Three years ago, I wrote about a set of bags specially designed to transport board games: the Game Canopy. They’re nice, padded bags with some nifty features, and mine have seen a lot of use over the years. Today, Level3B is launching a new product in the line: the Deep Space bag, designed for your big games. They sent me a sample ahead of the Kickstarter campaign so I could check it out.
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The bag is designed much like the previous, smaller bags and has similar features, but the big difference is, of course, the size of the games you can carry. The original Game Canopy was designed to fit a 12″ square box, which is a fairly common size. Once you get into big box games, however, things aren’t as standardized, but Deep Space is roomy enough to accommodate some of my largest boxes, like Fireball Island and Shadows of Brimstone (though Mechs vs. Minions isn’t going to fit). Update: Mechs vs. Minions actually does fit, though it pushes the edges out just slightly so you need to take that bulging into account when you decide how high to stack on top of it. The interior dimensions are 19″ x 14.5″ for the base, 12.5″ high. I wouldn’t recommend putting a lot of smaller games in it, unless you have at least one larger game to serve as a base.
Among the features that carry over from the previous Game Canopy are the Velcro covering on the handles, exterior pockets and rings on the front and back, and an interior flap that keeps the zipper from making contact with your game boxes. This last feature seems like a small detail, but it’s one of my favorites—I don’t have to worry about scratching up my games or having the zipper catch on something inside, and it’s not something I’ve seen on some of the other game carrying bags I’ve tried. I should also note that the carrying straps go all the way under the bottom of the bag, so the whole bag is supported and the bottom won’t sag when you pick it up.
The Deep Space bag also adds two large pockets inside the front flap. These are made with the thinner interior material, so don’t put anything sharp in there, but they’d be good for some extra boards, bits, or game manuals.
The Deep Space also works with a small hand truck, and the exterior handle can loop over the back of the hand truck (depending on the model you have). That’s a good thing, because if you load up the Deep Space, you’re probably not going to want to haul it around by hand for very long. I haven’t traveled with any of my large games in the past couple weeks, so I actually haven’t been able to put this part to the test myself, but I’ve got a small collapsible dolly that may do the trick.
Currently, I have two of the standard Game Canopy bags—one was a review sample sent before the original Kickstarter, and then I backed the campaign so I could get a second bag (one for each hand, of course!), and they’re my go-to bags for taking a stack of games to game night. I don’t often take my big box games, but when I went to GameStorm this past year, I had to resort to using some big cardboard boxes for the larger games. Now, with the Deep Space, I’ll have another option for transporting those.
Since the Game Canopy was first released, there have been a few other companies producing bags designed for games, so I’ve been able to compare a little. I do like the backpack straps and rubber feet on another brand’s bags, but those don’t have the zipper protector flap. I’ll also note that the Game Canopy bags aren’t cheap, particularly compared to those plastic tubs that a lot of people use for transporting games. But if you schlep your large games around often, the Deep Space can be a nice alternative.
The Deep Space bag is $169 on Kickstarter (with a planned retail price of $199). The Game Canopy and Game Vanguard (the shorter version) are also both available on Kickstarter, at $134 and $99, respectively.
The Kickstarter launched at noon Eastern today, and there will be early bird pricing for the first 24 hours, so if you’re intrigued, be sure to check it out today!
