This is the first edition box set of Iron Crown Enterprises’ Middle-Earth Role Playing, from 1984. Usually, I’d post a bunch of photos of the contents and talk about this version of the game, but in this instance, I can’t. I got this box in a trade not too long ago and it is still in its original shrink-wrap. I have no idea what is in the box.

I think keeping things like toys in the packaging is silly–we should enjoy the things we collect, not keep them encased in limbo. And yet…I feel weird about opening this one up. I can’t imagine there are a huge number of complete copies of this out in the wild. How few are still unopened? It’s kind of like having a mummy’s tomb. If I open it, some air from 1984 will escape and there will be one less time capsule in the world. Maybe I’m being silly. What do you think? Should I crack it open?