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Recently there were a couple of threads about BattleFoam (BF) and another company Outrider Hobbies (OH). During one of the threads, Bryan from Outrider made an offer of sending a free tray of his to 20 folks if they would post a review about his product.

Being perpetually looking to save funds in this hobby, I volunteered to take a free tray. This is the comped review.

First off, let me say I have NO connection to either Bryan or anyone else at Outrider, NOR do I have any connection to Romeo or any of his staff at BattleFoam. And, to cover all bases, neither do I know anyone at Sabol Designs (SD).

I come to this review purely as a customer.. I purchased 3 BattleFoam 1" trays at GenCon, have oodles of Sabol 1" trays, and now have one from Outrider thru this offer. I do own many Sabol cases, so I am focusing on the Sabol compatible trays.

I am part of the staff on Bartertown, if you don't know.. and neither BattleFoam, Outrider Hobbies, or Sabol advertises on that site.. so no connection there either.

On to the review!

I got the OH tray today in the mail. It came in a manila envelope, securely taped. It has 40 spots for basic trooper models, each one plugged by a foam rectangle. Came pretty securely, but since bubble mailer was not used, there is a crimp in the bottom of the tray, as you can see in the lower left.



The plugs are clean and smooth, no stray foam whiskers to deal with. The side shot shows the denser foam (almost Craft Board Foam) that makes up the bottom layer.



I did ask my rambunctious 8 year old daughter to turn the OH tray upside down and bang it on the table to see if the cells would pop out. They didn't. Just a slight pressure from my fingers was required to remove them cleanly..



The Battlefoam trays I purchased over the summer have been used, so I grabbed the one used least for the comparison. It only held 8 models..and only along the left side (why this is important will be revealed in a minute)



and it also has a denser foam on the bottom, as seen here.. the foam on this tray is darker than that of OH.



Between the 2 trays, I have to say that the OH tray LOOKS cleaner, but that is due to my use I would imagine. The foam on the OH tray is lighter in color, and a bit less dense. The BF foam "feels" softer, but the cell parts look rougher..

Also, my photos do NOT show this, but the BF tray is about 1/2" wider top to bottom than the other trays.. I think this is for BF's custom army names to go on. Nice, but makes the trays scrunch up in the carry bag.

One thing I noticed on the BF tray, was a couple large globby glue wads in the edge of the tray. I have not actually placed models in that end of the tray, so this kinda caught me off guard when I saw that.





I understand that BF has great customer service and I could and should call them on this,.... I just noticed it today however, and didn't want to point it out RIGHT now..

so.. a direct comparison, you ask for?

Here is the BattleFoam tray sitting on top of the Outrider one. BF has thicker cell walls, and their cells are a hair bigger (like 1/16 of an inch taller).. this also shows the foam composition and color differences too.



So, how sturdy are these trays? Lets put them to the test..

Here is a basic Sabol 1" tray, used by me to hold models, this tray has been used by me for over a year...

Holding it out over the edge of a table, empty, it stays pretty darn flat..



Putting 4 Sisters of Battle (Metal models) on the end, causes it to droop about an inch.. it barely drops lower than the table top.



Here is the BF tray, same situations.. Empty it droops more than the SD tray



and with the same 4 models inside on the end, a LOT more droop happens..



the harder foam base on the tray is not nearly as rigid as SD tray.

and now for the OH 1" tray...

Empty, it droops more than the SD but less than the BF tray



However, with the models inside the end, it was the most startling..



So.. what would my conclusions be..

Based on the 1" troop trays I have reviewed, I would likely want the Outrider trays OR the BF ones. ... but it would be SOLELY dependent on the price. BF has better quality foam, their bottom tray is pretty rigid while being soft for models, and (while there is glue excessively), I am not concerned with the foam coming unglued from the bottom layer. I am also comforted that the BF tray has more padding between cells than the Outrider one.

My older Sabol tray has the best base, but the worst glue, and the least amount of models that can fit. The best I have been able to fit on a Sabol pluck tray is about 32 spots, and these both have that beat.

