Packaging change for Unicos?

[Islandboy]

I debated posting this in suspect cigar thread, but I don’t really suspect these to be fake, as they look and smell the part, and came from what is regarded as a reputable online source, although it’s my first time using them. When did Habanos change the look of packaging? Also, I see a slight difference on the bands with the color of the side accent. 
 

Here’s some pics of new box vs 2 boxes I already had, new is always on left or top. 
 

[Islandboy]

Sorry, forgot a pic. 
 

[Puros Y Vino]

Very interesting.  If the new design is legit.  Why?  And why not tell your customers of the change?  Navigating counterfeits is already difficult enough with only some very smaller details being "the tell". This is a total rejig of the design IMO.  In regards to the bands.  If the new is on the left, IMO, that band has a cleaner look.  The one on the right looks "muddy" IMO.  ATM I'm too lazy to dig up my Unicos to compare.  But I will try to later. 

[BrightonCorgi]

Assuming the new box is British, where is the EMS stamp?

The only box I have now is from 2016 and bands look like the right sided one.

[jakebarnes]

They did brand change. It's also  with the Famosos. I hate it. They killed a good design and made it bland and boring. 

[Islandboy]

15 minutes ago, jakebarnes said:

They did brand change. It's also  with the Famosos. I hate it. They killed a good design and made it bland and boring. 

I agree. The other thing I notice is the new packaging now has a built-in barcode, so I assume Habanos is upgrading their inventory process, hence the new packaging. I wonder how far-reaching this will be...and if they ever plan to notify us 

[Islandboy]

45 minutes ago, Puros Y Vino said:

  In regards to the bands.  If the new is on the left, IMO, that band has a cleaner look.  The one on the right looks "muddy" IMO. 

Yeah, I saw this too. I thought, well if these bands are fake, then at least its an upgrade 

[NSXCIGAR]

Just picked up these Famosos in Cuba and yes, it appears the bands have changed. 

Most of the box design changes were done to accommodate the ever-intrusive health warning stickers. It's happened with San Cristobal also. 

The band change is out of left field however. I need to look at it to see if I like it. Aware of this yet @ATGroom?

[Fugu]

Sure legit. 😄

A couple of brand’s packaging has already been and will be updated now. One of the reasons being conformity with new European regulation (check out European Tobacco Products Directive TPD - e.g. new track and tracing necessities). Lots of design simplified, which is a real shame. E.g. H. Upmann dress boxes now without Hermann Upmann’s signature, Flor de Rafael González w/o the famous dictum, Vegas Robaina now without the picture of Alejandro etc. Unfortunately no fakes this time!

[Lfhard]

This is a box I have received from our host so I’m 100% sure mine is not fake. So I’m assuming it’s new packaging, and holy crap I have not opened this since a few months ago when I received them and man they smell amazing. 

[Islandboy]

I tend not to be an alarmist about things, but I guess all this talk recently of counterfeits infiltrating even trusted sources has my senses heightened. Much thanks to everyone for easing my mind.

[Tstew75]

The Robaina family asked Habanos for royalties for using the image of Alejandro Robaina & Habanos rejected their request and responded by removing his image from newer production boxes. Their beef runs much deeper than this most recent action, it runs back years-

[Islandboy]

The plot thickens...

[NSXCIGAR]

44 minutes ago, Tstew75 said:

The Robaina family asked Habanos for royalties for using the image of Alejandro Robaina & Habanos rejected their request and responded by removing his image from newer production boxes. Their beef runs much deeper than this most recent action, it runs back years-

I'm surprised HSA didn't have the family relinquish all rights when they developed the brand. Not doing so would have been pretty dumb, and Cuba certainly isn't dumb when it comes to screwing people over. 

[cigaraholic]

Taking Don Alejandro’s image off the box is beyond shameful 🤮

[Tstew75]

18 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I'm surprised HSA didn't have the family relinquish all rights when they developed the brand. Not doing so would have been pretty dumb, and Cuba certainly isn't dumb when it comes to screwing people over. 

Apparently it was retaliation towards the Robaina family because of Hirochi taking the band/logo and making a new world blend without permission. About a year after Hirochi left Habanos axed the beloved VRDA vitola + they haven't issued a VR Regional since that time. Coincidence? I think not.

VR is not like the other Marcas, they have living family faces & a farming background. I hate what Habanos has done.

[SCgarman]

6 hours ago, cigaraholic said:

Taking Don Alejandro’s image off the box is beyond shameful 🤮

Looks so generic now! Sad. The double burned in logo and factory code on the box bottom is just bizarre! What's the purpose?

HSA seems to be quite good at taking a classic box design and just f***ing it all up. The new RG boxes look pathetic also. Morons

[ATGroom]

On 10/22/2022 at 9:01 AM, NSXCIGAR said:

Aware of this yet @ATGroom?

Thanks. Was aware of the box redesign but not the band change.

It seems like maybe the band printing facility in Cuba has had an upgrade which is leading to some redesigns, both major and minor is my guess. Or else they are now offshoring some things that were previously printed on island.

 

19 minutes ago, SCgarman said:

The double burned in logo and factory code on the box bottom is just bizarre! What's the purpose?

All boxes are going to have designs like this in the next few years. Two logos on the top lid, two on the inside lid, brand name and vitola on the side, brand name on the front, two brands and two stamps on the bottom.

EU regulations require 65% of the lid and 30% of the inside lid to be covered by a warning sticker. If you have two logos then one will be left uncovered. Many countries are stricter than this.

