RyJ Churchill Packaging Conundrum

[Corylax18]

I received a 10 Count box of Romeo y Julieta Churchills recently and the packaging has me confused. The box code is MGT MAR 07, So I was expecting both the Bands and Tubes to be the "Old/Original" style. But, as you can see from the photo, the cigars have the "old" style band, but are in a the "new" style tube. 

I was under the impression (Reinforced by Cubancigarwebsite) that the transition began in 2008, but here we have the "new" tubes in a box 9 months prior to 2008. I don't have any doubts regarding Authenticity, but I've received several boxes of 10 Tubos from this same age range that had either "new/new" or "old/old" but never a combination. Has anybody else seen anything similar with these?

[dowjr1]

Following.

[havanaclub]

No but I recall a member here posting a box of what I recall Siglo V and it was the year of the switch from the old Cohiba bands to the new flashy bands. His box had both in the cab.


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[Corylax18]

15 minutes ago, havanaclub said:

No but I recall a member here posting a box of what I recall Siglo V and it was the year of the switch from the old Cohiba bands to the new flashy bands. His box had both in the cab.


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Haha. Cuba being Cuba. I was only surprised because of how far before the supposed change these where boxed. If it was a 2008 boxcode, I probably wouldn't have even posted, but I hadn't seen this before, even in 2008 boxes of the same size.

[Guest Nekhyludov]

I experienced exactly what @havanaclub described. I haven't seen it with RyJ, but I had a 2014 box of Esplendidos that had mostly new bands and some old ones. So mixed packaging anywhere doesn't surprise me anymore. It probably just means they found a pile of old bands in a corner somewhere and decided to use them.

[NSXCIGAR]

There can often be variation in bands and/or packaging in the year of transition. Sometimes old stocks of bands are located in a factory closet and used even after new bands have introduced. No waste in Cuba. 

Good example is the new Monte bands. Took at least a year before the new bands made their way to all models. Monte 2 had them early and Monte 4 and 5 got them late.