Solid purple-spined printing
This was a very brief version printed sometime in the 1970's. It is unknown how many volumes were printed in this format, but below are the only ones I've seen.
Fellow collector Jim McNamara suggested that perhaps these purple-spined copies were printing errors. If this is the case, than these would be an anomaly, and not a format.
One way to further analyze these printings is by the list provided on the back cover, which should give us the year in which they were printed, except for #72 (since it is the last title in the series).
The first four books below (in chronological order) list to Red, White and Blue Mystery. So it seems as though they were all printed in 1971 (So, the first edition of Red, White and Blue Mystery may have been with a solid purple spine). The remaining three each list to themselves in the solid-purple spine, so possibly each first edition of these three was in this format? But what about #69 and #70?
In the copies I have, I've not seen any internal variation (I own some duplicates), and almost no external variation. The only variation I've seen is Cherry Corners was printed in two thicknesses. But all other markings are the same. TV Mystery Show has some spines with different quality of color transfers (see below)--but this is not unusual. Over the years many books have differences in color transfer.
Fellow collector Jim McNamara suggested that perhaps these purple-spined copies were printing errors. If this is the case, than these would be an anomaly, and not a format.
One way to further analyze these printings is by the list provided on the back cover, which should give us the year in which they were printed, except for #72 (since it is the last title in the series).
The first four books below (in chronological order) list to Red, White and Blue Mystery. So it seems as though they were all printed in 1971 (So, the first edition of Red, White and Blue Mystery may have been with a solid purple spine). The remaining three each list to themselves in the solid-purple spine, so possibly each first edition of these three was in this format? But what about #69 and #70?
In the copies I have, I've not seen any internal variation (I own some duplicates), and almost no external variation. The only variation I've seen is Cherry Corners was printed in two thicknesses. But all other markings are the same. TV Mystery Show has some spines with different quality of color transfers (see below)--but this is not unusual. Over the years many books have differences in color transfer.
#5 Snow Lodge (rear)
#53 Mystery Cave (rear)
#68 Sun-Moon Cruise (rear)
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#5 Snow Lodge
#53 Mystery Cave
#68 Sun Moon Cruise
#72 Sea Turtle
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#20 Cherry Corners (rear)
#64 R, W & B Mystery (rear)
#71 TV Mystery (rear)
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#20 Cherry Corners
#64 R, W & B Mystery
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