Customer Reviews

Cohesion BandBox Gaming Storage and Furniture Ottoman (Black)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Feet look MUCH higher in the photo than they do in person. I actually thought at first that they'd forgotten to ship the feet until I found these small plastic spacers. Oh well...

But...that's the only minus. It fits my Guitar Hero 4 equipment...and extra guitar...AND...all of my other Wii accessories. It's so NICE having them all in one place. I put two Wii wheels...two guns...all of my controllers...plus classic controllers...in with the band stuff...along with my Samba Maracas. Sweet!

The padding on top of the ottomon is nice. The synthetic material seems to be a good quality too. It doesn't look "shocking" black...and the profile along with the slightly lower height actually looks better in my living room than the old storage ottomon it's replacing. (Which couldn't hold my drums.)

For the Guitar Hero drums...the support is actually a little sturdier than the manufacturer supplied support. I'm glad they finally made a more "universal" rhythm game ottomon.

All in all...I'm thrilled. As an "adult" gamer (over 30) I'm usually disappointed with "game room" accessories. They usually look like they belong in a 13 year old's bedroom. Not this. It blends in with my traditional furniture just fine.

We recently downsized and found our new game room/office was much too cluttered with all the gaming systems, controllers, rock band and guiter hero paraphenalia..trying to find a better way to organize.. we were even considering hanging the guitars on the wall.. but what to do with drums?? THIS was the perfect solution! we were able to but all the junk inside and it is a functional piece of furniture to boot!

It can be used as a table, an ottoman, and even extra seating if needed. Cleared up so much space!

I grabbed the Cohesion BandBox during Amazon's extended Black Friday event during the '09 holiday season. I had found that between my Rock Band and Guitar Hero habit, my living room was getting very cluttered with little plastic instruments. Since the AK Rock Box Gaming and Storage Ottoman with Drum Lift (Black) was showing out of stock / not available, this seemed like the obvious choice.

What's good?
First off, there's a ton of space inside the box. Drums, mic, guitar and bass can easily fit inside with no problem. Unfortunately if you have both Guitar Hero and Rock Band drums, you're still out of luck, this won't hold both at the same time. As long as you don't mind the guitars lying on top of each other, you could probably fit four or more inside of the box (a lot more if you're not including the drums).

The drum mount does extend the height of the drums quite a bit - so if you're a tall drummer who's always lamented the extremely short height range of the plastic drums, this might be worth looking into.

What's bad?
The "drum mount" is a two piece item, the actual rod which is attached to the storage bench folds up and down for easy clean up. Unfortunately the mount that's attached to the drums has to come off every time you're done playing. It's not a hard breakdown, but it just seemed silly that there was no way to store the drums without disassembling the stand.

If you're still on the corded instruments, there are no cord holes to thread through. So you can either leave the instruments plugged in and the cords hanging out of the mouth of the ottoman or unplug the USB hub every time.

Also, remember that since you're getting rid of the drum stand, your foot pedal no longer has a brace to attach to. You can lean the pedal against the ottoman itself, but you'll probably still get quite a bit of side-to-side movement. If you're a Rock Pedal (or other 3rd party pedal) user, it will fit inside, but the interior is made out of a faux velvet which doesn't seem to shed much, but may end up clogging up your velcro hooks.

Conclusion:
The BandBox isn't a bad offering into the world of gaming peripheral storage. The ottoman itself is pretty bland and non-offensive so it should go with most home decors (or at least blend in to the point where people don't notice it), but there's some nice leeway for improvement should the company go for round two. For now however, it's not a bad storage option for those of us with too many plastic instruments.

*** Nov. 2010 - Rock Band 3 Update ***
I thought that I should just update this review by saying that if you decide to purchase the Rock Band 3 PRO-Cymbals Expansion Kit, your drums will no longer fit inside the BandBox unless you remove your cymbals each time you put them away. They will not fit while attached to the drums.

I got this item as a Christmas gift and was disappointed when one of the top hinges had a screw stripped and the lid would not open and close properly. The instruction sheet listed a limited warranty and said to contact Cohesion at the toll-free number listed to obtain authorization to return the product. I tried the toll free number off and on for a month and every time I called I got a recording that said they would return calls withing 24 hours. However, when I tried to leave my name and number, the recording would say "mailbox is full". I never could get in touch with them and there was no physical address listed on the instruction/warranty page.

This little game storage ottoman is a great buy. It holds all my Guitar Hero gear plus a couple small throw blankets. With enough room for a dozen or so games. It's built very sturdy and looks pretty classy as well. My 2 1/2 year old loves it as well, she sits and lays on it more than she does the couches. In short, this ottoman is perfect for smaller gaming areas while still affording plenty of space for your gaming needs. Buy one and enjoy.

I was extremely excited to find a nice looking relatively inexpensive ottoman that could house all my RB/GH stuff plus more. It goes great with my interior and the wife liked it too (most important part!). The problem now lies a little over a year down the road where the outside edges near the bottom are starting to peel away and crack and show the thin amount of foam use. It's quickly turning into something that will probably have the leather stripped off and I'll fabricate up a hardwood case instead. It's only the corners having the problem, like it got stretched too much or the stitching was sub-par and is coming apart. I still enjoy this thing and I was really pleased with it originally (and the rest of the ottoman looks great still) but I'm a little upset about the degradation of it. And yes, I take care of my furniture and made sure to use non-drying out cleaners and oils on it in regular intervals.

Anywho, 3 out of 5 because it still serves it's purpose.

This BandBox Ottoman really beats the one offered by Costco. When we got to our new location the closest Costco didn't have the one I'd seen on the east coast & I was really disappointed so I came online & found this one. I'm really glad I did.

It is made of really strong construction(we sit on it all the time). It holds two guitars easily. But best of all is the swing-up arm to hold the drum! Just pop the drum pads onto the arm, tighten down & you're set!

Even though it's more expensive than the Costco ottoman, it's worth every penny!

This is a great ottoman. Unfortunately it's only listed under video game band items so it was hard to find. I was searching for a long time for a sturdy ottoman to store dvds in. Most I looked into were flimsy, required assembly and got so so reviews. I found this and was apprehensive because most reviews concentrated on its adaptation towards rockband or whatever. This is a great, high quality ottoman that happens to have some pieces in it to hold tiny guitars and fake drums. And a plus it came fully assembled and in a big box that my kid could play in. It took me less than 5 minutes to remove the guitar and drum stuff and I ended up with a nice ottoman that holds 250 dvds.

We use it for keyboard bench, works great for storage and throwing stuff in there at the last minute when company arrives without notice.

This black leather look ottoman nicely fits your Rock Band equipment. We had two guitars in addition to the Rock Band complete band set and it all fits in perfectly. The inside red velvet look is a little bright, but it does protect the equipment well. Sturdy and solid enough for adults to sit on it as a bench. Looks and feels like a piece of furniture as opposed to just an ottoman.