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Posted

i myself like the boxes from the past. i own a beta 1 command center (forgot set number) and some space police 1 sets (the ones with red visors).

but stop living in the past, gylman. we are buying lego not boxes. if i want extravagant boxes i will go buy better containers from shops. i much rather have more lego for $10 more than to have fewer bricks but better boxes. (plus for TLG to keep a department which designs boxes is way more costly than $10 more per boxes, i can guarantee you that. best to just concentrate on what they do best which is to design sets and make bricks).

the other alternative is to outsource box manufacturing, design and packaging. but you always have the problem of info leakage.

Posted

Man, that's a darn nice box *wub*

I just bought 7899 yesterday and while it's not that big a box the instructions were bent and dog eared again. But I almost expected that. Except for the small town sets I bought this year there was "something wrong" with the instructions in every bigger set I ordered or bought. Right now that's almost more annoying than a wrong or missing part...

best to just concentrate on what they do best which is to design sets and make bricks.

The designs of late aren't as good as in the past (always taking into account what was "in" at the time) and they just outsourced the brick manufacturing. So, maybe box quality management wouldn't be that bad an idea, but I don't know how much the cost for replacement instructions due to bad box design factors in here...

Posted
i much rather have more lego for $10 more than to have fewer bricks but better boxes. (plus for TLG to keep a department which designs boxes is way more costly than $10 more per boxes, i can guarantee you that. best to just concentrate on what they do best which is to design sets and make bricks).

Well, that's the point. For me ten bucks of Lego is not a significant amount. What the heck - it's a couple of Tiny Turbos or Xpods. You open them and in hours to days they are in "the bin".

But a big beautiful box like this - it's good for sorting the set, good for storing the set, and if you want to sell or give it to some one, it's so much better than a barf bag full of bricks.

I am not suggesting the TLC use this design for all their boxes. I think, though, that sets that cost 100$ US and up should. Wouldn't it be better to have the Arkham Asylum with one of those clear molded plastic covers that shows all the villains, Batman, Robin in the front.

Of course, if it's just a parts pack... then this box woudl be a waste. But I use Lego equally for building and for collecting/displaying.

Whatever. I know it's not going back to the old days. It's just that I saw that horrible box 8285 came with, and I happened to be looking at my beautiful 8868 box, and I was struck by how lousy the new box was, so I had to vent.

Posted

I'm with gylman on this one. I can remember way back in the day (I'm 37) when I would go to the toy store and look at all the LEGO sets and flip up the lid to see all the parts displayed. I have some of the larger classic space sets and early Technic sets and I can remember keeping all my parts in the trays that came with the box.

Another thing that I forgot to mention in my 8285 review was that the rubber from the tires made oily circles on the instruction manuals. At first I couldn't figure out what was on the manuals, it looked like a ring from condensation from a soda can when you put it on a magazine or newspaper. Then I realized the rings were the same size as the tires. LEGO should have at least put the tires in a plasic bag to prevent this.

So, I wouldn't mind spending a few extra bucks on a nice box. I would definitely keep it then.

Posted

Oh I quite like the simpler approach they have now (apart from ripping the box to open it). But less plastic packaging is also better for the environment and I can paper recyle the box if desired. In fact for me they could make the boxes a bit smaller (50% air anyway) and make the sets a bit cheaper :) As long as the bricks remain high quality, thats the bit I'm most interested in :)

Peter

Posted
Another thing that I forgot to mention in my 8285 review was that the rubber from the tires made oily circles on the instruction manuals. At first I couldn't figure out what was on the manuals, it looked like a ring from condensation from a soda can when you put it on a magazine or newspaper. Then I realized the rings were the same size as the tires. LEGO should have at least put the tires in a plasic bag to prevent this.

Oh, that's what that was! I had that "effect" on the instructions of my 4896, and I thought it was stains from a coffee mug and complained and received a replacement (which then had dog ears)...

In fact for me they could make the boxes a bit smaller (50% air anyway) and make the sets a bit cheaper :) As long as the bricks remain high quality, thats the bit I'm most interested in :)

I second that.

Posted

The 8868 air had very little "air". Today's modern packages are definitely too big, and the pieces rattle around in there making it sound like you are buying something cheap. I would endose a move to smaller packages. They should also put the instructions in slightly stiff cardboard holders so they don't get damaged. That would still be environmentally OK I suppose.

At the risk of not being "environmentally sound", I think the bazillions of tons of hardy Lego bricks that are made by TLC annually are much more of an environmental issue than the packaging. Its hard to get too worked up about a couple of thin sheets of plastic.

