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I expect most of you have never heard of Club Foam Carriers as we've been fulfilling small scale club orders for the last year or so. We finally decided to make a public release and are excited to serve you and your club!
You'll hear us repeatedly mention this, but as war gamers we were fed up with being bent over by the big name players and the outrageous cost of army transport gear. Not to mention the open cell foam selected by the competition lead to miniature paint rub-off during transportation. We took about a 18-24 months to develop our current product line and bring it to you at a price well below that of the competition.
Rather than ramble on here and take up your time, please come check out our Kickstarter and our website for further details. We hope you like what you see.
Please consider being a backer on our Kickstarter and/or share it with your clubs, friends and any other forum you see fit. We would really love to make this a successful launch!
What made you decide on the 9"x14" size foam trays? It'd be much easier to gain converts if you provide products of a more standard size. It's hard to expect people to discard their current entire miniatures storage system.
As for the "Limited Edition Embroidery", I think it's a bad idea to have a picture of a bomb located on a bag that I'm going to be bringing to public places like buses, trains, or airplanes.
As for the "Limited Edition Embroidery", I think it's a bad idea to have a picture of a bomb located on a bag that I'm going to be bringing to public places like buses, trains, or airplanes.
Oh yes please do have a different logo. The bomb is a very bad idea on travel cases. I like the logo, but you should use an alternate logo.
Cool, very interested in this, often times I feel my army is unfinished if I don't have transportation for it, but I feel bad spending so much money on boxes when I could be spending it on more models!
'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt." -Attributed to Abraham Lincoln, paraphrasing the book of Proverbs.
I think I need to break out the tape measure to do some size comparisons, at a glance these don't look to be much different in offerings from some of the other case makers, seems to be at roughly the same cost points although the KS says they are far cheaper. Is it just the foam trays that are cheaper? It's been a while since I looked at pricing on cases but these look to be in the same general price range as sabol or even GW. Am I completely missing something?
It looks like it's as soft as the KR foam but has a more rigid base like Sabol, which would indeed be combining two of my favorite aspects of each of those manufacturers.
The little $30 box looks perfect for Warmahordes with either a 4" + 1.25" or a 3" + 2".
"...and special thanks to Judgedoug!" - Alessio Cavatore "Now you've gone too far Doug! ... Too far... " - Rick Priestley "I've decided that I'd rather not have you as a member of TMP." - Editor, The Miniatures Page "I'd rather put my testicles through a mangle than spend any time gaming with you." - Richard, TooFatLardies "We need a Doug Craig in every store." - Warlord Games "Thank you for being here, Judge Doug!" - Adam Troke
I've tested some of this stuff it's pluck, super soft and the basing layer is very firm. I used the hard case to transport 1k of all cav+stank empire to and from an event, and the hardback book was able to squeeze in.
I also have the duffle bag, with club logo seen in my avatar and my name stitched into it. Perfect for a weekend event.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/10/16 17:50:42
3000
4000 Deamons - Mainly a fantasy army now.
Tomb Kings-2500 Escalation League for 2012
href="http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/311987.page ">Painting and Modeling Blog
Thank you for the replies and feed back! I'll try to address everything in one posting. If you want to pledge $1 to the kickstarter, you can get updates through KS which addresses some of these points in the next few weeks.
Cincydooley, yes, currently our FoamPlugs are designed as Pick'n'Pluck Foam. The intended purpose is to allow you to load out your carriers as custom as you'd like. You can go with the pre-formed die cut alternatives, but with as many conversions are there are out there, Pick'n'Pluck is the most universal way to go. Especially because it can then be used for all gaming systems.
Thank you Judgedoug, yes, we've went with a soft-to-the-touch open cell foam as our pluck material, and then used a firm closed cell cross linked material as our basing material. Our goal was to reduce miniature paint rub off, increase vertical compression resistance as well as reduce bending of the FoamPlug during manipulation. We have legitimately tried to design our products around army size and doing exactly what you say.. Bringing an army to the battle table, no fuss. We wanted to hit as many gaming systems as possible and offer a variety of bags at a reasonable price and something that you can custom build, upgrade to, or grow into.
StanMan & Absolutionis - We had to go with a novel outer dimension for a few reasons. But primarily, we did not want to encroach on any existing intellectual properties and open our selves up for liability. If you have current carrier systems, you can simply cut down our products to size. I certainly recognize your concern for discarding current carriers you may own. Part of that reason is why we developed our non-canvass carriers to make it more inexpensive for people to not only purchase our foam but also have something to keep it in. I personally love the utility of the Ammo Box. Super cheap, easy to stack on the shelf and then load into a bag. Not to mention I've designed all of our shipping cardboard to double as single and double stack FoamPlug transport if all you want is foam.
