The Great Old Ones Demand Everything Fit in One Box!
I really enjoy Elder Sign. I’ve played it many times and with different people. Those people also liked the game. It seems that enough people have enjoyed that game that Fantasy Flight thought it would be wise to release not one but two expansions to the base game. The core game fit in the box well enough, but like most games with plentiful game pieces, removing tokens from bags and then putting them away at the end of the game got old fast. At the time, a simple fix for this issue was a custom foam core insert, which was modeled in an evening and held together with hot clue (which still is used as a prototyping method today).
When the second expansion Unseen Forces came out I had some insert overflow issues. Things didn’t quite fit as neatly as before, but still sufficed for the time. Then the 3rd expansion Gates of Arkham came out and I realized I was in trouble. Would I really be forced to have this tiny little expansion box filling up my ever dwindling shelf space? I felt like a Shambling One torn through the dimensions. No! So, I put on my imaginary detectives hat and started at it, measuring and arranging, making models and configuring, and at last I had my great wonder of organization complete. It was no easy task. The new expansion adds a surprising quantity of components and with the awkward shapes of the new portal tokens I was confronted with yet another horror to overcome. And the box! That tiny tiny box! I thought I would have to seek the Necronomicon itself to find a incantation for a Box of Holding just to make everything fit inside of one of the smallest game boxes in my collection. I think a box for a deck of cards has more breathing room in it! After the multiple revisions,
and multiple laser cut prototypes, I felt that all that effort deserved a bit of extra flair. Since I needed some extra practice doing freestyle spline drawings, I decided to incorporate a design within the theme of the genre of Cthulhu, TENTACLES! 
Everything in its Place:
The First Layer Removed:
The Details:
That is one easy to access well organized tray of tokens
And the lid closes too?! Its a win win!
The Bare Bones of the Insert
I Defeated an Elder God!
I did it, it all fits, amazingly! Not only does it fit but it looks just so good doing it. The trays work great for use during game play. I couldn’t be more pleased. OK, I could be a bit more pleased but its just not possible with this setup. Trust me, I did the maths. This box can simply not hold the core game and both inserts if the cards are sleeved. It would require a box almost 70% taller. Boo, but honestly I’ve had quite a bit of play with this game and my components are still not showing any notable wear. I’m not often one to sleeve an entire game but that’s mostly because I think sleeving these small cards makes them disobedient and they constantly try to fight me when shuffling or wanting them to stay in a neat little stack. For now I’m please with what came of this investigation into the cosmic attempt to fit a whole lot of something into a tiny tiny space.
Time to go back to the drawing board. Another expansion is on the way.
I’m both happy and bummed about that fact. I’m always happy to have new game components to play with. I think I will need to make a custom exterior box to hold all the current and new components. This will then add a few new trays to the mix and allow currently owners of the Elder Sign insert to incorporate their inserts into the box because it just doesn’t feel right to tell people that just bought these inserts to toss them because they’re now incompatible with my newest plan to hold new expansions. I might also offer the new trays additions for sale. Adding these would cause the box top to float up a good amount, which aesthetically speaking I’m not a huge fan of, but at least it will solve the storage problems for those who don’t mind.
Good idea or do a custom box to the original size just make it taller.
Any ideas on how you’ll incorporate the newest expansion? LOL
Forgive me as I copy and paste a reply to another similar question regarding Elder Sign:
“Since the box is basically pack to bursting I doubt it will fit but I haven’t tested it yet. I’m hoping I can find a alteration to accommodate the newest expansion. This will definitely cause the box lid to float since that extra space needs to come from somewhere unless I design a custom box that replaces the core game box. With a custom designed box I could then set the interior volume to the exact dimensions needed to fit all the expansions. It’s high on my To-Do list.”
Will the current model accommodate the newer Omens of Ice Expansion? If not, are there any plans for a newer version of the insert that will accommodate the new expansion?
Since the box is basically pack to bursting I doubt it will fit but I haven’t tested it yet. I’m hoping I can find a alteration to accommodate the newest expansion. This will definitely cause the box lid to float since that extra space needs to come from somewhere unless I design a custom box that replaces the core game box. With a custom designed box I could then set the interior volume to the exact dimensions needed to fit all the expansions. It’s high on my To-Do list.