1985 UK 800XL & 600XL various packs

[ldelsarte]

Dear Atari fellow,

 

I wonder in what form the 1985 special packs were sold in the UK.
On 16 February 1985 PCN announced that packs would be available in the UK, to clear the warehouses before the arrival of the 130XE.
On 27 April 1985, Silica Shop offered 3 different packs.
(see details below)

 

The question is: what did these packs look like?
Was it just a promotion, the components of the packs were just sold as normal, but with a discount?
Were they put together in a special box (like the "Dixon exclusive" packs later with the 65XE)?
Was there a special box, bag, packaging?
I ask this question to complete the Atari 8-bit FAQ.

 

I know there were other packs, later, or in other countries. I'm specifically trying to get some information about the 1985 UK packs...

 

On 16-Feb-1985, an article in Personal Computer News reads:
"Depreciation seems to start work on the 800XL before it even crosses the counter. The machine's price was virtually halved by Christmas last year, and two packages due to be put together this month effectively bring it down again.
Its price at the moment is 129 GBP.
The first package will give you an 800XL, 1050 disk drive, Home Filing Manager and a disk-based adventure for 249.99 GBP.
The second puts together the 800XL, a 1010 recorder and Pole position for 129.99 GBP.
[...] If dealers start to split these packages [...]"

 

On 27-Apr-1985, a full page ad of "Silica Shop" - one of the largest Atari reseller in the UK - lists:
Atari 600XL entertainment pack
600XL + Donkey Kong (cart) + Qix (cart) + CX40 = 69 GBP
Atari 800XL and recorder pack
800XL + 1010 + Pole position & demo program (assumption: cassette TX8034, "Pole position" & "Atari graphics demonstration") + Invitation to prg #1 = 129 GBP
Atari 800XL and disk drive pack
800XL + 1050 + Home filing manager (diskette) + The payoff (diskette) & demo program (diskette) = 269 GBP

 

Thanks in advance for your contributions.

 

[mimo]

I doubt it would be anything other than walking out of the shop with the individual boxes, I don't think they were a proper bundle with special boxes or anything 

[oracle_jedi]

A buddy of mine bought the 800XL and 1010 cassette drive pack back in 85.  The package came in a large retail box with full colour graphics.   As I recall, inside the box were the regular 800XL and 1010 retail boxes, plus a couple of tapes with games.

 

if you look at Atari User issue #1, you can see an Atari UK advert that shows the exact box he had.  It was on page 2.

 

 

[ldelsarte]

Thank you so much @oracle_jedi!
And now the best of it: I OWN a physical copy of (almost) all Atari User magazine

I had totally forgotten that picture.

 

Does anybody know where other pictures might show up?