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B.RAD

Do you keep the box?

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I'm just tidying up after my first build. I've bought a couple of storage boxes to pack all the spares and ancillary parts etc that go along with this awesome hobby, and am now left with the empty boxes and packaging for the Mad Bull. 

Should I keep the box? If so, why? I don't intend to sell this one, but I can't say that I never would.  If I did would keeping the box make any difference? 

One factor - disposing of the bulky box would make Mrs Rad much more amenable to my purchasing of more kits!

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Most certainly. The artwork, colour and detail is just something alot of people / collectors including myself like.

In all honesty they can become annoying and take up a fair bit of space but where possible i will put a box within another box to save space.

I could not throw one out, unless of course it is really badly damaged and cannot rescued... 

 

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I have the original box of my Sanwa MX-V but thats jsut cause I bought it new.

used torn up stuff really not looking to keep.

 

still if they can used for storage of parts thats great.

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17 minutes ago, 53HRA said:

Most certainly. The artwork, colour and detail is just something alot of people / collectors including myself like.

In all honesty they can become annoying and take up a fair bit of space but where possible i will put a box within another box to save space.

I could not throw one out, unless of course it is really badly damaged and cannot rescued... 

 

Absolutely agree that the tamiya (and other brand) box artwork really is art and deserves to be kept. I wish I kept all the boxes from the 1/24th plastic models I've made over the years. Would make cool garage wall art. 

What I could throw away though is the modern tamiya boxes that just have photos of cars on the front, or worse, a generic box with a small sticker of a photo of the car. What happened to the hand-drawn artwork!? The boxes look boring now. 😔

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33 minutes ago, ALEXKYRIAK said:

image.png.6c06ebd10bd2744effb77aa88e39cbe1.png

How did you find a picture of my closet?

 

I keep mine for sure. The boxes with artwork are very carefully stored, although I have a display shelf with about six boxes that I rotate above my model shelves (away from UV light of course). The newer photo boxes I keep around and put spares in.

I caught my parents trying to trash my original kit boxes when I was young. Through much begging and pleading they allowed me to cut them up (which I then used as wall art much to their distain, lol). I also managed to keep my oldest two boxes (I was a collector of old RC even back then), a FAV and Fox intact. Of course, the second I left for college, they found the boxes (along with my RC10T box) smashed them flat and trashed them along with a third of my RC collection. The outcome? I'm a bit nuts when it comes to saving and preserving boxart boxes.

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I love the boxes, can't get rid of them.  Not crazy about the photo boxes, but anything with Tamiya artwork has as much significance to me as the model does.  They do take up a bit of room and dont really have anywhere to display boxes, so I have been thinking about cutting the fronts off, framing them, and hanging in the garage.  Not worried about cutting them as they don't really hold value to me other than sentimental value, and it would be nice to see them everyday rather than have them hidden in various spots in the house or up in the garage rafters.

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Yes, when the boxes still exist. My cars are all secondhand and only two of them still have their original boxes, but IMHO they're two of the best: Grasshopper and Hornet :D

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9 minutes ago, El Gecko said:

Yes, when the boxes still exist. My cars are all secondhand and only two of them still have their original boxes, but IMHO they're two of the best: Grasshopper and Hornet :D

My Midnight Pumpkin was second hand, but came with the box . So I’m hanging on to that one for now 

I might flatten it and display on a wall when I move house next year. That box art is too cool to part with 

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i admit to keeping boxes. that includes motor and esc boxes, parts boxes. i even keep the tags from the tires or hopups in the box of the car they are installed on. its a good way to know part numbers. 

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Nope. As soon as the kit's done, I consolidate the leftover parts and hardware with the rest of my stash, file away the manuals (those I absolutely keep) and any unused decals, and flatten the box and chuck it in the recycling. Can't stand the clutter. I thought about keeping some box lids as wall art, but nearly all my wall space is taken up by shelves containing actual models, so there's no place to hang the box art.

I have even passed up vintage models that included the box, because I didn't want to feel honor-bound to keep it. If the kit's still in it, then fine, but if not, then I need to find a place to store two things. It's a nuisance.

Besides, to me, the box and box art represent the promise of the build, the excitement and possibility of what is to come. Once it's built, that possibility is a reality, and the box has served its purpose. After that it's just a husk. Once the butterfly emerges, why care what happens to the coccoon?

