True, Plano cases are perfectly fine for storage, but I felt it was worth it to get a KR case though for travel. Bringing stuff to and from college over break, I'd rather make sure it's all packed safely and well-cushioned.

Battlefoam is certainly expensive. Whether or not it is overpriced is a matter of opinion.

Random true story: I do underwater photography. My instructor uses a suitcase with cut foam to transport his gear; when I got my equipment, I was looking at the same. My wife was concerned about that, and pushed for something heftier - we ended up paying a few hundred bucks for a mil-spec pluck foam case. On our first trip with it, the airline managed to break this indestructible case - quarter inch impact plastic, sheared right through. Had the same hit been to a standard suitcase, I probably would have been stuck arguing with the airline over replacement costs for my housing, strobes, and who knows what else.

Moral of this story: Protecting an investment is, in my opinion, never overpriced. Yes, there are far cheaper options out there than Battlefoam, Sabol, or KR. And that's exactly what they are - cheap. You can carry your minis in anything, but not all of them are going to help when someone knocks your case off the table or you leave it sitting on top of your car when you drive off.

Yes, but the real question is whether cheaper methods work just as well.

I have two Plano boxes and three jewelry organizers which have pieces of foam cut to size and placed in each compartment that houses miniatures. The foam in question is that stuff they put in furniture and is very soft, but still firm enough to hold the fighters in place. All I needed to do was make each piece of foam just a little thicker than it needs to be, then place the fighter on top of it and close the lid. The slight pressure on the fighter keeps it still inside the case, and the surrounding walls are more than sufficient to keep the lid from crushing the fighters against the foam. The boxes I store small fighters in are strong enough that I've accidentally stepped on them a few times with no ill effects, and I'm no slouch for size. I've also toted them for months in a backpack, with them bouncing around, and so far there have been no broken cannons or other bits fallen off.

All of this was bought for less than one Battlefoam liner, and I'd be willing to bet they're more secure than a BF tray because in a tray they have very little pressure against them to keep them from bouncing around. Even foam is dense enough that the slight bouncing from transportation can eventually damage them. I'd put money on being able to toss my boxes down a flight or two of stairs with no damage done whatsoever.

to be honest, most of the foam stuff is just for visual style and the ergonomics of storing the minis.

From the safety perspective, putting the minis in the original forms they were delivered in and placing them into the cheapest box you can step on without breaking would probably fulfil 90% of the need. The main bodies of the minis are quite sturdy and it's only the details like the xwing lasers that are a bit fragile and the mentioned original forms are fixating enough not to allow too much pressure through movement (and if you add a simple layer of soft material as lid you can even avoid that).

The foam itself just adds a few bits to additional safety, and you have to check if the details won't get stuck in the foam easily, which would counter the effect.

The minis also don't have much mass so they don't need as much buffering as the above mentioned camera equipment and you can always encounter rare damages, where neither solution would help.

That said, if you pay that much money for the miniatures itself, their packaging, the visual presentation and the ease of use might also be worth some bucks. In that regard, self-designed sheets of battle foam clearly have a certain appeal.

The main reason I won't get them is they won't fit my shuttle, as well I had to pin the wings in place and filler the holes..

People seem to like the battlefoam for the custom cut out, but what about using their PACKs and making your own foam?

I have a couple of small/medium camera case pluck foam containers. I was planning on getting the PACK 720 and then buying / cutting my own foam when the next wave of ships come out. Big ships may still be an issue to fit but we can worry about that when the time comes.

http://us.battlefoam.com/products/%28720%29-P.A.C.K.-720-Empty.html

As an example of how it can be done, see here:

http://creativetwilight.com/making-your-own-foam-trays/

I did the math and figured that I can get 6 layers of foam (4x1.5" slabs + 2x2" slabs + 7x0.25") to fill up a PACK 720 for about $46 (before shipping) from these folks using their CD100 material:

http://www.foamorder.com/packing.html

I haven't tried it yet and don't have any direct experience with it, so I'm open to suggestions. If I get access to a CNC machine, then that would make the foam cutting pretty precise, but for now I'm just planning on cutting manually. I have heard that an electric carving knife works well.