It seems like the papeletas are going as well, or at least they did with the redesigns of RG and VR. Not sure why this is.

[Blakes]

Man, it just keeps getting worse. Habanos needs to make way for something better... 

[SCgarman]

13 hours ago, ATGroom said:

Thanks. Was aware of the box redesign but not the band change.

It seems like maybe the band printing facility in Cuba has had an upgrade which is leading to some redesigns, both major and minor is my guess. Or else they are now offshoring some things that were previously printed on island.

 

All boxes are going to have designs like this in the next few years. Two logos on the top lid, two on the inside lid, brand name and vitola on the side, brand name on the front, two brands and two stamps on the bottom.

EU regulations require 65% of the lid and 30% of the inside lid to be covered by a warning sticker. If you have two logos then one will be left uncovered. Many countries are stricter than this.

It seems like the papeletas are going as well, or at least they did with the redesigns of RG and VR. Not sure why this is.

Which countries require the upc code on the side box label? I have a box of RyJ PC with the UPC code. 

[Fugu]

8 hours ago, SCgarman said:

Which countries require the upc code on the side box label? I have a box of RyJ PC with the UPC code. 

It actually is an EAN-code - and ... there you got your answer. 😉

On 10/22/2022 at 5:50 AM, Tstew75 said:

The Robaina family asked Habanos for royalties for using the image of Alejandro Robaina & Habanos rejected their request and responded by removing his image from newer production boxes.

I believe we can relegate this to the realm of urban myth. Like the notion that it would be in any way related to HSA/Cuba not having been all too happy with Hiroshi’s engagement(s) and brand development abroad. This redesign of the packaging certainly has nothing to do with personal imbroglio. And it’s not the only brand affected. The axing of the DA happened in the 2016/17 wave, when another bunch of slow-sellers had been discontinued (like BCG, BT1, HUPC, du Prince, CdL1 etc.).

Most if not all of the new packaging features we are now by and by witnessing can be attributed to the EU-TPD requirements.

[Tstew75]

5 hours ago, Fugu said:

It actually is an EAN-code - and ... there you got your answer. 😉

I believe we can relegate this to the realm of urban myth. Like the notion that it would be in any way related to HSA/Cuba not having been all too happy with Hiroshi’s engagement(s) and brand development abroad. This redesign of the packaging certainly has nothing to do with personal imbroglio. And it’s not the only brand affected. The axing of the DA happened in the 2016/17 wave, when another bunch of slow-sellers had been discontinued (like BCG, BT1, HUPC, du Prince, CdL1 etc.).

Most if not all of the new packaging features we are now by and by witnessing can be attributed to the EU-TPD requirements.

I'm all chem-trails & black helicopters 😋

[NSXCIGAR]

On 10/22/2022 at 7:28 PM, Tstew75 said:

About a year after Hirochi left Habanos axed the beloved VRDA vitola + they haven't issued a VR Regional since that time. Coincidence? I think not.

I'm not sure about the DA being axed as it was a total sales dog and it was around the time that other dogs were getting cut as well. But the lack of ERs for VR is quite conspicuous, and also I just realized this year is the brand's 20th anniversary and I've seen absolutely nothing planned for it seeing as how they did a 5 and a 15 year anniversary release. Now that's strange.

[Fugu]

14 hours ago, Tstew75 said:

I'm all chem-trails & black helicopters 😋

As long as you’re not a flat-earther, all good 😅

6 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

But the lack of ERs for VR is quite conspicuous, and also I just realized this year is the brand's 20th anniversary and I've seen absolutely nothing planned for it seeing as how they did a 5 and a 15 year anniversary release. Now that's strange.

They did a 5-year only. The “Jubiläums” had been the 15th anniversary of German distributor 5th Avenue.

2022 would have been the 25th anniversary of VR. So, true, an even “worthier” occasion.

But then again, they didn’t do a 25th for Cohiba either. This year had been the 60th anniversary of Cubatabaco, plus 530 years landing of Columbus. We have yet to see a “530 años descubrimiento del tabaco” humi for this year...

Regionals are chosen by distributors in the first place, and Vegas Robaina isn’t a highly popular brand. Others, similar “niche” brands like Rafael González hadn’t had a regional in quite a while. Por Larrañaga had released a regional in almost every year until 2017, occasionally more than one in a year. What happened in the last five years?

While this VR conspiracy sounds interesting, perhaps there’s even some reason to surmise, I think it doesn’t hold much water. If VR would print them money, they’d grasp every opportunity.

 

The new EU directive (mind you, Europe is Habanos’ biggest market by far) prohibits certain display elements on the packaging that “advertise“ tobacco in a particular way, as for example special health aspects, lifestyle, particular tobacco properties setting it apart from others etc. That’s likely why the Don Alejandro enjoying his puro ‘con la musica’ had to go. Why the special instruction on Rafael González boxes for full appreciation of the “perfect fragrance” of the „secret blend” had been erased, why the smoking vegero on JLP packaging is now gone missing...

[SCgarman]

5 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I'm not sure about the DA being axed as it was a total sales dog and it was around the time that other dogs were getting cut as well. But the lack of ERs for VR is quite conspicuous, and also I just realized this year is the brand's 20th anniversary and I've seen absolutely nothing planned for it seeing as how they did a 5 and a 15 year anniversary release. Now that's strange.

Not saying they are bad cigars, but isn't the Robaina brand a dog as far as sales ? Only left are Unicos and Famosos.