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Hazard 4 Kato Mini-Messenger Bag Intro

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When I first saw this bag on ThinkGeek I was intrigued. It was a vertically oriented messenger style bag that said it could fit both a 11″ Macbook Air, and an iPad. And most importantly, it didn’t use hook and loop (Velcro) for closures ((I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I HATE Velcro. It’s loud, and it wears out.)).

I contacted ThinkGeek hoping to get one for review, but alas, they couldn’t help me out. After looking around online, I found extensive commentary on the bag at EDC Forums and it seemed to get pretty darn good reviews. But in the process, people mentioned several other bags that they used ((Maxpendition Lanada, Condor EDC, 5.11 PUSH, etc)). This list of bags pushed me into a bit of buyers paralysis. This lasted about 2 months, it seems.

After weeks of going over reviews, watching videos, etc, I kept coming back to the Hazard 4 Kato bag. The orientation of the bag, the size, look, and the lack of velcro just kept calling to me. So then it was a question of ordering, which largely came down 3 options ((4 if you include Amazon, but they wanted $7 more than MSRP)). Thinkgeek, LA Police Gear, and Tactical Distributors. Thinkgeek charged MSRP, but has free ground shipping. LA Police Gear was $10 less, and also had free ground shipping (and a 10% off coupon), but from reading online, had a bad habit of selling items that were “in stock” according to their site, but were in fact back ordered. Tactical Distributors was the same price as LA Police Gear, but had a %15 off coupon, and while charged for shipping, they often upgraded their ground shipping to next day, for free! So, I hashed this around a bit, and when I finally went to order the bag, it was out of stock!

LA Police Gear said 4-6 weeks on their site, with no good way to ask. Calling Tactical Distributors gave me a wonderfully quick answer: that day! So I sat back, and waited until they were posted on the site, and ordered. I added a Hazard 4 Koala to the order as well (which ended up basically free with the 15% off coupon) that I’ll use to keep my Leatherman Charge XTi in each reach on my bag.

Special Thanks to Tactical Distributors for their excellent customer service, great prices, and very fast shipping. $7 for next day shipping from Virginia is nothing to shake a stick at. While I didn’t get the bag discounted for review, I’m more than happy to pay for products to review if they’re cheaper than MSRP (which this was). Not only that, but I was able to call them after hours and get a tracking number (since UPS hadn’t sent me a Quantum View notice yet), and Rob happily looked up my order, and got me the number! I will definitely be dealing with Tactical Distributors in the future, as I’m guessing the work needed to outfit a bag for EDC is an evolving process. Right now, the Kato with a Koala works, but I may add a second Koala for a flashlight, or any number of other MOLLE pouches that add further customization/organization for my gear.

Actual product review coming after a couple weeks with the bag.

Bear and Son Balisong Trainer

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For years I’ve had a passing interest in “flipping” or playing with a balisong/butterfly knife. Living in Oregon all my life, I was well aware of Benchmade and their extremely high quality Balisongs. Alas, they’re also quite expensive, and they don’t make a trainer anymore. =(

So, a few months ago I started looking at trainers, and how they ranked. From most of what I saw, the Bear and Son BC114 got pretty good reviews, and was darn affordable. So, a few weeks back, I purchased one off eBay, and waited.

When the “knife” arrived, I was pretty pleased. The build quality seemed good, though the punch job on the “blade” was a bit sloppy (the tang side had obvious punch press slop. nothing my Dremel couldn’t fix). The play on the handles was non-existant (and still is, but I’d imagine that’ll change as the pins stretch), but the pins also seemed overly tight. Thankfully, some White Lightning fixed that as well.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit, I suck at flipping. But that’s the point of the trainer. And I have gotten better. Now, I don’t know how long the knife will last, but given the parts, I’d guess I should be able to “fix” anything that breaks. The “blade” should last forever. The pins may break, but I should be able to replace them with screws. The handles I’d guess I’d just try to fix with some JB Weld.

All and all, pretty happy. I wish I could have bought it locally, but when I went to the local knife chain store (Excalibur Cutlery and Gifts) they were sold out (and a bit expensive, but I’m all for local economy).

[xrr rating=4/5]

The Dark Knight Rises

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The Dark Knight Rises, as a friend put it, was more like a sequel to Batman Begins than a sequel to Dark Knight. Yes, the story largely took off from where Dark Knight left off, but in Gotham, it’s been 8 years, so the connections were tenuous. The movie SEEMS to feature Bruce Wayne more than Batman (similar to Begins), and the “league” features the over-arching meta-nemesis. Casting was overall very well done, though largely from previous Chris Nolan cast members. The movie does not fall into the constant action trap that many other action movies do, and much like begins, is more based on story than action (like Dark Knight, which often seemed like Action punctuated with story).

After seeing the movie again, I still stand pretty firmly behind what I wrote above. And I actually feel Rises may have a greater re-watchability than the previous two movies. There are plenty of in-depth reviews online, so I won’t go on anymore. It’s already taken me over a week to write out this review. =)

[xrr rating=4.5/5]