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Hi folks!

I thought I would write a review for the X-Board Travel Display. I won one of these as part of my prize package at a GT I attended, and got it painted, flocked and in use.

BLUF: Brilliant Idea, Poor Execution

The X-Board is a brilliant idea. Display boards are typically foam (sometimes wood) that get painted/flocked - the foam variety (which seem to be the majority of the display boards in use by people) take damage over time; the foam gets dented, paint cracks and starts flaking, and it doesn't travel well. The X-Board is multi-part plastic that packs away into a small carrying case. When you arrive at an event, you take it out, assemble it, and have a nicely sized display board - I play Dark Eldar and Orks and it can hold either of my 2500 point armies.

It won't ever win a golden daemon for modeling, but it will net you that 2-3 point buffer that requires a display board in RTTs and GTs.

If its too good to be true...
The X-Board has a single, glaring weakness: Its carrying case. This seems to be a recurring theme with Battlefoam. The Pack 1520 is a brilliant idea (I have one custom built for my Dark Eldar and a second one on the way soon), but it doesn't have a shoulder strap. This gigantic carrying case has backpack straps, and it will project 36" over your head (making entering buildings difficult) and a handle...but no shoulder strap.

The X-Board carrying case has NO handles, no straps...and that's problem number #1. If you're like me when you go to a tournament, you have your army transport in one hand (for me that's the PACK 1520) and the other hand has your codex, dice box, drinks, snacks, etc. The X-Board is light enough that you could carry it by a handle in addition to other stuff, but large and awkward enough that it requires a dedicated ARM to carry. You have to wrap your arm around it to carry it because there's nowhere to get a handhold.

Battlefoam is famous for two things: Custom cutouts for your models that make an efficient use of space, and solid, reliable cases to put those models into. The case for the display board is painfully lacking the latter. The case (bag really) is made out of some type of light canvas material. It isn't precisely coarse, but it definitely isn't smooth, meaning that the definitive pointy corners of the display board catch as you try putting it into the case...and because the case is made from light material with no reinforced sides or inserts, it tears easily. My bag has two holes in it already, and I promise I've been careful.

Probably worst of all, imagine sliding 24" of painted, flocked display board along a rough canvas surface. No matter how carefully you do it, the flock will come off, and since there's no reinforced inserts or structural integrity, the flocking comes off, especially around the edges of the two segments of the board. Mine got dry bushed brown, glued, covered in sand and rock with some rubble, then glued again, and got four HEAVY coats of clear-coat over two days. Putting my beautiful display board into this junky case makes me wince, but I don't have a better means of carrying it around.

Things Battlefoam should do to make this product awesome:

1. Change the material they make the carrying case with. Use the stuff that covers the inside of the battlefoam bags. Its sturdy, smooth, and nudging it with the corner of a display board won't rip it.

2. Structural Integrity: People pack their painted and flocked models into foam to protect them. They spend $90-$150 for carrying cases to make sure they're protected. They don't toss them into a canvas sack and lug their models around rubbing on the sack and removing all the paint and flock. The inside of the carrying case needs shelves. However the do it, the end result should be that you slide each half of the display board into the carrying case where it sits snug against sides/edges and doesn't have room to move around, rub on stuff, or get ruined.

3. Handle! This thing is large enough that it definitely needs a hand-hold. Trying to carry this in addition to an army is...REALLY awkward. At a FLGS, going back out to the car is easy enough. At a GT, when you're parked in a parking lot outside a convention center, or in a mall parking lot for a store inside....that doesn't work.

Recommendation:

If you plan on buying an X-Board, find a different way to carry it than the supplied case. Your best bet is to assemble it and transport it like that to prevent damage to the board and having to build your own carrying case....but at that point, the benefit of having a compact board that breaks down is lost.

Mine was free, so I can't complain, but until the case is fixed - this probably isn't a good buy.

That's for the review, I've been eyeballing this thing for a while.

And I hear you on the 1520. It's awkward to carry without a shoulder strap, but I most often break the cases down and carry them individually.

I've been waiting to get this item since Adepticon. I planned on getting 2 of them.

I, too wondered how it would handle transportation in that bag. I will look it over completely this next week at Origins.

Terminus wrote:That's for the review, I've been eyeballing this thing for a while.

And I hear you on the 1520. It's awkward to carry without a shoulder strap, but I most often break the cases down and carry them individually.

What do you break down? the actual case? or do you carry the foam in a separate something? Ours doesn't break down so I am wondering.

the top half unzips from the bottom half... makes everything easier to carry.

Honersstodnt wrote:the top half unzips from the bottom half... makes everything easier to carry.

Feh. We've had that thing for months and I thought Dash said it didn't unzip. I must've misunderstood.

^noob

Thanks for the review. I too have been eyeballing it and with your review will hold off on buying one for now. Keeping an eye on their site as they say they are constantly looking to improve their product by listening to their customers. We'll see if they are and make some changes.

Buy one of these...

http://www.amazon.com/Magna-Cart-Ideal-Hand-Truck/dp/B001HBH1BM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1277127488&sr=8-5

That doesn't change that it is stored in a gakky little canvas bag. Hell, if carrying it was the only issue, I could take it to a tailor and they'd machine-sew some handles on it for like $10.

