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The Unforgettable Airfix Box art by Roy Cross (video)

February 14, 2014 · in Uncategorized · · 9 · 0.9K

Something for Valentine Day - a selection of pictures from a book that will transport you to those glory days...

Reader reactions:
3  Awesome

9 responses

  1. I've got this book and it comes highly recommended,a wonderful bit of nostalgia and beautiful pieces of art in there own right,I would love to own an original Roy Cross.
    N.

    • Amen to that Neil. I saw some of the original paintings at Hendon last year, and they are great "in the flesh". Surprisingly though they aren't as big as I thought they'd be. I got the book too a must have 🙂

  2. Whether it was Airfix, Revell, Aurora, Monogram, etc, box art back in the day was really exciting. Although there is a lot of fine box art nowadays, for some reason(s), it is just not as exciting as box art way back when. Could be my age, but the box art that I see today does not give me the same "Lets open her up and get to it" feeling that I used to get as a kid when I used to buy pocket money kits.

  3. Glory days, oh for the artwork then.
    Nowadays it is all so sterile.

  4. That was an amazing trip down memory lane. I especially remember the Fairey Rotodyne - built that one for my mentor when I was 16 and it ended up on display in the operations building at Biggs AFB. Makes me wonder if it's still there...

    Did any of you cut the box art out and plaster your walls with them?

  5. Terrific ! Thanks for posting. That kind of stuff never gets old.

  6. Coincidentally, my oldest daughter moved house this week, to a rambling 1930s place in Hampshire. Her husband was looking in the loft (that's an attic to you guys in US), and found a 1/72 Matchbox Siskin III biplane (much like a Bristol Bulldog), and a 1/72 Airfix type 63 motor patrol boat; all still in orginal boxes and plastic bags, decals and instructions faded.

    The box art on both kits could easily stand against anything we see today.
    Both kits, by the way, circa 1974 - forty years old now.

    • Personally I ranked the 1970s Matchbox packaging and boxes even higher than that of Airfix or Revell. The artwork on their early kits was astounding. I still have the Hawker Fury and the Boeing P-12E, 40 years on they are both very decent kits, but the boxart is even better!

  7. That is a pretty amazing video, and does bring back memories, though I'm not sure that Vangelis had that use in mind when he created "Oceanic"!

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