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I received my BattleP.A.C.K. 432 and 1520 today. About three weeks early so I thought I’d take the opportunity and give an honest assessment of the Battlefoam Battle P.A.C.K. system.

First impressions – A nice deep olive color with black trim is more pleasing in person than I suspected by watching the video. The material feels rugged and durable. Looking at the bags, Battlefoam seems to have put a surplus of pockets and pouches on the outside of each case. I am excited and I like them so far. The back-pack straps on the 1520 do appear every bit as weedy as the video but more on that later.

Digging deeper – Admittedly, I was skeptical watching Romeo’s video of him dropping the weight on top of the 432 with foam inside. I assumed the foam helped support the case. Now that I have them I realize the bags are very sturdy without foam inside. Yes, the bags are lightweight but the support structure seems to do its job well. Add the foam inside and they are stout. The black nylon handles are simple but stitched on well and are sturdy. I can’t test how they feel fully loaded as (admittedly) my army is under construction. Overall the handles seem very well constructed and will serve their purpose well enough if light on the frills. Then again, I play Orks and I don’t want frills! Let the IG have the frills.

The P.A.C.K. 432: This is my favorite bag due to its size and portability. It has a descent shoulder strap that attaches and is stitched down the sides of the bag for support, kudos. Netting on the side for dice or even a water/drink bottle and various other pouches is a nice touch and seem very useful. The bag looks good and seems more than adequate for small to medium battles. The main pouch fits a couple of codex’s nicely but if I put both my 40k hardbound rulebook and Ork Codex, they are both very snug and I worry if a SM player has to stuff their fat Codex in there with the W40K HB rulebook. As I normally carry my Codex, a thin folder and pocket rule book (which fits perfectly in one of the smaller pouches), the space really isn’t a concern for me.

The P.A.C.K. 1520: This is a monster and I mean that in the best way! This sucker is big and will probably serve (for me anyway) primarily as figure storage and hopefully the occasional Apocalypse battle. The zip attachment on top seemed awkward at first but after I did it once, it was pretty easy to zip on and off thanks to the large toothed zipper. The somewhat weedy looking shoulder straps do their job well enough and I had to remind myself (being ex-military) that these straps are meant to walk from the car to the game room and back, not thirty miles cross country. The handle is essentially the same one as on the 432 and is serviceable. Numerous pouches all over this thing will fit a whole slew of Codex’s or issues of WD or whatever, it would have been nice to see more variety of pouches like on the smaller bag however. The main pouch on the front, easily hold my Codex and WH40K HB Rulebook, so no worries there. None of this detracts from a sturdy bag with lots of space.

All in all, these bags appear high quality and sturdy and I have no doubt they will last. These bags were obviously designed with miniature war gamers in mind and that’s a great thing. Thanks Battlefoam!

This is good news. Now, all I have to do is come up with the money and I am sold.

Great review!

I've been saving for a Sabol Army Transport mk2, but have had my eye on these bags as well. The reviews for their foam have been of the same positive nature which leads me to believe it'll be worth shelling out the extra bucks.

::sigh:: looks like I'll wait until after my birthday to get my bag...

So how is it that you managed to get yours 3 weeks early? Did you pay more than everyone else

I'm lucky enough to be able to chat with Romeo on almost a daily basis (as he and i go to the same shop to play) We've gotten to see this thing from conception when it was just foam that he wanted to do up to creating the bags. Although he is a gamer himself, he left it up to the shop and all the people playing in it to give him his ideas for the bags. These bags are made for gamers by gamers. They're functional and can store a hell of a lot of models. I mean come on....where else can you store 80+ models on one tray.

If you're saving for a large bag...save for the BF bag. It's worth every penny.

Kudos to you Romeo on a great job.

Thanks for the review GoFenris.

I need another bag, and a big un too, as I have recently expanded all my armies and purchased a fantasy Army and am out of space. I have three Sabols and I love them, but I am considering one of these big guys for my Expanded Space Marines as they no longer fit in the biggest Sabol transport.

Thanks again for the report, I am going to really give these some consideration.

Gavin Thorne wrote:Great review!

I've been saving for a Sabol Army Transport mk2, but have had my eye on these bags as well. The reviews for their foam have been of the same positive nature which leads me to believe it'll be worth shelling out the extra bucks.

::sigh:: looks like I'll wait until after my birthday to get my bag...

Thanks! I have a whole slew of great foam too but since that product is already available, I focused on the bags. If you have any questions about either, though, just fire away.

Go Fenris IIRC won the name the bag contest, and therefore has his own bags early.

Good Job.

How is the side loading on the PACK 432? Does it look like there will be any issues with storing the trays on their side rather than on their back?

Did you get pre cut or specialty?

Any chance that you could give us the dimensions of some of the holes like the termi/nob, the bike and scout bike, or other pre cut holes?

disclaimer: Romeo plays in my store and has become a close friend of mine. That being said, his foam and his bags are so superior to anything else out there its not even funny. I cant wait to get my bag probably two in fact. To foda_bett, i have seen both the bike cut outs and the termis and can tell you they fit perfectly. Romeo has literally taken nearly every model in the range and measured it to cut his foam. This weekend i saw a precut for a defiler, and he even custom cut foam for my chaos dragon. Now if he could only cut foam for my two Reavers...... come on Romeo!!

Ozymandias wrote:How is the side loading on the PACK 432? Does it look like there will be any issues with storing the trays on their side rather than on their back?

As a matter of fact I shipped my forces over to my brothers to try the bags out and show them off and I didn't have any issues with the side loading. The foam does fit snug when fully packed so you might need an extra hand to secure the bag so you can slide the top tray out. Other than that my figures were well protected and their were no issues at all.

Foda_Bett wrote:Did you get pre cut or specialty?