Outrider has a few things going for it, though. The tray fits better in the Sabol Cases without the 1/2" extra, his foam cells have plugs that don't move, and you can leave in until the cell is needed. The OH tray does NOT have the glue bubble and seems quite well glued in itself.

I am a bit concerned about the floppiness of the bottom of the OH tray, especially with say, an all Sister loadout. I have loaded a BF tray with 40 Sisters, and I really needed to use 2 hands, I was afraid the bottom might rip if I only one-handed it. If I felt that way about a BF tray, I suspect the OH tray would be much more likely to go, as the foam density is less.

So, there you go.. Would I buy more BF trays.. Yep (espcecially if my FLGS can get them in so I don't have to deal with shipping costs).. Would I buy OH trays.. 60-75% yes, but really depends on how much Outrider wants to charge for that, and THEIR shipping costs.... Would I buy more Sabol trays INSTEAD of these for troops? Nope, only if the troops were oddly shaped, like Kroot or Dark Eldar.

Thank you very much, porkuslime. Seems like a nice, honest review and hopefully a fond farewell to all the "foam drama" as of late.

To make the comparison more representative you need to remove all of the foam squares from all of their compartments as I believe they will be giving undue strength to the 'table edge test' to the BF and Sabol trays....

Otherwise thanks for the comparison.

Have you thought of making this an article?

Mod hat on:
I ask the following as the last thread had to be locked.

Please do not derail this thread guys.

This is interesting. If the Outrider trays were half the price of Battlefoam(as I believe I heard mentioned somewhere), I would definitely say yes, as ill fitting trays are a personal gripe of mine.

Nice, impartial presentation porkuslime, to give you your credit.

Now we sit back and await for all the Hired Guns to show up for the OK Corral re-enactment.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:To make the comparison more representative you need to remove all of the foam squares from all of their compartments as I believe they will be giving undue strength to the 'table edge test' to the BF and Sabol trays....

I agree, the blocks of foam would afford greater rigidity and so skew the result.

But thanks for the comparisons, I personally feel there seems little between them all but have certainly liked the appearance of the battlefoam ones I saw with the army name and icon cut into it.

Alrighty, as mentioned, the blocks MAY have skewed the rigidity ... so I did it again this morning...

Here is the OH tray with all the cell blocks removed. I timed myself, and it took less than 60 seconds to remove all.. they really were nice in that regard.. (and afterwards, it took about 3 minutes to put them all back.. the thin walls crumple easily so there was a lot of fiddlyness)



When doing the empty test, there was slightly more drooping.. about a 1/2" more.. hardly noticable. The picture looks like there is, but it is due to the camera angle more than anything else.. plus the cat was curious and I was trying to be quick..



However, when the weight test was done, it easily bent the MOST of any of the other tests.



As you can see, the cells where I was holding it were pulling and stretched. The bottom foam also retained its bend for several minutes and the tray sorta curved until I physically bent it the other direction and put the foam squares back.

So, yes, the foam squares added to the firmness of the tray, and without them, I am less impressed with it.

If anyone else has questions about these trays, go ahead and ask.

-Porkuslime

Wow, that is a significant difference!
So how would you rank them up now overall?

If price were not considered, and we assume they are all the same cost.. as well as all equally available to me in central Ohio..

I would go with BattleFoam. I like the way those trays feel, and the carrying capacity is high. I do not like the glue blobs, but I feel that is a 1-tray issue, not a overall line problem. I will deal with that directly with them at a later point, to not skew the review.

Then, second, I would do the Outrider tray. Once again, contains a lot of models, and the foam is pretty good. I don't think the cell walls can hold up over time, but that will just have to be a "test and see" duration.

Lastly, Sabol, becuase the pluck foam limits how many models I can fit, but it IS more customizable. The other trays can be sliced into bigger cells, carefully, but something like a Dire Avenger Exarch is just NOT going to easily fit there. Sabol was designed to fit exactly that type of difficult model.

Now, Factoring in the Almighty Dollar.

Sabol runs about $8.50 per tray, price is not related to thickness .. and I can get it locally.

