The Box That Barely Was: The Story of the "Touchability Box"

By Jocelyn Cote

For something designed to be immediately discarded after purchase, packaging is quite the art form. A beautiful package can elevate the product in the eyes of the consumer, just as easily as less-than-appealing packaging can do a disservice to the item contained within. Although it’s only a mere blip on the radar of Breyer’s 75+ year history, the so-called “touchability box” is one of Breyer’s most interesting experiments in packaging.

The packaging for most Breyer models in the 1950s and 1960s was designed to be practical and not much else: plain white or brown cardboard mail-order boxes were the norm. These were usually embellished with the Breyer Molding Company address, and/or “to” and “from” area to write the sender’s and recipient’s addresses when mailing the model to a customer. Each box would be sealed with paper tape, and then most would be stamped with the model’s item number and color on the tape (for example, “#57 PALOMINO” for a palomino Western Horse model). A few notable exceptions to this rule were the Fury Prancer gift sets and Breyer’s licensed models of canine television stars Lassie and Rin Tin Tin, which came in colorful, illustrated boxes that are now quite difficult to find.

#85 “Albino” (glossy alabaster) Mustang with original cardboard mailer box
Photo by Sara Roche

The crucial flaw for these mail-order boxes was for retailers who sold Breyer models in their physical storefronts and their consumers. Unless the store had opened models on display as examples and/or opened all of their Breyer stock when putting them out for sale, customers would be buying a model sight unseen. These plain boxes simply didn’t look good on a store shelf, and the touchability box was the first attempt at a solution to this conundrum.

With their 1969 price lists, Breyer retailers received an additional sell sheet advertising “display cartons” (the copy of which is also the origin of the more common “touchability box” term used by Breyer collectors). The advertisement reads as follows:

“These best selling items are individually packaged in an original display carton incorporating the advantages of visual display while maintaining the unique aspect of touchability inherent in the quality of a BREYER ANIMAL CREATION. All finishes are new non-glossy, matte finish.”

Promotional image from January 1969 “Display Carton” pricelist

The Family Arabians would be the first, and ultimately the last, of the Breyer models introduced with the original touchability boxes. Created with the same corrugated cardboard of the mail-order boxes, this packaging also featured a two-color decorative design along the outer rim of the box, plus bold “BREYER” and blue ribbon logos printed on the sides. Although these boxes did serve their intended purpose well – showing the consumer the actual product they were about to purchase and letting them feel the heft and quality of a Breyer creation – they also came with a slew of unintended consequences. Unfortunately, these consequences made the touchability box fade into obscurity almost as soon as they arrived.

What caused the downfall of the touchability box?

• Models were too easy to remove.  The only things keeping a Breyer model attached to a touchability box were a couple of elastic bands, usually secured around the belly and a leg. These elastic ties could easily loosen – at best, causing the model to be damaged from repeatedly rubbing against the back of the box, and at worst, making them an easy target for theft.
• The boxes could not be repurposed for storage.  The touchability boxes were truly for display only – with their open fronts, they could not be used to safely store models, unlike the closed mail-order boxes before them.
• The design offered little protection.  Along with the damage that could be done to the model when the elastic ties became loose, the fact that the boxes were open-front left the opposite side of the horse vulnerable as well. Damage could be done in shipping, when the retailer was removing the boxes from the master carton, and/or when customers were handling the models in the store, for example.
• Assembly may have been difficult.  The shape of the boxes was quite precise, and if a tab was not cut or a score not folded perfectly, the final assembly may have looked a bit “off” (see the top left corner of the original box pictured, for example).
• Stability?  By nature, Breyer models are top-heavy – and without the right packaging, gravity does not always work in their favor. The original touchability box design may not have provided a large enough footprint to keep them from falling over with the weight of the model inside.

A #39 Family Arabian Stallion in an original late 1960s touchability box
Photo by Andrea Gurdon

As quickly as they appeared, the first generation of touchability boxes was gone – within a year or so, the design was completely scrapped. Another short-lived packaging experiment, the Showcase Collection, also came and went soon after the demise of the touchability box. Heading back to the drawing board, the first full-color “hat box” packaging debuted for Breyer retailers in 1972. This style of packaging would become the Breyer standard for quite a while. Although these boxes fully-obscured the model inside, they also showed a photograph of the model contained within on the packaging.