In the end, it's about cost. But I think The Lego Company has room for a "high end" product in a small fraction of its biggest and best sets.

Posted

As WhiteHexagon, said, less packaging is better for the environment.

And cheaper for Lego, too, on more than one level.

Don'`t get me wrong though, I'd LOVE a return to anal packaging.

Like, in the 80's when you bought a giant robot, they came all nice inside styrofoam that had slots for each unit and their weapons. Alot of the heavier diecast guys even had a handle on the top so you could pack them away, then carry them to a friend's house.

Daltanias-box.jpg

Now it's a thin, hollow package with assloads of twist ties and tape, useless immediately after dissection.

Looks nice before purchase, but the pursuit of purchase is all the care that's been considered.

Unicron.jpg

But heck, if it means that time and money in production is reduced, I'm good with it.

Especially in Lego's case... those parts are going straight into a bin. I'm not going to be disassembling a model to put it back into a neat tray.

Posted
At the risk of not being "environmentally sound", I think the bazillions of tons of hardy Lego bricks that are made by TLC annually are much more of an environmental issue than the packaging. Its hard to get too worked up about a couple of thin sheets of plastic.

The difference is that most people put the packaging straight into the bin, whereas we have brick link / ebay for recycling the bricks ;)

Posted
I'm with gylman on this one. I can remember way back in the day (I'm 37) when I would go to the toy store and look at all the LEGO sets and flip up the lid to see all the parts displayed. I have some of the larger classic space sets and early Technic sets and I can remember keeping all my parts in the trays that came with the box.

I can remember too! I like so mutch to look all the different sets and try to look the other pieces behind the parts displayed. So I could dream on all those bricks... I could spend hours and hours in the LEGO area of my shop, looking in the box! I think that it is better to sell some sets with children IMO, making them dream...

Posted

I too have complaints about today's lego boxes, only recently I started to collect lego again (I'm 33) and when I opened the first big set I bought in many years (8654)...what a disapointment.

I have some sets from the 80s and even in some smaller sets the boxes were good, with slide trays, and the bigger sets had plastic trays. I wonder if the boxes in the 80s were like the new ones, if any of my vintage sets would have survived, and they were all very used when I was a kid.

It's a design problem and not costs, an acceptable box this days wouldn't cost 10$ like someone said, and it could be all made of cardboard, (plastic should be saved for the lego pieces).

In my opinion a toy like lego which is meant to be build and rebuild and stored... must have a boxe that is reusable to store the pieces after, if the box is not capable of that this is a major design flaw and of course people will throw it away. Hey, and lego doesn't have to invest in new designs for the boxes, use the old slide tray design it's way better.

Posted

Nice review Glyman *y*

I know what you mean about the old boxes I have the first Technic Chassis 853 and you could see the parts when you open the lid all the gears and wheels had there own compartment so when you put it away you knew if a part hade been left under the sofa. Best of all the instruction slipped into a little pocket in the bottom of the box so they did not get damaged.

And the worst thing about the new boxes is the *"%$

Posted

I must say I prefer the older boxes too - they are just so much better constructed (only in the last 2 years have I seen sets ripped open in stores).

I have sitting next to me an original 6073 box - in mint condition, and comparing this to the quality of the 7238 box I recently recieved - the 7238 looks worse fresh from the store!

Also, comparing 7238 to 6750's box - the new set has a slightly larger box. While above there was discussion on costs saved by reducing box quality - I am sure considerably more could be saved by reducing box volume (as the volume of air to the volume of bricks etc has gone up drastically over recent years, as has the price of transport (oil).

I for one would much prefer the smaller boxes of a much higher quality. The slidetrays were some off the best cartons around for storing lego in, and the plastic inserts allowed a lot of sorting as well. The instructions and promotional materials being able to sit securely in the bottom of the box allowed these to arrive in good condition - not dog-eared like many members have mentioned recently.

I recall reading at some point the TLG historically made the box big enough to display the set in natural size on the front - I get the impression that this rule has disappeared, with pictures often seeming exaggerated.

Posted

Older boxes get my vote as well. I remeber being a kid and first seeing the bigger sets in the small little catalog that came in my medium sized sets. i would remeber day dreaming about one day getting these sets (being techinc/town/space). While taking a trip to K-mart, or target, i would see these sets in person, and open the large flap that would show the set in all differnt angles, and show the details. Ussually in some sort of scene too. this would just make me want the set even more as i would day dream about my own set up/ lay out.

