Saturday 29 September 2012

Feldherr Cases


  
A good collection of bags

Righty-ho, I've had a few people ask me if I planned on doing reviews of carry cases other than the ones I've done for Battlefoam products. Well the answer has always been yes, but I had to find another product I liked the look of, and another product I'd want to put my miniatures in! While at Salute 2012 this year I had a good long look at the Figures In Comfort, KR Multicase and Feldherr stands, stores and products. I didn't buy anything at the time, mainly because I was totally skint, but I did make a few mental notes as to what products looked interesting. I was personally most impressed with the products from Feldherr, and unsurprisingly I guess, it is Feldherr product reviews that are the most requested from you guys, followed rapidly by KR Multicase it has to be said. So as you can see from the picture above I have got myself a few different bag options to review from Feldherr.

I have to offer an apology though to those of you who have repeatedly asked me to review the Feldherr Backpack and Messenger bags. My limited resources wouldn't stretch to snaring those as well, although I guess if these bags serve me well I might look at those options at a later date. The bags I went for are the Maxi, Mini Plus and Mini. I'm obviously not going to review these right away because I want to test them out in everyday gaming situations and use before passing judgement. In fact the first tests are today and involve me carrying stuff around in them while traveling to the Mantic open day! So the reviews are probably a few months away, however, I do want to give you some initial thoughts:

The waxy paper you need to remove before sticking the tray tops to their respective bottoms.

Thought number 1: I was not expecting to have to 'stick' my foam trays together. Perhaps I should have been, but with other companies my foam trays come fully assembled. Feldherr's trays do not. It's no biggy to put them together though as all it takes is to peel some waxy paper off of the already glued bottoms and then stick them onto a foam bottom.

Leaving some of the waxy paper on the trays makes it easier to remove sections.

Thought number 2: The foam trays in the larger Maxi bag do actually deform quite a bit when loaded with miniatures, especially metal mini's like HoMachine or my Hell Dorado stuff. So it'll be interesting to see how this characteristic manifests when putting the bag to use. Also given how bendy the foam is the spacing between cut outs is thicker than Battlefoam trays and actually wastes a fair bit of potentially useful space.

Good job I have steady hands.

Thought number 3: The bags themselves are exceedingly well made. Well they would be, they're German. The stitching is well done, and the lining and all the other details are well realised. However, they do lack the very useful extra pockets of the Battlefoam bags I own.

I had issues with one or two trays where the glue on the bottom had either dried out or wasn't run to the edges.


Thought number 4: They're not as 'features' laden as there Battlefoam counterparts, perhaps I'd go as far as to say the specification isn't as good.  Things like the rubber handles and heavy duty clips on the Battlefoam bags just aren't present on the Feldherr bags. The biggest difference though is the hard inner shell of the Battlefoam bags, the Feldherr bags don't have them. That means their bags don't have the same structural rigidity. There are a few other noticable differences but I'll leave those until I actually review the products properly.

Then it's a case of pulling out the sections you need too.

Thought number 5: They are though a fair bit cheaper than they're Battlefoam counterparts, but not by as much as I initially thought they would be. The question for me will therefore center around whether the slightly lower features / quality is out weighed by the slightly lower price tag the Feldherr bags come with. We'll see I guess.

So those are my initial thoughts having just got these in my hands and had a bit of a play with them. They don't look too bad on initial inspection. Am I happy with them? Yeah, for now, they'll be fine I'm sure for some of my smaller skirmish games that I own and don't actually take out of the house on that regular a basis like Hell Dorado or Freebooter's Fate. Peace out!

15 comments:

  1. I have started looking into miniature storage solutions recently. Ordering like 10 boxes and my own pull and pluck foam. Probably going to cost like 100 but get like 5+ (100 mini) boxes.

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    1. I've been thinking of the same thing similar to the battlefoam system using bankers boxes. I figure if your not traveling with them you can forgo the quality and expense of battlefoam.

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    2. I've actually been informed that the standard Battlefoam trays apparrent;y fit in perfectly to US standard filing cabinets. I haven't tried it myself yet, but given how cheap you can pick those up for off of eBay from office clearance sales it's something I'm really considering, then just dumping what I need in my bags.

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  2. Just to popp my second comment on this beautiful blog.
    Last year on the Spiel in Essen I looked at Battlefoam and Feldherr cases and to be honest it was the foam that made my ind for Feldherr. It is far more soft and thusly protects paintjobs much better. I really found the Battlefoam foam to be quite grinding.
    Of course the stability of the Battlefoam stuff is unrivalled.

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    1. Firstly thanks for saying my Blog is beautiful... I think some people find it eye searing!!! :P

      I honestly haven't found my Battlefoam cases damage my paint jobs at all. Sadly though today my Feldherr Maxi failed a test, it damaged a Dark age Mini I've got, and actually allowed another Anima Tactics mini to slip out of its slot and bent its sword. I'm not ready to write them off but there are some deformation issues witht he Feldherr foam that I'll have to be very aware of with my more delicate miniatures.

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  3. Thank you for a great blog (I really missed you, welcome back)!

    I have some experience of Battlefoam (the Infinity alpha and beta and Malifaux) and I really like some (the Infinity ones are awesome) and rather think the other one is badly designed (the Malifaux bag, that one's just stupid). So in my opinion Battlefoam is kind of a mixed bag, some bags are awesome and some are really not well designed. I also own a few Feldherr cases (Maxi, Mini Plus and Mini) and in my opinion they are great. 2 sizes of foam (half tray and full tray) makes it really easy to pick a good loadout (Battlefoam has a few different foam sizes that always confuse me), and their larger bags are just larger versions of the smaller bags (so your foam for the small bags will fit in the bigger ones). Therefore I consider Feldherr to be a more consistent product (design wize) than Battlefoam.

