Tally Ho Viper question

[Anthony]

So I've been back tracking in my collection for a while now to pick up a few decks that I just want in my collection. I was looking into the Ohio UV500 Vipers and read on the Playing Card Wiki that there were some tuck differences.

I was wondering if there was any story behind the most obvious one, the word "Viper" missing from one. Just curious.

[bhong]

I wasn't collecting back then when the initial UV-500 Viper Tally-Hos were released, but my guess would be that for the older version, USPCC might have been very protective about their trademark and didn't want much, if anything, changed about the Tally-Ho brand so they didn't allow the addition of "Viper" to it.

[Don Boyer]

I wasn't collecting back then when the initial UV-500 Viper Tally-Hos were released, but my guess would be that for the older version, USPCC might have been very protective about their trademark and didn't want much, if anything, changed about the Tally-Ho brand so they didn't allow the addition of "Viper" to it.

I don't think it was anything like that.  As mentioned, there's been a number of differences from print run to print run.  If you could show us the bottoms of the boxes, that might help.  Also, do a little searching around here, because I know the subject of Viper tuck changes has come up more than once on this forum and it's possible your answer already exists.

[crazyfandecks]

anyone knows how many variation boxes of Viper came out already?! "Striking" "Ultimate" no words etc.

[Anthony]

I wasn't collecting back then when the initial UV-500 Viper Tally-Hos were released, but my guess would be that for the older version, USPCC might have been very protective about their trademark and didn't want much, if anything, changed about the Tally-Ho brand so they didn't allow the addition of "Viper" to it.

I don't think it was anything like that.  As mentioned, there's been a number of differences from print run to print run.  If you could show us the bottoms of the boxes, that might help.  Also, do a little searching around here, because I know the subject of Viper tuck changes has come up more than once on this forum and it's possible your answer already exists.

I did do a little searching Don, and there was reference to the Wiki information that I spoke of, but no real "Answer" to the question outside of it being another print run, which goes without saying. Like I said, I know their are variations, but to completely omit the word "Viper"? I would say bhong's comment has just as much merit as any other at this point.

[Don Boyer]

I did do a little searching Don, and there was reference to the Wiki information that I spoke of, but no real "Answer" to the question outside of it being another print run, which goes without saying. Like I said, I know their are variations, but to completely omit the word "Viper"? I would say bhong's comment has just as much merit as any other at this point.

Actually, I'm betting that it's from an earlier print run of Tally Ho Viper, the one without the "Viper" on the box.  It's possible that E's marketing people didn't have a clear idea for the name until after it was printed, tossing around more than one "snake" idea as the box does still have a snake motif.  If USPC had a problem with any of it, it would never have seen the light of day.  It's why I want to see the box bottoms - they'll hopefully tell us more about the decks, possibly when they were made.  Also, do you know what the original wrapping was on the "viper-less" tuck box?  Standard deck wrap with tear strip, shrink wrap, don't know...

[Anthony]

I did do a little searching Don, and there was reference to the Wiki information that I spoke of, but no real "Answer" to the question outside of it being another print run, which goes without saying. Like I said, I know their are variations, but to completely omit the word "Viper"? I would say bhong's comment has just as much merit as any other at this point.

Actually, I'm betting that it's from an earlier print run of Tally Ho Viper, the one without the "Viper" on the box.  It's possible that E's marketing people didn't have a clear idea for the name until after it was printed, tossing around more than one "snake" idea as the box does still have a snake motif.  If USPC had a problem with any of it, it would never have seen the light of day.  It's why I want to see the box bottoms - they'll hopefully tell us more about the decks, possibly when they were made.  Also, do you know what the original wrapping was on the "viper-less" tuck box?  Standard deck wrap with tear strip, shrink wrap, don't know...

I'll grab a couple of scans this evening, but it was a standard deck wrap with a tear strip.

[agera94]

From what I can remember, the vipers were E's subtle spin on the tally ho deck, I guess it was sort of like a successor to the  black tiger deck. I'm assuming, as Don had mentioned, that through iterations the deck lost its 'viper' title due to marketing/trademark. The vipers should be the initial run with UV500.

The deck I have does not have the 'ultimate card handling' tagline. Instead it says, 'striking playing cards'. It still uses the Viper title. The bottom of the box does not have a barcode, which leads me to believe it was probably a very early run. I don't think E used the barcode reveal until a bit later. The bottom just says, "Exclusively sold by ellusionist.com tally-ho viper deck'

EDIT: According to an eBay seller, the 1st edition run of the vipers does not have a barcode.