I would like to propose a new boycott, directed at some of the most fiendish foes ever encountered: those irascible packaging engineers who insist on ensnaring toys with wires, tapes, blister packs, and (sometimes even) screws! Just what necessitates the complex, skin-slicing myriad of contraptions that hold toys in their packages with such ferocity? Are toy theives in the likeness of Edward Scissorhands, brigands who can slice toys from conventional packages and swipe them from stores before anyone is any the wiser? Is toy theft really such a national crisis to warrant hundreds of parental hours of extraction before an awaiting toddler can get the satisfaction of even touching his or her new gift? It must be that toy theft was once such an epidemic, because there is more engineering involved in the packaging of a simple toy car than can be found in many real cars!  Wires are wound through every wheel well of toy cars, every orifice of dolls, and every arm and foot of action figures, then fed through a labrynth of cardboard, wound back upon itself, then taped to more cardboard!  Then, after unwinding and cutting and pulling and tearing, the toy is about to break loose into playland freedom, but no! One last wire holds firm, ripping the toy and causing damage just at the point of the miscarried extraction!  Scissors are weilded against this final wire without mercy, often causing more damage to the toy.

Toy packagingjpg

So let's boycott any and all toy makers who insist on wrapping their toys in such paranoid fashion.  Let's teach them a lesson and put them out of work so they will head over to the auto industry and give them some bailout help, saving the automotive industry leaders the disgrace of having to grovel before self-important U.S. senators who couldn't even spell the term 'business plan' if they had it written in crayon on their bibs.  We could consider it our patriotic duty, for crying out loud!

What do I propose that we get as gifts in the meantime?  Good question.  And thankfully, an answer is at hand.  It seems that there was once a lobby of boycotters who also got sick of packaging engineers and their mutated creations. These boycotters focused their rage on the packaging of the CD and DVD industry.  How many of us haven't ended up with small sticky pieces of plastic under our fingernails after mangling the cover of a DVD? Or broken the plastic hinge on a CD by pulling and prying on the ridiculously tight shrink-wrapped plastic?  Yessir, it's no stretch at all to see why millions of music customers decided to boycott such products and head straight for digital downloads!  That showed them!  (From what I can figure, it sent thousands of packaging engineers into the toy industry).  So I propose we take a page out the playbook of the customers of the music industry.  I propose that we boycott the packaging-heavy toy industry by insisting on buying only toys that can be digitally downloaded!

And if the toy industry doesn't have the technology yet, they can just head to Capitol Hill themselves, take a number, and ask for a loan.    
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15 responses to “Toy Packaging Boycott”

  1. Alpesh Shah Avatar
    Alpesh Shah

    Looks like Amazon once again has come to save the day
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200285450

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  2. Cindy Avatar
    Cindy

    If Team/MonaVie and it’s learders aren’t about every day truths, I don’t know of any other business/leaders that is.

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  3. Cathy Avatar
    Cathy

    Hey, Chris,
    Now that Amazon has solved our current dilema, can you next take on the people who come up with the means for assembling these wonders of modern toys, please??
    Whatever ‘genius’ who designed the “Flap A into Slot B” method of assembly OBVIOUSLLY didn’t have to deal with an increasingly frustrated and exhausted father or grandfather who had to assemble these creations late in the evening on Christmas Eve after the dear tykes had gone to bed!! I certainly hope and pray my car didn’t go together like that!
    And don’t get me started on the assembly or useage instruction manuals themselves . . . I could forget every bit of years of System teaching I ever learned discussing them and their authors (who often don’t have English as their primary or even secondary language!) . . .

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  4. dean clouse Avatar
    dean clouse

    May I next suggest a boycott against help lines? “Press 1 for English, press star to continue, press pound to start over, press 1 star 3 pound to talk to a live operator, pound star 1 star to talk to a live operator that speaks fluent English, or stay on the line for thirty seven minutes to get a 900 toll number that only costs $3.95 per minute for instructions on how to assemble the toy you just bought with instructions only in Chinese that says ‘Three simple steps to assembly, one, organize parts, two count the four gazillion parts, and three put them all together properly’ and still be put on hold (but this time pay for it) for thirty seven minutes”.

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  5. Kristen Avatar
    Kristen

    Have you heard the Sara Groves Christmas song called “Toy Packaging”? You should listen to it-I believe she shares your sentiments on this subject…

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  6. Phyllis Hoff Avatar
    Phyllis Hoff

    Chris:
    I had my entire family (40 or so)
    at my house for Christmas Eve, and I am still picking up pieces of packaging from my floors, couches, etc.
    I think half of my trash was just packaging from the toys.
    Phyllis

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  7. Owen Derry Avatar
    Owen Derry

    How about we un-elect the current office holders in Washington and elect the packaging engineers. Maybe the packaging engineers could wrap up our tax money the same way and make it virtually impossible to get. I’m thinking that we could save, say, $700 BILLION or so!!
    Or maybe

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  8. Russ Rodriguez Avatar

    Just a footnote on this whole toy packaging issue. Along with the financial quagmire that the world finds itself in, there’s also the side-effect on recycling: one of America’s largest exports is cardboard, which used to be recycled into the packages containing toys, consumer electronics, and other products. Now that the stuff is just piling up and unwanted at our county disposal sites and international shipping ports, why aren’t toys being packaged as minimally as possible?

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  9. Geralyn Avatar
    Geralyn

    Awww, come on. Just buy a sharp pair of scissors and stop complaining.

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  10. HuntingTarg Avatar
    HuntingTarg

    Recycled blog article! Foul, foul I say!
    Seriously; if you’re advocating the downloading of ‘virtual toys’ (which I doubt, but some might get that idea), I would much rather get something simplistic that didn’t have to be ‘packaged in draconian fashion’ ; Legos (Duplos for children under 3), Brio train tracks (much cheaper than Thomas tracks – and they fit the trains!), and blocks. Yes, simple, ordinary, wooden blocks. These classic entertainers have stimulated minds and occupied little fingers for centuries, when civilization decided to phase out sticks and rocks which, besides being unsanitary, don’t assemble much better than most modern toys. I still enjoy playing with Legos as an adult, and hope to do so even more as a parent.
    To summarize: I see no reason to hurry our children into the ‘digital age’ without first introducing them to the timeless and unending era of imagination and dreams.

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  11. Tj Eckardt Avatar
    Tj Eckardt

    You all make me laugh. I love you all and hope your 2012 was just as great as 2011

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  12. Dave Nelson Avatar
    Dave Nelson

    FAR OUT and COOL DADDIO. Us Packaging Engineers do stay up nights trying to figure ways to prevent adults from figuring out how to unwrap toys. YES, we have succeeded. Thank You. What can you say about people who,like playing in boxes? Everyone likes to pop bubble wrap.
    IF there was ever a rascal engineering professuion it would have to be packaging engineering.

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  13. Packaging Connections Avatar

    Great Post!!! I apreciate this post as its informative and interesting…. Keep on posting interesting post regarding the same……
    Thank you…..

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  14. Jennifer Blomdahl Avatar
    Jennifer Blomdahl

    Funny! So true! Maybe need a warning label “some UNassembling required”

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  15. Deb Wright Avatar
    Deb Wright

    Good point Chris. Also if people would just realize how much is spent in the packaging of most things I think they would be surprised. In some cases the packaging costs more than the actual product.

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