Round2 Retro Box Art. Yes or No?

[Mr. Metallic]

Just because it isn't a "selling point" or "feature" to you doesn't mean it isn't to other people. Some people do buy the kit as art. Sure they probably intend to build the contents one day, but still displaying the box in some form. Others will toss the box in the trash. but why does any of that matter? It's not hurting anyone to have retro box art. If anything, it helps with sales, and that's why Round2 will continue to do it. And that's why Moebius uses that style of artwork to market some of their brand new tooling kits. If the choice of box art is deceitful in any way that is a bigger issue. But Round2 has been pretty careful to make sure what is pictured is what is in the box, with a possible couple of exceptions over their tenure. Previous owners of the tooling were much more guilty of that deceptive marketing.

[showrods]

Retro box art is a no brainer - gotta have it!

[GMP440]

 

 Another vote for the retro boxes.  Keep them coming Round 2.

 

[iamsuperdan]

I've never understand the appeal of the Retro Box Art, and why Round2 actually puts a sticker on the box hyping it as a selling point. 

But at the end of the day, I really don't care what the box looks like. 

It's the contents that matter to me, not how the box end will look as it sits in on a shelf in the stash. I don't generally keep boxes, so the art is irrelevant.

I have kits from several manufacturers that have ugly and/or goofy box art, but have a fabulous build inside. On the flipside, I have kits that look great, but were horrible to build and look at.

 

[dodgefever]

This thread is the very definition of 'First World Problems".  I'm sure the majority here know what they're getting with AMT reissues.

[stavanzer]

1 hour ago, iamsuperdan said:

I've never understand the appeal of the Retro Box Art, and why Round2 actually puts a sticker on the box hyping it as a selling point. 

This was the starting point of my own thoughts. I don't mind the Retro Art. I enjoy some of it. But It is not and never has been a 'selling point' IMHO.

The responses on this thread indicate that for some buyers, it IS a reason to buy, however. So,  I think Round2 will continue to use Retro Box Art. They may also keep using it as a Sales Bullet Point. I just wish they would not. It seems to me to be an act of Desperation, when thinking up Bullet Points to put on the sticker on the front of the Kit. "New Tires" and "Expanded Decal Sheet" are obvious and expected. "Re-tooled Parts" is another that is good. Even Better from my perspective is "Newly Tooled Parts". That always prompts a second look. But, "Retro Box Art" always strikes me as a 'Cop Out', an admission that there is literally nothing else to say about the kit to convince somebody to buy it....

[CapSat 6]

Retro box art? 

As a selling feature? To me, it enhances the product a bit, but it doesn't add much actual value. Personally, I like good box art, but just like any other art, there is good box art and bad box art. Box art being Retro doesn't necessarily make it good. My personal favorite old box art types are: the MPC '68 and '69 year boxes, and the MPC "Special Model" types from 1977-78 (the ones with photos of the real car, which was usually a special performance model, like: the Blackbird Firebird, Dodge Warlock and Little Red Express, Plymouth Volare Road Runner Super Pak, etc.).  I'd love to see Round 2 offer a Dodge Macho Wagon 4WD pickup in the same graphic type box that the Warlock and LRX were originally offered.

My least favorites were the MPC box art for their annual kits from 1970 and 1971. The graphics on MPC boxes in '70 and '71 were kind of silly to me. Also- I'm not crazy about some of the new retro-ish boxes coming from Round 2 right now: the boxes for the AMT '71 Duster, MPC '71 Mustang, '58 Edsel and '57 Chrysler 300 just rub me the wrong way.  

I get a LOT more out of the retro/revised/expanded decals that Round 2 is doing right now. When you see a new decal sheet that shows multiple stock stripe options/colors (some never offered before), as well as thoughtfully designed custom graphic options, that's something that adds actual value. The decals sheet in the '76 Dodge Dart Sport is a great example...Hang 10 AND Spirit of '76 graphics on the same sheet!!!

So Round 2: keep the revised/ expanded decals coming (and jam in as much by way of stock graphics as you can), and yes, while you are at it, please include as many tires as possible in each box.

