What will this collection consist of?

A complete British Three Investigators collection consists of 228 books. "What’s that?" I hear you cry. "Surely there are only 43 Three Investigators books and 11 Crimebusters, making a total of 54 books." In a way you would be right, however in order to make this the Best. Collection. Ever. we must collect every title in every available edition. There are in fact seven different editions of the Three Investigators books published, as well as several omnibus editions. These editions comprise two in hardback and five in paperback. The Crimebusters series is a little more straightforward, having only one edition as well as some omnibus editions. So, what do these editions look like and how do we arrive at the figure of 228 books? Here’s how it works:
The 1st Hardback edition looks like this:

Notable and easily identifiable as they are large books, sometimes referred to as “tall” editions, I’m going to refer to them as large hardbacks. The first 28 books in the series were published in this format, between 1967– 1979. Most had the graveyard picture of the boys as front and end papers. Numbers 19 to 28 were published with a dustjacket.

Total number of books to collect: 28

The 2nd hardback edition is like this:
Only books 1-24 were published in this edition. Easily identifiable as the spine shows a small picture, separate from the front cover. This makes this edition stand out on a bookshelf and is easily my favourite format.

Total number of books to collect: 52

The first paperback editions took this format:

The first 24 books were available in this format, with one book (number 5 – Vanishing Treasure) having two different covers.

Total number of books to collect: 77

Paperback edition 2 looks like this:
This is where it starts to get complicated, as not all of the titles were made available in this edition. There were in fact 26 books in this edition, between numbers 1 to 30.

Total number of books to collect: 103

The third imprint looked like this:
Again, not all titles were made available in this edition, there being 29 of the first 38 titles available in it.

Total number of books to collect: 132

Paperback edition 4 looked like this:
31 editions from the 43 titles were available in this edition.

Total number of books to collect: 163

In a drastic departure from the established norm, the fifth and last paperback edition changed the name of the books, removing the “Mystery” and “Secret” of and placing the series under the banner The 3 Investigators Mysteries. Therefore The Mystery of the Moaning Cave became simply “The Moaning Cave”, thus:

30 books were put out in this format.

Total number of books to collect: 193

There were several omnibus editions, each of which collected three books from the series. There didn’t appear to be much thought put into which titles would be included in any edition. All were in paperback apart from one magnificent edition published by Collins for Marks and Spencer an a store exclusive. There were 21 omnibus books published, some were reprints of previous omnibus editions with different cover art.

Total number of books to collect: 214

Only 11 Crimbusters books were published and these were all in the same paperback format.

Total number of books to collect: 225

In addition, the first six Crimebusters titles were published as omnibus editions with two stories in each book, making three Crimebusters omnibus editions.

Total number of books to collect: 228

And that, fellow blogger, is how we arrive at the magic figure of 228. Now we have a target, let’s see how we get on. The counter at the top of the page will be updated every time I add to the collection. Let's get on with the hunt!