A-Case Carrier Backpack Figure Case Review

Last Updated on March 8, 2023 by Jordan

Table of Contents show

Are you the kind of hobbyist who can’t resist supergluing magnets onto the bottom of your miniature’s bases? Do you live for that satisfying “tok” sound as a magnetised model sticks on to a magnetic surface? Well, have we got a treat for you today. Find out more in our A-Case Carrier Backpack Figure Case review.

Please Note: This site uses affiliate links. Our Affiliate Partners are shown below
(Affiliate links will result in compensation to the site on qualifying purchases)

Click this link & buy your hobby stuff from Element Games for the UK & Europe to support FauxHammer.com – Use Code “FAUX2768” at the checkout for double reward points.

Artus-Opus-FauxHammer-Starter-Set-Banner-3

Our Affiliates / Hobby Stores

UK: Element Games, The Outpost, Wayland Games, Mighty Lancer, Goblin Gaming, Forbidden Planet, Model Scenery Supplies, eBay, Amazon
US/Canada: MTechCave, GameKastle, eBay (US), eBay (CA), Amazon

Germany: Taschengelddieb
Europe: eBay (DE), eBay (FR), eBay (ES), eBay (IT), Amazon
Australia: eBay, Amazon

Global: RedGrass Games, Warcolours

3D Printers: Phrozen 3D, Elegoo, Anycubic

FauxHammer – Latest Video on YouTube

A-Case Carrier Backpack Figure Case Review – Summary

The A-Case Carrier is a luxury product. This is a figure case made by people who take their miniatures very seriously for people who take their miniatures very seriously. As such, it comes with a price tag that will leave many casual, amateur, and intermediate hobbyists wincing. However, if the owner of a beautifully painted army and have places to go with it, the A-Case Carrier may well be your best transportation option. Not only is it slimline and lightweight, it’s also very protective and extremely comfortable to carry.

A-Case Carrier Backpack Figure Case Review – Introduction

You might remember magnetic fanatics A-Case from our A-Case Painting Handle for Miniatures Review which we released at the end of last year. This fun little painting handle was designed to be used by painters and hobbyists who prefer magnetising their miniatures. For the unaware, “magnetising” is when hobbyists assemble parts of their miniatures with magnets. This can be as simple as attaching a magnet to the base of the figure to keep it secure in storage, or magnetising individual parts of a model to allow for them to be swapped around – for example, you might magnetise your Adeptus Titanicus models’ weapons so you can swap them out between games, giving you a more true representation of the hardware your units are toting for their battle.

Well, in a far-from-shocking reveal that will surprise absolutely no one, A-Case also make (wait for it) cases.

A-Case pride themselves on providing serious kit for serious hobbyists. Their products are of the highest quality and have a price tag to match. They aren’t for the casual collectors, no: A-Case’s products are meant for people who love miniatures games and are willing to invest a great deal of time, money, and love in their collections. Their products are designed to keep your miniatures safe and secure – whilst also looking seriously swish.

We’ve reviewed a few storage cases here at FauxHammer.com now. First we had Tabletop Tyrant’s Dreadnought Backpack Figure Case, then Battle Foam’s P.A.C.K. 352 Figure Case and Magna Rack, and more recently the Feldherr General 370 Figure Case. We’ve been blown away by the quality of all of these so far: each case has been of the highest quality, but all offering something slightly different to the mix. So, where will A-Case fit into the picture?

We’re very grateful to A-Case for sending us an A-Case Carrier to review.

A-Case Carrier Backpack Figure Case Review – The Case

A-Case have sent us a fabulous A-Case Carrier to review. This is one of their most recent developments: a flight-legal case that can be taken onto an aircraft as hand luggage.

And yeah, we’d be lying if we didn’t say this case looks pretty cool.

The case has a smart, business-like design. There’s a handle on top, as well as two backpack straps on the rear of the case so you can carry the case over your shoulders. Here are the dimensions:

Height: 44 cm

Width: 27cm (without pockets)
Depth: 17cm(without pocket)

With a Velcro pocket on the front large enough for a book or two and deep, spacious pockets on either side, whilst this bag might not be massive to look at, there’s certainly plenty of space across it. That it is fairly slender too also means that it’ll sit easily on your back, and you won’t need to have shoulders like boulders in order to be able to carry the thing.

