A novel system for taxonomically grouping LEGO boxes based on size and shape

[gugira]

Hi everyone, I'm Gugira. This is my first proper post on Eurobricks, and as you can see I joined relatively recently, although I'm in no way new to the online AFOL community or LEGO itself as a hobby - I have exited my dark age about 7 years ago, and ever since have been a member on Rebrickable, Bricklink and Brickset, I simply didn't get around to making an account on here earlier. With my brief introduction out of the way, onto the stated purpose of this post (and the reason I joined this place): I have been working on categorizing official LEGO set packaging boxes into a sort-of "taxonomic" family tree, based on shared physical attributes and chronology of each box format's initial emergence.

This whole mess started inadvertently when I was looking on the web for storage solutions for larger box types, because I recently acquired the 10221 UCS Super Star Destroyer, and along with other models, considered optimizing my storage capacity to properly fit these sets in a coherent and organized manner. Where it kicked off is when I compared 10221's box size to its preceding UCS counterparts (10030 ISD and 10143 DS2), just for me to notice the very marginal differences in box sizes between them. "Huh?" was my honest reaction when I realized that there is a consistent difference of a couple centimeters between the newer and older UCS boxes. At this point, I was curious to see how far the differences in packaging variations go, and at this point I thoroughly entered a rabbit hole where I spent an entire day comparing varying box types.

Yes, the point of LEGO is the contents of the box, and the outer packaging is more of a nice-to-have if anything. But it is still an important aspect when considering collecting sets, especially in large quantities. Other than being an instrument of visual presentation (and sometimes a placeholder of nice box art), they primarily serve the practical purpose of storing parts safely, and protecting them from external elements. It is precisely because of how valuable storage space is that I was a little surprised there isn't more thorough discussion regarding this aspect in online circles. People already go to great lengths to classify brick mould variations, printed variants of pieces, every conceivable minifig, and even non-brick LEGO merchandise (on Bricklink mostly under the "gear" category). And while set boxes are listed as their own items in the Bricklink catalog, they are not organized into distinct groups with common traits in the same manner than any LEGO piece type (plates, tiles, slopes etc.) are. I know that this effort on my part may seem a bit excessive, but I do think it would make the lives of serious AFOLs easier when dealing with sets, especially if sealed and older, with a reference chart they can use to know how to properly utilize their space to accommodate them.

I initially thought of a more casual naming convention for these set packaging standards (like SSD-class etc.), but after thorough thought, decided it's better it has a more formal and consistent codex of categorization. Thus, here is my proposal:

(link displays a chart I made linking various box formats in relation to each other, image can't fit because of 100kb restriction) https://imgur.com/a/box-taxonomy-chart-jAnBJYB

Legacy JUMBO (LJ) - ~59 x ~50.5 x ~21cm (23.3 x 20 x 8 inches), introduced with release of 10030, and then repurposed by 10143; however, despite not being as thick as these two (17.6cm/7 inches as opposed to 21cm), 10188 may warrant an honorary inclusion under this branch, as its front face is basically identical in size (58.8 x 50.2cm, barely smaller).