    Since Dreadball is now up to an almost insane amount of miniatures I'm really thinking about buying a case just for my Dreadball miniatures. And I have to say, I am really hesitant to buy the Battlefoam bag since I don't know the foam layout and I'm not sure I want another Battlefoam bag. At the moment I'm seriously considering buying a Feldherr messenger bag to carry my Dreadball miniatures since I feel like I know exactly what I'm going to get.

    Also, I don't travel that much with my miniatures, but the Battlefoam bags or the foam trays have never damaged my miniatures (paintjob or otherwise). I feel that with the Feldherr cases you need to be a lot more careful while traveling in order to keep your miniatures safe, because both the foam trays and the bags are a lot softer and more "bendy".

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    1. Firstly I agree with you on the Malifaux Battlefoam Bag... well the original one, I haven't seen the newer bigger one. It just wasn't designed with the range in mind in my humble opinion. Especially if you were using scenic base inserts. Ironically it was fine for some of my other small games, but it's certainly not my favourite of my carry case solutions.

      The different types of tray size and bag does sometimes make configuring your bags and buying extra loadouts for your Battlefoam bags a pain in the ass. But I'll be 100% honest here, I'd rather have that choice as it really is the choice in foam that puts Battlefoams products light years ahead of the competition.

      You are right, you need to be far more careful with the Feldherr cases as I discovered yesterday. The Maxi case has allowed damage to occur to two of my miniatures. The Mini and MiniPlus though have performed admirably thus far. Cautious thumbs up for now and it might be that my Freebooter's Fate miniatures find their way into Feldherr Mini's.

      PS. I'm glad to be back.

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  4. Thanks for the review, I'm after a new small case. Love my FiC case and it's lasted well but it's a bit big for some skirmish games. I'll check out feldherr

    I have had a few minis break in my FiC case, suspect there isn't any perfect transport solution if you're taking them out of the house!

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    1. Phyllion, this isn't a full review. Just my initial impressions. I used to use FiC cases years and years ago, and I thought they were a miracle of design back then. They're still way better than the GW hardcase options... but they've been left behind by the likes of Battlefoam, Feldherr and KR Multicase from what I can see. Also I've heard some good things off of our North American cousins with regards to Sabol Designs and Portable Warfare. Sadly I've not seen their products.

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  5. I love the smaller bags of Feldherr (I own 1 Mini & 2 MiniPlus); they are compact, sturdy and have the perfect size to carry around a single skirmish force (what I mainly do when I go over for a friendly match, or for a painting session). I also prefer to have slightly bigger spacing for added protection, and like that the foam is so soft. The stitching is superbe. These bags will simply last forever.

    Cannot say anything about the problems with the bigger boxes, but given the softness of the foam, I think bending could be a real issue.

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    1. Yep. The Maxi has so far not performed very well at all. I'll reserve my full judgement until I've tested it out properly. So far the Mini and MiniPlus have done a good job. I still think if the foam were a better quality then they'd have been able to have thinner wall like the Battlefoam bags and fit more minis in.

      In fact it'd be interesting to do a cost per-miniature carried comparison. Plus the Battlefoam custom cut shapes are unbeatable currently on the market place for protection. I've triad a fair few solutions over the years, but nothing comes close to those trays. The fact they don't deform under some serious weight is also a huge plus for transporting miniatures.

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  6. Great, I'm looking forward to your reviews. I was always going to buy some Feldherr stuff, but the points you just raised made me re-evaluate some purchases

    1) I was going to buy a Mini Plus for small skirmish games, like Freebooter's Fate, Bushido, ... That hasn't changed, I still think it looks perfect for that.
    2) I was going to buy a Medium or Maxi for larger games like Dark Age, Helldorado, Heavy Gear Blitz, ... Considering all these use metal miniatures, this one is going on hold untill I can read your thoughts on the foam etc.
    3) I was going to use both a Maxi and a Mini Plus bag to transport a large gw-style army of plastic miniatures, but I'll take a closer look how much more a comparable Battlefoam bag costs.

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    1. The miniPlus seems to be emerging from my initial tests as a bit of a star actually A_G. If you were say carrying around a Freebooter's Fate or Malifaux gang I think bang for buck I'd say it's a damn fine deal. Damn Fine!!!

      I am however a bit disappointed in the Maxi's performance yesterday. Although I have to say it didn't surprise me. You see whereas Battlefoam have gone for a more rigid, and thus more protective shell in their bags, Feldherr have not. Their bags are soft walled. Battlefoam also have trays that retain their shape and thus they fill their bags to the brim, but never over the brim, because they know their trays won't deform during transport and allow minis to slip the net. Feldherr's solution seems to be to cram just a bit too much foam into their bags and hope the fact the trays then become squished together stops any bad shit from happening. I believe this squishing is what caused the bad shit in the first place.

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    2. Interesting. And thanks for the heads up on the Maxi bag. I can see what you mean about Feldherr's solution and I must say I'm not a fan.

      I'll admit, I love the Battlefoam uhm.. foam :p I love their branded bags as well, but for some reason their PACKs don't appeal to me. I love the fact I can get a standard loadout with their branded bags and be sure I have my bases pretty much covered. With the PACK it's either all pluck foam or all custom. I'm being irrational about that I know, but it bugs me. Still, chances are good I'll go Battlefoam eventually. Especially if your first impressions don't change significantly.

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    3. I have a PACK 720, with a number of different tray options and honestly I think it's a really good bag. A bit to big for some of the games I play but it holds a hell of a lot of stuff. The new Black Label hard cases look interesting, but I don't normally like hard cases. They have a tendency to explode open on impact.

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