That $80 deluxe insert for Terraforming Mars that made setup worse

Bought this fancy wooden organizer off Etsy for 80 bucks. Figured it would speed things up. Nope. The thing has these tiny compartments that barely fit the player cubes and the card holders are so tight you have to wedge cards in. Spent 15 minutes just loading it the first time. My friend just tossed everything in ziploc bags and we were playing in 5. Anyone else get burned by an overpriced insert that actually slowed things down?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_christopher1mo agoMost Upvoted

Bet the $80 version came with a tiny sanding kit to loosen things up. @the_paul must have gotten the deluxe deluxe version that actually works out of the box.

juliarodriguez1mo ago

Ugh that is SO frustrating. @the_paul, I sort of see where you're coming from with the one-time setup pain, but 80 bucks for something that needs broken in like a cheap pair of boots? No thanks. I got a similar insert for like 40 bucks and it still takes me a minute to wiggle those milestone and award tiles into the slots every time. Feels like you're paying more for the LOOK of organization than actual speed.

the_paul1mo agoOG Member

Gotta disagree with you here. I grabbed the same organizer from a different maker for about 70 bucks and it actually cut my setup time in half after the first game. Yeah, the first load takes patience, but once things are in place you just pull out the box and go. The tiny compartments keep everything from mixing up, which is huge when you're trying to find that one specific green card in a pile of junk. The card holder thing might be tight on yours but mine slides smooth after a couple uses, maybe yours needs a little loosening up. Ziplocs work fine but they always end up a jumbled mess for me, especially with all those player cubes and tiles.

blairc901mo ago

Nah hard disagree lmao, that first load is a one-time pain and then you're golden. Ziplocs might be faster day one but good luck finding that specific card when everyone's grabbing at the same bag, lol.