1. JUMBO Type A (J-A) - 58.5 x 48.5 x 18.5cm, a more modernized variant of the aforementioned type of boxes, first introduced in this form with release of 10221 UCS Super Star Destroyer, therefore "SSD-class"; later on repurposed by many larger sets above the 3000+ part threshold (75159 - 2nd Edition UCS Death Star, 76042 S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier, 75827 Firehouse Headquarters, 71043 Hogwarts Castle etc.).
2. JUMBO Type B (J-B) - 57-58cm x 47-48cm x 16-17.5cm, a sister format to Jumbo Type A, and while marginally thinner, just as prevalent in larger models throughout the 2010's consisting of at least 2000+ parts (release of 10234 Sydney Opera House debuted this subvariant; other notable examples: 75059 UCS Sand Crawler, 71040 Disney Castle, 21137 The Mountain Cave, 75978 Diagon Alley etc.).
3. JUMBO Slim (JS) - boxes that have a similarly large front face in the span of 57-60cm by 47-48cm (in rare cases 49cm), but are typically between 6 and 13cm thick (not to be confused with "Playset Box" format or "Jumbo Long Slim", both of which are closely related and preceding this format - more on them later on). While I'm not adamant in this assessment, all evidence seems to point towards to 10182 Café Corner being the first set to use this specific box type, which has been repurposed soon after for other Creator Expert models, be it modular (10197 Fire Brigade) or otherwise (10196 Grand Carousel, 10214 Tower Bridge), as well as several iconic large Star Wars sets, be they playsets (10195 Republic Dropship with AT-OT, 10236 Ewok Village) or proper UCS (10212 UCS Imperial Shuttle).
4. JUMBO "Long" (J+) - a unique box form that is unmistakable, and is perhaps the progenitor to every JUMBO category above. It was first introduced in 1997 with the Scala's 3290 The Big Family House; it shares a similarly sized box with the 1st edition 2007 UCS Millennium Falcon (3290 measures 65 x 48 x 17cm, while 10179 is marginally larger at 64.39 x 47.63 x 19.69cm), and these two could comprise the "JUMBO Long" (J+) category, while the thinner variant of this box (used in 8275 Motorized Bulldozer, 10181 Eiffel Tower and 10189 Taj Mahal) could be labeled as "JUMBO Long Slim" (JS+).
5. Giant Box (GB) - while it would be fair to put 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon as the one that kicked off this format, I think that the 4785 Duplo Black Castle from 2005 could be considered a precursor, or at the very least a "Legacy" iteration of this box type, as it was not only the largest box volume-wise until the release of the 2017 UCS MF, but was also the only box thicker than both 10143 and 10030 at the time of release (25.5cm vs 21cm for 10030 and 10143). 75252 UCS Imperial Star Destroyer used this same format(Type A), while 10276 Colosseum and 75313 UCS AT-AT came in a slightly different variant (Type B) that has a slightly different front face area and thickness. A super-large variant of the Giant Box (perhaps Type C) has the same front surface area as standard JUMBO boxes but greater thickness (57.5 x 47.5 x 38.5cm), later used in 10294 Titanic and 10307 Eiffel Tower.
6. Revised JUMBO (RJ) - starting with 10305 Lion Knight's Castle, it seems LEGO has started a switch from JUMBO A and B towards a slightly more cube-like format, where the box isn't as wide (52-53.5cm as opposed to ~58cm), but is about as tall (~48cm) and slightly deeper (21cm+ vs 18.5/17cm). This variant could be considered a "thinner" counterpart to the "Giant Box" category. It has notably been used in 76269 Avengers Tower and 43222 Disney Castle (2nd edition)
7. "Long" Playset Box (XL+) - I put considerable thought into this specific category, because at first glance, it looks as if there is some overlap with "JUMBO Long" subvariants, but I decided it has enough unique characteristics to be its own thing. The height of this variant varies from 37 all the way up to ~43cm, while width is usually at least 59cm and more commonly around 64-65.5cm - this would give the front face an overall bigger footprint than that of the standard playset box. From what I've gathered, the first documented that used some iteration of this box type would be set 8458 Silver Champion (65 x 43 x 9cm). It was used in the 2000's in several iconic sets, such as 6211 Imperial Star Destroyer and 7094 King's Castle Siege.
8. Legacy Playset Boxes (XL-old) - archaic forms of the playset box form, which has four main subtypes:

• - Type A (since 1973 and through the 80's, measuring 57.5-58 x 29-33.5cm)
• - Type B (from 1984, the first ever format to introduce "Playset" dimensions used until recently - 57.5-59 x 37-43.5cm)
• - Type C (introduced in 1985, measuring 58 x 46.5cm - a possible inspiration and precursor to the initial JUMBO format).
• Examples of models using these boxes: 404 Universal Building Set (Type A), 5590 Whirl n' Wheel Super Truck, 8448 Super Street Sensation and 8485 Control Center II (Type B), 6990 Futuron Motorail Transport System as well as 6285 Black Seas Barracuda (Type C). From what I've gathered, all of these seem to be between 6 and 12 centimeters deep.

