a game, again! For a classic styled special edition, those would make a nice change from all the wooden pawns, and might even justify whatever mark-up would adorn the price tag.

MBD: interesting idea that the Silver Line games might hit the international market later. All the more reason to wait & see, especially if a Cluedo edition pops up with better playing pieces. Seems a bit silly to test drive a deluxe edition with such cheap components, though. If it doesn't sell well, Hasbro only has their own skimpy design to blame.

And I would die happy if I never saw another wooden/book shaped Clue box again.