BF has a nice deal for 1 Sabol Sized tray for $10, or 5 for $49.. but looks like shipping would add another 10-15 on to that. I cannot get their trays at my local FLGS, I have asked. If I COULD get them locally, these would be my most purchased tray. I also think that BF charges more based on the thickness of the tray, but I may be misinformed.

Outrider sent me a PM outlining his proposed price, which is $12 for up to 2" thick, $14 for thicker. Shipping will cost on top of that.


So.. BattleFoam wins the usefulness award, Sabol wins the cost/availability award..

Very nice porkuslime. A really fantastic review of all three.

I think the Sabol tray is getting some of that extra support from being still half stuffed with foam, just like the OH garnered extra support from the cell blocks. But even then the cell walls are extremely thick.

+++

Mod #2 chiming in:

Do not derail this great thread.

Hey everyone. Just jumping in to say that I am still around, and that I am concerned about feedback. After this review I am definitely talking to my suppliers. I have been using that particular basing material for a while now, and had neither done a test like that, nor heard any complaints, so I assumed everything was ok.

Obviously it is not. I will definitely be changing that and using the remainder of the existing material on just the thicker trays that will have more rigid foam than 1 or 1.5 inch foam.

I also received the OH foam based on the offer of a free tray to try out. Similarly, I am unaffiliated with OH, BF, Sabol, or GW.

I also received the same tray as Porkuslime, and couldn't really do a better job with a review.

I only have Sabol, GW, and OH trays, so can only compare those.

The OH tray is much easier to "prep" for use, as shown by the review. I too noticed the thin walls of the cells. I also preferred the OH and GW ones to the "pick and pluck", as I feel there is always wasted space in that system. It is nice knowing exactly how many I can fit in a tray.

I was concerned about the ability of minis to fit in the cells in the 40 slot tray, but when I put my Bret MAA in there, they fit (spears notwithstanding).

What I want to try is a "crush" test. That is, to put each of the trays beneath a pile of "full" trays, to see how much the walls deform.

I'll report back when I do that, hopefully tonight.

Personally, I'd be shopping primarily on price, as I don't travel with my minis that much, but would use the trays on the shelf stacked (without bags). As long as they're protected there, I'm a happy camper.

*edited for clarity

Crush test would definitely be a helpful bit of knowledge. Photos being the best indicator for everyone of course.

The only consideration I would keep in mind moving forward would be cases add a bit more crush resistance to the trays on the whole by making them unable to bow out too much.

I am going to be opening an online gaming store soon. If I had to pick between these companies, I would pick using foam from the Company who has been around the longest. Either GW or Sabol Designs. I have tons of Sabol cases and plenty of GW cases. As for foam, Sabol started the whole pick and pluck thing back about 8-9 years ago.I saw them at Gen Con when they first started out. As far as I am concerned, everyone else is jumping on their bandwagon. Who cares if a tray sags a few inches or does not hold 100 models on one friggin' sheet. I typed in all the company names on Gooogle and Sabol for sure has the most product out there. Much cheaper to buy from other online companies. I saw their trays for as cheap as 7 bucks.

Thank you guys for the reports, they are very usefull.
Even if I probably will only buy heavy customised foams in the future, this comparison is good to test material quality... Kind of worried with that glue blob... maybe is just a bad batch?

kinggames wrote:I am going to be opening an online gaming store soon. If I had to pick between these companies, I would pick using foam from the Company who has been around the longest. Either GW or Sabol Designs. I have tons of Sabol cases and plenty of GW cases. As for foam, Sabol started the whole pick and pluck thing back about 8-9 years ago.I saw them at Gen Con when they first started out. As far as I am concerned, everyone else is jumping on their bandwagon. Who cares if a tray sags a few inches or does not hold 100 models on one friggin' sheet. I typed in all the company names on Gooogle and Sabol for sure has the most product out there. Much cheaper to buy from other online companies. I saw their trays for as cheap as 7 bucks.

These photos are just a review of overall tray quality. So while it might not truly matter if a tray sags, it's a good comparison to make decisions from. Personal preference is always going to come into play when deciding your where your money goes. But just because a company has been around for a long time doesn't make them 'the best' option for many people. Both of the 'other' companies mentioned here are offering a pretty different product from what Sabol does. And with that I think it's a great third party look at products a LOT of people around the web are looking in to.

