Got my first emperor ever today, a beautiful emerald peacock who arrived perfect and safe WITHOUT an emperor box. This awesome seller from our forum of course double boxed him, with the interior box having tons of packing peanuts and larger sections of foam, then outlining the dragon in foam cut to fit him perfectly and wrapping all that in layers of bubblewrap. I had to have my brother help free him from the box, and with two people it took about 15 minutes. So yes, shipping emperors without boxes can be done!