The Rope and 50th Anniversary, 2002/2003 Games

[Murder by Death]

So, I just realized that after Hasbro unified the weapons in all editions after 1996, they changed the rope token and card for the 50th Anniversary Edition. So what happened with the 2002/2003 edition? The rope card shows the exact token design used only in the 50th anniversary edition, but the token was the standard old plastic rope. So what happened? Did they intend to update the rope token for the 2002/2003 edition, or did they mistakenly use the wrong artwork for the card? Or did they just think the 50th Anniversary rope art looked better and just not care that it didn't match?

[Adam106]

I don't know but I really love that token more than the usual plastic piece.

[Murder by Death]

No kidding. I even like the plastic design cast in pewter better. The plastic version of the rope used in the 1984 & 94 Cluedo travel editions is even better than the traditional US plastic token. There's just something so cheap and uninspired about that design in beige plastic.

Even this RH Premiere adaptation would have been better, too bad they just spray painted the regular plastic token.

[cacums]

In my 1986 Clue the rope was snapped in half. They are pretty cheap.

[cyanideIlovecyanide]

The 50th Anniversary pewter version of the rope actually dates to (at least) 1988. That's the same rope Parker Bros. used in Master Detective.

The poison token used in the 50th Anniversary edition also first appeared in Master Detective.

[CluedoKid]

I don't know. I have some affection for the traditional plastic rope.

[munitzer]

I think that the weapon tokens should match the weapon displayed on the cards. I've never seen or held the token displayed in the first post, but I think that I would much prefer it to the yellowed plastic rope.

[Murder by Death]

I don't know. I have some affection for the traditional plastic rope.

"Traditional" is relative. Certainly for Cluedo, the plastic rope did not appear until 1996, so anyone who was already a teenager or adult by that time most likely considers the string "traditional".

However, in the US, after a bit of research, I have come to realize that the plastic rope appeared much earlier than I originally thought. I have seen several complete examples of the 1956 orange box on eBay with the 1st edition board and instructions that have both the smaller candlestick and plastic rope. Since I have also seen numerous editions with the large candlestick and string, I have to assume that this change occurred randomly over time prior to the 1960 orange box edition with the revised "cartoon" board (perhaps corresponding to the change in the tagline from "the great detectie game" to "parker brothers detective game", although I have seen these boxes with the plastic rope as well – so the plastic rope most likely appeared with the 1956 edition, if not shortly afterward).

So in North America, the plastic rope is likely the most "traditional" weapons token, next to the wrench.

But I can tell you that from my first exposure to the 1972 Clue edition as a child, I hated that plastic rope. It did not seem to fit with the other tokens at all. Now that I know the other options available over the last 60 years, I think there were many better attempts at representing it, including the Limited Gift Edition pewter version of the plastic rope design.

However, CluedoKid, Hasbro clearly agrees with you since the plastic rope as introduced in 1956, is inexplicably one of the few surviving "traditional" tokens in the re-invention game, along with the candlestick.

That's why the incongruity with the 2002 edition card an token perplexes me.

[Niteshade007]

If I had to guess, I would say so it matched with the other weapon cards. The rope does stand out because it's plastic, and perhaps they merely took the image from the 50th Anniversary and placed on the card for the 2002 game. If you look at all the cards together, they are more aesthetically pleasing.

[Murder by Death]

If you look at all the cards together, they are more aesthetically pleasing.

How are these cards any different than the previous sets, or the previous rope any less aesthetically pleasing in consort with the other weapons? I suppose it is a matter of taste, but I'm with munitzer, I would much rather the weapons tokens matched the cards. As it is they had to artificially modify the 50th anniversary rope from the pewter color representative of the token, to a realistic looking rope, which I'm not sure they achieved. If they preferred the 50th rope design, they already had the token mold to make a cheaper zinc rope token as well. Or they could have make a plastic version of it, much like the 1984 & 94 Waddingtons travel editions.

[Niteshade007]

Sorry, I was mistaken about what the cards looked liked. I forgot that they were colored. I thought they were all silver. My bad.

[Murder by Death]

Actually, the closest any of them come to the plastic rope's realistic depiction I've seen is this Italian edition:

[Murder by Death]

I found this particularly funny. From the Cluedo Party game, which continues to use the 2002 design. But in this case, the actual oversized weapons tokens represent what would have been on the cards. Probably the only case where the actual representative weapon matches the card (were there actually any in this game), instead of the plastic rope token used in the 2002 era games.

[cacums]

They actually put alot of detail in that rope.

[alwaysPeacock]

LOVE those oversized weapons! Is that party game still available, or will I have to hunt down a secondhand copy on eBay?