OD&D Earliest use of BECMI-style trade dress?

Fifth Element

Fifth Element

Legend
I just stumbled on this on tsrarchive.com. There is a French edition of basic D&D that was dated in 1982, and it looked like this:

French box.jpg


And here's the back, which shows the 1982 date:

French box back.jpg


I find this interesting since this is essentially the BECMI trade dress (most notably the D&D logo, but also the horizontal white lines and font) being used in 1982, when it wasn't used in the US until 1983. It also has the pre-1983 TSR logo, of course. No BECMI-style product used that TSR logo.

Just a little curiosity that I found interesting.
 

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The mid/late 1982 - 1991 angular logo here was introduced at some point in mid-late 1982. It's not on some of the notable module covers and other products (video games, game books, monster cards, modules etc.) published in 1982, but it's on others from later in the year.

I'd guess Tomb of the Lizard King, I2 was the first significant TSR publication to use the logo?


TSR.png


I note also that I2 and I3 are the only 1982 modules/products I can find (I didn't dig too deep) with this logo and they also change the overall trade dress to add rounded corners on the cover image etc. This mostly matches the BECMI (1983) look with Mentzer basic, though these are AD&D modules. I think the first BECMI/Basic adventure that has the look is Horror on the Hill B4. I can't figure out what exact date the new logo starts getting used, but figure it's fairly late in the year. Your French version of what looks like Moldvay Basic is an interesting anomaly with it's early 1982 logo and some aspects of the late '82 design. Especially when I can't find any of the English (N series etc) stuff that has any sign of the "new" look.
 
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