C is for Clue . . . Doh!

Well, that was a title that wrote itself, even if it was a bad pun, it was waiting to happen!

Another week, another board game! More charity shop plunder, I love 'em, and you don't feel guilty shoving the 90% in the recycling bin when it only owes you a quid . . . or two, I think this was £1.95!

This is the third generation of playing piece, with primary coloured 'milk bottle' counters for the longest time, then in the late 1980's/1990's sometime, they went over to realistic sculpts in grey polystyrene with coloured 'penny' bases, then in 2002 we got these PVC vinyl (or similar) figures in full colour, each having the dominant 'traditional' colour of each suspect, except the housekeeper . . . and Professor Plum who is a bit orange.

The new['ish] figures and what a dodgy-looking bunch of near-do-well's they are! Colonel Mustard the old B'stard, Miss Scarlet - so the blood won't show, Reverend (are you sure?) 'the hulk' Green, Mrs Peacock, silly name - silly hat, the Ging'er-ming'er should be called Professor' Tangerine' now surely and the housekeeper - black [heart] is white!

They all have a back-story now, but did they always . . . I don't remember back-story's on the sets of my childhood? And the cartoon graphics are very Manga-style in execution, I seem to remember as a kid they were quite sober-looking, realistic, if slightly Edwardian? Fashions change - I guess.

I'm joking-about to make the blurb - it's a board-game and there's only so much you can say about it, but joking apart, it's got a much nicer playing board with more realistic birds-eye views of each of the suitably furnished rooms.

Also the murder weapons have had a make-over, although the loss of the little bit of golden 'rope' in favour of an ethylene moulding is sad I think. The new dagger, on the other hand, is quite fine, and very useful for 70mm Romans, if you happen to have one lying around, unarmed!

The spanner has been replaced by an adjustable monkey-wrench and the gun is now a little six-barrelled 'pepper-pot'.

Which three cards are in the envelope? We used to love this as kids, far less fights than with Monopoly and there was a certain magic in 'working out' who/where/what, before anyone else!

I thought I'd posted the grey figures back at the beginning of the blog, but I can't find them to link to; so we'll look at them here another time! In the meantime there's boardgamegeek:

BGG - Clue

BGG - Cluedo