Do you throw away boxes of built kits?

I have a few, old AURORA and HAWK boxes from kits long built and discarded during moves but saved the boxes for reuse. I have also saved kit boxes from other manufacturers and am slowly trimming empty boxes for faming sometime in the future- provided I have wall space.

Unfortunately, assembled kits and my research library have eaten up a lot of space.

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Sure wish I had saved other model kit boxes but it appears Round2 Models is giving me a second chance by re-issuing kits from my " yoot " , as Cousin Vinny might say.

I usually don't, but I have purchased some kits that have some really nice box art. I'm thinking of cutting the box so the edges are gone, and then placing the art in a frame for display.

i had perhaps a thous  from the 60's on up   i cut them along the edges to fold them up for space   but  a flood a couple of yrs ago turned them into a pile of muk

I have kept many of the tops, flattened out for easier storage, but I think I'm going to throw them out next time I think of it.  Damned clutter will overwhelm ya!

I guess I'll flatten out the tops and store them.  I absolutely love Tamiya & Hasegawa box art.

No I don't, and for a very basic reason : space !

I live in a very small house, and every shelf space is heavily monitored either by my wife or me. Besides a few large and robust boxes that I can re-use, I throw them all in my cardboard recycle bin.

I'm already lucky to have a tiny area in my basement for my stash, so no place to keep empty boxes.

But I keep all my instruction booklets though.

Sure do.

Yes,right in the recycling bin

I'll keep the real good ones like Hasagawa and others and maybe put them on the wall.  I do horde my instructions though.

I don't. Another reason why... excessive amount of empty kit boxes stored has a potential to be a fire hazard. Not worth it. Recycle them instead.

I keep the instructions in case someone else might need a copy but the boxes go in the recycling. Just don't have the room.

I cut the sides off of the tops and put them in a large envelope with the instructions.

I use one of each aircraft type as the Spares Box for that type. I save one of each box art by cutting the ends and sides off and putting those in the bottom of the Spares Box.

I get rid of all but one copy of each set of instructions on the purchase date, though. I also save those after the build, but I try to only have one set of each.

My unbuilt kit collection is a true "builder's collection",,,,it is almost worthless to a kit collector. Nothing is shrink-wrapped, the decals are all in decal keepers, the instructions are in a file cabinet (with dupes discarded),,,,,,,and if I bought a kit for some specific part in that box, that part is in a baggie in the spare parts box for that aircraft type.

I have to say,,,,,,having all your Crusader spares in a box with a Crusader on the spine sure speeds up the "parts search".

Rex

tarnship  that sounds so organized  and great

Well, it "is until it isn't",,,,,,,If I think I have something, and it is not in the Skyhawk spares box,,,,,,,then every other box that it might be in is a "wrong box". And haha, we all know what searching in "wrong places" means,,,it means you can't skip any because that might be where it is. I do have a "seats box" and a few "weapons boxes" and etc,,,,,so the search isn't as bad as it could be.

I once sold a used model for about $5 plus shipping, the guy that bought it was a nice guy,,,,and emailed me to tell me that he had a full box of seats, weapons, wheels, masks, and decals for the model and asked "did you intend for this?".  I got the aftermarket parts right out of everything after that so it wouldn't happen again. (and I let him keep the goodies, it wasn't his fault)

Storing the flat box art is not that hard,,,,,,and I agree that I wouldn't store empty boxes intact, space just costs too much these days. (plus, Anne might think they are part of the stash, reducing the number of kits I could still buy without fussing at me)

Rex

Yup. Use some of the boxes to store my built kits.

For now I do save boxes. I realize the day will come when I have to get rid of them. To save some space I place smaller boxes inside larger boxes. Also some boxes have a crease near the corners that allow them to be folded flat. I don't expect newer kit boxes to ever be of any value but I like to sometimes look at them.

I also pitch box but keep instructions

I remember the Revell kits with the box art advertised as "suitable for framing" back in the 60's.  I kept a few thumbtacked to my wall back then.

These days I pitch the boxes when I'm done.  Mostly because I don't have the space and secondly because most of the current boxes are so thin and flimsy compared to kits back in the 60's.

I do keep all of my instruction sheets, with most of them in large three-ring binders.  

Mark

I keep the box top, not the whole box.  130 box tops stacked one upon another is about 6" high and the size of the biggest box top.

unless you are planning to frame them, or you actually look at them at least once a year. Throw them out. Watch an episode of 'Hoarding', that's enough incentive for me to clean house. :)

I keep a few around, but only to store unused parts and decals from various kits.

Straight into the trash when done!

Like many others here, I keep teh instructions and toss the box. With a stash of around 400 kits still to go, I have no room for empty boxes. A few of the empties do get dragooned for storage purposes of excess items that for one reason or another can not go into my spares storage bins. But otherwise, I get rid of the box upon completion of the kit. In spite of some very nice box art. Unlike my boyhood building days.

I keep the instructions, keep any spare decals, use the box bottoms for airbrush practice and then toss them!  As for the tops...I have been keeping them.    Mostly for the box art.  I do flatten them and store them, but that to does start to add up.  But for now I keep the tops.  Very interesting to see the comments here.  I like the idea of taking pics of the tops.  And I may get to the point where I get rid of them.  I have heard of some people using them to decorate their hobby area.

Eagle90

I also pitch box but keep instructions

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

- Taking that a step further Don, do you have a filing system or specific way you catalog them? or are they just stashed in a box?  

I was just thinking about this recently, as the number of completed builds goes up, there may come a day when you want to reference something from one of them.

Hi :

    I rarely keep the boxes . If the box art is something special the box top and instructions go in a manila envelope , clearly marked in a hanging file " fire-resistant " cabinet .

    I do the same with my LEGO collection .That way I can actually see what I have . Now for the workbench I have little and not so little file boxes on the back edge and on a shelf unit filled to the brim with aircraft parts in specific color files .

    Cars in grey ones ,Ships in blue ones and planes in white ones .Figures and miscellanous go in brown ones .Train related and scratch -parts go in black ones . Train stuff has to be included for two reasons .I am the Vice - President - Modeling at the Museum where I volunteer and I use a lot on my scratch-built ships too .

     I don't keep a lot of boxes around , specifically because of fire hazard .There's nothing to be done about the models though . I have never seen models survive a fire anyway . Even in special cases , the heat is the destroyer there .

I keep the boxes...with leftovers and the instructions inside.  But reading this thread has given me thoughts.  I think I'll come up with a "leftovers" box, a folder for the instructions, and get cheap frames for the front covers.