More Throwaway Boxes and Inserts Please!

Dear Game Companies,

I have far too many of your wonderful products.  I realize that you need to have a compelling package to display on store shelves but I am obsessive and cannot throw away the beautiful boxes to your games.

So I need your help...

Fantasy Flight Games has finally solved this problem and I need you all to follow their lead.  The specific Fantasy Flight Games products I am talking about are the expansions for the Battles of Westeros game.

These are fairly large expansions that contain usually a sheet of terrain and/or counters, several minis and their bases, cards, and a rule book.  This all comes in a box that is about the footprint of a standard big box 12 inch square, but with a depth of only about 2 inches.

Most importantly, the box is flimsy cardboard like a card tuck box and extra support is added by a cheap corrugated cardboard insert.

When I buy these expansions I take the contents from the box and put it in the main Battles of Westeros Box (sans insert) and throw the box away.

AND I DON'T FEEL BAD ABOUT IT!

If I wanted to, I could even keep the box because they collapse flat if you throw out the corrugated insert.

Congratulations Fantasy Flight Games!   This is how ALMOST ALL EXPANSIONS SHOULD BE PACKAGED!

I now have an entire stack of Dominion boxes that are all nice Board Game Box quality and a similar slew of Thunderstone and Carcassonne expansion boxes that I feel that I can't part with.  There is no reason most of these expansions could not be packaged in this FFG packaging and added to the original game box.

Another terrible offender in the expansion box packaging realm is Defenders of the Realm.  Not only are the prices for these games borderline atrocious but the boxes are ridiculous.  You could drive a truck over them.  That's fantastic for the base set but all of the expansion collateral so far still fits in that giant initial game box.  The Dragons expansion and each Heros expansion is in a super sturdy box of its own and the Dragon Expansion box could fit the better part of the original game into it.

On the subject of inserts I used to be aggravated at FFG for making useless inserts until I realized that they are essentially intended to be discarded.  So that is now what I do whenever needed.  Mayfair, one of my least favorite publishers uses mostly plain white inserts.  Gone!  No regrets!  Way to go Mayfair!

I also need to applaud a select few other expansions for how they are packaged.

Here is a short list:

1) Power Grid board expansions - Shrink wrapped board and rules.  No box at all.  Plus you can buy a nice PG box to store them all... Fantastic!
2) Age of Industry expansion - Ditto except without the extra storage box.
3) Steam expansion - Board, counters, and rules.  No box.
4) Hansa Tutonica expansion - Board and cards.  No box.
5) Bang expansion - Throw away card tuck box a-la Magic the Gathering starter decks.
6) Mansions of Madness print on demand expansions - Plastic clamshell - easily recycled.

Maybe eventually I'll just bite the bullet and throw away all my Dominion and Thunderstone boxes... but I really don't want to have to make that choice when there are better options that most likely would decrease the cost of the expansion to boot.

Please, game publishers - make the move to FFG BoW-style boxes wherever possible.

And while I'm on the subject, FFG - could you please use this format for your large LCG expansions and your small board game expansions as well please?  That would be fantastic.

Cheers!