1. "Playset Box" (perhaps just XL) is a notable box format that is very important historically; it is about as wide as JUMBO but not as tall (57-58.5 x 37-38.5 x 6-12cm, usually). It is distinct from XL-old-C by never having dimensions of above 39cm, unlike Type C which had upwards of 43. Since around mid-2000's, it has been used as the staple packaging size for the largest set in LEGO themes specifically targeted towards children, a.k.a., it is usually the largest box size in which a proper big playset would come shipped. 
2. A good example would be any playset Millennium Falcon - pretty much every single one (save for maybe the first one from 2000), from 2004 (4504) up to the most recent one (75257) came in that box type. Similarly, the big playsets from other themes - 7327 Scorpion Pyramid, 70010 The Lion CHI Temple, 7946 King's Castle - and approximately a million other sets - were released in this box.
3.  
4. Thick Playset Box (XLD), Revised Playset (RXL) and Thick Revised Playset (RXLD) - LEGO started experimenting significantly with packaging dimensions for Playset-size boxes around the beginning of 2020's. This trend seems to have started with 76139 - 1989 Batmobile (XLD) in 2019, and this same format was repurposed in 2020 for the 21323 Playable Piano. Since 2024, both the Revised Playset (RXL) and Thick Revised Playset (RXLD) have been released in tandem - both having a front face measuring 55-55.5 x 37-38.5cm, but of different thickness levels (9-13cm in RXL vs 15-23cm in RXLD).
5.  
6. Short Playset Box (XL-) - a variant of the playset format that has a much more variable width (52-58.5), a similar depth, but is notably shorter (23-29.5cm). Set 7730 & 7745 used a similar box with a regular width for Playset format (57-58.5cm) and seem to be a descendant of Legacy Playset Box Type A, therefore could be considered a legacy version of this box type. This format is used for trains, airplanes and ferry ships.
7. "Average" sized boxes - this is where things get a bit messy, as there is much more variation in box dimensions and shapes. These also have a very long history, in some cases dating back to late 60's and early 70's. Fortunately however, there are also some common dimensions that appear across the board in most of the cases: 48, 38, 28 (or 29cm) as well as 24 and 19cm. Therefore, a lot of these more moderately-sized boxes are oftentimes just a combination of 2 of those 5 figures - 48 x 38cm, 48 x 28cm, 38 x 28cm, 28 x 24/19cm, 24 x 19cm etc. As such, I think a ver rudamentary classification of these boxes may be possible as following:

• Large Boxes (L) - 48 x 38cm, 48 x 28cm
• Medium Boxes (M) - 38 x 38cm, 38 x 28cm (sometimes 38 x 24cm or 38 x 19cm), 28 x 28cm
• Medium-Small Boxes (MS) - 28 x 24cm, 28 x 19cm, 24 x 19cm (or anything smaller than 28 x 28cm)
• Small (S) anything that has a box with both dimensions smaller than 20cm on each side (e.g. 19 x 19cm and below)

Interestingly enough, in the older sets from 80's and 90', 43cm was a common axial dimension for boxes, but has pretty much been replaced by 38cm since the mid-2000's.
As you can see, so far I have demonstrated a knack for providing the (admittedly, based on personal guesses) historical information about the emergence and utilization of each box type. However, these more normal sized boxes are SO prevalent that it's impossible to make a sufficient list containing even 5% of them. You can go on Bricklink to click on any random set you see, and I guarantee that in 50% of cases, at least one of the sets will fall under this umbrella of box sizes.
 

I know that this is an extensive and tiring list, but I think it's a good jumping board to start a collaborative effort to further identify box formats from this point forward. I'm not insisting on using the terminology I invented if the community agrees on a better naming convention. Thank you for reading, and tell me what you think about my idea!