My new China print RWS arrived yesterday. I have all three versions sitting before me now - Belgium print with Sun on the cover of the box, Italy print with Magician on the cover and China print with smaller Sun on the cover.
My first thought upon hefting the China print was that it's heavy. One very nice thing about the China printing - it's not a brick! Laying out all three decks next to one another, the Italy is thicker than the Belgium and the China is thicker than the Italy. So I was right when I thought that it was heavy.
The LWBs in the Belgium and Italy versions were almost the same size 94mm x 149 mm (Belgium) vs 95 mm x 150 mm (Italy). The LWB for the China version is quite a bit bigger at 94 mm x 163 mm. All three are 24 pages though.
USG has apparently made enough changes to the deck to warrant adding 2010 to the copyright on each card, which now reads "1971, 2010 U.S. GAMES SYSTEMS INC."
OK. Now I'm not so sure my Belgium-boxed version is actually printed in Belgium....
I bought it used from eBay. Only just now noticed that the title card says printed in Italy. And the LWB shows the same printing info (5th printing) as the Italy version's LWB. The China version says it's the 6th printing if anyone is keeping track. But the Belgium boxed version is definitely thinner than the Italy boxed version. The colors are very close. The first real difference I see between the two decks is that Justice's robe is a slightly darker red in what's supposed to be the Belgium printing than the Italy printing. I also think I see slight differences in the titles, but either way both are still typeset and not handwritten. So something's definitely up with my Belgium printing of the deck....
The China printing is definitely handwritten calligraphy though.
The change in color in the China print is noticeable from the first card, the Fool. (My China print came with the Fool after the World, but I moved it back to before the Magician.) The greenish tint on his tights and the ground beneath his feet has shifted to more of a mustardy yellow. Oh, and the title boxes of the China print have been shortened so that more of the image shows. On the Magician, you only see the PC of Pixie's initials, but on the China version, you see the whole thing. On the Empress, I can see that the greens have definitely been shifted towards yellow while the yellow of the sky has been softened.
The tartan plaid back on the China printing has also changed. While the sets of three black lines went diagonally from right to left in the Italy printing, they are much thicker and go from left to right in the China printing. The sets of three blue lines are also thicker and also go in the opposite direction. The China back is much more 3D while the Italy backs look more like one of those Magic Eye things where you have to look at it a certain way in order to see the hidden picture.
Justice's complexion has cleared up. The orange triangle on the angel's robe in Temperance is now red and his complexion has also cleared up. The Devil's face is redder. Complexions are generally clearer in the China printing.
Rodney