Box Inflation

[Thorvic]

Just think of all that boxed air on the shelves of your overcrowded local model shop.......

Thats actually the answer to the question, sure they can fit things in small boxes but the can get lost and un-noticed on a cramped shelf so they go for a larger box and a striking picture to get a better footprint on the shelves and hopefully higher sales in return.

[Weaver]

Just think of all that boxed air on the shelves of your overcrowded local model shop.......

Thats actually the answer to the question, sure they can fit things in small boxes but the can get lost and un-noticed on a cramped shelf so they go for a larger box and a striking picture to get a better footprint on the shelves and hopefully higher sales in return.

Trouble is, everybody can play that game, so where does it end? Nimrod-sized boxes with Cessna Bird Dogs in them?

I wonder if this is partly behind the fairly recent phenomenon of two-kits-in-one box, like the Italeri armour or the Hasegawa twin-packs? If it works for them, maybe Airfix should consider it.....

[Go4fun]

I wonder if peope are buying kits in California and London just to open them and get a wiff of fresh air? 

[The Wooksta!]

You can't beat the smell when you open the lid of an old kit - to whit, one a minimum of thirty years vintage - and breath in the smell.  Wonderful.

[rickshaw]

You can't beat the smell when you open the lid of an old kit - to whit, one a minimum of thirty years vintage - and breath in the smell.  Wonderful.

Colonel Kilgore: "I love the smell of fresh plastic in the mornin'!"  

[NARSES2]

I wonder if this is partly behind the fairly recent phenomenon of two-kits-in-one box, like the Italeri armour or the Hasegawa twin-packs? If it works for them, maybe Airfix should consider it.....

The Italeri double boxings I've seen have been the wargames orientated kits, and I think Pegasus started that trend ? Hasegawa it's a way of attempting to make the ridiculous UK pricing look like a good deal - twin boxing of the 1/72 Sea Hurricane £44.99 

I suppose Airfix can claim some credit for "double boxing" with the old Dogfight Doubles.

[lenny100]

carnt see why they have to be in a box at all, why not go back to the old bag system with a card displaying the model on the opening end, you be able to see the kit without opening a box, and realy narking some shops, and they could display a lot more kit in the same space, and maybe cut the cost of the boxes after all we dont buy a kit for the box, or do we???

[PR19_Kit]

The old Airfix plastic bag system did produce quite a heavy percentage of damaged kits.. I've herad it say it was over 10% but when I helped out in a model shop in Oxford in the 60s it was nowhere near that much. Perhaps we took them out of the cartons with more care?

[Steel Penguin]

i find the boxs useful for storing the kit wile part built, and for compressing , ( ive just got the airfix landy double set into the box with the patrol and support group)  ive got 1:48 TSR2s doubled up in the same box ( tight fit this one) and 1:72 vulcans the same,  and its useful if you ever pick up the extra bits at a show you want ( resin cockpit, weponsets or etch details)  of course YMMV, and im currently happily storing 6 1:48 vehicles and a 28mm light mech in a 2L icecream tub.

[NARSES2]

Boxes stack and display better, plus they are easier to handle and less prone to damage in transit. They also look better when junior (of any age) is quickly gazing around shelves in a toy/hobby shop as you can get the image you want to present into his mind's eye immediately. Plus another psychological trick is that if something is boxed it tends to look slightly more classy then something that is simply bagged. Look at any high street dept store and men's shirts for that one. Bags were fine when they were to be displayed on those turntable stacks that were used in sweetshops/newsagents back in the day, but once the ranges and competition became greater boxes were the way to go. Airfix, AFAIK, only bagged the bottom range kits ? Series 1 ?

The shipping question is interesting however as I'm told that the original Japanese imports back in the late 60's were sent in plastic bags and boxed in the UK. Whence the "Hales" names on some of the boxes. That may well have been before standard containerisation however.

[eatthis]

the box for a 1/48 b1b is huge

[Weaver]

Boxes stack and display better, plus they are easier to handle and less prone to damage in transit. They also look better when junior (of any age) is quickly gazing around shelves in a toy/hobby shop as you can get the image you want to present into his mind's eye immediately.

But going back to a point I made way back at the start of this thread, how disappointed is junior going to feel when he gets his nice, large colourful box home and finds a sad little pile of grey plastic bits hiding in one corner of it? Modelling is a hobby market, not straight-forward consumerism: you need the repeat custom to build up the enthusiasm and keep the market filled with people like us who buy far more kits than we build. If junior, or more importantly his parents, feel that his first kit-buying experience is a rip-off, then they ain't coming back, and that's bad.

Parents are one of the biggest obstacles to kids getting involved anyway: I've lost count of the number of times I've had to bite my lip in a hobby shop as I've heard a parent squashing their kid's enthusiasm for the big, colourful box with something like:

"Oh no, you don't want that Jimmy: you have to build it and paint it and it's difficult and you have to buy the paints and the tools and the glue and stuff and anyway it won't look as good as that when you've built it you know..." 

Translation: parent knows they'll end up "helping" with 50-90% of the build and they can't or won't do it, so better to get him a ready-made Dinky toy that he can just play with easily.....

Now how much easier is it for that kind of parent to get their way when Jimmy feels (or can be made to feel) ripped off by the disparity betwen the outside of the box and the inside?

[NARSES2]

But going back to a point I made way back at the start of this thread, how disappointed is junior going to feel when he gets his nice, large colourful box home and finds a sad little pile of grey plastic bits hiding in one corner of it? Modelling is a hobby market, not straight-forward consumerism: you need the repeat custom to build up the enthusiasm and keep the market filled with people like us who buy far more kits than we build. If junior, or more importantly his parents, feel that his first kit-buying experience is a rip-off, then they ain't coming back, and that's bad.

No I agree with you Harold, however the marketing guys see things differently unfortunately

[Steel Penguin]

eatthis    yup it is, satisfyingly huge though i think,  though ive still got to build mine,

[pyro-manic]

I don't think I've ever actually opened a kit box and thought "...oh, that's a bit small". Maybe I just don't buy the kits in question, but it's honestly never happened.