Moonstone is my most expensive Amiga game. And have a copy of settlers on pc special edition which I've seen on eBay for a ridiculas price I've got 1000's of Amiga disks to go through that I bought and from my chdhood,
Superglue will destroy the paper over time and you'll end up having to fix them over and over again. wood glue is similiar to what bookbinders use and is mostly acid free and won't eat the paper. Ideally you fold a little 90 degree corner from thin cardboard and glue it into the box, connecting both loose ends to make a good connection that isn't just that thin line where they meet. For holding it well together until set, just use clothespins.
Lighter fluid is a lot gentler than acetone for removing old glue and dried on stickers. It also evapourates very quickly which avoids causing any water damage to the artwork.
Using the metal plate is brilliant. I have done some research into how museums curate their paper objects. I think why most people recommend wood glue is because it's a PVA glue that when dry is still flexible. I think that because you shrinkwrap yours that it should be ok, but over time the very hard super glue could damage the boxes farther and come apart. Most museums use a wheat paste and Japanese rice paper to fix things like the corner tears. The important idea behind this is that you can completely undo it later and use a better technique if one is discovered. I'm still on the fence with re-painting or covering up the box/crease wear. I just haven't seen very good solutions for that yet. Very nice job, the boxes look great.
Hi, great channel. I've worked for years in preservation sciences and managing museum collections. Here are some hot tips. Avoid using cyanoacrylate ("super glue") on any projects where preservation is a concern. Generally speaking, super glue is not considered archival. Something like PVA (polyvinyl acrylate/acetate) is, though you might have to order the beads in bulk and mix it yourself. Also, there are any number of neutral pH, archival, book-binding tapes on the market. I suggest these for taping box corners. Again, I wouldn't want to apply dyes to creases unless they are from a company producing archival ink like Micron, but even then, color-matching is a concern, and it's not reversible.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I tried PVA but that just soaks into the card, perhaps there is a higher concentrate you can use and that's where the beads come into it? I'm very happy to evolve these processes and improve them. What are the longer term implications of using super glue vs PVA?
@@RMCRetro Yes, PVA can be mixed at any concentration, it is highly versatile in this regard. What you might find readily, and commercially, may not be best for every application, as per your experience. One downside is cure time, it does require patience. The positives outweigh the negatives however, as it is a reversible adhesive (using acetone), and it can maintain some level of flexibility for many decades. Cyanoacrylate is more brittle and has a higher fail rate on a much shorter time scale and, importantly, it's not reversible.
Ultimately, I think the important thing is that you're proceeding with care and caution, trying different approaches, and heeding advice. Keep up the great work. I hope to speak with you at some point about a project I have going on across the pond.
@@tiemanowo Cyanoacrylate can be softened with the application of harsh solvents like acetone that run the risk of attacking inks/etc. Or heat in excess of 350F. It's practically non-reversible for the purposes of archival work because there's a high risk in trying to remove it. PVA glues meanwhile just take vinegar, or much lower applications of heat.
When you shrink wrap make sure you dried a LOT, or the moisture will turn into mold. You can buy some small silica gels packs to avoid that too. I do that to some of my products that stay long time inside a drawer. Gotta love these restoration videos.
Its really nice to see the the games themselves being restored as they are every bit as much a part of the experience as the hardware itself, and for the most part forgotten about. Like the idea of the hotplate. Was expecting you just to bring out a travel iron for the smaller boxes, but I guess you've invented the game box "trouser press".
I'm surprised how well that worked. But I think there are probably better ways to apply heat to the smaller boxes. For example, I have seen tiny irons. That might work. Alternatively, I'd probably make some sort of tall structure that is just small enough that the box will fit over it, then iron the box from the top side, instead of the inside.
You might want to drop some of those silica water absorber packs inside the boxes to keep any residual moisture from causing mold befor eyou shrink wrap them.
Well colour me surprised. I never thought in a million years I’d spend 20 minutes watching someone repairing cardboard boxes. But it was ruddy riveting. I remember those games and the big boxes. 👍👍 And the comment section is a tutorial on archiving processes in itself!! 👍👍
We used to buy/trade used games from a shop that repaired & shrink wrapped their game boxes. The results here, really reminds me of that great little games shop..
Neil, your efforts towards game preservation is appreciated, in a time where the big game companies seem happy to allow their own products to grow old and dissapear you put them to shame with your passion and commitment to preserving these gems of our childhood. Much respect.
