Any firm idea of when these two things were done to our model kits?
I’ve been building since the late 50’s (steady through to the late 60’s) and I can honestly saw I absolutely do not remember!!!
I do remember opening boxes in the stores and looking inside but I can’t say that they came that way or someone unwrapped it.
Once inside the box I again do dont recall if the parts were loose or in bags.
An exception would be the Lindberg kits that had motors. The motor parts were in a small cellophane bag. One other would be the Atomic Power Plant definitely had loose sprues or were kinda wrapped with cheap tissue-like paper.
Shrink wrap was prevalent when I worked at a KayBee Toy and Hobby store in 1975. We had a machine in the back of the store that could replace the shrink wrap, which I used regularly after inspecting new releases as they came in.
I’m sure that it was instituted to stop the loss of parts. Italeri kits were horrible for losing parts from the boxes in the way that you opened them with that “flap” thing. The same way that you can lose parts from figures boxes and kits like Matchbox kits—anything that opens from the side.
I imagine that the electronics parts like motors were wrapped to protect against moisture.
Beware the shrink wrap machines hidden in the stockrooms of retail stores! They use them to rewrap returned items, make new price labels, and make the item look brand new. They have no idea if any parts are missing and they don’t bother to check. I know, I worked at one of those places!
I’ve been building models since the late 50’s. I don’t think any kits had shrink wrap or inner bags until the 70’s or so and that seemed company specific. I think Tamiya was the first I remember bagging the sprues. I have some in the basement I could check on, still from that time period, in fact I still have several kits like that. I will check sometime and post again with more facts than memories. I’m pretty sure that Testors/ Italeri kits were in bags inside the tray like inner box, ant they were shrink wrapped, those were from the mid seventies.
Doug
most kits come int o the country now days without shrink wrap. I know of one distributor that shrink wraps as soon as the kit hits the dock.
Thad