Edited July 28, 2022 by CapSat 6

[1972coronet]

I suppose that a disclaimer on the box -- in an obvious location, without being a distraction... maybe on the bottom? On one side? -- would be the best compromise. 
Yes, the majority of Round2's customers are nostalgic folks (like me, for instance), and are for the most part aware that the contents are anywhere from 35-60 years old.
However, buyers do exist who aren't hip to the true age of the kits' contents.
I was one of them, some time ago.
For their benefit, a disclaimer -- again, tasteful and tactfully-placed -- would at least give neophytes a clue, and hopefully not turn them away from a (fun, relatively-inexpensive) hobby.

[Mr. Metallic]

In my opinion, being surprised by what's IN the box in this day and age for anyone over the age of 12 is inexcusable. There are so many online avenues to research a purchase before you buy it. I could understand back before the internet that the kits would be available well before any sort of review in a magazine was available that someone could be shocked by what was in the box. And even in many cases the print media got advance review samples that usually got them in the magazine at the same time they hit the shelves. But now just about everyone at least has access to the internet somewhere, be it in their pocket or at the local library. So not knowing what's in the box is pretty much willful ignorance.

Even if you are the absolute FIRST person to buy a kit out of the case at the retailer, most kits have been thoroughly dissected before they even make it to retail outlets to at least get a gist of what's included. If you have any consternation about what is included, maybe put off your purchase until your questions are answered.

Sorry if that comes off as a bit harsh

[Ace-Garageguy]

2 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:

I've never understand the appeal of the Retro Box Art...

I'd surmise it's simply to trigger the want-reflex among geezers who remember building (or desiring) the model at some time in the pre-deluvian past, and loosen their grip on their wallets by appealing to their sense of nostalgia.

EDIT: Of course, whether the particular box-art chosen for replication has a net positive or negative effect on the want-reflex is going to be determined by the geezerliness of the particular geezer, and the time period the art reflects.

Sadly, marketing often seems to alienate as many in the target demographic as it inspires.  

Edited July 28, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy

[1972coronet]

I have made more than a few (or, more than I care to admit to) impulse buys based upon the 'geezer-reflex'; to cite a few:

- MPC 1976 Dart Sport. I had an original back in the day; and I already have a copy of the 'retro' "1975" Dart Sport annual re-pop, but that gold coloured 1976 box art popped a memory capsule, and...

- AMT 1934 Ford Pickup. Another one I had in me early days of glue kits. It was old -ancient- stock at a sporting goods store, and I was awestruck with its box art. I was 8, and never forgot it. So...

- AMT Vantom E-150 [1976?]. Built a number of them in the seventies and very early eighties.

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

[Fat Brian]

3 hours ago, dodgefever said:

This thread is the very definition of 'First World Problems".  I'm sure the majority here know what they're getting with AMT reissues.

While the majority here do know what to expect from a kit there has been an influx of new builders in the past two years. They've only bought a handful of kits and don't understand that there can be 50 years of difference in technology between two kits from the same manufacturer on the same shelf at the same price point. The AMT tin box Daytona has been a huge disappointment to many newer builders who see the fancy packaging and don't know that tooling has been through the wringer. 

[stavanzer]

3 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

-I'd surmise it's simply to trigger the want-reflex among geezers who remember building (or desiring) the model at some time in the pre-deluvian past, and loosen their grip on their wallets by appealing to their sense of nostalgia.

EDIT: Of course, whether the particular box-art chosen for replication has a net positive or negative effect on the want-reflex is going to be determined by the geezerliness of the particular geezer, and the time period the art reflects.

Sadly, marketing often seems to alienate as many in the target demographic as it inspires.  

And, I am the wrong age range geezer for the current Retro Art. You'd be surprised at how many kits I purchased with that art though....

I bought my kits from 1979-1985 at K-mart, KayBee Toys, Sears, and now Defunct Drug Store Chains. I don't think I had ever seen 1962-68 original kits until my first swap meet in 1999. So they were 35+ years old by then.

Edited July 28, 2022 by stavanzer

[Chuck Kourouklis]

Re managing expectations, Airfix lately has an approach to this, and I wonder if it wouldn't be a bad idea for everyone else to adopt.

