I love the idea behind the new Squadron packs. 3 Ships for the price of 2 is wonderful, a great starter for a new faction - and a fluffy way to expand the game.

BUT I hate the new packaging - it is huge, empty, and wasteful. Someone needs to do some serious package design work - you can cut the material on these down to a quarter of their current amount, and at least half the size if not smaller. The plastic from Guardians of the republic was insane. The ships fit in an area 1" deep, by 6 wide and 3 high. The plastic they are held in is 2.75" deep, 8" wide and 9" high. (The box is almost 4" deep because the cards and cardboard are kept separate below the plastic insert... more wasted space.)

If the cardboard inserts were resized, you could make a package that was half the size - and the plastic could be designed to go over the redesigned cardboard, cards, and bases.

I recycle all of my material - but this is crazy. Curb your packaging!

I haven't picked them up yet. From photos, it looks like they're the same dimensions as the new Large Ship packaging. Is that correct? If so, that's probably what's going on. They seem to buy all their cardboard in bulk based on set dimensions to minimize the die-cutter customization they need to do.

I agree, especially since I have no local recycling options.

To play devil's advocate, it may be a theft deterrence strategy, making the box harder to hide somewhere.

19 minutes ago, PhantomFO said:

I haven't picked them up yet. From photos, it looks like they're the same dimensions as the new Large Ship packaging. Is that correct? If so, that's probably what's going on. They seem to buy all their cardboard in bulk based on set dimensions to minimize the die-cutter customization they need to do.

Yep. Same dimensions... which is also a huge amount of wasted space for the Sith Infiltrator as well...

I thought the ship packaging in 1.0 was wasteful - 2.0 eclipses it in waste.

Most companies do this. Consumers feel better spending a lot of money on a bigger box. Until more consumers start speaking up (or at least showing different preferences in pre-market studies) this is the way it's going to be.

It’s also about the packaging. Having a standard packaging is a huge time saver. The cost to run one box for 8 sets of artwork, given the numbers of units we’re talking, is significant. If I had an actual idea of the units moved I could reasonably give you a fairly close estimate of how many thousands of dollars cheaper it is.

Because the cost of tooling is going to be around $1000 per box design, just for the paper components. Then there is the set up and make ready. If each pack had a box designed to minimize footprint, then it would probably add at least 25-30% to the production time. Where if it is the same box but different art? You can do make ready once, then run them all in sequence. It’ll cut days off production given the numbers of different SKUs we are talking here.

Yeah, it’s a pretty significant cost savings on packaging. Plus having one unified box saves waste too. Sure the package is bigger, but you also have to account for the wastage in production. There are times where the total amount of paper used to make a larger box for multiple products is actually less than making multiple smaller boxes, depending on run size and layout efficiency.

...but the hole in the front of the squadron packs is different than the one on the large ships? 🤨

2 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

...but the hole in the front of the squadron packs is different than the one on the large ships? 🤨

This is true too... so, that means that at least some part of the die is changed between the large ships and the squad packs.

2 minutes ago, KryatDragon said:

This is true too... so, that means that at least some part of the die is changed between the large ships and the squad packs.

Yes, but making a bunch of different plugs is super cheap and easy. It doesn’t even require taking the die out of the chase, just having removing the current plug and putting in the new one. The amount of time to do so is 15 minutes, tops, and the cost less than $100.

And, yes, I worked in the print industry on packaging for a dozen years. I know how this stuff works 😉

18 minutes ago, millertime059 said:

Yes, but making a bunch of different plugs is super cheap and easy. It doesn’t even require taking the die out of the chase, just having removing the current plug and putting in the new one. The amount of time to do so is 15 minutes, tops, and the cost less than $100.

And, yes, I worked in the print industry on packaging for a dozen years. I know how this stuff works 😉

Honestly, that is good to know. I value expert opinion and experience - it helps me learn. So I feel more educated.

