Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Sneak Peek: GoBox Invincible

Whoa!

Just as the weekend started, Pong Yen at Yellow Mountain Imports (YMI) shared with me photos of their latest Go accessory, GoBox Invincible.

Handle extended.

Some of you might recall that I got a preview and later acquired the original GoBox. It was rather functional but one of the oft-heard criticisms of the original design was that it was unlikely to survive the brutal abuse of airport baggage handling. YMI took those into account with the development of GoBox Invincible.

Bottom view

There was some talk by collectors of using the GoBox to ferry valuable gear from Japan. This new version looks very much suitable for that job.

Deeper design and ...

... looking down. Is that a floor goban inside?

GoBox Invincible will fit a floor goban that is 7cm thick (13cm with legs). As you can see from these photos, it will also fit extra-tall bowls (I recognize those as the rosewood Super-Yunzi bowls), a timer and books.

This is a quantum-leap improvement over the old GoBox and I'm sure that it will appeal to a specific group of players and collectors who greatly prize their equipment. It is expected to retail for $255.

The case is manufactured in the USA by Storm Hardigg and is model iM2875. Storm Hardigg makes some of the best industrial-use cases on the planet. I suspect that no one is going to question their credentials or the robustness of their cases.