Be sure to check out our foam cost comparison diagram. We have looked at all the big players, compared them on a per cubic inch cost against our products. From all the data we've found online, we've shot to be the cheapest on the market per cubic inch. I have the diagram attached at the bottom of this post.
Dashel - I would love to ship internationally, but the cost of shipping is quite high. The biggest problem is shipping enough Foam to make it worth while for your shipping costs. We are currently pursuing vacuum packing to reduce the vertical size of each stack of foam and hopefully reduce shipping. If you're interested in just foam and don't mind paying a little more for shipping. Hell, I'd love to sell you some for your army. I'm pushing all sales through KS right now, so contact me there and I can always try to figure out a quote for shipping for you, depending on what you want. Then just add that shipping cost to your backer pledge, easy peasy.
Skink007 - YES! That was our thoughts exactly when we started this endeavor about 1.5 years ago. We didn't want to spend an arm and a leg to get our models to and from a gaming location. Our Ammo Boxes are perfect. You basically get a hard liquid-resistance carrier for your foam, you can stack them on a shelf and then load them into a Supply Crate or our other canvas carriers to take to a gaming location. We really are trying to bring prices down for people like us and people like you Consider a backer pledge to receive our updates, you can always change it before the end of the kickstarter to a higher amount if there is a carrier that suits your fancy.
BOMBS!! - AH! TSA! Tremendous oversight on our design crew with that one. We'll give the option to our customer base to not include this logo, we'll have an alternative.
Acardia - Thank you for your support, and liking our products!
It seems that the target audience seems to not be people who have already invested in wargaming and have foam trays already.
CFC Carlo wrote: We had to go with a novel outer dimension for a few reasons. But primarily, we did not want to encroach on any existing intellectual properties and open our selves up for liability.
How is it that there are 4+ companies out there that make standard-sized foam trays without encroaching upon one another legally?
CFC Carlo wrote: If you have current carrier systems, you can simply cut down our products to size.
This suggestion would outright ruin the pluck-foam trays and is not a reasonable solution. I'd rather pay $1 more for other companies' trays than do this.
CFC Carlo wrote: I certainly recognize your concern for discarding current carriers you may own. Part of that reason is why we developed our non-canvass carriers to make it more inexpensive for people to not only purchase our foam but also have something to keep it in. I personally love the utility of the Ammo Box. Super cheap, easy to stack on the shelf and then load into a bag. Not to mention I've designed all of our shipping cardboard to double as single and double stack FoamPlug transport if all you want is foam.
It's not cheap if you're asking people to discard their current investment and purchase your product.
CFC Carlo wrote: Be sure to check out our foam cost comparison diagram. We have looked at all the big players, compared them on a per cubic inch cost against our products. From all the data we've found online, we've shot to be the cheapest on the market per cubic inch. I have the diagram attached at the bottom of this post.
The foam comparison diagram is neat, but it doesn't mean anything if the foam you sell is incompatible with what people have already invested in. Even if your product is $1 cheaper by the tray, it's cheaper to buy 2-5 trays from another company rather than 15 trays and a whole new two bags from this kickstarter.
---
I understand I am not the target audience for this.
Thank you all for your wishes on a great Kickstarter, we're very happy to release our products!
You all bring up very good points. I totally agree that it is difficult to expect people to switch from one transportation company to another and we're not asking you to. We love people who have brand loyalty and want to stick with something they have and use well.
We knew from the beginning that offering pluck foam wasn't going to be for everyone. There are certainly those that love the die cut foam specific to their units/models/etc, and maybe that is something we'll offer in the future. We just know for us, with all the conversions we do and people have done the pluck foam is most versatile. We all have a preference, lol
As you mentioned our target customer base are those looking for an inexpensive transportation alternative to the big names. Our current customers have been incredibly happy with the quality, size and price of our products and we simply wished to share that with others. Maybe this won't work for you and your army, but maybe you know someone who is looking for something like this.
We are not trying to box out the rest of the world either. We wholeheartedly intend on shipping internationally, it is just difficult with the kickstarter back-end to make this possible for all countries and locations. With this being our First Wave Release, we simply wanted to get our name out there and test our ordering system. We're hoping to drastically reduce the cost of shipping in the months to come as well as offer vacuum packing to increase the amount of foam international shippers can purchase. Trying to make it more bang for your buck. We have had those contact us through Kickstarter and we're always happy to quote you out for international shipping. We're a small upstart, stepping on each stone as it comes.
I really do appreciate all of your constructive feed back it gives us a lot of great content for our FAQs as well as Updates as we go through the Kickstarter.
While some of you may not be interested in foam products, maybe you'd consider getting some of our merchandise (shirts, beer coozies, etc) to help support our cause. You'll be able to get all of our update videos and see where we're going.