Since I have the trays, I have made a crush test photo. There are 14 trays, 6 1 inch, 8 1.5 inch. All are full of Flames of War figures (resin and pewter with VERY little plastic), so there is a lot of weight here. The trays are all mixed around so that it doesn't look like I tried to stack the deck as it were.

Also, as you can tell, most of these are my "ding and dent". No sense in letting a good tray go to waste. And a few of the 1 inch trays have a thicker bottom which was my first basing material, neoprene rubber.

Hello Guys,


I'll leave the drama out of this posts since my legal and personal battle with Mr. Wade and his Outrider Hobbies is being dealt with by legal.

On to the review.

One thing I must point out is that the foam we use for not only our bottoms but also our trays is specially formulated for our business. I know this because we spent many hours discussing how the foam should feel and react to models.

No company out there can match the strength because we have the raw materials built for the best over all look, feel, and performance. Our bottom material is also stronger and more durable because of the design of the basic chemistry in the formula.

All these things have been thought out and researched from day one. That is the main reason we made changes from the original product months ago.

Stress testes, glue hardness, and glue toughness all had a part in the design and manufacturing process.

Our glue is another point that we spent months on. We use industrial grade glues that hold longer and stronger than anyone out there.

Lastly is our guarantee. All of our products come with a full lifetime guarantee on manufacturing defects. Any glue blobs, rips, stains, or anything else you can think of can and will be replaced with no questions asked if defective.

We also provide a full 30 money back guarantee on all products including our bags just in case Battel Foam is not a good fit for you.

Lastly and most important, we provide fully custom work, and hundreds of trays to choose from. We post 30 trays per month on average and have very very exciting news coming next month regarding some new bags, and trays. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Romeo
Battle Foam

I thought Sabol has the patent on these trays?
http://www.google.com/patents?id=32qIAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Without reading the whole patent, it seems to be a patent on the "pick and pluck" and how it is cut. It is not clear to me if the patent also extends to the "foam with a layer of denser foam beneath" or however they describe it.

Lets not start talking patents again and concentrate on the review eh? Good review there, I was amazed at the differences in droppage with the OH ones compared to the BF and sabol ones.

Decent review.

From a retailer point of veiw, my criteria has to also include my ability to sell the product.

Sabol and GW are on top as far as figure cases go. Both readily available, (althoguh Sabol can go out of stock at times, never GW.)
Sabol is a bit more versitile, as I can get 1" to 4" trays, and easily stock them as single items for sale. GW trays are ordered as a set of 3 plus topper from mailorder, and I can't get the tank foam from them, or order the tank cases anymore. We sell about an equal number of the two brands.

I'm currently talking with OH about getting there stuff into my stores. We'll see how that progresses, and hopefully I'll have theirs in stock soon.

BF sells empty bags and some pick and pluck to stores currently, but the bags are not selling, as for the money, customers want the custom foam. In the time since I get in the BF cases, I've sold one, vs. two dozen GW and 17 various Sabol transports, and probably a hundred sabol trays. They indicated they might change that in January. (Which is unfortunately a horrible time to bring in new product.)

So from a retailer point of veiw: GW and Sabol at the top, OH coming online, BF pretty much doesn't can't, as I count get what customers want to buy.

Hi Mikhaila,

I'm sure we have talked in the past if we mentioned the January time frame. I may or may not of told you about our overall plan for retail. As you know we make an elite product at this time with elite trays that serve a very specific perpuse.

For every 10 normal gamers out there that want just any simple army transport you have GW and Sabol. But for the 1 out of 10 guys that treat their hobby as something more we come in. As you now our bags and foam are built to a higher standard or your money back.

The fact is that I have been working with multiple retailers over the past several months and some larger wholesalers. We have a plan already in motion and we plan on releasing information when that plan is completely 100% full proof.

I promise you that you will not be let down with what is in store. All of your vehicle tray needs and the larger foam needs will all be addressed. Along with that multiple products are due to release that will fill the gap between the low end price point and the high end price point.

