I think, Norm, that I know what you mean about the First Edition puzzles being "junk", as I have one of them; as a kid in 1960, I wasn't aware of a Concentration home game until the Second Edition came out (red box cover, green game board frame...loved that one). You should read what some here have said about the question book for the original MB High Rollers game, also, in the first Jeopardy! edition, a board answer was "Schroder" and the "correct" question in the book was "Name a character in Peanuts?"
Rick Polizzi, who works on "The Simpsons" these days, wrote a book and short-lived magazine about old board games called Spin Again, and one issue had an article on TV game show home games. When writing about Concentration, he said that Parker Brothers had the original license on it but couldn't come up with a version they liked so they let MB try it, and they originally had a prototype with the puzzles on large cards and an elaborate gameboard which was rejected as being too costly to produce. Did you ever get a look at that one or know if it still exists? Rick also said that the idea for the puzzle roll came from an employee noticing a roll of toilet paper in a novelty shop with drawings on it, and he contracted with the man who created it to do the puzzle rolls. What do you know about that?