At some point you'll have to resort to bookbinding techniques: to repair long tears, apply adhesiveless fabric "tape" with archival grade adhesive applied. I really like your channel and your shrink-wrap technique for literally preserving the boxes against future handling damage!
Used the ironing method, except I use a small portable iron. Its small enough to fit most game boxes. Also, try to do some edges at first, some boxes has plastic film on top, and hot ironing it will ruin the art. In that case, I borrow cloth steamer, steam it from behind the art and leave heavy books on it for a few hours. For torn up boxes, I usually just made an inner shell from a card stock. for torn up edges, I usually reinforced the edges with card stock paper and thin glue. Much stronger that way.
A lot of my factory-sealed games look like they got deformed by the shrink wrap continuing to shrink over the years. It seems to do exactly the kind of damage you are expecting it to prevent. Squeezing the box causes the large flat surfaces to curve in, especially at the corners/edges.
Yes I have seen this on ebay auctions of shrinkwrapped boxes (board games etc). I'm not sure of the physics why it happens or how long it takes, but sometimes a "mint in sealed box" isn't so mint because of it. And the phenomenon can be used to detect re-wrapping pretending to be original shrinkwrapping (i.e. if it's decades old, shrinkwrapped, and box is not deformed, it could be a misleasing re-wrapped box).
@@MusicFanatical1 Definitely, but a lot of it is down to how they were stored. I gifted my friend a copy of Conker’s Bad Fur Day around 2002 after buying several copies on clearance. I still had some sealed in the hot loft of my accessory building and the boxes were all collapsing in from the shrink wrap. Meanwhile, he never opened his but he took it to college and back over the next decade+ and the box got very tattered. After he saw what mine sold for in 2015 he asked me to sell his copy. Though it was in terrible condition for a sealed game, it did not appear to have shrunk further in the way my other copies did. They were all original Nintendo H-seals with the vent holes in the plastic. In my experience some wraps shrink over time even at room temperatures. Some other seals don’t seem to shrink at all, perhaps because they used a vacuum and heat sealer to perfectly fit the box instead of a material intended to shrink with heat. It could also be cellophane instead of heat shrink but that usually has folded corners.
Let's not trivialise this, it is genius Neil. You can tell when you get serious when the jacket comes off. Thanks for the amazing tip. Domestic goddess here I come.
Not the same subject matter, but retro toy related. Just recently moved house & found all of my old Transformers, all boxed, but obviously with wear. This method is the one I'll be using to bring the boxes back to life. This was a great vid & it's just majestic to see how yourself, this channel & the crowd of us that follow, have grown over the years. Your never ending pursuit & sheer determination of giving absolutely everything to this, is the reason we are all where we are now 👍 As always, outstanding, Neil 👍
I looked into the hot plate method and thought it is worth a shot. Got some other magnets and a 300x400x5 mm steel plate. Tried it out last night and still amazed about the results in levelling bent cardboard. The results are fantastic. Thank you! P.S.: If there is anything I do differently is to add a sheet a baking paper between the cardboard box and the hot plate. Magnets still strong enough and there is no direct contact between the printed and somewhat delicate surface of the box and the steel plate. It means less stress on the cardboard but still produdes great results. P.P.S: in the meantime I looked into the shrinkwrapping part. Some comments here suggests that the shrinkwrap might do more damage over the years than it does good. This refers mostly to hollow boxes with a thin cardboard used as for most computer games. As I am more into restoring into board games and TTRPG I am thankfully dealing with thicker cardboard that might withstand the shrinkwrapp better.
I collect vintage board games. These are notorious for having things stacked on top of them so lots of bowed box tops, bottoms, side panels and broken corners. A technique I use is to cut a sheet of wax paper to cover the area you want flattened. I spritz the area with water and cover it with the wax paper. I lay the box on a hard flat surface, floor, tabletop, etc. I then stack heavy books and let it set for several hours or overnight. You do have to be careful and not over do the water as it make wrinkle the art work on the box. For broken corners I use metal right angle brackets, these come in different sizes. I glue the broken corners like you did and them clamp on the metal braces to support the corners while the glue dries. Finally, you can also use "naptha" like you did the acetone. Its also called lighter fluid. This will remove many tape residues and stickers that people use to do repairs. Like anything you need to find a test area first.
