Imagic Box Repair?

[Yosikuma]

Hey guys, I have been collecting boxed 2600 games and I have been trying to get a decent Imagic collection. Sadly, some of the boxes are not in great shape. In particular, years of being stored away somewhere has warped a lot of the boxes. Has anyone had luck fixing up the silver Imagic boxes? Are there any resources one could point me to?

 

Apologies if this is in the wrong place. I'm genuinely not sure where else this could go.

[keithbk]

Do you have any images of the problems you are facing?

 

Most of the time, I simply create a cardboard "insert" that fits snugly inside the boxes to push them back into shape from the inside.

 

If I remember correctly, most Imagic games (if not all) had a plastic tray that slid into the box. You could "pad" this tray with extra cardboard to "firm up" the inside.

Edited January 22, 2022 by keithbk

[roadrunner]

If someone had a bad plastic tray can't they just switch it out with one of the more common games insert trays and no one would ever know?


 

[sirlynxalot]

You could try flattening the box putting a cloth over it and then ironing the cloth. The heat from the iron could reset and straighten things a bit.  There was also some guy on YouTube a couple years ago doing some weird cardboard box restoration of n64 boxes by plunging them into a basin of water, I don't recall the other steps but that was kind of unexpected.

 

I've also had good luck putting some cardboard box games like for 3do into those plastic box protectors you can buy for various systems on eBay and after being in there for several months the cardboard box seemed to have taken a more pleasing and square rectangular shape even when it was out of the box protector. 

Edited January 24, 2022 by sirlynxalot

[Yosikuma]

Here is a good example; tears, box warping, etc.  I'm not sure if any of this is salvagable, and if so, how. While several of my boxes are in great shape, several ... well ... they look like this.