Any chance that you could give us the dimensions of some of the holes like the termi/nob, the bike and scout bike, or other pre cut holes?

I got mostly pre-cut as my force is under construction. Everything I have fits in very nice as they already have the stock models pre-set in their computer. I could give dimensions if you want but they have photos on their site (I have two trays 1" deep and 2 " deep with holes just under 1.5" x 2.5" for nobs/termies, 32 in each tray). The standard 72 troop tray is a bit tight for standard Ork boys (in fairness Romeo does mention this on the video) but for gretchin and my nephews Space Marines they fit great! Their is enough variety that I am NOT wanting for space to fit all different shapes and sizes of models.

Oh, I also have a couple of 2" tray of 2x2's for odd sized boyz with 35 holes.

How big is the 1520 compared to the big Sabol bag?

HungryTaz wrote:How big is the 1520 compared to the big Sabol bag?

Well....you can fit maybe 8 across 3 down in the standard Sabo pick and pull foam. In one standard "Space Marine" troop tray, you can fit 80 guys. So the BF tray replaces almost 4 sabo trays in one shot. You'd need like 2 maybe 3 sabo bags to fit what you can in the big back...hell, any bag that you can store two baneblades side by side wins overall.

Those are so very tempting. Right now, I'm carrying all of my books and other assorted gaming stuff in the backpack that came with my Apocalypse book and pie plates, but this sounds like it could carry them and my entire chaos army. (150+ chaos space marines, 250+ assorted mutants, traitors and plague zombies plus a couple of dozen tanks. (On second thought, I might need two!)

I will be buying a 1520 and will do a review on the This Week in Wargaming Podcast after I get it. I will be getting it pre made for my exact army and Im really exited about the way this will work.

Basically I will just call Romeo or and give him a run down of my army list, ( all standard SM units, no wierd conversions ) and I will get a case that exactly fits my models for my army.

If this works the way I expect it to it will be more than worth the extra money to me just to have a case that perfectly fits my army. As I buy new armies I will just call in my order with army list in hand, and by the time I get my pre order in with the models I will have my foam inserts to fit it.

Fortunately I have a job that gives big quarterly bonuses, so the extra money is not an issue for me, but I can see how it might be a little high on the price scale for some.

Great review, i pre-ordered the big bag awhile ago with IG pre-loadouts, can't wait for it to come in.

the 1520 is huge, its at least 3 sabol bags, probably more like 4.5

Most people I know are skeptical about the side loading so it's good to hear that you didn't find it to be a problem.

I was wondering about the outside dimensions of the 1520 vs the Sabol Division case...

thank goodness already spent my 200$ on the dang thing, i'de have to kill if it didn't work.

Well, i sat down and ordered my custom layout last night with romeo. If this doesn't get you hard...then i don't know what will.

I play Witch hunters and all their tank varients are based off the Rhino. SO i told him i want some room for a lot of rhinos to incorporate my exorcists (FW one) my immolators reg. rhinos and the repressors i'm building. So in one tray, we designed so that i will be able to fin 12 rhino's in 1 5 inch tray where else are you going to get a tray that does that man. I can fit my entire sister's army, and my ork army in one bag.

amazing and i can't wait to get mine.

HungryTaz wrote:I was wondering about the outside dimensions of the 1520 vs the Sabol Division case...

Battle P.A.C.K. 1520 = 14" deep x 17" wide x 24" tall (just shy of actually)

Sabol Division Bag = 10" deep x 15" wide x 24" tall

Hope this helps.

Yup! Thanks much! Pretty close in size... I will have to get one of these for my tank company and one for my Nids!

I thought I would give ninety-day follow-up to my review for anyone that maybe interested (whether still on the fence, just now looking at bags or what-have-you)

My force has grown and I have been playing pretty consistently at least once a week (except last week ).

My utilization of the bags has pretty much graduated to the exclusive use of the P.A.C.K 1520 minus the top portion. Running an Ork army, my models tend to be bigger than average so this seems to be my "bag of choice" for most uses. The cavernous loading bay, combination of side pockets and the large front pouch have yet to leave me disappointed when hauling the horde around.

All-in-all the bags are holding up well and (thankfully) show no signs of wear and tear. I always travel to play so the P.A.C.K. 1520 is getting used. Shoulder straps, which I had reservations about (see above), are actually great. The fully loaded bag has heft but nothing too crazy (I have about a 80/20 Plastic/Pewter army).

Overall, I'm really happy with these bags and have no complaints.

That is very good to hear. I'm waiting on my 1520 , and will see how it goes, I already have 3 of the Sabol Divisions and some of the smaller ones so, hopefully I will dig it.

I am ordering the 1520 for my mono Khorne daemon army and I'm very excited about it... It will easily fit an Ultra Forge greater war daemon, two soul grinders, eight blood crushers and over 40 bloodletters. If you have seen pix of my army you'll know that no ordinary case could carry all that. Battle Foam is the shat 4 sho . G

Its great to here that the pack 1520 is working out, im really considering this for my Imperial Guard army (i field way too many tanks for my current case to handle) so its nice to hear some really positive things about battlefoam.

Let me add that I love the SM build for the 1520. I have the 5 drop pod tray, 2 Land radiers, 1 whirlwind, 1 Vindicator, 1 Predator, 6 Rhino/Razorbacks (I build mine w/ removable turrets which sit in extra spaces). 2 Dreads. These are all the standard trays. Nothing fancy.

All of this goes in the bottom of the 1520 w/ room for another 1 inch tray if needed. The top is for the troops/bikes.

Note: if you glue your LR sposons in place at too broad of an angle from the hull you cannot fit them in the trays. You will need a custom cut or loosen and reglue in a more forward (acute) position.