Chuck the Kallax – BoxThrone from Box King

GamesReviews has entered into a partnership with BoxKing to review some current products, and future products as well. To that end, the tables, mats, accessories and more were all provided by BoxKing. That said, our reviews, as always, are our own, so let’s get into the first magnificent BoxKing item: the BoxThrone!

I always like to talk about negatives first, and my only complaint – and is it really a complaint? – would be the price. While Project Ironwood was all about creating an affordable board game table, BoxThrone was more about usability and convenience over price. We have a full BoxThrone in our house now, which holds dozens of games on individual metal shelves. The price for this product is north of $500 USD, so it’s not cheap.

But it’s not a cheap product either, and manufactured amazingly. I’ve put more Kallax shelves together than I care to talk about, and each and every time some kind of frustration pops up. Putting together a 2×4 Kallax shelf which holds about 32 games (4 normal boxes per shelf) took me about 20-30 minutes, and most of those minutes were spent wincing as I almost broke a dowel or hoping all the screw holes lined up.

I put the frame of the BoxThrone together in less than 5 minutes once I had the pieces laid out, and was putting games away within 10 minutes. The build process is insanely simple, a bolt and ‘nut’ style system that makes lining up pieces incredibly easy. Little nubs also aid in making sure nothing is crooked and everything remains insanely straight and square, which is important for installing shelves.

The shelves themselves were the most frustrating things to instal, but even that was fairly simple. It took a bit of time to understand how far to space each shelf depending on box size, but ultimately found out that one shelf every 3 mounting holes was about the right size for most board game boxes.

What makes BoxThrone so great is that each game gets its own shelf, and you can store all your games horizontally since taking out a single game doesn’t require you to remove other games if it’s in the bottom of a stack. I didn’t think it was really a big deal to store my games in rows or stacks on Kallax shelves, but after having to re-sort boxes that got jumbled, or getting tired of emptying a Kallax to take out one or two games – this is a me problem for not putting things back right away – I’ve quickly come to love the one game-one shelf philosophy of the BoxThrone.

The materials used are phenomenal. I’ve heard people refer to ‘soft steel” before but never knew what that meant. Now that I have the BoxThrone up in my game room, I now understand. This is made of lightweight steel, but it feels soft to the touch thanks to the coating applied to the steel. I did bang it around a bit, building it and shuffling it into place, and there are no visible wear marks or scratches.

The shelf is constructed as a set of two towers with games stored in them, and additional shelves between the two towers that also can hold games. BoxKing recommends putting heavier games on the bottom and lighter games near the top, but for testing purposes I put one of my heaviest games on the top shelf where I THINK there is the least support, and after a week I haven’t noticed any issues with that specific shelf piece.

The top of each tower can be used to store more games, or it also serves as a great place for knick knacks! I personally have Disney Funko Pops on one tower and LEGO on the other. For added support, each tower also has a middle shelf that is solid and keeps the frame structurally sound. Again, you can use these shelves for more games, or again add knick-knacks to them. I have a game in one tower, and my Google Pixel Tablet will stand on the other. It looks so sleek!

So let’s get to some stats. I have NOT maximized the space and still have some shelves left over I could put in if I was storing smaller games. I’m mostly storing Wingspan sized boxes on this shelf, with a few larger games like Critter Kitchen (Deluxe), Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Adventure Game, and a few others. I also have a few smaller games like Skyrise and the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Adventure game expansion, From the Ashes. In total, I’ve put 47 games on my BoxThrone shelves, which for me was the equivalent of about 12-15 Kallax cubes.

So what do I think after having this for a week. Yes, a Kallax (or equivalent) unit of shelves is probably a more economical option, but I am thoroughly enjoying the simplicity and convenience of the BoxThrone shelves.

Getting specific games off the shelf is so much easier, and I cannot get over how good the games look in the game room stored on these shelves. I have had over a dozen people in and out of that room over the past week, and about 80% of them instantly were drawn to the new shelves and how good they looked. I can guarantee you one thing: more BoxThrone shelves are in my future, as these are just too nice to pass up on.