Ambroid Wood Craftsman KitsThe BoxesAmbroid seemed to have had a great pleasure in packaging their kits in many different boxes. It started out modestly enough with all early kits packaged in an amber box with a picture of the model on the front. Soon these boxes were replaced with others, and with the introduction of the "One-of-Five-Thousand" series kits, the number of different boxes really increased. The pattern in what boxes were used can be described as the early kits came in the amber box with a picture of the prototype car on it and the words: "HO Gauge". Later K-series kits came in a yellow box with black print, followed by a blue box with white print. But, unfortunately, it is not that simple. There have been orange, red, and variations on the blue boxes for the K-series as well. Common for all K-series boxes is that the Ambroid logo is centered on the box front and they all have the text "The finest name in Cement - The finest name in Model Railroad Kits" (except the Am box). The S-series cars seem to have come in a yellow box with black print (similar to the K-series yellow box). The H-, and O-series cars came in a beige colored box with red ribbons and a picture of the K-9 Great Northern Caboose. The difference lies in the text on the boxes. The only exception to the standard boxes I have seen, is the H-1 kit, which has the text "One of 5000" on the front. No other kit in the two series has this text. The "One-In-5,000" series seem to have had many different boxes, maybe not one for each kit, but pretty close. All of them have the Ambroid logo in the upper, left-hand corner and the text "ONE OF FIVE THOUSAND" HO COLLECTOR'S ITEM in the lower, right part of the box. There are also a number of kits in the K- and 1-of-5,000 series that came in a Northeastern box. These boxes had the kit number hand-written on them. I don't know if these were prototypes or what the reason for the strange combination of Northeastern box and Ambroid kit number could have been. There are other abnormalities as well. I have in my private picture collection one of the Vinegar Car (1-of-5,000 number 1-4) in a Y box with handwritten kit name and number on the box. There has also been a sighting of the Outside Braced Reefer (1-of-5,000 number 1-5) in a Y box. Below is my first effort to a classification of the boxes. Take it for what it is; a first trembling step on a very long journey to list all boxes for all kits.
AcknowledgmentsAmbroid is a registered trademark of Graphic Vision, Inc. and is used here with permission.
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