Tabletop Review: Robotech RPG Tactics Battle Foam Bag

Robotech RPG Tactics Battle Foam Bag
Publisher: Palladium Books/Battle Foam
Cost: $120
Release Date: 11/28/2014 (earlier for Kickstarter Backers)
Get it Here: Palladium Books Store

As many of my readers know, I took up miniature painting wholeheartedly this year. The problem is what to do with your figures after you paint them. While I have four cases coming from the Mantis Creations Kickstarter, those will really house my Warhammer armies. What to do with my Robotech RPG Tactics figures – especially since I was a Kickstarter backer and received more than the standard box set? I decided to bite the bullet and order the Robotech RPG Tactics Battle Foam Bag. It’s specifically designed for the Robotech RPG Tactics miniatures and Battle Foam has a terrific reputation. $120 seems like a lot, but if it kept my guys intact and the paint jobs unscathed, it would be well worth it. Plus there were only fifty of the bags left after the Kickstarter so it was either buy it now or never again. Here is a quick pictorial of the bag with some comments. Remember, you can click on each picture for a large, high definition version of the image.

A shot of the front of the bag with my flash on. The outside feels like suitcase/backpack quality fabric and the Robotech RPG Tactics logo is sewn in, not an iron-on patch. The bag is extremely sturdy and I was really impressed by what I saw here.

A shot of the bag’s front without the flash on.

A shot of the bag standing up so you can see the top. The handle is really durable and a high quality plastic polymer, so you don’t have to worry about it breaking when hefting around your miniature collection.

A shot of the back of the bag. Here you can see the Palladium and Harmony Gold logos.

Here we are with the first layer of foam. You can see there that are different shapes and sizes for the various minis to go in. The only down side is that there is no indication what miniatures should go where, so there will be a little trial and error on your part if you get one. A good rule of thumb is see how many you have on one figure in your base set and find a set of openings that correspond to that number. This is probably their spot.

A look at the second layer of foam.

The third layer of foam.

The fourth layer of foam. I had to turn on the flash. It got deep and everything is black so the photo would have been an amorphous blob otherwise.

The fifth and final layer of foam.

So as you can see from all these photos, the bag is really well designed, it’s very sturdy and should hold all of your Robotech RPG Tactics miniatures safely and securely. However…

There is a problem. The foam layers look like the figures will fit, but they’re all slightly off size wise. To illustrate this point, I’ve used the recovery pods I painted for a review last month. As you can see in the photo, neither actually fits properly in their two assigned foam sections. Yes, these are the right ones. No other spot in the five sets of foam are this long. I had to wedge the black Recovery pod in and even then, the arms and long back red bits are pressing through the sides of the foam. I was afraid something was going to break getting it into the spot. What you can’t tell from the picture is that pod is too tall for its slot, so when you close the case, one of the metal fasteners for the case’s handle clunks down and takes paint off from the pod. UGH. The white pod shows how the pod fits when you don’t try to apply any pressure to get the miniature into its foam slot. As you can see, it’s just WAY too long.

A close up of the pods in their foam slots to better highlight how they don’t fit. I’m not sure how Palladium and Battle Foam could have made such a gigantic blunder, but there it is – miniatures that don’t actually fit in a case specifically designed for them. How terrible is that? The good news is that this is a somewhat easy fix. I’ll just have to take an exacto knife or other cutting implement and shear a bit of the foam off from both ends of the slot to help them fit. I could also carve out a little hole for the Pods’ hands to go in and that should alleviate the problem as well. Still, this is pretty terrible that neither company caught this problem, and it’s pretty indicative of all the issues that have plagued Robotech RPG Tactics since the Kickstarter ended. At least I have a place to house my miniatures once I’m done painting and gluing them. I just hate that I’m going to have to carve up the foam interiors, as they were supposedly to be made to fit these guys perfectly. Again, how the hell did no one catch this?

Overall, the Battle Foam Bag has a hefty price tag attached to it, but it is the only thing on the market designed specifically for Robotech RPG Tactics. The foam slots will need a bit of work to make some of the pieces actually fit, as shown in the last two pictures here, but most will go in with no problem. It’s a durable, reliable and easy to store miniatures case. It’s far from perfect, but it should do an excellent job of holding your figures. Just remember to move the top layer down one so your Recovery pod isn’t scraping against the metal bolt holding the handle in.