Welcome to the Retro Repair Shop 😀 Great video, those boxes turned out great with that method, very well done!! Many others would've just binned them...glad you didn't!!
MagFlat MagSteam Or to tie in to a classic TV brand...MagnaBox. I'm not the best at branding but hey. :) I love seeing old boxes restored like this with inventive techniques. I hope this catches on!
I don't know if you can fix printed cardboard (paperboard), as the creases causes the loss of that top layer of paper that gives the box it's shininess. Without putting a sticker, or paper veneer over the whole front, any thing you do is going to stand out. What you can do to minimize the crease is to lightly go over it with artist grade wax crayons, or wax pencil crayons of the same colour. Same as you do with nicks in wood furniture. This won't get rid of the crease just make it stand out less. Using paint, or marker will soak into the lower paper layers giving you a different texture, and color. I would just fix the structural damage, and keep the rest as is.
Amazing work! This is great information and very out of the box thinking to repair the boxes. Would have never thought to make a custom hotplate let alone break out the spray bottle and iron. I've been experimenting with making my own reproduction boxes for my personal collection and this is great info to have and expand upon to preserve these old games and their packaging.
To restore what's not there (as long as it's on the inside, it doesn't bother me too much), especially for thinner cardboard is to cut a piece of thick paper and glue it inside where the missing part is supposed to be. I had a DOS 4.01 box that was torn a lot including on the front and just couldn't hold anything inside properly, with the weight of the books and everything. Also one flap was missing so it couldn't close properly anymore. I glued the two front pieces together like you did, then reinforced it on the back with thick paper, and also I re-created the missing flap with that same paper. The bottom was made differently but also needed help. Now it's very sturdy and will hopefully hold my DOS disks properly for decades to come :)
An item that might help the box stay un-crushed is a "pizza saver" (aka: pizza stool), which you get with a pizza to keep the box from touching the cheesy goodness. The legs can be trimmed to fit and the saver can be kept in the center of the box with a small piece of double-sided tape. I suppose some kind of 3d-printed thing would work, as well. The saver would preserve the flatness of the boxes over time and prevent them from getting re-crushed the next time they're put in storage. Great video, lovely channel, it is wonderful that you can keep our nostalgia out of the landfill. Cheers!
Great job as always! You can also try the addition of additional internal carton corners that are glued to the external sides, that way the corners are sturdier, and you don't jeopardize the fragile torn ones.
Thanks. I had a damaged box like that, I didn't have any equipment to restore it. That's all I did is put a lot of heavy books on it if it has good straight. I uploaded my own video recently. Liked and subscribed.
I came here from a post on boardgamegeek about fixing Frosthaven boxes and I learned about an old video game I didn't know existed. I own a 1991 m100 elan and always wondered why it was never in video games, I guess there is one and it's on the cover no less.
Very cool! I have several Amiga and Game Boy boxes I've ripped stickers off and torn the box art! Wish I'd looked up techniques of removal before going at it!
Instead of ironing the plate, you can bake the whole rig at a low temperature around 200F. if you do that, I would recommend dampening the protective piece of cardboard so it can slowly transfer that moisture into the box. I've seen excellent results with creased game manuals this way. the longer exposure from spending a half-hour at temperature and then being allowed to cool while pressed, will even eliminate creasing as long as the ink was not also damaged.
Thank you so much for sharing your techniques. When I saw you do this briefly in a previous video I was so intrigued and this has answered many of my questions. I have several games console boxes that could benefit from these techniques so will defo be trying them out. Keep up the stella work Neil!
You did a wonderful job its ok to restore a box as long as its kept out in the open as restored. it may not help the value if its kept out in the open but it will enhance your collection by fixing and protecting it so it lasts for years to come. years from now there may only be a few restored boxes left and the value will go up anyway who knows.
I make cardboard biscuits for my corner's and it works well and sometimes you can lift the edge and slide it underneath and it will make it stronger as well
I think leaving the scars from the creases is good it shows the aging of the box. Also this is more to stop the decay in its step rather than bringing the box back total to new-print-state.
To this day no one ever suggests this but my go to for any sticker residue on anything is Bestine. It's used by stamp collector's to get stamps off of envelopes. It can take off store rental labels on CDs without tearing the reflective film off. I've used it one hundreds of different cardboard/plastic boxes over the years and it never disappoints. I've taken off metal anti-theft tag stickers to the most stubborn stickers on the most delicate boxes. Doesn't fade the ink and doesn't leave any oily crap behind like Goo Gone and WD40 do and isn't as harsh as IPA.
