Menu C MREs for sale on eBay

[housil]

All of that sounds good, but I keep coming back to the graphics on the bag. Why redesign the bag graphics...and redesign it so poorly...when the original would have been fine - all they had to do was remove the "Commercial resale" text and they'd be done.

Maybe they did it on purpose?!
To increase the difference between the official Army-MRE´s and the "civilian" - just a though...

[housil]

(...)

I noticed a few things:

1. The soldier logo is different. Why would Ameriqual change it? I say Ameriqual because that's what's printed on the MRE case (see pic below).

2. They left the "Flamess Ration Heaters" text in but removed the company name and "Commercial resale is unlawful" text. Makes sense on the resale text, but why the company name?

3. The fonts are all wrong. When I made the MRE t-shirts for the site, it was a major pain in the ass to match up the fonts for "Meal" and "Ready-to-Eat". Look at the "a" in Meal - the beginning and ending strokes of the "a" are totally wrong. Also check out the word "eat" - it should be "Eat" with a capital E. And then check out the "y" and "t" in "Ready-to-eat". The lower part of the Y and T should be straight, not curved.

4. The line under the menu name is too thick and too far below the text.

...and they don´t have a TTI-sticker on it:

[MCIera]

Just to introduce a bit more speculation to the mix, the original design may have come from the government and they couldn't reuse the graphic for other purposes?

Seriously though, having dealt with Marcomm groups and graphic designers a lot over the years, there could be a number of reasons, not the least of which may have been that they did not keep the original design in component form after the final design was arrived at. Or another likely scenario is that a company might outsource the design to a graphic designer, and then outsourced another design to a different designer who used the original design as a base. The combinations are endless , and quite honestly usually not worth dwelling over.

All of that sounds good, but I keep coming back to the graphics on the bag. Why redesign the bag graphics...and redesign it so poorly...when the original would have been fine - all they had to do was remove the "Commercial resale" text and they'd be done.

Maybe they did it on purpose?!
To increase the difference between the official Army-MRE´s and the "civilian" - just a though...

[BigMark]

There's a thread somewhere for bad ebay sellers.

[C-rats]

Is the color of that Menue "C" bag tan, or a light Olive Green?

You know me & my eyesight.....


`rats

[kman]

The color of the Menu C MRE bag looks like the regular, current MREs - tan.

In fact, I just received some pics and comments from someone who purchased a case of these. He's going to send me a few to review in person, so I'll be sure to take a lot more pics when I get them. But for now, here you go:




Here are comments I received from the buyer:

These really are AMERQUAL except no double packaging like other ameriqual, only the brown bag. All components look right except the raisins and the crackers are HDR SILVER PACKAGING in the beef patty I opened. The case seems a little bit smaller and is not fully sealed on the one side (see picture) it is opened about an inch and you can see the brown bags, no commercial info on box or bag. They also are NOT date stamped or crimped on each individual package like AMERIQUAL AND SOPAKCO HAVE, they are just like WORNICK in that aspect. I do think these have offered more sides/snacks than the traditional ones.

One other thing I have noticed is the main meals seem to be 2007 but the crackers, raisins, baked snack crackers, fig bar, and sports bar were all 2006 production, so they obviously used older parts. So the package date is definetly misleading since only the main meals are 2007. Most packages I get, all components are useually pretty close in dates not a 12 month difference like these. For instance the meal is 7194 but the crackers are 6285 and the chocolate sports bar is 6048 well over a year old already.

MORE INFO. The packages are very misleading as to the first inspection dates. I just opened a cheese tortellini and the date is 6087. Almost 2yrs old already? Most things seem to be early 2006, so where they get a first inspection of 11/2010 I don't know? Of course the chicken w/ dumplings and the meatballs is fresh since they are 2007 meals but the rest????

ALSO NO orange freshness stickers/temp indicators.

[kidsluvmres]

I googled the numbers on the side of the box and this series of numbers, SPM30003DZ106, appears to be a contract issued to Ameriqual as part of Hurricane Katrina. My google search sent me to this webpage:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/katrina/ ... gency=97AS

[kman]

Interesting find, kidsluvmres.

[kidsluvmres]

I'm wondering if Ameriqual put these together as a way to use excess inventory. Perhaps the box with the Katrina contract number is simply part of an overrun they're using instead of throwing away. That being said, there sure does seem to be a lot of things about these that raise suspicions.

[kman]

I just got in a few of these MREs from someone who bought a case so I'll report back with pictures and more info soon!