Packing Cube Retirements [emoji50]

[G42]

Recently I did an overnight work trip to Arizona and a 4day/3night vacation trip to Oregon. Both times I carried my Smart Alec and used A30 packing cubes to compartmentalize my clothes.

I have the older style solid aether end cubes & a small cube... and one of the new small laundry cubes.

I packed one cube flat in the base of the SA and because of the shape of the bag, I can put a laptop behind it (with or without a TB cache) and small items in front of it (like hard case for sunglasses, mini toiletry kit, etc.) On top of the first cube, I put two more of the cubes on their long ends and there's room for more stuff on top.

I've only used the small laundry cube these two times, but so far I like it.... I could see easily ONLY using small laundry cubes, since I tend to cluster like clothing items together and that way I'd always having the clean/dirty of each type still together...

[BWeaves]

I couldn't find this thread, so I started a new thread with my comparison photos of the TB A45 Laundry Cubes vs. Eagle Creek Specter Clean/Dirty Cubes.

https://forums.tombihn.com/photos-videos-and-reviews/13454-a45-laundry-cubes-vs-ec-specter-clean-dirty-cubes.html#post158663

[Lani]

Oh oh oh -- does this mean we'll see aether versions of the Packing Cube Shoulder Bag and Packing Cube Backpacks? Yes please!!

[ThomGault]

So the brand new model of packing cubes, released just three weeks ago in carbon, are being retired already? Or does this announcement only apply to the old solid-style aether carbon packing cubes?

[BWeaves]

Carbon was never my favorite color. It was just a black hole where things disappeared. It's one of the reasons I didn't like the travel cubelet.

BUT NO, Canyon is discontinued, too. I LOVE Canyon.

[G42]

Carbon was never my favorite color. It was just a black hole where things disappeared. It's one of the reasons I didn't like the travel cubelet.

BUT NO, Canyon is discontinued, too. I LOVE Canyon.

I like my carbon cubes, but my favorite colours include all forms of grey and charcoal, so there you go!

I am very sad that Canyon is disco'd, I was hoping that they would sneak it into a LSB run as @Darcy alluded might happen with the ballistics... The Mars Red/Canyon and Olive/Canyon are very pleasing colour combos to me.

[aedifica]

Carbon, nooo! I was waiting for a Carbon small cube for the Western Flyer! I don't really like how any of the other Aether colors look with Wasabi Halcyon.

[bchaplin]

I know! I like the cheerful colors, but there should be a neutral choice as well. Wasabi, violet and island are pretty strong colors.

Also wondering, since it looks like carbon aether is on the inside of my beloved Travel Cubelets, what that will be replaced with? The thing I like about the Travel Cubelet is that you can choose an exterior color that you like, and not worry about it being available only in some jarring combination. [cough] Blue/Grass [cough]

[Cristina]

I know! I like the cheerful colors, but there should be a neutral choice as well. Wasabi, violet and island are pretty strong colors.

Also wondering, since it looks like carbon aether is on the inside of my beloved Travel Cubelets, what that will be replaced with? The thing I like about the Travel Cubelet is that you can choose an exterior color that you like, and not worry about it being available only in some jarring combination. [cough] Blue/Grass [cough]

Maybe NWS aether is coming?

[atlhzl]

Is there any chance there will be a new batch of NFTD packing cubes for the 2023 iteration of the bag? It would be really useful.

[moriond]

Is there any chance there will be a new batch of NFTD packing cubes for the 2023 iteration of the bag? It would be really useful.

atlhzl

There are two recent forum threads (both started by Cooner ) that you can check with suggestions for NFTD packing cubes:
• New Night Flight bag thoughts & questions
• Stuff Sack Woes
In the first thread there’s a link to my post with a picture of a Small REI compression packing cube that just fits inside one of the original NFTD packing cubes (3 of which were shown to fit book end fashion in the main NFTD compartment). If you let each REI small compression packing cube expand to maximum size, two of these will fill up the main NFTD compartment.

In the second thread, I posted an alternative suggestion in the form of a Small Thule packing cube.that should fit into the long direction of the NFTD main compartment. Two of these, stacked one on top of the other, should also fill the NFTD main compartment. You can wait until someone who read that post actually receives the cubes in question and posts a picture to verify this. I believe that another forum member posted that he was using the Thule cubes, but if you want to be sure, wait until somebody who ordered this can verify with a picture (since I posted my suggestion less than a week ago).

There are also other retired accessories that work as NFTD packing cubes, such as the Mini Yeoman Duffel Aether packing cubes or the Clear Quarter Packing Cube that can fit into the end zippered pockets.

HTH

moriond

ETA: the originally designed NFTD packing cubes use component materials and mesh that is no longer being used for any accessories, so there is no simple way to resuscitate these.