Thank you all again and feel free to continue to post with questions and other feed back. Thanks again!!
The issue with awkward sizes isn't brand loyalty. There are many companies out there that make standard-sized 7.5"x13" foam. I'd gladly shift over to your cheaper foam if it was offered in a size compatible with what I already have.
Your stuff looks great and the cost looks extremely competitive. I wish you all the best.
Absolutionist, thank you for the best wishes and first impression praise of our products!
We really did our homework on carrier foam and got a ton of feed back from the community. But never on such a grand scale as this current endeavor. We do take all recommendations to heart and want to appease new and future customers.
We have received the "standard size" question in the past and always had concern with WHICH dimension would we mimic without opening ourselves for liability. AT & PW all use 7.5x13, BF uses 15.5x12, and I believe KR has a few different sizes. It seemed that the most logical move would be to focus upon on a customer who does not yet have foam carrier transport or maybe someone looking for a cost effective switch. We're all very savvy in this hobby, and we figured those that saw the value would be willing to make do one way or another. Either with us or with another company.
We know there's a lot of competition with well established companies, but we're hoping that keeping our prices low and offering a few low-cost transportation options that it might speak to a specific type of gamer.
But again, thank you for all the feed back and great food for thought.
Personally, I applaud the 9x14 size. It matches the standard sizing for Plano tacklebox trays which I use to great extent for miniatures. This size means the foam plugs are compatible with my current carriers. Now if you can make some 6"+ depth plugs to carry my large models, we'd be in business.
11,100 pts, 7,000 pts
++ Heed my words for I am the Herald and we are the footsteps of doom. Interlopers, do we name you. Defilers of our
sacred earth. We have awoken to your primative species and will not tolerate your presence. Ours is the way of logic,
of cold hard reason: your irrationality, your human disease has no place in the necrontyr. Flesh is weak.
Surrender to the machine incarnate. Surrender and die. ++
Tuagh wrote: If you won't use a wrench, it isn't the bolt's fault that your hammer is useless.
Maelstrom - Thank you We like the size of our FoamPlugs too. Good to know about the Plano tackle box trays, do you have a model number of your tackle box? I'd like to check them out too (even just for personal use). We actually have been looking into large model transportation. We're considering developing a box that is specifically designed for models like this. Up to this point we have been using the "sandwich" method for extremely large models. Essentially you could take two 3" trays and invert the top layer. Know what I mean? By flipping one over you gain 6" of foam coverage for large models, and only have to "load" half the model into the tray at a time. One concern with deep tray pockets is that you may have to increase your placement pressure to fit the miniature into the tray. At 6" depth the side friction may cause excessive pressure during placement and potentially crack/break smaller components. With the 3" sandwich method you only have to place half the foam at a time, and reduce your placement pressure. Obviously I've rambled on... but just a thought!
SBG - If you want to contact me through the KS page I can formally estimate shipping for a Tsar Bomba so you'll know exactly. If you can fill a whole Tsar Bomba with all of your Tyranids then I am INCREDIBLY impressed with your army size! The Tsar is wonderfully large and can hold ALOT of FoamPlugs. If you're interested, I'd love to estimate shipping for you. Let me know.
CFC Carlo wrote: Maelstrom - Thank you We like the size of our FoamPlugs too. Good to know about the Plano tackle box trays, do you have a model number of your tackle box? I'd like to check them out too (even just for personal use). We actually have been looking into large model transportation. We're considering developing a box that is specifically designed for models like this. Up to this point we have been using the "sandwich" method for extremely large models. Essentially you could take two 3" trays and invert the top layer. Know what I mean? By flipping one over you gain 6" of foam coverage for large models, and only have to "load" half the model into the tray at a time. One concern with deep tray pockets is that you may have to increase your placement pressure to fit the miniature into the tray. At 6" depth the side friction may cause excessive pressure during placement and potentially crack/break smaller components. With the 3" sandwich method you only have to place half the foam at a time, and reduce your placement pressure. Obviously I've rambled on... but just a thought!
SBG - If you want to contact me through the KS page I can formally estimate shipping for a Tsar Bomba so you'll know exactly. If you can fill a whole Tsar Bomba with all of your Tyranids then I am INCREDIBLY impressed with your army size! The Tsar is wonderfully large and can hold ALOT of FoamPlugs. If you're interested, I'd love to estimate shipping for you. Let me know.
Thanks again everyone
-Carlo
Hi! I don't have a KS login so I sent you a PM. Cheers!
Just a little follow up for everyone. I posted an update on the KS page to address some of the shipping concerns.
I am in the process of negotiating shipping prices with a few couriers in order to drastically reduce domestic and international shipping. I agree and have always felt that the shipping prices were well beyond my own comfort zone but had very little direct control over it. As a general business practice I do not up-charge shipping. But read that update and I go into a bit more.
