Ok, I understand that toy and electronics manufacturers have a bit a conundrum. They want to make their products as attractive and compelling as possible while on the store shelf, while at the same time making them difficult to shoplift.
It’s that desire which has led to the vast wealth of toys encased in plastic with the exception of a button or two to allow children and parents alike to sample some of the functionality of the toy prior to purchase.
I’m starting to be amazed at just what manufacturers will do to lock their products in to place.
Take for example the remote control dump truck that one of The Boy’s friends gave him for his birthday. The truck was encased in a veritable cocoon of plastic and cardboard that allowed for the buttons on the remote control to be pressed and for parts of the truck to move about in the box. Great right?
So then you start to undo the origami like folding of the box to remove the truck, fold after fold until the bottom piece of cardboard that the truck is secured to is exposed. Now it would seem reasonable to me for the truck and controller to be held in place with some plastic glued to cardboard base and maybe a twist tie or two for extra re-inforcement.
But this truck, the plastic shell surrounding the truck and controller was glued to the cardboard, then there were not two, but FOUR twist ties wrapped around the axel holding the truck to the cardboard. The controller had it’s own two twist ties securing it to the cardboard, these twist ties went through the controller and to remove them needed to be fished out of the controller.
Oh but that wasn’t all. The truck was also screwed in to the bottom of the box, but just unscrewing the brace plate and removing from the cardboard wasn’t enough. Oh, no but the bracket on the truck that the brace plate screws in to also needed to be removed. If it wasn’t the back wheels sat too far up and the truck wouldn’t go anywhere.
Why does this packaging need to be this complicated? I could understand the twist ties and plastic to secure the truck in the packaging, by why the plate to screw it in to the box? Not just that, but also the special bracket on the bottom of the truck that needs to be unscrewed too before the truck could be used?
Really I understand the need to showcase the product yet still make it difficult to steal- But come on!
