| Premier Edition Clue (Restoration Hardware Exclusive) - Circa November, 2007 |
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A more beautiful box, one could not hope for. It is exquisite. The deep reddish color of the box and the sepia toned photograph of the mansion on the cover give the game the feeling of history befitting a classic game. The suspects and weapons (all of which are, disappointingly, not shown) could, however, be incorporated in a better fashion than throwing them in the corner of the box. The magnifying glass theme that is so present in many of the games, appears over a photograph of what is presumed to be "Boddy Mansion."
When the box is opened, we get our first glimpse of the game. Instantly, we recognize it as a reproduction of the Franklin Mint game. Or is it? Let's compare: First and foremost, the Franklin Mint game did not have a box. So, the Premier Edition has one up on it. But what about the game board? The wooden box that contains the sunken rooms is about 5 inches shorter on each side measuring about 18 inches square. It's one color (stained a nice rich mahogany) and doesn't have a drawer to hold the playing pieces. The room walls are all the same - just a bit smaller. The furniture in each room however... the pieces are not gold covered, but made out of what looks like a painted-brown plastic. And in the lounge we find not a sarcophagus as in the Franklin Mint game, but a couch. That's right. A couch. The instruction booklet in this edition is devoid of the rich detailed history of the mansion, so perhaps it would look a bit strange with a sarcophagus in the lounge without the explanation. So this begs the question, did the makers remove the sarcophagus because they wanted to print a smaller instruction manual? Or did they not include the details in the instruction manual because they didn't want the odd sarcophagus in the lounge? Instead of a drawer for the playing pieces, we do get a separate felt lined box which is very nice. Unfortunately, the pieces aren't. They're all made of the cheap painted-brown plastic which seems to flake easily. The pawns lack any heft. The weapon tokens are the same as the standard classic Clue game - only painted brown. The Franklin Mint game definitely wins on the special playing pieces. The cards are changed to reflect the new lounge and the weapon tokens. It would have been nice for them to do away with the gold toned room and weapon cards and replace them with new, more artistic views. The reverse of the card has been changed to reflect the cover of the box with the new mansion look. This mansion looks more believable than the Franklin Mint. It looks more like a home and not a cathedral. Instead of a ceramic book to put the solution cards in, we now have a more standard "Confidential" envelope to place at the center of the board. At least we can mark our notepads with one of the six brown Clue-logoed pencils that come with the game. Is it the "Premier" Edition? It came so close. The box definitely pulled its own weight, but the cheapness of the tokens and room furniture are really hard to get past. For $150, you get what you pay for. For $555, you get what you pay for... |
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