https://www.backoftheboxbuilds.com/

Really excited to share this site! Thank you to everyone who helped get this site started, I could not have done it without your help! Suggestions always welcome. Calling all old box keepers, reverse engineers, master builders, and fans of the old forgotten back of the box builds, this site is for you!

 

Edited October 1, 20195 yr by pfunkadunk
Added image

For the large part of LEGO history- as I presume most of you know- the backs of LEGO set boxes had on them "ideas" for alternate models that could be built from the set. This was always a very dear feature to me, and as a kid, I would always make sure to try to assemble all the alternate builds. Unfortunately, at some point LEGO stopped with this practice,  and to this day I hope they will change their mind on that eventually... But that's not what I want to discuss today.

What I want to discuss now is the backs of the boxes of old sets, or better said, where to get photos of them? It's very simple to find photos of the front side of boxes online, and instructions for almost every set are available in dozens of places. But the back sides, with all those nice alternate builds... Not so much. The best that I've managed so far is to dig through BrickLink listings, hoping that some seller will take a photo of the back of the box as well. 

It would be a real shame if all those alternate builds ended up lost to time. After all, the LEGO designers of the time certainly put effort into coming up with those. Personally, my current goal is to collect all the M-Tron ones, to use as inspiration for my own M-Tron themed MOCs. So, did I miss something? Is there a website out there that stores those photos? Do you think a website like that should exist? Should maybe LEGO put in some effort and upload all those photos, just as they upload instructions? Please share your thoughts.

Edited January 10, 20205 yr by Electromistress

Hi,

What years were the sets produced with ideas on the back of the box. I know they did that for a long time but I was wondering which years you wanted in particular. 

Hi, 

as I've said, I'm currently on the lookout for M-tron boxes (1990), but ideally I would like to see all box backs available online.
I'm not exactly sure how long was LEGO doing that? I think it was from somewhere in the 80s to somewhere in the late 00s, 

I will not be of much help to you then as I work with much older sets. I bet that many other members will though.

I loved seeing those ideas on boxes.

They even had it on the boxes of Star Wars sets , I did some searching around, and so far I can find examples up to 2006 at least.

This is from 2006 Imperial Star Destroyer  : https://brickset.com/sets/6211-1/Imperial-Star-Destroyer

I know they have the 3-in-1 theme now, but there was something special about seeing those for pretty much each set, but also could lead to frustration of not having instructions.

 

 

 

Edited January 10, 20205 yr by TeriXeri

1 hour ago, TeriXeri said:

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Wow, this one looks quite amazing. I know Star Wars had them, in fact, when the first X-Wing was made, the instructions even included a little comic about all the alternate model suggestions.

But again, nowadays you pretty much only get to see these builds if you personally own the box of the set, it's a shame.

I agree this box art totally deserves to be preserved in some form! I loved the sometimes great, often quaint alternate builds, using sometimes borderline illegal techniques. But to answer the original question, I don't know of such a repository. I've looked up Peeron, but they don't have back of box pictures.

There's this website I found , as well as topic here on Eurobricks, a lot of photos and even many instructions.

Certainly deserves more attention.

https://www.backoftheboxbuilds.com/

 

Edited January 11, 20205 yr by TeriXeri

Great to have those in 1 place, always loved to see those backs of boxes and models of entirely different things compared to the main model.

Also can see a lot of work went into this and the instructions 

That’s a fantastic project! If I submit instructions, is there a certain format that they should be in or anything else I should know?

Clutch Builder

1 hour ago, TeriXeri said:

There's this website I found , as well as topic here on Eurobricks, a lot of photos and even many instructions.

Certainly deserves more attention.

https://www.backoftheboxbuilds.com/

Ha! How did I miss this! Merging, I agree this deserves the spotlight.

22 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

There's this website I found , as well as topic here on Eurobricks, a lot of photos and even many instructions.

Certainly deserves more attention.

https://www.backoftheboxbuilds.com/

 

Wow, that's a really straight to the point name, I wonder how I never came across it before... But it seems even the topic here never got much attention. Thanks so much for the share!

This is a great site!  

All the boxes from my sets in the 80's-90's got recycled decades ago, so I don't have any of the pictures of alternate builds.  Building the alternates is a fun and entertaining challenge for those of us sheltering during the pandemic.

Thanks everyone for the love! I'm glad to see others interested and starting to find this project. Here's a bit on how this site started. Any and all help appreciated, if you can make the site better, that's the goal. Thanks! https://www.backoftheboxbuilds.com/about/

This is the downside to buying a set today... ripping it open and tossing the box out without a second thought.

Collectors of sets from the 1970s and earlier treasure their boxes, and readily have them at the ready in case they want to flip them over and build an alternative model.

FYI, the first year that TLG introduced alternate models was 1960.

Well anyway... this is a good idea for modern LEGO collectors who don't have room to store their boxes. 

I did keep the boxes from the larger sets back then (I cut off the front/back), but I also stored my instructions/catalogs/idea books inside a large Train box from set 4559.

I especially was inspired by the alternate builds on 4559 Cargo Railway (1996).

Alternate builds were even in the instructions for that set , a Steam Locomotive and a Rail Track Layer.

Edited April 13, 20204 yr by TeriXeri

I built this https://www.backoftheboxbuilds.com/6932-back-a/ out of my battered Stardefender 200 set.  I improvised a bit on the ventral part of the ship, mostly to reinforce the structure and provide landing skids. 

Overall, I'm very pleased with the result.  It's like a compact Classic Space Galaxy Commander.