Yup. those were the good old days. *y*

Posted

i'm split on this one. sure, i can see the high quality of the old boxes, sure they were ideal to store parts, to collect entire sets,... sure, today you have to damage a box according to lego to open one...

on the other hand...

i think it's a lot easier to steal from those old boxes. just open the flap, cut the plastic and voil

Posted

At a time of climatic changes, I think it's good to make crapy boxes. I think they just should reduce the size of the box, nowadays precious things are sold in small boxes. I think kids are less sensitive to the size of the packaging (see videogames).

There's only adults (or 0.0000001% of the kids) to feel the need of putting back all the pieces back into the orginal box. Others will just throw the boxes away.

I also concure with the stealing bricks aspect. See all the LUL SW sets : how many boxes without the test figs did we see in shops ? Be honest, a lot !

Posted

Meh - making the stuff harder to steal would not be hard. THat's not a good reason for crappy boxes. Heck, it's a good reason for better, stiffer, more plastic-surrouneded boxes.

I would not be so foolish as to suggest that TLC should make every box like this. Only the high-end stuff, that costs 100$ US or more. This is a tiny proportion of the market. I have no doubt that the cardboard from the 5$ to 50$ sets ends up in the garbage 95% of the time. But the biggest sets, bought and used by older kids and adults, or collectors, probably have a much higher retention rate.

Even if they used cardboard separators, with only a single moulded clear plastic layer on part of the box (this was used commonly in the 1980's and 1990's, it would be a vast improvement.

Like I said before - the amount of infinitely-surviving Lego bricks made every must weigh 1000's of times more than the amount of plastic that such packaging would involve. To use "environmental" factors as an argument is not logical.

And the notion that most Lego bricks are "recycled" on eBay is just plain funny. TLC sells more bricks each year that the year before. Heck, if they didn't they would go out of business. Where are they all going?. I doubt if eBay/bricklink recycles more than a few percent of the total amount produced each year. Most Lego is not bought by huge fans like us who store, worship it, or resell it. It is bought by "normal people" who eventually toss it out like any other toy - hard as that is to for us to imagine.

I TOTALLY agree, though, that with their current product they need to make smaller boxes with less air in them.

Posted
Like I said before - the amount of infinitely-surviving Lego bricks made every must weigh 1000's of times more than the amount of plastic that such packaging would involve. To use "environmental" factors as an argument is not logical.

No no no. The same amount of bricks will still be there. There just won't be 80 zillion plastic tray inserts glutting up landfills, where I truly do think most of those will go immediately after purchase.

As for smaller packages, I agree. It used to be that shipping was priced on the weight of objects. These days it's more priced on the size of the individual units, at least in North America.

Perhaps the extra units sold ("oooh, big box!") make up the smaller difference that they lose on that shipping?

Posted
As for smaller packages, I agree. It used to be that shipping was priced on the weight of objects. These days it's more priced on the size of the individual units, at least in North America.

I agree the UK postal system is changing to take into accout size of letters as well as the weight.

As more and more people buy sets off the internet maybe the boxes will becomes less important and the box sizes will drop to meet the demands of a mail order business.

Posted
I think they just should reduce the size of the box, nowadays precious things are sold in small boxes. I think kids are less sensitive to the size of the packaging (see videogames).

There's only adults (or 0.0000001% of the kids) to feel the need of putting back all the pieces back into the orginal box. Others will just throw the boxes away.

i think bigger boxes are only created for marketing reasons. they're supposed to attract the very young people, to make Lego sets stand out in shops.

I did the test with the longboat last year: you can fill the box with another longboat without any problem

Posted

I think they just should reduce the size of the box, nowadays precious things are sold in small boxes. I think kids are less sensitive to the size of the packaging (see videogames).

There's only adults (or 0.0000001% of the kids) to feel the need of putting back all the pieces back into the orginal box. Others will just throw the boxes away.

i think bigger boxes are only created for marketing reasons. they're supposed to attract the very young people, to make Lego sets stand out in shops.

I did the test with the longboat last year: you can fill the box with another longboat without any problem

The same with the system ISD 6211, Snefroe... but then the box was REALLY full... of some reason...

I know...

Posted

This is the type of box I hoped for in the 8675 Outdoor Challenger, but unfortunately only the cardboard box was like in the good old days. I wish that LEGO did some of their sets like this. Technic and RCs since those are nice to store in a respectable manner. Also serious storing of those types allows easier use next time. Technic is about MOCing 24/7 isn't it?

KimT

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