A Figure Transportation Idea (Small Reaper Case Review)

As some of you know, I have lived in Melbourne Australia for close to 8 years now.  For that whole time I have lived in or immediately around the Melbourne CBD.  This means I have primarily lived in small apartments and shared houses and generally that I have avoided owning a car at all costs...  

Don't get me wrong... I LOVE to drive.  I do it whenever I can.  But after spending most of my life living in the States I have never gotten over how expensive car ownership costs down here. As a result, I generally don’t drive.  I recently had my class figure out my bike commuting distance and I ride an average of about 4500 kilometres a year (not including all the riding I do when I am not getting to and leaving from work).  This means that I often travel with toy soldiers either on my bike or on public transportation.  When moving whole armies or terrain this starts to get difficult due the volume of crap that one needs to carry in this hobby.  I needed a more viable transportation method on a smaller scale.  Something that was bike friendly.

Enter the “Figure Carrying Case” from Reaper miniatures.

Is it small?  Yup. 

I needed a case that would easily fit into my Crumpler Courier bag.  It not only fit like a charm but there is room for rulebooks/ army books, dice bags, tape measures and templates (and my lunch!).  Perfect.  Now at this size you will never fit an army’s worth of models but for specialist games like Necromunda and Mordheim it is the perfect size.  It would also work (in my case) beautifully for carrying a unit or two’s worth of models to a mate’s place for painting nights.  

You can see it’s capacity here:

With larger models:

Next up… Is it durable? Yup!

I am fairly rough on my bike and on my gear when riding and I have kicked the crud out of this case in the short time I have owned it.  That said it looks exactly the same now as it did a few months ago when I bought it.  Generally, the foam inside protects models well and holds different sized models in place in a way that prevents figs from rattling around against each other (a recipe for chips and disaster).  My only gripe is with the foam insert that divides the two halves.  It is fairly flimsy.  While this prevents rubbing and breakages when the case is closed, getting the case closed sometimes causes issues.  The two sides fold together when closing the case.  This leads to some dexterous maneuvering with fragile models in order to close it without models spilling out or banging into one another.  It is an annoying design flaw in an otherwise dependable product.

 

Is it expensive?  Surprisingly no!

This little baby retails for something like $16 US (or $18 here in Australia) which compared to GW’s cases is unbelievably cheap! Mind numbingly so!  For a product of this quality I think that Reaper could have charged $30 easily and still had a good deal.  Not that I am complaining!

Overall I am a very big fan the of this little gem of transportation gold.  Does it fit everyone’s needs?  Probably not…  Does it fit my needs?  Absolutely…  So much so that I have already bought two. 

Til next time!

B

For those wondering this is what the Reaper website has to say:

This carrying case is the same hardshell plastic case that all of our boxed sets come in. With two layers of rugged eggshell foam, you'll be able to transport your figures with ease and in Reaper style! Size approximately 9" x 10.75" x 3".

One more size comparison...  Here it is on top of a Marine Codex.