We plan on taking care of each and every gamer regardless of their budgets so new products will release to do this.

Stay tuned because this will all come into play within the next 3 months or sooner.

Romeo
Battle Foam

You know... I've never had a problem with the GW foam, though it would be nice to have some custom foamy goodness. Thanks for the quick and dirty review (those are always the best kind ). I'm interested to see how Outrider Hobbies will improve their foam, and what the results will be.

Does battle foam have stores outside the US?

Australia needs love to.

Sgt Diablo wrote:Hi Mikhaila,

I'm sure we have talked in the past if we mentioned the January time frame. I may or may not of told you about our overall plan for retail. As you know we make an elite product at this time with elite trays that serve a very specific perpuse.

Romeo
Battle Foam

Yep. We talked. Showcase Comics, btw. I didn't hear the overall plan, just that you were looking at january. Let me know when you get to that point. A couple of months ago when the bags first came out, I offered to put in a prepaid order for 5000.00 in trays and bags. Pretty sure that in January, after the holidays, I'm not going to be quite so anxious to get that much. But give me a yell. Until then, I'll sell other stuff.

I would be interested to hear where KR multicase comes in in this. As far as I know, they make their own trays to fit their card cases, and at £20 for 4 and a case, I've yet to find cheaper.

Ketara wrote:I would be interested to hear where KR multicase comes in in this. As far as I know, they make their own trays to fit their card cases, and at £20 for 4 and a case, I've yet to find cheaper.

And its in Europe and has free shipping.. if only they did customized cuts on the foams. Seems the best option for european atm.

mikhaila wrote:Decent review.

From a retailer point of veiw, my criteria has to also include my ability to sell the product.

Sabol and GW are on top as far as figure cases go. Both readily available, (althoguh Sabol can go out of stock at times, never GW.)
Sabol is a bit more versitile, as I can get 1" to 4" trays, and easily stock them as single items for sale. GW trays are ordered as a set of 3 plus topper from mailorder, and I can't get the tank foam from them, or order the tank cases anymore. We sell about an equal number of the two brands.

I'm currently talking with OH about getting there stuff into my stores. We'll see how that progresses, and hopefully I'll have theirs in stock soon.

BF sells empty bags and some pick and pluck to stores currently, but the bags are not selling, as for the money, customers want the custom foam. In the time since I get in the BF cases, I've sold one, vs. two dozen GW and 17 various Sabol transports, and probably a hundred sabol trays. They indicated they might change that in January. (Which is unfortunately a horrible time to bring in new product.)

So from a retailer point of veiw: GW and Sabol at the top, OH coming online, BF pretty much doesn't can't, as I count get what customers want to buy.

Empire Games in AZ has no problem selling the BF bags. It comes down to you as a retailer and what you use as a carrying case. If your customers see you using Sabol then they will buy Sabol. If they see you use BF they are going to buy BF. It also opens you up for custom tray orders and making more money.

GW for the most part has cases all the time
Sabol has cases/foam for the most part( except for a 3 or 4 month period, this year when they where waiting for their stock from China)
OH does not produce cases but has foam but do not know anything about his stocking policies
BF for the most part always has cases, foam, and allows stores to do custom cuts

I be willing to bet if you owned one and carried paints or your models you would be able to move the proper units.

Cheers

So if he does their advertising for them, he should be able to sell units? My thought would be that if he's making money selling Sabol and GW, that's where he should stick. Why should he go to such extremes to endorse one specific brand that so far, has yet to sell particularly well?

Ketara wrote:So if he does their advertising for them, he should be able to sell units? My thought would be that if he's making money selling Sabol and GW, that's where he should stick. Why should he go to such extremes to endorse one specific brand that so far, has yet to sell particularly well?

Why does any gaming store try to sell new products? Because if they stuck with the same stuff day in and day out, they wouldn't be drawing customers into new purchases. Granted, Sabol and GW cases probably do sell well, but that's only because that's what the customer is familiar with. It's up to the small business owner to get his/her customers to sell new products. They're in sales.