High Programmer > Alan De Smet > Rants > Reviews > Tabletop games > Token Holders for Board Games > G33kbox GB1 by G33kbox

G33kbox GB1 by G33kbox

Photograph of G33kbox GB1 holding 8mm wooden cubes, closed

(details on how measurements were taken)

Photograph of G33kbox GB1, top and bottom Photograph of G33kbox GB1, closed Photograph of G33kbox GB1, bottom only Photograph of G33kbox GB1, top only Photograph of G33kbox GB1 holding 10mm wooden cubes, bottom only Photograph of G33kbox GB1 holding 10mm wooden cubes, closed Photograph of G33kbox GB1 holding 8mm wooden cubes, bottom only Photograph of G33kbox GB1 holding 8mm wooden cubes, closed Photograph of G33kbox GB1 holding Eclipse tokens, bottom only Photograph of G33kbox GB1 holding Eclipse tokens, closed Photograph of G33kbox GB1 holding Twilight Struggle tokens, bottom only Photograph of G33kbox GB1 holding Twilight Struggle tokens, closed

G33kbox's GB1, besides being a nuisance to type, has the advantage of being widely available. You can get them Amazon and my local board game store carries them. They're reasonably priced, and the largest of the dedicated token holders.

The lids are shallow; you can use them as a cup themselves, but they're not great. They do have shallow patterns on the lids and bases, so they stack okay. It's a shallow pattern, so a stack doesn't resist bumping. Similarly, you can store the base on top of the lid, and it will remain in place, but if you pick up the base to hand it across the table, the lid is staying behind.

The lids snap to the base at the four corners. The result feels reasonably secure while being easy to open.

I expected to prefer the shallow slope of other brands, but the rounded corners turn out to be plenty to help slide pieces out. The more shallow designs of other brands can make it easy to accidentally spill some pieces as you grab some; even if you fill the large space, the relatively straight sides make it unlikely with the GB1. It's harder to "pour" pieces out, but not something I do a lot. (I did so a bunch while testing various token holders, but that's hardly common usage.)

A G33kbox GB1 full of multi-colored 8mm cubes. The box is very densely packed, with the cubes aligned into a grid.

However, the squarish shape that holds so much has a dark side: cubes. When you pile a bunch of small wooden cubes in one, they tend to arrange themselves into a grid. In a grid, they're really hard to get out. It's not a problem for a small number of cubes (like the player cubes in Terraforming Mars), but it a big deal for more (like the copper resource cubes in Terraforming Mars).

A pair of G33kbox GB1 boxes full of Influence and Attack tokens from Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle.

The large space worked very well for irregularly shaped tokens, like the Influence and Attack tokens in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle. In the specific case of Hogwarts Battle, it was needlessly large, but definitely comfortable to use. (The Stonemaier Games Plastic Resource Containers also work, and can fit inside of the Hogwarts Battle box with its plastic insert in place.)

A  G33kbox GB1 box full of Federation starships from Star Trek: Ascendency. A trio of G33kbox GB1 boxes each full of a different color of resource node from Star Trek: Ascendency.

The GB1 is a great match for Star Trek: Ascendency. There is plenty of space for fleets and resource nodes. The ships and nodes are easy to remove, and there is no real risk of them spilling out as you do.

Photograph of the main board for Dungeon Lords set up. Food, gold, blood, and imps are in Stonemaier Games Plastic Resource Containers. The tunnel tiles are in a G33kbox GB1 container.

I've got a GB1 in my copy of Dungeon Lords to hold the tunnel tiles. I could use GB1s for the remaining tokens, but I prefer the slightly smaller, lower profile Stonemaier Games Plastic Resource Containers.

Dungeon Lords hallway tokens in a G33kbox GB1 base with a Stonemaier lid and Dungeon Lords gold discs in a Stonemaier base with a GB1 lid

An accident revealed that the the G33kbox GB1 lids and bases are reasonably interchangable with the Stonemaier lids and bases. It's overkill to mix a GB1 box and Stonemaier lid, but may be useful to get a slimmer Stonemaier base/GB1 lid combination.

Overall, these are a solid choice. The price is good and their easily available. They're big enough to fit just about anything. Their big weakness is that cubes tend to form dense grids which makes them difficult to remove; for those look to a different container.

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