Hardy Boys and Nancy OTs are making a COMEBACK :)

[hardygirl847]

I stumbled on something really cool yesterday. I found a copy of The Sinister Sign Post at a local bookstore. The cool part is that the OLD versions are being reprinted AS they were in the 20s and 30s. I don't know how many are out there because they only had this one. As you can imagine they are more expensive too. BUT they are the original texts (supposedly) with the original art. Looks like Nancy is a getting a comeback too.

Super cool. I HAD to add this to my collection.

On the back flap of the dust jacket it says... "What makes this book special?  This is a reproduction of the first edition of The Sinister Sign Post[/i] as it was originally published in 1936. There is another, less expensive edition...available in bookstores--but beware, it is an updated, rewritten, and condensed version of this edition. If you met the Hardy Boys before 1959, this is The SSP that you remember."

I tried looking on Amazon but haven't found it yet. It's being released by Applewood.

[tomswift2002]

From 1991 till 2005 Applewood reissued the first 16 volumes of the Hardy Boys in their Original Text versions.  Applewood did the same for Nancy Drew during the same time period, but with Nancy Drew, Applewood was able to go up to Volume 21 The Secret In The Old Attic;  Applewood has also released the first three Tom Swift titles from 1910 in Facsimile Editions.

However, in 2006, due to the reorganization of Viacom, and with CBS being spun-off into its own corporation (meaning that Simon & Schuster was transferred from Viacom to CBS), various things occurred, including Applewood losing the rights to reprint anymore Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew volumes (if Applewood wants to, they can still reprint 22 more Tom Swift books without receiving permission from Simon & Schuster due to the fact that the first 25 Tom Swift Sr. books are in the public domain).  However Applewood still retains the rights to reprint the first 6 books in each series, while the other books that Applewood had reprinted have been sent to the out-of-print lists, and any remaining stock of those books were sold to remaindered companies in 2008.  (A remaindered company is a company that buys leftover stock from other companies and then sells it on the first-hand market at a lower price, since the production company only sold it to the remainder company at the cost of manufacturing the item.  So if the book only cost $5 dollars to manufacture, then it cost the remainder company $5 to buy, and the remainder company is able to let book stores have it for less than what is on the cover.)

Unfortunately with the Hardy Boys books (I don't know about the Nancy Drew books) but when #12 Footprints Under The Window came out in 2001, Applewood decided to stop reproducing facsimiles of the beindings under the dustjackets, since #'s 12-16 came out in a Red cover, while the original volumes issued from 1933-1937 had a faux leather brown binding (whoever, Applewood reprinted the dustjacket and internal text and pictures exactly as they had been printed originally, and were thus able to say that the book was a facsimile).

Now then Applewood did have plans to release Volumes 17-19 in the Hardy Boys series starting in late 2005, but the books kept having delays to the point where the Viacom/CBS split took care of matters and ultimately the plans were cancelled.

[MacGyver]

Hmm- so #12-16 in Applewood's reprints have the red binding instead of the brown/tan binding? Didn't realize that- good to know. Ultimately, it's not a huge thing to me- I'm glad just to have a copy of the text in some format or another. I do have #1-3 of the Applewood reprints and those are nice. I've got a 1931 copy of What Happened at Midnight in that brown/tan cover (sans dustjacket, unfortunately) though. The rest of my copies of the original text books are from Grossett & Dunlap's much later pictorial cover printings (the "bluespine" covers).

[hardygirl847]

I think this is a bit different...Maybe I will try to post a pic sometime.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

I think this is a bit different...Maybe I will try to post a pic sometime.

Great!

[tomswift2002]

I think this is a bit different...Maybe I will try to post a pic sometime.

Is this the book you are talking about?

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Sinister-Sign-Post-15-Franklin-W-Dixon-Franklin-Dixon/9781557092731-item.html?ikwid=the+sinister+sign+post&ikwsec=Home

The link is to the Applewood reissue from 2004 of the 1936 The Sinister Sign Post. 

[SDLagent]

Yeah, the Applewood facsimiles are really nice.  I wish they were still releasing them.

I think this is a bit different...Maybe I will try to post a pic sometime.

What's a bit different?

[Olivia]

I have the first Nancy Drew set (see what it looks like here)

And the Hardy Boys set (see what it looks like here)

I grabbed them last year while I could still find it at a normal price (though I didn't get it from Amazon.ca). Haven't had a chance to really read them yet, but it's cool to have

[MacGyver]

Nice! Both of those boxed sets make for cool collectibles, definitely.

[hardygirl847]

Is this the book you are talking about?

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Sinister-Sign-Post-15-Franklin-W-Dixon-Franklin-Dixon/9781557092731-item.html?ikwid=the+sinister+sign+post&ikwsec=Home

The link is to the Applewood reissue from 2004 of the 1936 The Sinister Sign Post. 

Yeah this looks like it could be the right thing. It was just strange that it was the only time I've EVER seen this. So I guess it's not as new as I was hoping.

Oh well.

I have the first Nancy Drew set (see what it looks like here)

And the Hardy Boys set (see what it looks like here)

I grabbed them last year while I could still find it at a normal price (though I didn't get it from Amazon.ca). Haven't had a chance to really read them yet, but it's cool to have

Nice collection but I think the one I have is slightly different?? Dunno.

Nice! Both of those boxed sets make for cool collectibles, definitely.

Very much agreed.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

I wish I could get them!

[Olivia]

Nice collection but I think the one I have is slightly different?? Dunno.

Yeah, just looking at that above link I can see that. Some difference in design. Though they should all be facsimiles of how the HBs looked and were originally written (if it's Applewood and has a publication date from the last two decades). I think so, anyway!

There was probably some time between each release back then to explain the design slowly changing as well. A design could change at any moment, obviously, but it looks more gradual/authentic in this case.