It's got a black rectangular box with a red dragon on the cover.
It's got five levels, and the classes are fighter, cleric, magic-user, and thief.
Races (as class) are elf, dwarf, and halfling.
Found a date on it (1991) but I don't recognize the writers listed.

I'm curious what edition this is.

I also need to know what besides the book should come with the box, as I found some Yugioh cards in mine, so I'm not sure what's native to the box or missing from it.

You are talking about the reedition of BECMI Mentzer's Basic Set box.

This, correct?

For the contents of the box, see the Fifteenth (1991) Printing on this Acaeum page.

That's the one I started with. Breaking out of jail with Axel, the Chaotic Fighter and facing off against the evil sorcerer Zanzer Tem.

Thanks, beejazz, you made my day.

Thanks for your help. I'm kinda surprised the plastic minis were added later. When I get back to the box I'm gonna look through again and see what's there and not.

I like this set very much.

Quote from: The Butcher;523676That's the one I started with. Breaking out of jail with Axel, the Chaotic Fighter and facing off against the evil sorcerer Zanzer Tem.

Thanks, beejazz, you made my day.

Heh.  I was already playing when we got hold of this, but I still have fond memories of that scenario.  Always wanted to run/populate the scenario after it (the blank maze on the last card).

Never owned or played with this; but I have to think it probably represents some kind of wrong turn, where TSR stopped knowing how to do basic sets... what was wrong with it? Cost compared to the earlier sets?

Why did it fail?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;523812Never owned or played with this; but I have to think it probably represents some kind of wrong turn, where TSR stopped knowing how to do basic sets... what was wrong with it? Cost compared to the earlier sets?

Why did it fail?

I don't know that it did, except that they never really pushed the Basic stuff in Dragon during this period beyond the Princess Ark stuff, and then they rolled Mystara up into 2e.  *shrug*  On its own, it's actually a pretty good intro, taking the "phased learning" approach of the Mentzer set a step or two further - the only problem is that the "card folder" format was a bit inconvenient to reference as a rule reference.  (Which I found to also be a failing of Mentzer Basic - it's poorly organized as compared to Moldvay Basic.)  I guess the assumption was that once you were done with this you were supposed to get the Rules Cyclopedia.

Quote from: RPGPundit;523812Why did it fail?

It was the first pay-to-preview Basic Set.

Those products have never been successful for TSR, WotC, or anyone else in this industry.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;523870It was the first pay-to-preview Basic Set.

Those products have never been successful for TSR, WotC, or anyone else in this industry.

Did you just cite yourself as evidence of something?

Wow.  Something tells me you NEED this bike.

Quote from: Mistwell;523873Did you just cite yourself as evidence of something?

No. I linked to an article where I talk about the concept more in-depth.

There is a difference between a hyperlink and a citation.