Terraforming Mars Big Box - Unboxing & Rambling - Repacking Mars 

It took 2 hours to unbag the metal cubes. I tried to recycle a thousand dime bags. I'm pretty sure my neighbors think I have a different addiction.

Hey Alex, I’m not much commenting your videos, and I sure forget to like a few of them, but I wanted to take the time to tell you that I really enjoy your content. very very much. I’ve been following you for about a year and man maybe it’s being exaggerated by the Pandemic situation but each time a video comes out, it feels like I get the visit of my friend! Really love your long chatting, your authenticity, the true connection you have with everyone intervening on your videos weather it is family or friends... this is really heart warming so thanks for committing yourself so much! The second part of this video really felt like a random conversation (well ok more of a monologue) with a friend and that is really cool. This is one of the only channels towards which I go as much for the gaming info as for the host’s personality. Hope you keep going as long as possible! Greetings from France!

Bet you called it correctly "We want them individually wrapped..." lol. That's insane.

I had heard about those individually wrapped cubes but now that I saw the madness... Still unbelievable. That must be close to the world record of Lost in Translation.

"We're just playing with toys at this point" Mmmhmmmm yes indeed :)

I do enjoy these unscripted conversations /ramblings. Having a brief glimpse behind the curtain of what your daily schedule is like, that’s… impressive insanity! I’m amazed at how you’re able to manage/maintain that schedule. I hope you’re not pushing yourself too much. It can happen even with things we love.

When the "wrapping up" segment is nearly half of the video length and consists entirely of unwrapping. I had no idea about the individually-wrapped cubes debacle, that's wild.

I briefly thought about skipping this one, but I’ve been following you long enough to know there are always great moments peppered throughout your videos where you talk about something completely unrelated to the current video “topic” or just chat free-form. Those are gold and in this video you have some of the best moments so far! You put in so much time and effort in your content and it really shows. Thanks man- and thanks Rina for sharing Alex and your lives with us all! Also, for those of you on here who haven’t done so yet, join the Board Game Co. Patreon family- it’s absolutely worth it!

Positive note: never thought I would become so fast at opening plastic bags :)

I've never played Terraforming Mars, so I just watched the unboxing for your ramblings. You didn't disappoint! The second half of the video was my favorite part. :-)

Of course they are individually packaged. Totally looking forward to this...

LOL! I love the look on your face while unwrapping the metal cubes! Priceless!

Hey Alex great video, made me laugh but also nicely informative. I got my big box yesterday and I am super happy with it, I have done some washing and dry brushing on the tile mainly the cities and brushed some red on the tiles to give the nice mars desert look, I have no complaints about the Big Box edition, it is everything I backed for, thanks again for a super cool video :D

I would love someone making a full length video of individually unbagging each TM cube. One by one. Slowly and carefully. No speaking. Trying to do it as straight as possible.

Hahahahahah!!! I love this second part of the video. Yes, it's probably been OVER a year since this was made but the first ever viewing for me. The first part was helpful. This part is just marvelous. It is amazing that someone would think all these had to be individually bagged. And, yes, I like your rambling just fine.

Wow, I’m glad I got just the 3D tiles. That box is huge!

Never have I been so happy to have not added a metal upgrade add-on in a Kickstarter.

Here's a breakdown of my advanced strategy for opening plastic baggies. Grab a baggie at the closure between your thumb and index finger. Slide those fingers across each other. The baggie will be opening after this move. Drop the cube. If your're doing it right you should hear a satisfying sound of an unnecessary game component upgrade hitting your table. Then wonder why you bought metal cubes in the first place. Repeat until you're ready or until you have a knife available.

Holy shit at 58 minutes your ramble about adding 10% when personality when presenting was amazing!!!! As a teacher I 1000% relate!

We backed Sound Box! My husband who doesn’t usually buy our games...was like... “Check this out!”

Those cubes are sleeved already by the factory :).

Got my box Wednesday, thanks again, Alex! I brought it to my Wed game night in the hopes of showing my friends 200 individually bagged cubes and then I remembered the cubes are an add on I did not buy. =P My friends and I play the game with every expansion but Turmoil basically every time (sometimes we exclude colonies for new people). Colonies and Venus are great as both do not add a whole lot of time or complexity to the game and both give new strategies. One thing I really like about colonies is it makes Energy more useful to every player instead of being situational based on the few cards that actually need it as it can be used to fuel your trade fleets. Venus meanwhile is more of the same TR raising goodness and brings fun new engine building strategies with Floaters. It's really fun for the players who enjoy combing and doesn't impact the length of the game much.

