Non-green greenie!!!

Well. This is a weird one.
(if you are a pedantic thoth nerd like me)

I picked up another thoth today.
It's what Tarot Garden calls a 'white box C' I think.
No borders on the back, large size, comes in a white USG OTO box, has an OTO card and a red/black hex.

I thought that all of these had the green borders/green tint/dark green titles to them.
But these don't.
These have grey borders and black titles.
Otherwise they are identical.
Even down to the blue smudge fault on the 2 Cups and the red speck on the priestess.
But they are not green!

As I have said before, my greenie is from the late 90's. These seem to have been earlier.
It has the New York 10016 address rather than stamford, and there is no bar code or ISBN as there is on the green deck.

Sadly the booklet is long gone, so I cannot give a date of anykind, but the hex is 'upside down'.

The OTO card does not have the copyright statement that is on the other, but apart from that they are pretty much identical. Same words, same name.

Also the green ones are much more glossy and plasticy, very slippy. And the deck is thinner. 24mm thich compared to 27mm for the non green one.

I will have to try and get some pictures, but the flash reflects off the cards, and it is very dull today, so I might have to wait.

I always believed that some decks were greener than others, because I remember my original deck as no way as green as my current deck, but still, I thought they were all green to some extent.
but I have looked at these and looked at them, they are grey.
I like them, some of them are much brighter than the other deck, and the pictures are crisp and clean, unlike the vintage deck!

non green greenie!
How about that!

I believe coredil and/or Abrac may have this also.
Llewellyn's had a slip cover over a gold-paper box.

No. I have one of them. They are the vintage ones in the 2 part boxes.The borders are plain, a variable blue/white colour.
The printing is bright with the reds and muddy with all the other colours.
Also they are almost all fuzzy.
Nice though, in their own way.

But this, this is in the ordinary white USG box, with the top and bottom flaps.
The borders are decorated like they always are, but there is not even a hinto of green about them.

I'll try and get some pics. Its stopped raining and the sun has peeked out.
I might be lucky.

Well, it's still a dull day.
But I did my best.

Pictures of the boxes showing that they are the same, and of a couple of card comparisons,and the OTO cards to show the copyright on one and not the other.

dates per packaging

Left to Right, all decks Large size:

1.) AGMüller 1986 - Note grayish tones
2.) Weiser 1983 - My "greenie"
3.) USGames 1983 - Note white tones

Many thanks to Dean for the heads up
on my getting a blue box AGMüller!
[Complete with... the 3 Magus cards.]

The third one is USG 83?

Is that really it's date, or just the copyright date on it?

I was under the impression that all USG until about 2000 had the same borderless backs as the greenie you have in the centre of the three. (which I believe was some kind of shared copyright between Weiser and USG)

There are some serious differences there in the border designs. In the last one they seem to have taken out one of the vertical lines.

And I just cannot like those white borders around the backs.
But someday I will have to get myself a three magus variety.
Should be one around with my name on it.

Have you got one of the vintage ones in the nice slidey out boxes?
The colours are so different from any of the usuals. It's quite a shock to compare them.

I might be getting another of these soon, I think I have spotted one, it might even be a Llewelyn (though last time it turned out to be another Weiser!)
I was going to put those onto the photos too, but I ended up with too many cards on the floor, so I didn't.

I might even end up using my non green greenie instead of my green greenie.
I think I might like it better. I think it might be closer to my original deck.
Still, I am very fond of the old bogie.
Maybe I use non for me and green for other people. the cards are so slidey I think they would wipe clean better.

Can I ask? the last one, USG 83. What extra cards come with it?
I'm guessing the multi colour hex and an OTO card, signed by mr Beta. Am I right?
And three magus for the first: and the red black hex and the alpha OTO card for the one in the middle? or is that different in the Weiser editions?

(more to follow)

Lillie said:

Have you got one of the vintage ones in the nice slidey out boxes? The colours are so different from any of the usuals. It's quite a shock to compare them.

Click to expand...

I thought at first you had a Llewellyn in the white slip-case
box with the gold inner box...very greyish, simple borders.
Collectors have an eye for them. (I've only got to hold one.)

Here is a scan of "The Swiss" showing it's flavour...

©1986 by AGMüller, CH-Neuhausen
ISBN 3905021609
Printed in Switzerland
Blue Box
3 Magus cards
No Hex or OTO cards
Gray deco-border on card face, gray back border

The Luck of the Draw...

This is what will be on the otherwise identical Green Boxes...
but what's inside will be as in either of the two scans below.

©1978, 1983 Samuel Weiser, Inc., York Beach, Maine
ISBN 0877284520
Printed in Belgium
Green Box
1 Magus card
etc.

©1978, 1983 U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stamford, Connecticut
ISBN 0913866156
Printed in Belgium
Green Box
1 Magus card
etc.

The Weisers in the slip case boxs and the Llewellyns in the slip case boxes are just about identical, so far as I have been able to discover.
I have a Weiser and if it is a Llewellyn that is on it's way to me I'll be able to see for myself (it might even have the indolent 8!) If it's another Weiser I'll be narked.

The Swiss one, the colours are so lovely, so bright. every time I see one I think it is so nice. I just cannot like those borders on the backs. But I might get one to trim. I saw someone scans of a trimmed deck. (Prudence, Was that you?) They were stunning!

The 'No border one' in your second post, that is my deck, every time. Wether the front borders are green, or grey like the one I got this week, so long as the red and black hex is there, so long as there are no borders on the backs, that is mine, the one I learned with and the one that lives in my mind and won't be evicted by any other deck in the world!
See the tiny copyright note on the OTO card? That means that they are relativley late.
The earlier ones don't have that.
But I havn't got an actual date for when it appeared.
And the ones you show are quite green in the border.
My late one of these is very green, the earlier one is grey.
Did they get greener as time went by, I wonder?
How many would I need to get to find out?
Anyone got one of the first, from 78? I think the print date/numbers on the copyright page of the LWB might give that away.

The OTO card on the 'borders' USG (Which I believe is the currently sold version) Has an entirely different text.
Curious, I have never read thator had one of them.
But the multi colured hex is rather lovely.
This could be trimmed, and then I'd have the hex too. I might like that.

Cheers for the scans.
I ought to get pics of my vintage one, put them up.
The star! it's such a shame. That card ought to be so lovely, but in the vintage deck all that lovely colour is gone, and so is the detail. Such a shame.