Toy Boxes

[mitchedwards]

I have a question about the boxes that toys used to come in.

One side of the box would have a nice photo of the product and usually showed some kids playing with the toy. The opposite side had the same picture, but it looked like a drawing of the photograph.

What was the reason for this?

[Marvelmania]

They must have ran out of film

[palitoy]

Printing is expensive, especially when you've got heavier cardboard to contend with. So generally you get full colour litho on one side and single colour line drawing on the other.

Every penny counts!

[PCofmisfittoys]

my favorite box , great graphics

[mitchedwards]

Printing is expensive, especially when you've got heavier cardboard to contend with. So generally you get full colour litho on one side and single colour line drawing on the other.

Every penny counts!

Thank you for answering a question I've had for 30+ years. Its just a matter of economics.

I used to think the line drawing was for the kids to color in

[mego73]

I remember how the full color part of a lot of toy boxes was a separate adhesive backed overlay put on the front and the rest of the box had monochrome printing direct on the cardboard.

[Count Creepyhead]

How many kids had this thing. I swear it was standard issue in my neighborhood.

[zorro]

I used to ask this same question. He Man vehicles were notorious for this as they would have awesome artwork on the front of the box and just a white background with drawn characters on the back.