Still wish they'd find some way of reducing the amount of waste - it feels awful tossing all of that material in the recycle bin, and I'd feel even worse if I didn't have a recycle bin. The idea of just tossing all that plastic and cardstock in the rubbish is just awful.

I wholeheartedly agree with the OP. For instance, why do they put bases in every ******* expansion? Just put 8 small bases, 3 large bases, and 4 medium bases in the core set. It's ******* stupid that I have a giant box of bases from all the expansions I've bought. Do the same with pegs. Do the same with focus, shield, evade, stress, charge, and force tokens. I mildly get throw a fit in my head every time I see the excessive waste from each expansion.

Agreed. I can understand the desire for packaging uniformity, but I lol'd at the unboxing video, you could fit a whole Gundark in that wasted space.

Yep. My wife laughed and rolled her eyes when she saw the size of the blister. Not as bad as the one USB stick I took a photo of in a 12”x18” plastic blister, but it s pretty bad.

10 minutes ago, AceWing said:

I wholeheartedly agree with the OP. For instance, why do they put bases in every ******* expansion? Just put 8 small bases, 3 large bases, and 4 medium bases in the core set. It's ******* stupid that I have a giant box of bases from all the expansions I've bought. Do the same with pegs. Do the same with focus, shield, evade, stress, charge, and force tokens. I mildly get throw a fit in my head every time I see the excessive waste from each expansion.

I like the extra bases since i put everything on display, but I get it.

Alot of the reason for the container size is shipping. The larger box helps.prevent damage.

Having worked retail for.... oh sweet jebus... over 20 years I know why packages are shaped the way they are. It's about shelf presence. Go to the grocery store some time and really look at how things are displayed. The name brand products have big, bright labeling and generally located at the beginning of an aisle, or mid-shelf level so you look right at it. Where as store brand are bottom or top shelf and towards the middle of the aisle. With game packaging you've got to compete with the other guy's package (more so than at a store), so it comes down to shelf presence, something with a bigger footprint will get noticed.

Plus I'm sure it helps having one supplier make all the cardboard/plastic for FFG. Bulk discounts and all that.

Also if you want to complain about excessive packaging look at the Armada releases or even the Epic ships.

Yup. This is exactly the same thought I had too when i was opening. It's a crap load of single use plastic.

47 minutes ago, outerrimrebel said:

Also if you want to complain about excessive packaging look at the Armada releases or even the Epic ships.

Someone is OOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLDDDDDDDDDDD.

I'm also annoyed by how frustrating it is to open blisters in 2e. Have to tear the dang things to shreds, instead of just being able to snip along the edge.

1 hour ago, outerrimrebel said:

It's   abo  ut she  lf presen  ce  .

I know and understand it... I just hate that society has reached this point and also know that will be a long road to improvement.

Society is fk'ed up. Most of us contribute.

Also capitalism.

Yeah I unironically have felt bad about buying X-Wing stuff ever since it's existed, so much wasted plastic garbage. If they could do away with the plastic and make it all cardboard I'd feel a lot better, since paper products are a renewable and sustainable resource. They've moved towards a little more cardboard now but there's still a lot of plastic in there

16 minutes ago, Kieransi said:

Yeah I unironically have felt bad about buying X-Wing stuff ever since it's existed, so much wasted plastic garbage. If they could do away with the plastic and make it all cardboard I'd feel a lot better, since paper products are a renewable and sustainable resource. They've moved towards a little more cardboard now but there's still a lot of plastic in there

There’s something uniquely odd about buying plastic ships though and complaining about plastic packaging!

12 minutes ago, LagJanson said:

There’s something uniquely odd about buying plastic ships though and complaining about plastic packaging!

Yeah I’m very into Legos and I married someone who is much more eco-conscious than I 😅

Yeaaah, my ships and my million+ LEGO parts are heirlooms that I'm literally never parting with so that shouldn't count though, right?