You Sir, do a excellent job reviewing and presenting! A truly busy man! Very genuine, honest and refreshing to see. Your daily ritual is exhausting. Unsolicited advice from an old father, try to spend more time with your kids, I regret not doing so. Thanks for all you do, success, health and happiness always! Glad I found you, a fan!

Lol I nearly spit out my coffee @ 2:00, love the silence

I quite enjoy Venus Next and Colonies - and they work well when used together. But I probably don't recommend using both Venus/Colonies AND Turmoil in the same game - just one or the other depending on your mood.

On the plus side, you now have a boat load of baggies for other games! Silver Lining.

Got my shipment yesterday, just under 23 minutes to un-bag all the cubes by hand for me. I'd say around 3-6 seconds per bag plus some time to sort them into the containers and stuff the baggies into one of the larger bags (trying not to crumple them too much.) Using a knife probably would have taken longer except that you can do more than one at a time. I didn't want to throw the baggies away since I can use them to sort small screws and bolts and such. Anyone that doesn't have a use themselves can probably find a local maker space or grade school teacher that could find a use. Sure, it's probably less than $1 worth, but anything that helps keep microplastics out of the ecosystem is surely worth it.

I ordered the metal cubes from FryxGames and received them individually wrapped. I tore each bag in half with my hands and poured out the cube inside. Much quicker than reaching for a knife, slice half the bag, put the knife down, tear the remainder of the bag and pour the cube out. 😝

The longest 'encore' ever... but a nice personal diary form of rambling. Endearing and open, with touches of laughter. I wish you all the joy with this Big-Box of TM, but I resume with playing it digital and waiting for Ares Expedition to arrive.

I look forward to this arriving. Canadian shipments were delayed. I'll be painting these in the future to add depth, make them look even better.

If I played TM, I would love this level of organization

I'm only about an hour from Hocking hills. Truly a beauty. I'll have to check out ravenwood castle sometime.

If I ever need a plastic bag I'll call you up 😀Great reboxing thingy, considering to upgrade my expansion madness with this box!

You were like some board game Superman. I don't know how you don't stop moving from waking to sleeping!

I have probably watched hundreds of board game videos since the earlier days of Tom Vasel (before Dice Tower). This might be the best of all of them. And I am not sure why. But thank you sir.

I rushed the Pledge Manager and somehow missed the Player Boards, Colony Ships and Domes. All the blame on me, but I was able to get the Player Boards from the BGG store. Having FOMO watching you dome up the cities and mess with the colony ships! I, like you, are completely happy with the way they look. For $99 (US) I wasn't expecting Etsy level 3D prints that go for 2-3x the price. Also, great job on figuring out where everything went, as I went straight to the BGG forums for suggestions. Thanks for the video and enjoy your new toys!

I grabbed this along with the Ares Expedition kickstarter. Sounds like its coming in July. Can’t wait’

I do like nicely illustrated printed cardboard tiles so much better than plastic garbage!

Lol...I knew what was coming and still cracked me up🤣

i put a pair of scissors in my right hand, picked up a small baggie with the left, and just cut the bag open for the cube to drop out, rinse repeat.. that saved a LOT of time vs opening each individual baggie....

I was NOT prepared for the single serving cubes. I'm dying!

You honestly should have done this live since the "unbagging" would be a great Q&A time.

Mine is on the way. Thinking of keeping the metal cube megawaste as some kind of monument.

I know how much you love this game! I know how much I love this game! We love this game!😊

Turmoil is the only expansion I haven't played with. My favorite combination to play with is Prelude + Colonies. Colonies allows you to collect the resources your lacking. You just hop on that ship and go grab it, if its still there.

The silence is fantastic.

Bit late as I have to do some catch-up on your videos, but man, it took me half an hour to get all those cubes out of the baggies :D After a few I just started cutting them open, could not deal with opening them one by one.

I can't believe as a gaming community we aren't ashamed about this scenario.

Thank you for inviting us into your daily life. I enjoy your videos! I’m assuming on Saturdays you attend Synagogue, unless there isn’t one where you live?

All things considered its a pretty nice big box organizer for the game.

I received 2 different board game deliveries so far that I thought would be this!... Nemesis extras - new characters and the CMON comic book stuff. Everything comes at the same damn time... or maybe I have backed too many things.

My same reaction with that nuclear pile of baggies btw 5 cubes done, 195 left 🤣 nice video I enjoyed it!

I thought maybe that's how they shipped your items, but nope. I just received my shipment and low and behold. Individually wrapped cubes. LOL

you got yours before me. i ordered all the expansions with it too, maybe that is slowing it up.