Anyway, hopefully by the end of the week I'll be done with negotiations and have it more affordable for you as a customer. My goal is to have it down 50-75%, whereby I too would eat some cost of shipping.
I do want to take every opportunity to not only address your concerns but also find a way to correct problems as they arise. If no one speaks up, then I will never know that there is a problem. The point of this Kickstarter was to hammer out these logistical problems. Whereby the solutions would make us a stronger company and bring you a less expensive product (total cost).
So, again, I thank all of you for your replies and posts in this thread. I know some may take them as negativity, but I take them as opportunities for improvement. I created this business not to turn a huge profit off war gamers, but to help those who have safe army transportation out of their financial grasp. Whatever I can do to help you and bring down price, I'm going to do it. This industry will never change unless there are guys like us willing to stick our necks out and make a difference for us all.
Consider becoming an entry level backer ($1) so that you can receive my video updates over the next few weeks. I intend on not only highlighting products (discussion, demos, etc) but also visibly addressing problems as they arise.
Thank you SBG, I just sent you a PM too.
(Also, lol, yes I've been chuckling over Pities quote too)
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/10/21 02:12:08
Just wanted to update all of you on what is developing with CFC and the KS. Much gratitude to you all for your feed back and suggestions. As indicated in my original video posting for KS, one of my goals in launching this campaign was to hammer out the kinks and solidify my back end logistics.
Most notably, I have focused on reducing shipping prices. I should have my final numbers from a regional courier representative by the end of the week. But I should be able to get domestic shipping costs down by at least 50% if not 75%. We'll see about international, don't know estimates just yet. I will post a video update explaining the new process.
I'll post a new graphic on KS that will have all shipping prices and the sort.
For the larger bags (Tsar Bomba & Fat Man) I've decided to make a company wide change. Instead of having to choose between loading out those carriers with FoamPlugs OR Ammo Boxes, I've decided to only allow a Foam Plug load out but I will give away the empty Ammo Boxes for free!! Yes, FREE. We received a little bit of attention from a big name corporate competitor who shall remain nameless. Flattering that they'd peacock in front of a little guy like me. There was some vague indication that I cannot sell FoamPlugs in a Box and sell that Box in a Bag. I don't really care about all that, but as that statement only applies to the Fat Man & Tsar Bomba I decided to make a simple change.
I'll only be selling the Tsar Bomba and Fat Man bags with FoamPlugs, and giving you the empty Ammo Boxes for free. Then you can decide how you want to use them with no direction from us. Rather than play cat and mouse, I'll just eat the cost and pass the savings on to you! Just easier this way. Not to mention, you actually receive MORE foam this way and then receive 4 or 6 empty Ammo Boxes for free, depending on which large carrier you get.
I also reevaluated my numbers and knocked off a little more money from the Ammo Boxes. Why? I don't know, why not?
Please spread the word, stay tuned, and new shipping prices to post soon. I really am trying to make this a better deal for all of us, so please share!
It's a shame you don't have international shipping as I've just bought a case with a buy one case get a standard case free deal from a company who shall not be named.
I just posted an update on our KS page (link) as well as my youtube channel. Please check it out and watch the video below, where I talk about shipping.
New graphic on the KS and FB pages as well.
SBG & Overtyrant, I'll have canadian prices within the next day or so. With canada still being on ground routes, I should be able to have ~35% reduction in shipping rates..
We've been busting a hump the last week to get our rates down and have succeeded quite well.
Thank you again everyone for your feed back.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/10/24 05:42:43
I just posted an update on our KS page (link) as well as my youtube channel. Please check it out and watch the video below, where I talk about shipping.
New graphic on the KS and FB pages as well.
SBG & Overtyrant, I'll have canadian prices within the next day or so. With canada still being on ground routes, I should be able to have ~35% reduction in shipping rates..
We've been busting a hump the last week to get our rates down and have succeeded quite well.
Thank you again everyone for your feed back.
So then why wasn't all of this done before you launched the Kickstarter?
I can only assume that your either lazy or the majority of your profit margin came from your "shipping charges"...
At this point it's probably to little to late, your pretty much at the bottom of the list of active games Kickstarters sorted pretty much any way.
" - Rick Priestley "I've decided that I'd rather not have you as a member of TMP." - Editor, The Miniatures Page "I'd rather put my testicles through a mangle than spend any time gaming with you." - Richard, TooFatLardies "We need a Doug Craig in every store." - Warlord Games "Thank you for being here, Judge Doug!" - Adam Troke 
3000
4000 Deamons - Mainly a fantasy army now.
I do what the voices in my wifes head say... 
11,100 pts, 
7,000 pts