The case is also water resistant, and the metal frame and sliding shelves (pictured below) offer a good degree of protection for whatever is stored within.

The metal frame (which is made from a lightweight aluminium) is powder-coated and held in place with pins. We’ll have a closer look at these in a minute. There are spaces for up to 9 shelves (though unless your minis are absolutely tiny, you’ll likely only want 3 or 4 in place at any one time), all of which are held in place with a pin and an elastic band – again, more in this in a moment.

It is a singularly sleek and stylish bit of equipment and weighs around 2.5kgs with just the frame inside it, so there’s a definite heft to it, but it’s not impossibly heavy nor is it bulky.

We’re off to a good start, then!

A-Case Carrier Backpack Figure Case Review – Testing

In order to see just how good the A-Case Carrier is, we’re going to have a go at seeing what it’s like to be used. First, we’ll put it together and see how easy this is to do. Then, we’ll stack it full of as many miniatures as we can. Finally, we’ll go somewhere with it to get a sense of how easy it is to carry around.

Testing – Assembly

As you might suspect, A-Case’s Carrier Backpack does come with some assembly required. The magnetic frame that fills the case is not provided in one piece, so it’s up to you to get it all set up.

Here’s how it arrives:

Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with any instructions.

A thorough search of both the bag as well as A-Case’s site (and an email to our contact there) confirmed this. The A-Case Carrier’s frame does not come with any kind of assembly guide beyond this video on YouTube (which I only found out about after I’d assembled the thing myself), which appears to miss out a step – but we’ll get to that in a moment.

Surely that doesn’t matter, right? I mean, how hard can it be?

There aren’t too many components required to build the A-Case Carrier’s frame. In the image above, the large plate in the bottom left quadrant of the image is the back plate. The two ladder-like sections above it are the left- and right-hand sides of the frame. The solid black panels are shelves, the panels with cutaways in them are the top and bottom of the frame, and the two zip-lock baggies contain superglue and magnets in one and locking pins and elastic bands in the other.

The frame itself wasn’t too difficult to assemble. It’s just a case of pushing the parts that fit together into the correct slots and securing them with the longer of the two types of pins. Now, the insertion of these longer pins to hold the frame together isn’t mentioned in A-Case’s YouTube video. According to a comment, this is an optional step, but when I was building the frame I couldn’t get the parts to reliably stay together without these longer pins. You can just about make out these pins at the top and bottom of the frame in the image below.

Setting up the shelves, however, might be a little bit fiddly.

Initially, I was confused as to why there were the elastic bands in the case – but trying to secure the shelves with the small pins alone told me something was up as the shelves weren’t all that secure. A serious amount of scouring A-Case’s website later, I noticed in this image that the pins were attached to the shelves via the elastic bands, as per the images below. This step is covered in detail A-Case’s YouTube video – but as I said, I only discovered the video after building my frame!

You might need someone with smaller, dainty fingers on hand in order to get these elastic bands in place as the parts are quite small, but one they’re attached and slotted in, the shelves are nice and secure – you may even have one or two left over depending on the assembly you went with and the options you bought. All you need to do to remove them is pull out the pins and slide the shelves out.

I had a little more difficulty with the top and bottom plate. The pins that hold these together aren’t secured with elastic bands and are designed to be held in place by the overall weight of the frame and the exerted pressure once all the pins and shelves are in. However, as I was moving the frame around to insert it into the bag, fill it with miniatures, and so-on, I kept noticing a pin missing. It was never the same pin, but without the walls of the bag to hold the pins in place, they do try and slip out – so be aware.

With the frame assembled and in-situ, it was time to move onto the next bit of the test.

Testing – Filling and Storing

Across the reviews that we’ve done of cases, we’ve tried to keep testing conditions as fair and uniform as possible. We’ve limited ourselves to trying to store one of two armies (either a 2,000 points army of Ironjawz or a pretty random collection of Dark Angels miniatures).