Hi Dashofpepper,

Thank you for the review. Its always good to see people do reviews on your products because it gives you an understanding of the hard work you put into the design. After all, companies can't grow without the direction of its customers.

Now to address some of your issues. First off I have to admit that the carrying case is ment more for price then function. Understanding that we wanted to keep the overall cost of the X-Board down required we cut some corners on the product. No company would ever say that to their customers but I do not lie to you guys and I never will.

I can't have you trust Battle Foam with hundereds of dollars of you hard earned money if I loose face with you guys. So again, corners had to be cut to make the X-Board an item under $80.00. Plastic injection molding is a very expensive venture to get into. There are thousands of dollars in equipment costs that have to be spent just to make one mold.

The rumors that you hear from GW on mold costs are extremely high so that makes a product difficult to keep low in cost. Back to the point. We wanted the X-Board itself to be top notch. We used very expensive plastic to make sure the board was strong and would last. In doing this we had our hand forced when it came to pricing. This meant that we needed to take the costs out of something.

Nowing it could not be the build of the X-Board as a whole we decided to use a thinner material to make the bag. I can tell you from my experience from texting it and taking it to different events that very few problems have come up for us. 90% of the people that have picked up the X-Board have also been extremely happy. That does not mean that you do not have a valid point. I think I actually point out that you are correct on this matter.

Now how do we make things better. Dashofpepper I hate you for making me drop hints on future releases. So here goes you big jerk. (Just kidding )

P.s. this also solves the problem with the 1520 shoulder straps. Coming out in August is a new product form us. Without giving away the farm I will tell you this much. 1, it will have a place for your X-Board to be kept nice and neat without the worry of damage. 2, the shoulder strap fridge over your head issue will no longer be a problem.

Now that is all I can say and I can promise you that you will love this new bag. I'll also give you one more hint. If your local game store carries Battle Foam right now they should have gotten a new wall or window poster from our sales department. Take a close look at the bag in that picture. That should take care of all these problems.

Hope this helps.

Romeo
Battle Foam
Protecting Your Army

Sgt Diablo wrote:\this also solves the problem with the 1520 shoulder straps. Coming out in August is a new product form us. Without giving away the farm I will tell you this much. 1, it will have a place for your X-Board to be kept nice and neat without the worry of damage. 2, the shoulder strap fridge over your head issue will no longer be a problem.

Now that is all I can say and I can promise you that you will love this new bag. I'll also give you one more hint. If your local game store carries Battle Foam right now they should have gotten a new wall or window poster from our sales department. Take a close look at the bag in that picture. That should take care of all these problems.

Hope this helps.

Romeo
Battle Foam
Protecting Your Army

Oooh, I want it rite nao! When's the pre-order page going up?

I've got a custom built PACK 1520 for my Dark Eldar. I called to order another bag+foam and everything, but held off because of the hopeful revision to a more carrying friendly PACK 1520. Then my orks can be transported in style too.

Totally agree with you guys. The pre orders will go up July 1st and will last for 6 weeks. Keep an eye on the site very shortly for a video and more info.

Thanks

Romeo
Battle Foam
Protecting Your Army

Dashofpepper wrote:I've got a custom built PACK 1520 for my Dark Eldar. I called to order another bag+foam and everything, but held off because of the hopeful revision to a more carrying friendly PACK 1520. Then my orks can be transported in style too.

MY orks...

My bad. Then my WIFE'S orks can be transported in style.

Lord knows we don't want anything happening to the Nobmobile.

AAAARRRGGGHHHH! I just ordered an old P.A.C.K. 1520. Had I known a new version was coming out......I may have put off on the order. DOUBLE AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

P.S. I told you they monitor their fans and listen for improvements. I'm extrmely impressed with how fast Romeo got on here and addressed this.

Artsoldier35 wrote:AAAARRRGGGHHHH! I just ordered an old P.A.C.K. 1520. Had I known a new version was coming out......I may have put off on the order. DOUBLE AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

P.S. I told you they monitor their fans and listen for improvements. I'm extrmely impressed with how fast Romeo got on here and addressed this.

That may be because I e-mailed him a link to this and told him that I wrote a review of the Display Board.

Aaahhh... that would explain it. hehe.

I swear sometimes I think Battlefoam makes things to make me wait to spend money on them.

Glad to hear about the shoulder strap fix! That and getting the last few dollars for my 1520 nid case, as well as the custom cutouts for my stuff is all that's holding me back from ordering. On the latter, it's a mix of me being lazy... and a guy who needs to finish fixing my models that I gave him. :/

Anyway, looking forward to the 1st now!

Sgt Diablo wrote:P.s. this also solves the problem with the 1520 shoulder straps. Coming out in August is a new product form us. Without giving away the farm I will tell you this much. 1, it will have a place for your X-Board to be kept nice and neat without the worry of damage. 2, the shoulder strap fridge over your head issue will no longer be a problem.

You do this, and I'm giving my boy my Sable cases and moving to Battlefoam officially!