It has become a small tradition of mine – once a year I step away from the regular monthly Cube4Me storage and sorting updates to mark something special. This time it is the fourth anniversary of the cooperation between Cube4Me and The Boardgames Chronicle! If you would like to see where we stood twelve months ago, you can revisit last year’s third-anniversary post. What began as a small experiment has, four years on, become a genuine part of my hobby engagement – and I could not be happier with where it has gone.
For anyone discovering the project for the first time: together with Marcin we design tailor-made storage and sorting solutions for board games – with a strong focus on wargames – built around quality trays and card holders that make even the most counter-intense titles easy to set up, pack away and, crucially, close the lid on.
The Beginning
From the very start we rested everything on three pillars, and they still guide the work today. First, tailor-made sets designed for specific titles, sorting and storing the components in the best possible way while always allowing the lid to close. Second, the superb Cube4Me trays and card holders – they close tightly and firmly, they are transparent so you can see the contents from top and bottom, and they make optimal use of space with minimal waste, letting you pack in far more. Third, genuinely superb customer service: safe, fast and remarkably affordable worldwide shipping, plus video guides whenever a solution needs a little explanation.
It all started with just three initial ideas – Combat Commander Europe, Empire of the Sun and Atlantic Chase – and the response went beyond anything we had imagined. I wrote about those humble beginnings in more detail last year; here I would rather look at how far things have come since.
The Past Year
A year ago I shared how dramatically the project had moved towards wargames, with 460 wargames sets making up around 74% of the catalogue. That transformation has only continued. Today the split looks like this:
- 620 wargames sets – around 81% of everything on offer
- 78 18XX sets – roughly 10%
- 65 Euro game sets – roughly 9%
In other words, the wargames category alone has grown from 460 to 620 sets in a single year – an increase of 160 – and now accounts for the lion’s share of the whole offering. The conclusion we drew last year still holds, only more strongly: it is the counter-intense games that are in the most dire need of Cube4Me trays, and that is exactly where the catalogue keeps expanding fastest.
With a catalogue this large, finding the right set matters as much as making it. Over the years the navigation has grown to help with exactly that – you can browse the wargames section by publisher or by release year, jump straight to the NEW & Noteworthy listings for recent additions, or explore the Community Tray Solutions. It is a resource I lean on constantly myself when writing about the latest sets.
The Future
Complacency is the enemy of innovation, so the work never really stands still. Alongside the continued evolution of the Counter Storage Trays and the Big Card Holders, the headline new development this year is the Magazine Tray – a dedicated solution for the magazine-format wargames that so many of us collect.
I had the pleasure of helping put it through its paces, sending Marcin three issues of C3i Magazine – one of the best-known names in the hobby – to test. You can read the full write-up of that experiment here. One issue turned out to be so densely packed with maps, rulebooks and paper materials that it needed two trays rather than one, which sparked a useful debate about whether the tray should simply be made deeper. After more testing the answer was no: with 14 other magazine titles already fitting perfectly, a deeper tray would only mean wasted space for most magazines, more shelf room, thicker material and a higher price. As always, it comes down to the right compromise between flexibility, size and practicality – and the current design strikes it well.
Best of all, this is only the beginning for the Magazine Tray – more sets are already lined up, including some prepared together with Mike from Zilla Blitz. It really does feel like the project has found its next big direction.
Thank You
Four years in, the thing I am most grateful for is You – every wargamer who has used a Cube4Me solution and taken the time to send your honest, open and overwhelmingly positive feedback. It means a great deal to both of us, it shapes what we build next, and it is the reason this little experiment is still going strong. Here is to the year ahead – and, as always, to more games on the table with the lid firmly closed 🙂
The Giveaway 🎉🎁🎉
To celebrate this fourth anniversary with you, Marcin and I would once again like to run a small giveaway – just like last year. So how does it work? A couple of simple rules:
- Head over to the Cube4Me page and check which wargames sets already exist.
- Think about 2-3 wargames which do not yet have a set on Cube4Me and which you believe would be worth adding.
- Submit your answers via the CONTACT ME page, so that I can reply to you by email.
- What counts is taking part – it does not matter how many proposals you send or how quickly you respond, you are eligible either way.
- You can submit your answer until the end of Friday, 26 June (whatever timezone you are in).
- On Sunday, 28 June, together with Marcin from Cube4Me, we will draw two winners. The prizes will be two discount coupons worth $40 each, which you can use on their storage solutions.
Good luck!