Toy and Game Packaging

Cartons for Toy and Games – Tips for Design and Manufacture

Jimmy Fallon playing cards box

As a toy or game manufacturer, it may be worth thinking for a moment about how your carton or box will be used after your product has been purchased.

If you are a parent, you know that toys can fill every corner of your house for a few years and then before you know it, these toys are no longer played with. If these toys or games are in good condition, you’ll probably want to pass them onto another family. Passing on a toy or game always seems better when you still have the original box in which the toy or game arrived.

toys and game boxes stored on a shelf

Carton Longevity

Many parents will store their toy or game in the original box if possible. Therefore it makes sense to do everything to ensure your carton’s longevity and also to ensure that your branding will be visible when the box is stored and only the side of the carton can be seen

Carton Design

As a manufacturer, you will know already how important it is that the product’s packaging looks bright, colourful and that it gives a good indication of what a toy or game looks like. Your graphic designer may also want to use some extra finishes that will give the carton an extra lift. Many unusual, tactile and raised finishes are available now such as glitter (shown below), bubble, textured as well as the more well-known finishes such as embossing, foiling, spot gloss and matt varnishes.

carton with a glitter finish

Carton Shape

While an unusual shape is often mooted as a useful design method to make your product stand out on the retail shelves, it may not be a wise choice for toy or game packaging because it will make it more difficult to store alongside other regularly shaped toy and game cartons.

Choose a Suitable Board for your Toy or Game

Toys and games will be reused several times so it is important that the carton in which they were purchased is sturdy enough to remain in good condition. Choosing the correct board weight and type will be very important to ensure this happens. See our blog on choosing the correct board.

Sustainable Cartons

At Dollard Packaging, we can advise you of many eco-friendly board types that you can use to make your carton completely sustainable, even if it includes a window patch. We can use a sustainable eco-film(made from plant-based materials) for the window patch. See our blog about our eco-film.

Carton size

While you may want to keep your carton size to a minimum, bear in mind that the carton will probably be opened, filled and closed by little hands. Therefore, you may want to make the carton large enough to allow the toy or game to be put back into the box in a jumbled, speedy fashion by small hands in a rush to get this tedious task over with. While your toy or game may just fit into the box when packed in neatly during the factory boxing, it needs to be tested to see if the product will fit in and the lid can be closed if the contents are thrown in at random.

Carton Opening and Closing Mechanism

The opening and closing method on toy and game packaging needs obviously to be as simple and easy to use as possible to facilitate its handling by young and old.

Protecting the Carton’s Surface

The hands that open and close your product’s carton may sometimes be a tad sticky or gubby! You can protect the surface of your carton with the use of a laminated board. Lamination is a fine film is applied to the surface of the board. It can enhance the board surface and give some protection against moisture and dirt. Both plastic and plant-based lamination films are available. Lamination comes in a variety of types including anti-scuff, anti-bacterial, soft touch, metallised, coloured and gloss and matt finishes.

Please contact Dollard Packaging if you need help with your toy or game packaging. 01 847 00 44

Below we show you some images of interesting toy and game packaging designs from the www.dieline.com

Card Game to Develop Empathy

Sleek playing cards carton

 

TOMY Toys Cartons

Tomy games new window cartons

Jimmy Fallon Playing Cards

Jimmy Fallon playing cards box

 

Astro Alphabet Flashcards

Astro Alphabet game carton

 

A Typeface Board Game

guess the typeface game

 

Love and Relationships Card Game

carton for relationships gameopen carton of relationships game

 

Magical Cards

playing cards box

 

You can read more about these toy and games designs here.