Cannot believe that box comes without any instructions

Received my copy a few days ago, I like it but I can see that for the price it maybe could be better. Need to use it in a proper game still :)

When I opened my package and saw the cubes I just started laughing. Was able to get them out efficiently with scissors and using gravity, now I wonder whether people tried to speedrun this :))

if TM big box can sleeve every cube and not charge us more, I think every kickstarter should be supplying card sleeves for Much much much cheaper.

Dangg seeing this insert and tray system makes me wonder… what are your top 10 err 11 board game insert? What makes a great board game insert? Why do board games that I buy still often have terrible storage solutions?? xD

I'd love to say that I see all of your videos, but you are creating so much content now that I just don't have the time, also, missing out on the Monday video is a self-preservation way of keeping my money for other things. Still, I do enjoy your content, a lot, and I do try to see at least one of your videos, every week, and sometimes a couple more. I hope you achieve your goal sooner rather than later.

Definitely give colonies and Venus next expansions a go. They add some other cool actions and a useful way of burning the end of round raising a global parameter on Venus if you want to extend your game even more!

Nice unbagging...

wondering if we should glue the plastic clear dome to the tile...did you glue them? or just leave it on top?

My cubes did not come individually wrapped, so there's that. But it was funny :)

Your improv is getting better and better! I missed, what did you just say? Would love to hang out with Alex!

Those individually wrapped cubes blows my mind. I think I'd be confused, laughing, and mad all at the same time lol. Do you know which manufacturer they used?

You mini paint! What about Black Plague lol. I'm working on it right now so understand as to why. But man going to be awesome to play with everything once it's done and all expansions

Man, the individually bagged cubes, that's just environmentally criminal! We don't deserve this planet, we need to terraform Mars quickly if we ought to survive as a species. Great unboxing Alex. I was just wondering, when you took the top trays out with the 3D pieces and couldnt get a hold onto the card box, cvould you just flip around the tray next to it so that the player colours would be next to the card box insead of the box edge, that way you would have the finger indents next to the card box and could possibly get a better hold of it? I dont have my copy yet, waiting to receive it from a local publisher in Czech language. Cant wait!

Now that I have the big box the only original components I have left from the original game are the player cubes and cards.

Alex big fan of the channel. May I ask what is your shelving solution for all those Kickstarter big boxes in the background?

Have close to 200 plays of Terraforming Mars. We play with everything all the time except for Turmoil. Turmoil isn't great imho for a lower player count. And then there is the fact that I don't like Terraforming Mars that much at a higher player count. So I reckon I won't be playing it that much. I rank the expansions -since we are at a rambling video- as following: 1. Prelude; 2. The new boards; 3. Colonies; 4. Turmoil; 5. Venus Next. Venus Next isn't bad, it is just more of the same with a little twist. More ways to score TR I guess. Turmoil I already explained. Colonies I really like, it is just adds to the resource management part of the game. It can be an interesting twist, except when the money planet is in play, since that is just a no brainer to fly to. The new boards are cool, especially for new milestones and awards. I don't know why they didn't include individual tiles for milestones and awards so you could randomize that. And yeah, Prelude, I can't imagine playing the game without it. I am very content with the Big Box. I can see the complaints, but I just compare it to the base game, not to Etsy stuff people get. It is a huge upgrade from the base game and it is stunning to look at. So all in all I am very happy and looking forward to playing a bunch more!

Me at the start of the video: how’s that a big box, they look roughly the same size? Me at 1:05: OH MY GOODNESS

Really bummed I couldn't get the Big Box when it was on Kickstarter. didn't have a job and told myself I wold only buy if I had a job. Ended up getting a part time job in December then full time this March, so I just barely missed it. Have played TM 107 times with my wife since last March! oh well, still nice to see other people enjoying it! Also omg that plastic packaging is such a waste

I feel the "over sized" cards box might be twofold: balance everything in the main box and accommodate different sleeves sizes.

Lol i have no idea why they individually bagged those cubes. That was such a pain 😂

I'm three minutes into the video 🤣🤣🤣 this is tragic but your presentation is hilarious!

"how not to open zip lock bags without risking losing a finger".... :) Just for the record, been there done that except without the knife...but at least I still have my fingers...maybe 2 hours fyi. The company did say they realized their supplier made this mistake but it was already too late to stop the presses... sigh. On the flip side if I ever have a need for tiny tiny zip lock bags... oh hey maybe I can use them to store Destiny minis (kidding). Generally speaking I try to save all my zip locks but lets face it a tiny bag like this does exactly what for your organization? So for everyone who opted for the kill shot on the bags to save time. Hats off to you for venting your anger on the bags.