White boxes from the 1975 Dealer Catalog – although the exact model inside wasn’t on display, this new design gave the consumer a clear photo of what was inside the packaging while offering much more protection than touchability boxes.

Despite its obscurity, however, the touchability box has seen a handful of revivals in the half-century since the original’s demise. Its next iteration actually never made it into production, and exists only as a prototype found hidden in the Breyer Warehouse! This touchability box has a similar construction to the first Breyer boxes released with clear plastic windows in the late 1980s. It contains a #839 dapple grey Proud Arabian Stallion, but on the inside contains a label for Breyer’s portrait model of the great Arabian stallion Khemosabi. This likely dates this prototype to the very early 1990s. The box is also made of printed cardboard, with the retro red/white/blue/yellow Breyer color scheme and a golden Breyer logo situated above the horse in the packaging.

Prototype touchability box revival – circa early 1990s

A strong emphasis was put on showcasing the beauty of Breyer models on store shelves during the latter half of the 1980s – the closed-box packaging that had been used for the past decade started to fall out of favor with consumers, and a packaging redesign was critical to keep the brand appealing to a new generation of horse lovers. Breyer worked with HLP Klearfold, one of the first suppliers in the world to offer then-groundbreaking clear plastic packaging, to develop the first iteration of the window box that is now the standard for most Breyer products. This potential revival of the touchability box likely built upon the idea of letting the consumer observe the product up close and personal. Seeing as only the one prototype exists, however, it’s fair to say that this box design didn’t make it any further than a mock-up.

It wouldn’t be for another couple decades that a touchability-style box would make it back into the Breyer line, and only for a few short years. Breyer’s “My Favorite Horse” series, a staple of the 2000s and early 2010s regular line, was a collection of budget-friendly but elegant Traditional models intended as a stepping stone for kids wanting to “move up” to Breyer’s most prestigious line from their Classics and Stablemates models.

In 2009, three models in this series would be released in unique packaging: Baxter, a rose grey on the Sherman Morgan mold, Rascal, a palomino on the Buckshot mold, and Chili, a chestnut pinto on the Kennebec Count mold. This open-front cardboard design encouraged consumers to “hold our horses!” and feel each model’s quality and heft in-hand, just like the original touchability boxes of the 1960s. However, this packaging design was much better-engineered – not only was it more modern and eye-catching, but the models themselves were much more secure in their boxes. This packaging design was ultimately discontinued when Rascal, Baxter and Chili were retired in 2010 and 2011, and has not been used again since.

#1361 Rascal in the “My Favorite Horse” touchability packaging

After the touchability box faded into obscurity once again, it would receive its most interesting resurrection yet in 2019. Every year, the Vintage Club scours Breyer’s archives and historical records to both create vintage-style models that never existed back in their heyday, plus unique combinations of new decoration styles on old molds (or vice-versa!) To keep things fresh, the Vintage Club also likes to pull inspiration from accessories and packaging of years past – and in 2019, the club’s most ambitious packaging project debuted to members.

For Bernadette, a gambler’s choice Shire Mare model created in the four classic decorator colors, Breyer’s team of talented graphic designers recreated every detail of the original 1960s touchability box, from the scalloped decorative design to the massive blue ribbon logo on the side. For a modern touch, these boxes were created with glossy white cardboard for some extra shine. Members were then left with the terrifying conundrum... to open, or not to open?

A 360° view of Bernadette's recreated touchability box

The touchability box has become an obscure little bit of Breyer history – and perhaps for the better. Although it was quite ambitious for its time and certainly an interesting footnote in the legacy of Breyer packaging, it has ultimately never been able to become a core Breyer packaging design for a variety of reasons. If you have any iteration of a touchability box in your Breyer collection, consider yourself one lucky duck!

This article originally appeared as part of the April 2021 Breyer Collector Club Newsletter.