Yellow box RWS printed in China?

The 78th Fool

I recently bought a new copy of the Original Rider Waite as I noticed on the box that it was one of US Games's new China printings. The card stock is wonderfully thick and the print quality/ image reproduction is as good, if not better than my Belgian printed copies. This is in sharp contrast to the former Italian editions which were dreadfully inaccurate in terms of colour reproduction. Print definition was also very poor.

The standard yellow box version, printed in Italy was even worse. The images seemed to be scanned from a previous edition of the deck and had been photoshopped in a very sloppy manner in an attempt to cover over image degredation.

I assume all US Games decks will now be printed in China and I was wondering if anyone has seen a Chinese printed Yellow box RWS as yet? If so, how does it compare? The RWS really deserves better than those dreadful Italian printings.
 

Le Fanu

It's funny, I've never seen a yellow box RWS printed in Italy. Only in the Giant RWS version, and the colour quality was atrocious. When I see a yellow box RWS it is invariably printed by AG Muller in Switzerland. Weird that I never see U.S Games printed in Italy ones.

I recently bought a yellow box shrink-wrapped RWS off ebay because it had the calligraphy titles. I wonder when they stopped doing these editions. There was a thread about it but no-one found out the answer...
 

zan_chan

I'm very curious about the possibility of a Chinese printing of a different USG deck (gee, any guess which deck zan might mean?). I wish USG would list that kind of information on their website...

(Meanwhile, on the off chance that anyone had heard anything about a Chinese Haindl, do let me know :) )

Quite right though about the yellow box. Why not just phase out the yellow box printing entirely and replace it with a standalone edition of my recent favorite, the unimaginably sumptuous PCS Commemorative deck? (pleeeeeze)
 

mary ventura

I had a yellow box RWS printed in Italy -- it was terrible! Some of the people had big red blotches. I think it was a poor re-print of the version that used the red dot printing, but these weren't dots, they were big blotches. Some of the black lines were actually smeared-looking. I ended up giving it away and I bought another yellow box, the one printed in Switzerland, and it was fine. I later bought the Original R-W, a China printing, and liked it very much. I gave it away, though, because now I've bonded with my PCS Commemorative Centennial edition, and that's the only RWS deck that I use.

Mary V
 

The 78th Fool

mary ventura said:
I had a yellow box RWS printed in Italy -- it was terrible! Some of the people had big red blotches. I think it was a poor re-print of the version that used the red dot printing, but these weren't dots, they were big blotches. Some of the black lines were actually smeared-looking. I ended up giving it away and I bought another yellow box, the one printed in Switzerland, and it was fine. I later bought the Original R-W, a China printing, and liked it very much. I gave it away, though, because now I've bonded with my PCS Commemorative Centennial edition, and that's the only RWS deck that I use.

Mary V

Looking at my Italy version, it looks like a scan of a scan of a print if that makes sense. Surely this wasn't taken from the original artwork (US Games's 1971 re-colouring of the black and white drawings).

Each time you scan something, there's a slight loss of quality. I think this was scanned from one of the later Belgium printings with the text titles rather than the PCS calligraphy (The fonts have then been re-done for this version). These editions were oversaturated colour wise, which shows on the Italian edition. Add to this the vastly inferior print quality, poor colour matching and lower print definition and this begins to explain the grainy quality of many of the faces.

In places, the repro quality must have been so bad, they've tried to touch it up in photoshop but it's been done in a very slapdash manner. It's as if the time ran out on the deadline and only half the work was done. Some faces and bodies have been re-coloured, others have been left. The Star and the High Priestess are almost perfect yet the Hanged Man, Temperance and the Devil remain grainy and blotchy.

Worse still for me is the flagrant sloppyness that colours three clouds on the World card in a dark grey yet leaves the fourth white. Also, the Ace of Cups -the background has been re-touched but bits have been missed. The rays around the hand have been semi-obliterated. They are still visible between the water streams but have been painted over around the finger tips.

These are just a few examples. There are many more and I can't believe that this edition was ever allowed by US Games. Where was the quality control? If a publisher is going to produce the 'only authorised' edition of such an important deck then surely they have a duty to do better than this. My only hope is that when a chinese printing does appear, they will have re-visited the proof artwork in an attempt to return to the sort of high quality we used to see from them.

To be fair, this has definitely been the case with the Original Rider Waite. I couldn't be more pleased with my Chinese printing of that deck. Restoring PCS's original calligraphy titles to the yellow box edition is probably too much to ask (God know's what was behind the idea of doing away with them in the first place) but 'accurate tone colours' and good print quality would be a start.

Chris. xx
 

Le Fanu

The yellow box RWS is truly the worst edition. Actually, slight, correction, when these images are magnified for the Giant RWS deck, the result is just embarrassing.

After I received my Pam B - and this may sound weird - I went back to enjoying the colouring of the Original RWS. I don't know why the Original RWS deck (as long as it is printed in Belgium, and maybe this China one; I haven't seen it yet) is slated so much. I think it is not massively dissimilar to a Pam B. I only now see this with my own eyes because I can compare the editions up close. I remember reading threads going on about the terrible printing of the Original RWs and how it didn't represent any edition etc etc, and now I can see for myself that the blotchiness in the High Priestess and the King of Pentacles and the measly faces are there on the Pam B too.

I think of the Original RWS as a Pam C (with bits of Pam B) and the PCS Commemorative set as a Pam A, but the yellow box RWS is just a reproduction which was done when mass market printing wasn't really as sharp as it can be today, and US Games have just kept on churning it out and nobody really complains because as long as you call it the "only" authorised one nobody complains and - heck - it's from 1910 so no-one expects it to be perfect be today.

I also have a yellow box with calligraphy titles, same kind of thing, but the original titles mean that it feels slightly nicer. I only bought a computerised typeface one because I'm an RWS completist!
 

The 78th Fool

I know what you mean about the Original Rider Waite. I've always loved it and bar the Italian printings, Its a wonderful reproduction. The China edition is printed on the same card stock as the PSC Commemorative deck and the colour reproduction is if anything slightly richer than the Belgian printings. In short, it's glorious.

As to the yellow box edition, I'm spoilt as I have an early seventies blue box copy without the US Games copyright. This is such a wonderful printing (very accurate to the Pam A, despite it being a re-colouring) and it's a crying shame to see that very same artwork reproduced (and almost defaced) so poorly on these modern copies.

Chris. xx
 

Lillie

My rider Waite is a yellow box one and it's really lovely.

It's quite old, I suppose, early 80's maybe, and the cards have a sort of waxy quality to them rather than lamination.
The colours are really lovely and delicate and all the lines are nice and fine.

OK, the backs are vile, but the fronts are rather lovely.
 

re-pete-a

Perhaps the runt of the Chinese litter landed in the post destined for RPA.

The yellow box is fine but the laminate on the cards is blistering .

They're still alive after an over night boat stay which had a very leaky roof and 250 MM rainfall quota .

They're twice as large now and slightly warped after being dried off.
But still intact.
They're the travel pack ones, the outdoors bushmans companion.
 

gregory

I have a yellow box from 1970 something which is lovely (I forget where it was printed - but it's the nice waxy feeling one)

I also have an "Original Rider Waite" (the newish one with roses on the backs) printed in Belgium - which is also a very nice print, IMHO. I just bought the Chinese print on your say so :mad: ;) - and I'd say they were comparable. I haven't seen an Italian print. It never occurred to me to get an extra till you posted this.

ETA - also a blue box - yes, gorgeous.