This looks cool. Not worth the money for me as I did the third party bling out a few years back, but see definitely cool! (Apart from the ridiculous baggies 😄)

5:56 man I am scared and intimidated every time you grab that knife. By the way. I am happy that I did not back this thing. Not that good for all the asked cost. for example I would appreciate a new 2 layer board that would fit nicely the plastic tiles.

I mean, it's to keep them from rubbing against each other and getting scratched up, right?

are the cubes worth the add on? as compared to the ones in the core game

Does the terraforming mars big box include the base game?

I think I only bought the hexes, but I kinda want the baggies...

Great video, as usual. I'd actually love all those individual baggies- I like to bag my components, so those would be a help. Completely unrelated, but I found a minis kickstarter with a pretty cool giant dragon figure, reading a book and guarding a hoard of them, that made me think of your dragons. Also, there is a Bear with sharks for arms and beer golems. www.kickstarter.com/projects/wildspire/monsters-of-solan-fantasy-monster-miniatures/description Quack.

im still waiting for it...

If you don't mind sharing what is your day job? When you mentioned it previously I thought your day job was board game co.

The tiles turned out a better than I hoped. I'm probably going to glue the domes onto my cities. My only complaint is that there are some Etsy sets where there are many more special molds for cities tiles than are in the official set. The official set only has special modes for tiles that have special symbols. Etsy sets also has special molds where a card will instruct you to add a generic city or wilderness tile, but have distinct art. I also have no interest in the majority of Colonies, Venus, or Turmoil content. I really like the base game of Terraforming Mars, but hate all the supplemental mechanics. It's just not needed. Lucky, without all the Colonies/Venus/Turmoil stuff, I have a lot more space for 3rd party acrylic tokens (for microbes, animals, etc.). I got mine from Top Shelf Gamer. edit: The smaller box doesn't hold sleeved cards. I ended up using it as a container for my domes. I thought the assembled cardboard insert thing was garbage. It feels like it would fall apart. That went in the trash.

I am not sure which took longer for me sleeving all cards or getting cubes out of wrapping (I didn't cut the bags i don't know why i guess i was too lazy to get the scissors which was literally resting next to me :P).......not to mention i got 1 less silver but i got a silver that is the size of gold cubes instead. How do i know the missing piece was silver? Well i got two sets of cubes and other set came with 201 cubes while the one i opened was 199 the missing silver was in the other set. Still don't know why i got a silver at size of gold though ,😈

Actually, playing without Prelude is not playing the game wrong. Stronghold not making prelude an essential part of the core box is just making a game wrong. Not the players fault.

I thought they were implying that packing them all together in the same bag would damage them by hitting into one another during transport, which would say a lot about their durability 😰

Danmit Stronghold, and every other publisher. Put paperwork with the game on how everything is suppose to be stored!!!!!! #NerdRage

I think TMBB is a very good product for the price point (exclusive of add-ons, because value of $60 for metal cubes is open to individual interpretation), and knew there would be a difference between the renders and final tiles. What I did complain about was the very poor communication that suddenly announced the tiles had been approved for manufacturing and finished when the previous updates said they were "not final". There was no opportunity for backer feedback. I never have/never will condone the subsequent complaints that were disrespectful or profane, but the "selective pledge cancellation" conducted by Stronghold Games was a disproportionate response and set a terrible precendent for the entire KS platform. Rather than try to engage the backers with more information, SHG withdrew and essentially went silent, cutting off all of the backers whether they complained or not. And then there was the whole issue with the early unboxing video by Enoch Fryxelius that could be accessed through their Patreon account, but available via KS. I posted my impressions on BGG, and stated then that the management of large parts of this campaign by Stronghold was unprofessional. This conduct wasn't a one-off, either- SHG demonstrated some of the same dysfunctional communication patterns during the Ares campaign. Perhaps my expectations about any company should engage with its supporters is unrealistic, especially when considered through the warped lens of KS- a platform that has morphed far beyond its original purpose to become a profit-driven marketplace.

Bad games should have to pay more for your time :) But seriously, Rhado has a similar approach. The games he talks about are ones he likes. Not sure how many bad ones he has to play to get those though.

I think $150 is a little bit too much, but anyways… the price is the price

Alex, the plastic bags on the metal dice was just the factory pre-sleeving them for you to keep them pristine, why would you unbag them? hahaahha

Alex, what you did with explaining filler sentences at 8:00 mark was genius Like introspective moment, repeating what you said, repeating what you said, was real high IQ comedy with great timing. Just saying. Just saying.

My game groups enjoy playing with all expansion all the time, but Turmoil was the least favourite to use.

Don't you play with your cubes sleeved?

Should have called this Terraforming Mars Big Box - Unbagging

Alex you should reuse the individual bags in other games, not cut in half!!