Change in JU 88 1970s box art

[plantypops]

Hi
I'm not sure if this is he right place for this, but as it has "classic box art" in the title I'm going to give it a bash. My first kit - made for me by my father was the JU88. I still have the rather crumpled box lid, well most of it anyway, which isn't bad going from 1966.
Anyway, I recently had a surge of nostalgia, and whilst there are other kits of this aeroplane about, I'd always loved airfix one - or at least the memory of it as I don't think it lasted very long in my eight year old hands. I recently bought what I thought was the same model on-line and was surprised to see that the box-art had been "sanitised" as the bombs and lines of tracer fire had disappeared. I was wondering if anybody knew why and when this had happened -especially as this particular piece of box art is fairly iconic.
cheers
Mark

[JohnRatzenberger]

Hi Mark,
Welcome aboard ! You might introduce yourself in the Welcome section when you get a chance.

Airfix started sanitizing box art about 1977, partly in response to the banning of the swastika in Germany, partly just political correctness. Then came Palitoy with their unappealing photos of a built model.

[JamesPerrin]

As John says it happened surprisingly long ago. In some cases they just painted out the explosions and mayhem, a bit later you just got the aircraft against a tonal background. I think the 1/72 Stuka went through both changes. Thankfully things have gone back to how they should be albeit with a digital twist.

[Ratch]

The bombs were cut out on the Type 6 artwork, introduced in 1978

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.o ... f=42&t=521;

[Eric Mc]

A number of the original Roy Cross classic box tops were "tidied up" during the big changes of the late 70s/early 80s.

Another box top that got sanitised was The Vickers Wellington. Original versions of the artwork featured chasing 109s and bullet splashes as the bomber tried to escape at low level. Later versions of the artwork removed the fighters and the bullet splashes. Later versions still removed the sea and rest of the background.

The great news is that the current digital Airfix box art is stunning and on a par (if not better) than the classic Roy Cross art.