Because the Dark Angels are already magnetised from a previous review (and the Ironjawz happen to be indisposed in another part of the country at the time of writing), we decided it’d be best to use them again. Whilst my Dark Angels collection has grown recently, in order to keep things fair we decided to use only the same models that we’ve used previously.

As a result, here’s what I’m going to be trying to fill the A-Case Carrier with.

1 x Chapter Master Lazarus

1 x Terminator Chaplain Tarentus
1 x Primaris Captain (Imperium Exclusive)
1 x Heavy Intercessor Space Marine Captain (Pariah Nexus)

1 x Bladeguard Ancient (Indomitus)
1 x Primaris Chaplain (Indomitus)
1 x Space Marine Captain in Terminator Armour

1 x Primaris Librarian in Phobos Armour
3 x Primaris Eradicators (Indomitus)
3 x Primaris Aggressors (Imperium)

5 x Space Marine Heavy Intercessors (Pariah Nexus)
2 x Primaris Lieutenant
2 x Primaris Captain

3 x Bladeguard Veterans (Indomitus)
3 x Bladeguard Veterans
15 x Primaris Assault Intercessors

10 x Space Marines
6 x Primaris Outriders
1 x Venerable Dreadnought

1 x Primaris Redemptor Dreadnought

This is not an organised nor a coherent army of any kind. This the sum-total of a Warhammer 40,000 Command Edition starter set, Indomitus, a few individual purchases, and a chunk of an Imperium subscription. It’s a fairly random assortment of different sized and shaped models that could potentially fill up quite a lot of space.

How will the A-Case Carrier cope?

What Fits?

Well, first off, if you end up with any leftover shelves, like I did, you can store these very comfortably in one of the two side pockets on the A-Case Carrier. There’s still plenty of room in the pocket, so you’ll be able to fit whatever else it is you need in there as well.

As for fitting miniatures into the case itself, all things considered, this went pretty well.

“What about all the space at the bottom?” I hear you cry. Well, the top and bottom of the case, like the sides and back panel, aren’t magnetic, so whilst you can store things in the bottom of the frame, it won’t be secured and might rattle around.

So, after I’d taken the above image and written the majority of this review, I realised I could very easily fit one of the two models that I’d left out in the image above simply by moving the shelf at the bottom down a slot to create some more vertical distance between that shelf and the one immediately above. Given that there was room to do so at the bottom of the A-Case Carrier’s frame, I was able to fit in the Primaris Ancient too.

Which meant there was only one Dark Angels models left out. As if the image enough wasn’t enough of a clue, I bet you can’t guess which one it is.

What’s more, the frame survived a completely unintentional stress test when I knocked the thing over by accident (though my soul almost didn’t as I watched the thing fall over and listened to the reverberating clang of it smacking into my floor). A few of the miniatures became unattached from their shelves, but I can confirm that nothing was damaged. Points in the Carrier’s favour there.

What Doesn’t Fit?

Surprising literally no one, it was this big boy. Again.

Now, this isn’t to say that this Big Geen Chungus Machine wouldn’t fit in the case. If there was less of everything else stacked in there already, I’d be able to fit him in without too much trouble. He would, however, take up just shy of half of one of the shelves thanks to his huge base.

The point I’m ultimately circling here is that you will be able to fit your army into an A-Case Carrier Backpack providing your army is of a relatively standard size. Because I’ve collected my Dark Angels following the Rule of Cool, I’ve got all sorts of weird and wonderful models in my collection that have sort of just been piled in.

The lesson here is to consider the size of your army very carefully when looking to buy a case. Read up on the dimensions, look for examples, and seriously consider whether or not your collection is likely to grow and, if so, where you’re going to keep any new models.

Testing – Going Walkabout

The final test we subjected the A-Case Carrier (and, by extension, my Dark Angels) to was the Walkabout Test. Designed to see how easy the case is to transport, for this stage of the test I simply take the bag for a walk and see how cumbersome it is.