Sone good comments here. I’ve heard of some people using humidifiers on creased paper to help relax the creases in the paper before pressing it with heat. I’ve also heard of people using steamers but you really have to very careful with them so as to not spray water droplets on the packaging and warp it further. But I would suggest using the humidifier since it’s more gentle. Also I have to say, I did wince when you used superglue on your boxes. I’m glad Jeremy Riedel suggested to use PVA glue instead. That will definitely help to make ensure your future boxes will last longer overtime. As for the creases I don’t know if there is a great solution. Often times when a printer prints finished packaging or brochures and such they often add a aqueous coating on top of the print to make sure the ink doesn’t rub-off as easily. (Albeit some inks like Pantone Reflex Blue will still rub-off easily despite being coated) That coating can be glossy, semi gloss or flat. I bring this up because even if you color match the crease you still will see it at different viewing angles because there is no matching coating on those areas.
A monokote covering iron (for covering the wings of flying model airplanes) would be perfect for the task of flattening the boxes and probably is much more versatile than a big metal plate... I use mine for all sorts of non-airplane related tasks all the time!
Try using a glue called Copydex its fantastic for repairing cardboard frays and is fast drying. It looks like PVA but its creates invisible fibres that gives it strength and bonds fast, It also dosent react with the paint or ink on boxes.
I remember re-making a Grand Prix Legends cardboard box from scratch: the original was all sorts of fubar and so I've resorted to splaying it wide open, taking the measurements and recreating a new box from the original. I've had to scan the box at an absurdly high resolution in order to fix the images though...
This steamer-plate method is good! I highly recommand using a soot/smoke eraser sponge (the 100% all natural vulcanized rubber one) if ever you need to remove stains on paper/cardboard. It works really well. They use the Absorene brand in libraries for archival duties. Thanks for the video!
I got some DVD boxsets for 50p and they had stickers on the cardboard. Using a kettle to steam them made them more sticky, harder to remove and the box ink started to fade to white. I had better luck with furniture polish and peeling them. Using marker pens helped with missing ink, but it did act a bit like blotting paper.
The end results of the resealed boxes with their visible crease lines remind me of things like the blister card of the Retro Collection Mandalorian action figure. Only here the crease lines are real. Somehow this gives me an even more satisfying feeling of nostalgia :D
Oh, I can give you a tip for the creases! Use a watercolor paint, tap the brush on the area needing color and immediately wipe away excess, so nothing gets left on the area that is good, it will fill the white areas and leave nothing else. It will look 10x better, wont be perfect, but will make creases unnoticeable from a distance. About as much as you can expect without training and specialty tools.
The Norfolk Record Office, at the Norfolk County Council Offices, here in Norwich, has one of the most advanced paper and document restoration facilities in the country. The investment was a result of Norwich Library burning down in 1994, stated across the road from the fire station. The fire tender required (one with a long-reach ladder platform) had been parked up in Great Yarmouth at the time! However, as with your work here, it's probably more paper and structural restoration, than fine art. You'd have to go to the London Museums for that, I'm sure, but they can restore things you would not believe could be! It just costs a lot - in time and patience!
I think leaving the crease marks while getting rid of the actual creases tells a story. I have boxes like this and they tell the story of my life. Of game boxes shoved under the bed after a day playing games! They add something to the boxes that tells people of their age and history. Sterling work all the same! Keep it up.
What an awesome trick. I tried with steam and iron only, and failed. Result was very wavy. Maybe i can rescue it, this way. Thank you for sharing. Maybe i should think about this shrink foil also. But i like to open and unbox my games sometimes. :)
For the Lotus II box white crease lines your best bet is to get a pack of 100 fine tip felttip pens in assorted shades from an art store and find the closest match to the box colour and go over just the white crease/crush marks carefully. You also need a slightly damp j-cloth to dab the area in case you colour the undamaged area near the white marks. Luckily most C64 boxes are black and that's how I got rid of ugly scuff marks as my museum size collection of retro gear will never be on sale.
I'm really inspired to try and fix some of my game boxes. I've tried it before but I was never fully satisfied with it. Maybe I will try the Retro hotplate (If I can find a nice piece of metal and magnets like that) and I think I just need more patience. I definitely didn't iron my boxes as long as you did. Also subscribed for this video!
