Publisher: Game Plus Products
Release Date: July 2015
MSRP: $49.95 (plus $9.95 per foam tray)
Product #: GPS1001
ICv2 Rating: 4 Stars out of 5
Ask any old "lead head" like me, and they would probably agree: There is no agony quite so profound as arriving at the gaming table, ready to unleash that Dude of Ultimate Awesomeness upon your foes, only to discover that during the trip over the model you spent six weeks painstakingly prepping, building, and painting has fallen over and shattered into a dozen pieces. Sure, you can repair the damage this time, but the big reveal you have been savoring has been ruined forever. I imagine that this has been a dilemma for tabletop gamers ever since H.G. Wells published Little Wars in 1913. Fortunately, Game Plus Products has presented us with a worthy solution.
Summary: The Flagship Gaming Bag is exactly that: a bag. Specifically, a great big nylon bag specially designed to hold customizable soft foam trays (sold separately) that will protect all but the most fragile of gaming models from the shocks and jolts typically experienced during transportation to and from the gaming table.
The central part of the bag is a large zippered area, capable of holding up to 14 vertical inches of model-protecting foam trays. The zipper is designed to completely open both the top and the front of the bag, making it easy to load and unload, without having to tip or push the trays into position. The bag also sports three outside pouches of various roomy sizes, that work very nicely to hold such gaming essentials as rulebooks, dice, cards, and tape measure, as well as a large mesh pouch for holding a water bottle (or your other favorite gaming beverage).
Originality: Over the past few years there have been a number of companies that have produced variations of the gaming bag. They come in many different sizes and colors, some with customizable foam trays like the Flagship Gaming Bag, some with pre-designed trays for specific games, others simply packed with sheets of foam or "egg crate" style foam sheets. From that regard, the Flagship Gaming Bag isn’t really an original idea, per se. But the category as a whole is a far cry better than the older alternatives we used to rely on, like hardware organizers or tackle boxes.
Presentation: The bag is perhaps a bit plain and unassuming. It has one rather discreet logo on top, but otherwise is an unremarkable, if large, shoulder bag. To my mind, though, this is a positive. It gives me the freedom to leave it plain so as not to attract unwanted attention when I carry it about, or to decorate it to my heart’s content without having to compete with unwanted logos.
Games Plus Products produces the bag in four different colors: traditional gamer black, of course, as well as red, blue, and green for those who want a more interesting color. The pockets are arranged nicely around the exterior of the bag, and it is equipped with a sturdy shoulder strap that (thankfully) features an adjustable padded section for improved comfort.
The foam trays are a very convenient size, with six different thicknesses available. The top portion of the tray is made of soft, protective foam with a grid of easily-removable squares that allow you to customize each tray to fit your models exactly. The bottom part is made of a much denser material, giving the tray a sturdy base so it is easy to lift and carry. This dense material is made of bright red foam, which I rather like as it makes it very easy to see the separate trays when they are stacked one atop the other.
Quality: Overall, I found the quality of manufacture of the Flagship Gaming Bag to be quite good. The bag is made of thickly-padded tear-proof nylon. The shoulder strap and other parts all withstood the healthy tugging I gave it—using quite a bit more force than I would expect the bag to experience under normal use, and the pockets are closed by very strong strips of Velcro. The trays are sturdy and I would expect them to hold up to use very nicely. My one complaint would be that the seams were not reinforced with double stitching, a feature I have seen on other gaming bags. Thus far I have no reason to assume that the single stitching is not perfectly adequate, but double stitching would have put my mind that much more at ease.
Marketability: Games Plus Products is selling the Flagship Gaming Bag through normal distribution channels, as well as offering free shipping to retailers (with a minimum purchase), so it should be a simple matter for interested stores to have them on their shelves, which I think is important. While I think every miniatures enthusiast needs a good, secure way to transport their armies, they may be unlikely to realize that something like the Flagship Gaming Bag is even available unless they saw one in the store.
Obviously, a gaming bag of this type won’t hold much interest for gamers who do not play tabletop miniatures. The central compartment is ill-suited to carrying role-playing books, for example, and most board game boxes would not fit well, either. So while it is nicely designed for its intended purpose, it has only limited utility outside of that.
The price tag is not insignificant either. At 50 bucks, the bag is a significant investment, particularly considering that is the "empty" price. Most miniatures armies in my experience will require 6 to 10 trays, at another 10 bucks apiece. On the other hand, when you consider how many hundreds of dollars worth of models (and months of time and effort) the bag will be protecting, it doesn’t seem like such a bad investment after all.
Overall: I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could fit almost my entire army in the Flagship Gaming Bag—a rather sizeable force for use with a popular science fiction miniatures game. I did have to leave one large vehicle at home, but it easily held everything else, using nine trays of various thicknesses, as well as a massive rulebook, an army book, two boxes of dice, a deck of cards, tape measure, notepad, pen, pencil, and water bottle. In short, everything I would want to have with me for a game. But loading it up in that way did present an unexpected obstacle: My mixed metal and plastic army, books, trays, accessories, and bag altogether weighed in at over 18 pounds. A bit much for me to want to carry it on my shoulder all day (and thank goodness I wasn’t lugging around an all-metal army…). It occurred to me that maybe the Flagship Gaming Bag was just a little bit too big. But then I thought, "Nah."
--William Niebling