And I can safely say the A-Case Carrier aced this.

The A-Case Carrier is lightweight and quite slimline, so it fits very comfortably over your shoulders and doesn’t feel at all heavy on your back. It doesn’t apply any pressure to your shoulders or neck, and is very comfortable to wear.

It feels like wearing a very comfortable rucksack. It doesn’t get in the way at all. The best rucksack I’ve ever owned was a £80ish Swiss Gear backpack that’s lasted me close to 12 years now. The A-Case Carrier is easily just as comfortable – if not moreso.

However, as seems to be the case with this review, things didn’t go quite to plan. Whilst the frame had previously been subject to a surprise, shall we say, impact test when I knocked it over, the A-Case Carrier was then subject to a further surprise test mid-walk. Halfway through my jaunt, I received a phone call: there was a DPD driver ten minutes away, delivering something my partner had bought. I had to get home – and quick.

I’m not a good runner, but let me tell you, dear reader, I ran.

What’s more, not only did I beat the DPD delivery driver, when I got home and opened up the bag, not a single one of my miniatures had moved!

A-Case’s Carrier Backpack aces this part of our testing. It is without doubt the most comfortable and easiest case to carry that we’ve reviewed to date.

A-Case Carrier Backpack Figure Case Review – Price and Availability

As we’ve hinted at several points throughout this review, A-Case’s Carrier Backpack is a high-quality bit of kit made by serious wargamers for serious wargamers. It’s designed to be a luxury product of the utmost quality. As such, it does have quite a price attached to it.

The A-Case Carrier Backpack will set buyers back £226.60. This is a little bit more expensive than some similar items we’ve looked at, but not by a massive margin. For comparison, the Feldherr General 370 Figure Case clocks in at about £190 and Battle Foam – P.A.C.K. 352 Figure Case and Magna Rack cost £200 – without factoring in shipping costs.

The biggest thing that the A-Case Carrier has going for it is that it can be worn as a backpack – and a not-too-huge backpack at that. It’s very wearable and very easy to carry, which is something that other cases we’ve looked at occasionally sacrifice in order to prioritise overall size and safety of contents. Whilst I love the Tabletop Tyrant – Dreadnought Backpack Figure Case and is it significant cheaper than the A-Case Carrier, it is absolutely humongous – so much so that some people would find it extremely difficult, perhaps even impossible, to carry around.

However, to soften the blow, A-Case do offer free international shipping on all of their orders.

A-Case Carrier Backpack Figure Case Review – Final Thoughts

Pros	Cons
Looks great Lightweight Lots of storage space within Can be carried or worn as a backpack	Expensive No assembly instructions for the frame included, accompanying YouTube video seems to miss a step

A-Case make seriously good figure cases. Like, really good. The thought, care, and attention that has gone into the design of the Carrier – as well as the application of customer feedback (that’s right: the Carrier is the result of responses from A-Case customers!) – really shines through. It is a passion project, that much is clear, and the clientele that this product is aimed at will be overjoyed with the results. In terms of ease of transportation, A-Case takes the win over any of the other products we’ve looked at here at FauxHammer.com. It is by far the easiest and most comfortable case to carry around with you.

But there’s no hiding from the fact that A-Case isn’t for everyone. A-Case make products for serious wargamers who take their hobby to the next level and then some. Take, for example, the fact that the A-Case Carrier Backpack is completely flight-legal. If this is something you need from a miniatures case, you are dead serious about your hobby.

A flight-legal case means that you can travel internationally with your army. If you’re travelling this far with your figures, and investing the associated amount of time and money into your hobby, then the likelihood is you’ve invested an even greater amount of time and cash in getting your figures into a coherent, devastating army that can compete at an international level. They’re also likely beautifully painted – either by you, or by a commission service that you’ve also paid a fair whack of cash for.

As such, if you’re a super-serious hobbyist or wargamer who travels a lot with their armies – either for wargaming tournaments or painting competitions – this case is just what you’re looking for. Slimline, lightweight, easy-to-carry and stylish to boot, A-Case knock it out of the park with this one.

★★★★★