They slap two dates on one of the box sides:

1) the current date of release and

2) the year the tooling was designed.

[Ace-Garageguy]

17 minutes ago, Chuck Kourouklis said:

Re managing expectations, Airfix lately has an approach to this, and I wonder if it wouldn't be a bad idea for everyone else to adopt.

They slap two dates on one of the box sides:

1) the current date of release and

2) the year the tooling was designed.

Now...if only they'd hire a team of "expert" reviewers to help label each specific kit as "junk that's not worth my precious time" or not. 

[mk11]

2 hours ago, Fat Brian said:

The AMT tin box Daytona has been a huge disappointment to many newer builders who see the fancy packaging and don't know that tooling has been through the wringer. 

Yeah, but it, like, gots a whaletail  🤣

 

4 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

 Of course, whether the particular box-art chosen for replication has a net positive or negative effect on the want-reflex is going to be determined by the geezerliness of the particular geezer, and the time period....

As I believe you yourself said something once about 'a link to a simpler time'     

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, mk11 said:

...As I believe you yourself said something once about 'a link to a simpler time'     

Yup, guilty as charged...and I've bought several repopped retro-boxed kits that I either built, lusted after, or at least noticed on the shelves during my decades-long hobby-modeling dry spell.

But I haven't been disappointed by more than 2, my own fault, where I didn't do my due-diligence research prior to purchase.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy
TYPO

[Tabbysdaddy]

I always preferred pictures of the actual model. I felt they were trying to hide the ugliness of the model when they didn't. You don't use the police sketch artist drawing when you have a picture of the guy.

[Chuck Kourouklis]

HA.

Like that one, Sean. 🙂

[niteowl7710]

2 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Now...if only they'd hire a team of "expert" reviewers to help label each specific kit as "junk that's not worth my precious time" or not. 

Not so much that, as much as it is the expectation of it being semi-current content vs. 40-50+ years old. It's not (to me) junk vs. not, but I know what to expect. We - as a forum - can sit here and be all snide about "everyone knows" til the cows return, HOWEVER this forum even if it united in a mass purchase of a particular kit couldn't buy the entire run. We're the 1%...or maybe 5% at the top of the most informed, most seasoned/knowledgeable people in the hobby, and yet we don't represent anything like a majority of the sales of these items.

People look at the IPMS as some monolithic organization, but there's only about 4500 members in the U.S. that's again not buying out a single kit run even of all of the membership agreed to purchase a single genre kit.

[Brian Austin]

Maybe kit manufacturers should adopt pastry-type window boxes.  You could then see the contents rattling around inside the box.

You can print all sorts of notes and disclaimers on a box, and there will still be people who will be caught by surprise.

I am reminded of a long thread in this forum criticizing decades of boxart trends, so what's a manufacturer to do?

[Fat Brian]

1 hour ago, Brian Austin said:

Maybe kit manufacturers should adopt pastry-type window boxes.  You could then see the contents rattling around inside the box.

I have a Hasegawa box like that for their then new 250 Testa Rossa. I interesting idea but I think the plastic to paper glue joint proved to be a weak point.

[Oldcarfan27]

10 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I'd surmise it's simply to trigger the want-reflex among geezers

"Want-Reflex"

I like that term. Maybe they should put that on the boxes as the selling point. 

"We've put the old-as-dirt box art on here, so you old geezers, who are still coherent enough to remember the past, will buy this instead of wasting your golden years on Ebay trying to search in vain to acquire your childhood youth."

Admittedly of which, I am guilty as charged. So I guess their gimmick works on me!

[dbostream]

If I had a say I would rather have new beautiful box art like Revell are doing. But if it comes down to a retro box or no reissue at all then it is an easy chose.

[unclescott58]

Speaking of “retro box art.” Below is is example of a kit where I think the old, original box art was better than the new. The much hated (though not by me) Revell/Atlantis Jungle Jim Camaro Funny Car. I feel the original box art was much more appealing. Though neither cover gives you a true idea of what’s in the box.