Heya. It was a long long time ago in a galaxy far away...

But as I recall dimly...

It was raining money, and TSR mgmt wanted to control the flow as much as possible. They had brought art, writing, and editing in-house (major overhead expense), were making figures (Art Neckerman & staff in a spare warehouse area), and wanted to control the dice too, which were still being bought from a supplier.

Bluntly, I have about 100 left. I want to save some for future party favors. ;>

These may have been test colors that were dropped (the orange in particular). Or folks may have seen these in later packages.
And it's a shame there are no d10s or d6s. Discarded but not where I found these, I'd guess.

So they MAY be a few prototype-run discards. No idea, no labels on the trashy bags.
But they're all in mint condition, and they're from before Red Box, 1982 prolly (tho maybe late '81).

Thanx for asking.

F

Grubbiv, your post has me a bit confused as I thought the 1981 Dragon Dice sets --- with the same dice and crayon as included the 1981 Basic/Expert sets --- were fairly well known around here. The Acaeum has a page with them (link below), and they come up for auction on occasion. The Polyhedra set was my first set and had blue dice just like in the ad you posted above.

https://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/miscpages/odd.html

Still confused. You say "earlier Mentzer", but Moldvay Basic (1981) came before Mentzer (1983). Are you just mixing up the names and saying you've never seen the later Mentzer dice in a blister?

Okay, I think I understand now. You are saying they are three different types of dice?

Moldvay Basic set Dice (1981)
Dragon Dice (1981) = same as early Mentzer Basic Set Dice (1983)
Later Mentzer Basic Set Dice (post-1983)

Is that accurate?

Thanks, grubbiv. I was thinking that all of the Moldvay Basic Set dice were the same as Dragon Dice, but I now see that the dice in the earlier sets were different, so I understand your distinction. I looked through all of my '80s TSR dice, and most are the later version (that you call "Mentzer"). I have just two of the earlier "Moldvay" dice.

However, I think some of the later Moldvay sets may have had the Dragon Dice.

For example, here's a Moldvay Basic set (with a non-1st printing rulebook) with what you are calling "Mentzer" Dice:

** expired/removed eBay auction **


Now it's possible this is a Dragon Dice set that someone added to the box. I'll keep on the lookout for an example that has the dice in the bag.

But it's possible the sequence went something like this:

~1981 dice: Moldvay/Cook Basic/Expert 1st/early prints (what you call "Moldvay Dice")
~1982/1983 dice: "Dragon Dice", also in later Moldvay/Cook sets, earlier Mentzer sets (what you call "Mentzer Dice")
>1984 dice: later Mentzer Basic set dice version(s)

grubbiv wrote in TSR dice 1982:Looks like there is a 14th print Mentzer with its original dice on ebay right now:

I've got a 14th (3rd) print as well with bagged dice that look very similar to these. They do look the same style (three are the same color), but some small differences in the numbers. The numbers '9' and '6' have dots at the bases rather than being underlined.

sauromatian wrote in TSR dice 1982:The D8 in the Mentzer link appears elongated (not a regular polyhedron). Is this the photo, or is it really like that?

I hadn't noticed that, but yes, it is elongated. One of the sides of a face is 16mm and the other two are 17mm.

Zenopus wrote in TSR dice 1982:Agreed. I have two of these d8s sitting here right now (one pale blue, one dark blue), although to me each triangular side measures 17 x 18 x 18 mm.

"I've been coming to this circle for about five years, and measuring it. The diameter and the circumference are constantly changing, but the radius stays the same...And another thing. Once you go into that circle, the weather never changes. It is always 67 degrees with a 40% chance of rain."
-David Cross as a UFO expert in Waiting for Guffman