The "Biblical" Gear Bags--Jeroboam, Methuselah, and Balthazar Revisited

[Update:  Okay, the names may originally be Biblical, but they were actually inspired by wine bottle sizes!  See the Wikipedia article on Wine Bottles.] 

Back in January Maxpedition unveiled (at ShotShow 2009--see this story) a new series of lower-cost gear bags with Biblically themed names: the Jeroboam, the Methuselah, and the Balthazar.  The Balthazar was released first, and I did a detailed photo story on it back in February, and since then the Jeroboam and Methuselah have also shipped (some time ago actually--this article is long overdue!).  The theme of this series is simplicity and, thus, lower-costs--these bags have fewer pockets, compartments, straps, and other such features, focusing instead on roominess with still-solid construction.  The form of the three bags is basically the same, with minor variations: a large central compartment with diagonal zipper and a near clamshell opening (the two larger bags include a padded laptop pocket in this larger compartment), and two side pockets, one that unzips on three sides for full access, and one that has a more constrained opening (top and partway down the sides) for better contents constraint.  As I covered the Balthazar in full already, I won't go into detail on it, and will only give a survey of specific features on the other two bags; instead this article will focus on side-by-side shots of all the bags together.

In the beginning: The gear-bag family

As you can see from this shot the three bags are quite different in size:

The perspective in this shot skews things a bit, but the Balthazar really is big--in the top three, probably, of Maxpedition's attache-style bags.  The Methuselah is a medium-sized attache in width and height, but probably twice as deep, while the Jeroboam is like a triple-wide shaving kit bag.

Here are side and top shots:

and

Stand-alone shots (even with the rulers) like those above only go so far in helping me to visualize a bag, so here are a couple with me slinging all three bags at once (less silly individual carry shots later in this article); for reference, I am about six feet tall, and was about 250 pounds in these shots, and I've got a long-ish torso:

and

The Balthazar in brief

Since I already did the article on the Balthazar, I won't cover it in detail here; instead, I'll just repeat a few of the pictures to refresh your memory.

Main compartment with a 13" Macbook in the computer compartment and a 17" Gateway in the main area:

The main compartment with books and a game:

The main compartment holding a small amp (yes, it really can zip close--would make it an ideal gig bag for a musician):

The front pocket with a selection of stuff in it.  Note that the main mesh pocket is large enough to hold a near-magazine-sized Maxpedition catlog:

In fact, that front pocket (and the rear one, for that matter) are both large enough to hold a Macbook, although I'd probably want to put the computer in a protective skin/sheath of some kind:

Jeroboam: The mighty-min

The smallest bag of the series is the Jeroboam.  I've seen it described as being useful as a small range bag (assuming you're talking hand gun here); it would certainly be large enough to carry ear protectors, I think, especially if they folded.  For my use, thoiugh, it seems like a potential gaming/gadget gear bag.  As you'll see from the shots below, it swallows up both my PSP (even stuffed into yet another case) and my DS, with room for lots more, and yet still isn't huge--it could easly be your airplane "personal" carry on, as it should stow beneath a seat quite easily.  I only wish my eeePC netbook was here in time for this article, as I'd like to try it inside the Jerboam (I will try to post an update to this piece when the wee beastie arrives).

Here's a shot with my carrying the bag using the shoulder strap cross-torso:

As you can see, on a hefty-torsoed person like myself (I tend between an XL and a XXL shirt size), this carry method is a bit tight, snugging the bag too far up under my arm.  For me, shoulder carry makes more sense:

I often have trouble with the bag slipping off with same-side shoulder carry, especially if it is heavy, but the shoulder pad on the Jeroboam helps this some (as does my hand-on-strap hold).  Here's a shot of the same carry geometry from the side:

The Jeroboam is small enough to make a good grab-and-go bag, or a car-to-office hand carry bag even if you're lugging a larger pack or attache:

and

The Jereboam's main compartment is large enough to hold a "trade paperback"-sized book:

...and to still have plenty of room left over for a fully-stuff PSP case:

A hard-back book though, even one a bit smaller than standard, is a bit too big to fit:

The front pocket has room for a Nintendo DS and a bunch of accessories, although it doesn't have the best organization for game cards (if you could find or make an add-in to hold the cards, that would be ideal):

The back pocket too has lots of room, swallowing this "naked" PSP (there'd be space for a PSP in a case, even one of the hard-cases available):

Again, organization for game UMDs and/or memory sticks isn't ideal, and because the back pocket doesn't unzip all the way getting to smaller parts could be a bit difficult, but if you're wanting to carry a lot of little electronic gear like this it's certainly a workable solution.

The Lost-to-Spouse Methuselah

The mid-size Methuselah in foliage-green was the first of my bags that caused my wife to go, "Ooooo!  I want that!"  She's got a 13" Macbook, and the padded sleeve inside the main compartment is perfectly sized for a Macbook while still allowing for carry of a lot more stuff than her normal laptop bags.  In fact, she loaded the bag up with her computer, all its books, and three or four books (I think a couple were full-sized hardbacks) for a four day trip to Mayo Clinic, carrying the bag all day long without a complaint.

First, the obligatory shoulder and handle carry shots:

and

The next two shots show the Methuselah's main compartment with the Macbook in the carry sleeve and a large computer book in the main compartment itself.  What neither shot really conveys is that there's plenty of room for other books, even large ones:

and

The front pocket's main mesh pocket holds yet keeps visible the Mac's power cord and mouse, while the secondary mesh pockets are large enough to hold a CD jewel case or a Kestrel pocket weather station:

The wide-opening nature of this pocket makes accessing the, err, accessories really easy.

The Methuselah's back pocket is deep enough to hold a full-size hand scanner vertically (with its antenna removed) in one mesh pocket and has more-than-enough room for a small pair of binocs in the other pocket:

In few if any of the shots above did I have the bags "stress loaded" (well, okay, an amp may be considered stress loading!).  In by "stress loading" I mean I didn't fill them to capacity--these simple(r) bags can hold a lot of stuff.  In fact, with the kinds of things I like to carry (large books, heavy laptops), I suspect it would be easy to overload the bags, especially the two larger ones, but that would be my fault, not the bags', which are probably intended for lighter-weight but still bulky gear.  If space over extensive organization is important to you, then this series would be ideal.  You don't sacrifice on the quality of construction, but you will get the room you may need for larger items (with the bonus of lest cost over a similarly sized but more compatmentalized attache/case).

Update #1, 10-11-2009:  As per these new FTC rules, the three bags covered by this article were provided by the manufacturer.