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I used to keep them, but in the end they were just taking up space.  Loads and loads of them got flattened and recycled.  I kept a Grasshopper, Midnight Pumpkin and Hotshot lid to use as wall art, not sure if I still have them, but they were always hidden behind shelves anyway.

I still have a few that contain half-empty sprues and other junk from builds that I haven't sorted yet, and I keep a few CC01-type boxes because they will actually fit a car in once they're done, but generally I keep my cars in plastic storage boxes.

The only vintage boxes I own are two Calsonic Primera boxes.  I actually loaned them to a mate who likes having boxes and he has them "on display" in his loft.  They're the only ones I feel ambivalent about getting rid of because if I ever wanted to sell the vintage cars that came in them, I would feel bad about having broken up two parts of a collectable thing.

I tend to offer all my used kit boxes to my mate before I throw them out, he's had loads off me over the years :)

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Most of the boxes i have from my cars, i cut the sides off and keep the front, hop up side and japanese side.  once my hobby room has walls, ill put them up in there 

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19 minutes ago, Cephas said:

I display the ones I like 😀

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That's exactly what I plan on doing, looks great.  

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I'm of a similar mindset to Rich_F above - the earlier kit boxes with illustrations are classic examples of illustrative art (and quintessentially Tamiya too) - so if you love RC cars, having a few of your favourite box lids framed would be a nice addition to your workshop wall space (or the living room, if you can convince the rest of your household to agree ;o)

It is shame the more recent kits tend to use a photograph, or at least a stylised photograph rather than a hand drawn illustration... it's what used to set Tamiya immediately apart from other brands on the shelf.

Seeing the two framed examples Cephas posted above, I wish I'd hung onto a few box lids after all (ironically I did for a number of years, but had a clear out before I moved) - the Frog, Midnight Pumpkin, Rough Rider, Wild Willy 2  - all classics.

Jenny x

ps. my niece still has her Pajero Wheelie box, I must remind her not to throw that one out!

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Sure, I keep the kit boxes.  They all go under the bed and stay out of sight and out of the closet.  The cat loves to wedge herself in between all the boxes and will spend a good portion of the day there.

I generally keep the leftover sprues and stickers, placards from hopups, motor/ESC/servo/receiver boxes, manuals, extra unused hardware and supplies, and unused bodies in the boxes.  If I pull a model off the shelf later, retrieving its box helps me remember what I did to it last and then resume the evolution of the model.  In a sense the history of the model is entombed in the box.

If I go to sell the model later, the box is handy for protecting a body, wheels/tires, and documentation while I pack the chassis in something more generic.

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You MUST keep the box . I keep all of my kit boxes and have bought more EMPTY boxes , all vintage . The re-re kits are still in their BOXES and will stay there ( for now ) . I think the boxes do add a certain something to the model ( and future sale if you decide that ) . It's a bit like selling a 1:1 car with the service history.

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5 minutes ago, speedy_w_beans said:

I generally keep the leftover sprues and stickers, placards from hopups, motor/ESC/servo/receiver boxes, manuals, extra unused hardware and supplies, and unused bodies in the boxes

Me too

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I do the same as a lot of you and keep spares from the kit, extra parts, stock parts that were upgraded, etc. in the kit box they came from and then always find myself buying parts that I already had just because I couldnt remember where I put them :)    On a boring rainy day I'll sometimes look through the boxes stashed in the house and realize I've bought parts a few times over when it was right there all along...

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My propensity for hoarding really doesn't need this much encouragement guys!! 😆 

I've kept hold of the box, for now. I still need to sort the car storage in the garage which will include a space for manuals, stickers, spare parts etc. Until then it makes sense to keep everything in the box as has been said. I also feel like I'm missing out on the box art now, I wouldn't say the Mad Bull box is anything particularly special (apologies if this is travesty!), but can absolutely appreciate holding on to some of the more classic designs. 

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1 minute ago, B.RAD said:

My propensity for hoarding really doesn't need this much encouragement guys!! 😆 

I've kept hold of the box, for now. I still need to sort the car storage in the garage which will include a space for manuals, stickers, spare parts etc. Until then it makes sense to keep everything in the box as has been said. I also feel like I'm missing out on the box art now, I wouldn't say the Mad Bull box is anything particularly special (apologies if this is travesty!), but can absolutely appreciate holding on to some of the more classic designs. 

Agreed on the Mad Bull, they could have done some really cool box art for that one.  I still have the box and won't get rid of it, but I do wish it were original Tamiya art.

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