There are lots of transport options out there, but frankly, I think they’re rip offs. Let me explain. While most foam trays are priced within the same ballpark, the containers they try to sell you aren’t. Consider KR Multicase as an example. They charge $37.00 for a cardboard box or $144 for something out of metal:

KR isn’t an outlier and I don’t want it to seem like I’m picking on them. All the other companies do it. Even budget option Sabol will set you back $50 for a container you need to fill with foam:

Does $40 for a cardboard box seem like a good deal to you? It doesn’t to me. Nor does spending $150 on an empty aluminum case. For the same money you can buy a nearly indestructible Pelican case with wheels, a handle, and a warranty:

So it’s not that you shouldn’t buy from these companies (I have a few KR foam trays and I satisfied), but there are better valued containers out there. If you want to be thrifty, by foam from them but your container elsewhere. This dumb hobby is expensive and you can use the saved money on things like beer or juice for your kids. That’s why I knew that I needed to come up with my own transport solution- I could afford many beers with the money saved.

If you go down this path, like I did, the first obstacle you’ll run into are proprietary dimensions. That’s right, the foam companies aren’t idiots. The size of their trays aren’t easy to fit into easily available containers (gun cases, tackle boxes, parents basements etc). That means you’ll have a hard time finding containers that efficiently fit several trays. I did a few days of research, comparing all the different foam companies and their sizes to the cheapest containers I could find on Amazon, Ebay, or Craigslist. This is what I settled on:

I decided to go with Blü Foam from PortableWarfare. The foam isn’t actually made by PortableWarfare and you can regularly find it on sale at stores like MinatureMarket. I went with them over KR because the trays are larger and I could fit more models into them. More critically, they would stack perfectly into a container I’d had found. I bought 11 trays on sale for about $90 and spent another $40 on my container- a surplus night vision case from ebay:

It’s perfect for me because it’s small enough to be carried with one hand, taken aboard a plane, or fit on your lap while taking the train… but it costs $100 less than an empty case from insert whatever foam company you prefer and fits 8 large trays- enough for a 2500-3000 point army. Also its practically indestructible, can be locked, has a pressure release, and has a built in handle. Cool! Here’s the finished product showing off all the trays and how they all fit:

The total project cost me about $140 and I saved, easily, double that amount if I’d gotten the equivalent amount of foam in a metal case from somebody like KR/Battlefoam.