Manufacturers and boxes

> On Thu, 25 Mar 1999 06:42:13 -0600 devans@uneb.edu wrote:

Quoting me:
> Phil, wishing that manufacturers would get over the

> Well, I could go into some comments about standardization, marketing,

I agree with you, mostly. BUT, I'd much rather have a larger box with empty
space in it and the contents sized "properly", i.e., to a
consistent scale, than to have the _box_ a standard size and the model
therein made any old size. Sometimes, SF models are the last bastion of
this practice -- that, let it be noted, died out in _other_ modelling
genres years ago.

The various Viper and Raider models are a case in point; neither the Monogram
nor the Comet ships are in scale with one another. Nor were
the original Star Wars X-wing and TIE fighter. And AMT were notorious
for the peculiar range of scales that they chose for their Star Trek kits,
odds examples like the TOS Enterprise and Klingon BC being the
rare exception. They've improved somewhat of late, but not much -- of
course, my wish for a 1/1400 DS9 (to be in scale with the
Enterprise-C, -D and -E) is a bit unreasonable -- it would be over a
metre in diameter! <g> Of course, a 15-inch one that's in scale with my
Gamescience/Task Force/Galoob ST minis would be nice....

> On a related note: Just picked up BattleFleet Gothic(my caps), and

Hmmm. From the sound of that, the US version uses a _much_ smaller box
than the UK packaging, which looks to me to have a lot of empty space in it.
And $60 is not a bad price compared with £40, particularly at the current
exchange rate. Methinks the Evil Empire is being a little bit greedy over
here.... (so what else is new?)

Phil

> At 04:17 PM 3/25/99 -0500, Phil wrote:

Live with in, IMO.  From what I remember of the per-ship rates, you guys
get a steal compared to the States & Canada, especially on the battleships. If
I remember Tyranid Tim's post correctly, the BBs are UKP12 against USD32...
now, I'm not *entirely* sure he was right there, but if so that is **way** off
the exchange rate, in the UK's favor. (Enough that I was
talking to Stuart at GZG-ECC about him maybe getting me a BB or three
when he went home sometime....)

Later,