Box Inflation

[Weaver]

Has anyone noticed the ridiculous inflation in the size of boxes used by Hairyfix these days? What's going on?

This came home to me when in the LHS the other day. They seem to buy and sell stashes of old kits as well as new ones, and as it happened, they had a Matchbox Strikemaster, two old Airfix Strikemasters and two brand new ones on the shelf. The old Airfix boxes were maybe 8" x 4" by 1.5". The new ones, with the same kit in them, must be 100% bigger by volume - they're huge!

They're selling the old Cessna Bird Dog in a barely smaller box, for heaven's sake! That thing's so small it used to look lost in a blister pack! My recent Gnat boxing has two other Gnats, a MiG-21, and room for a couple more Gnats in it........

[pyro-manic]

Perhaps they're trying to standardise the boxes? It's cheaper to make fewer sizes.

[B777LR]

The great box inflation? Has it something to do with the current economic situation of the world? (not including North Korea, they wont be affected anyhow)

[Hobbes]

Well, for the few Airfix kits I have, the packaging was awful. Loose bits everywhere (some clearly broken off the sprue, others may have been detached at the factory before packaging), sprues that hardly fit in the box so parts get easily damaged, instruction sheet folded 6 times to make it fit etc. Getting a bigger box would alleviate those issues.

[Captain Canada]

I noticed the same thing with beer cases around here. They grew about a year ago...but it's a good thing, as they now hold 28 bottles instead of 24.



But I do have to agree with you on the Airfix point. Can't recall which kit it was, but it was definately floating around inside the box.

[puddingwrestler]

Anyone seen AMT's Snapfast B-Wing from StarWars? The box is about the same size as those they put model cars in (except square). The kit would fit into something one fifth the hieght. They've even had to include a cardboard bracket thing to stop it rattling around to much!

Also, for a kit with 'EASY! BEGINNER! SNAPFAST!' written on it porminently, it seems odd that the skill level indicated is Level 2 (moderate: 10+. Requires Glue and Painting) The only real reason for the box to be so tall is that the usual AMT skill level grid is that size...

[NARSES2]

It's something thats been going on for years. If you look at the Airfix Hunter the early F6 box was smaller then the FGA9 box (in volume terms) and so it went on. It could be to do with commonality of size and thus cheaper boxes, it could be marketing phsycology - bigger box = more value for money, or could be to keep the graphics dept employed ?

My peev is Revell boxes. Not only are they the horrible end-opening type but are normally to big for one kit, whilst not being large enough for two  Some of Trumpeter's nice sturdy boxes can hold 3 kits  Vallom's are nice as well.

[Weaver]

Retailers can't be please though - less product per shelf lengh/height. The guy in the LHS who I pointed it out to thought it was barmy.

[Weaver]

The thing that amazed me on this pile of 2nd hand stuff was an old Airfix F-4B (pre the multi-option kit, I presume?) in an 8" x 4" box - I wouldn't have thought that was possible! (I'd already opened a few for a nosey by then, so I decided not to push my luck.....)

[Mossie]

It's not just Airfix.  I picked up Italeri's Predator UAV recentley & that box is huge compared to what's inside.  I'm cynical about this one, I think they've upped the size of the box to try & justify the £10 price tag.  Okay, it's a nice kit, but it should be half that price & the box half the size too.

[sequoiaranger]

Although I just sold them off, I had a huge stash of the Matchbox series of 1/72 aircraft kits that were CRAMMED into their box. Mind you, Matchbox had cleverly sized their sprues to fit the box EXACTLY, and had all the pieces on the INSIDE of the squarish sprues, so there was no damage, but often there were two or three sprues stacked upon each other.  The side-opening box made looking at the parts very difficult--you had to take EVERY SPRUE out (the "window"--an old Lindberg marketing ploy--didn't help much).

THEN....trying to get the kit back INTO the box was a real hassle! With their instructions, and clear parts, it was rare that the box didn't bulge after you got everything back in (usually on the third try). I really liked the quality, sturdiness and variety of the Matchbox kits, but those artfully illustrated boxes were terrible for entry, exit, and/or storage. Especially for us whiffers that are combining kits (or several) to make our "masterpiece". It's like you NEEDED a non-Matchbox kit in there somewhere to store all the parts.

So oversized boxes might be JUST the thing for "us".

[Weaver]

Oh I grant that oversize boxes are very handy for us: like I said, I've got enough Gnats in one box to do a fair re-run of Hot Shots. Somehow though, I doubt that this is top of the Airfix exec's priorities, so what I'm wondering is just what is the thought process behind it? I suspect that cost/expectation trade-off might be part of it. Some of those old boxes in the LHS had "65p" stickers underneath their modern £4.99 ones, and it's probably the case that spending half-a-tenner is easier for something that looks substantial, rather than something that only looks like it's worth the price of a cup of tea. However, surely that gets negated by the disapppointment factor of finding a fairly unimpressive collection of bits cowering in a corner of an empty box when you actually open it?

[B777LR]

I have to agree with Sequoia, Matchbox boxes are really nasty I have yet to master the skill of repackaging a matchbox kit...

[Brian da Basher]

I think all those "end flap" boxes should be banned and replaced with the nice, sturdy old-fashioned kind with a top and bottom. I save a few of those old kit boxes just for building kits that come in horrible cheapo end-flap boxes.

Brian da Basher

[Jeffry Fontaine]

I think all those "end flap" boxes should be banned and replaced with the nice, sturdy old-fashioned kind with a top and bottom. I save a few of those old kit boxes just for building kits that come in horrible cheapo end-flap boxes.

Is there a support group for all of the folks that feel this way about that style of boxing?  Personally, I think the person responsible for deciding on that form of box should be flogged in public and dragged about town behind a bus until all of their clothing is in tatters.