Search
Review of e-Raptor Insert Ticket to Ride
Blurb from the publisher: 'The e-Raptor Insert compatible with Ticket to Ride and its expansions is a perfect accessory designed to organize and improve the gameplay of the board game.
Thanks to this insert you can arrange all its components and keep them in order - no more mess on the table while playing. No more looking for necessary elements during the game.
The insert is durable and made of high quality HDF. No glue is required to assemble it.
In addition, the insert has a card holder for each player, and one main card holder.'
What you get: Your EUR 30,50 or equivalent will buy you the e-Raptor Insert Ticket to Ride, an organizer that can accommodate any of the games in the Ticket to Ride game line. By the time of writing this review the line's base game boxes had a size of 295 x 295 x 70 mm.
Upon opening the organizer one is greeted by 4 HDF panels containing 55 laser-cut wooden elements. Five plastic elements are also included. When one finishes with assembly, he ends up with five boxes, all of them sealable, six card holders (five with a length of almost 19 cm, enough to hold 4 Standard USA cards (87 x 56 mm), and one with a length of almost 28,5 cm, adequate for six cards of the same type), as well as one card tray with three compartments. The size of each tray's unit takes into account the size of the cards when sleeved.
In the interest of full disclosure, I used the present tray in the box of Ticket to Ride Europe, including the components of Ticket to Ride: Europa 1912.
The strong points: I feel e-Raptor has made a colossal marketing mistake here: this is not just a Ticket to Ride insert. It is a fantastic basic insert that can be used for hundreds of games, as long as they have the same size as Ticket to Ride's box.
Just look at the finished items. The five boxes are divided into two containers each. The design of their plastic covers is ingenious and relies on simple pressure. No matter how much you shake a box, it will not open unless you press the cover at just the right spot. The boxes' size is good for the components of Ticket to Ride (plus its expansion, in my case), and that would also be the case for any components that would fit in a space of 88 x 65 x 44 mm. In other words, these boxes are 100% versatile when it comes to the games they can support. When it comes to Ticket to Ride, you no longer need to have stacks of material in front of you. Just grab one box when you open the game, place it in front of you, and you can immediately start playing.
The same goes for the card holders. They will work great with every other game that utilizes the Standard USA size or smaller, and doesn't require you to hold a stack in your hands. Idem for the card tray: it might not be able to handle bigger cards, but it easily holds all the cards of Ticket to Ride. In fact, it could easily hold 20% more cards.
All my personal requirements have been met. Sealable boxes mean that you can store either vertically or horizontally without worrying about components falling off. The tray caters for sleeved cards, so no issues there. The cards are easily taken out of each compartment without the risk of getting scratched or bent. If you plan to use this set for a game with the size of Ticket to Ride's box, the finished items leave quite some space for additional components and materials, in case the box holds more exotic stuff.
The inserts of e-Raptor are light years ahead of the competition when it comes to the quality of the laser cutting process and the lack of saw dust, splinters, and any kind of wood residue. It is always a good idea to clean the panels before assembly, yet you might not always need to. All the interlocking components have a lock of sorts in order to be easily assembled and disassembled. In that sense, they require a single clicking motion, not raw power. They also do not grind against their interlocking components. When e-Raptor says that you don't need glue, they don't lie.
Assembly is very easy once you understand what you need to do, and shouldn't take more than 15 minutes. The pieces are sturdy, with zero risk of breaking anything. The card holders are by definition more delicate, a modicum of good sense and gentle pressure however are adequate for assembling everything without issues.
E-Raptor's line of inserts supports more than 60 different games up to now. Even if you don't play Ticket to Ride, you are very likely to find an insert for the games that you play the most.
The weak points: The present insert has the game it supports gunning against it. The first reason is that the original plastic insert that is included in Ticket to Ride is one of the few nowadays to be specifically constructed for the needs of that game. Even if one plays Ticket to Ride day after day, pimping it up is not a necessity. The second reason is that the Ticket to Ride box (in my case, the Ticket to Ride Europe box) is not the most sturdy around. Inserts like these are by definition heavier than the initial plastic insert that the box contained. If you systematically transport your games in order to play, I am not convinced that the game's original box will fare that well with all this additional weight materials inside. Blame it on Days of Wonder, not e-Raptor.
My main concern with this insert is that ultimately it will either scratch the map or it will damage the rulebook. It is not a cohesive, singular insert that fits tightly. It is a collection of boxes, a card tray, and six card holders. The protrusions of the elements of these items are bound, due to time and gravity, to leave imprints on your map, and even scratch it at one place or two. I expected more here, taking into account how well the map was protected in the game's original plastic insert. If anything, the insert should be an improvement all around the board, not just for one thing or two.
This is a luxury item addressed to deep-pocket gamers. It actually costs as much as this game itself. If that sounds expensive to your wallet, it probably is. Incidentally, and in case you didn't figure that out, by using the present product you will have to dispose of the game's original insert or store it elsewhere.
Conclusion: The e-Raptor Insert Ticket to Ride might not be an obvious purchase for a game that protected its components pretty well. However, its whole set up (card holders, boxes, closeable boxes, and card tray) screams for it to be used in other games as well. In that sense, it is by far the most versatile insert that I have encountered up to now.
To find out more about e-Raptor and its Ticket to Ride Insert take a look at http://e-raptor.pl.
Shameless plug: for more gaming news and content (including, for example, pictures of the e-Raptor Insert Ticket to Ride that I am unfortunately not able to upload on RPG.net for the time being), and to better keep track of my reviews, subscribe to my Antonios S facebook and twitter page.
