I posted a while back about the Isaburo 1.2.3 modular pack system, which Adam Greenfield has been comparing against the Boblbee Megalopolis for the last couple of years. Adam got around to writing up his comparison of the two pack systems, and the Boblbee appears to have a slight edge over the Isaburo, although he finds neither of them to be a perfect solution to the needs of the highly-mobile set.
Could I recommend one over the other? This is one of those classic “it depends” questions. (Among other things, for most non-Tokyoites, the Boblbee is going to be infinitely easier to get your hands on.) Both of these bags give me certain headaches, and both of them prevent certain others. You won’t have missed that the Megalopolis and the City 1-2-3 are almost perfectly complementary: where one fails, the other succeeds, and almost invariably, the converse is true as well. It’s infuriating. One wishes that there were some way to recombine the DNA of these two efforts and produce the perfect rucksack.
Looks like I won’t be bugging Adam about picking up the Isaburo next time he’s in Tokyo, but I’m not entirely happy with what I’ve heard about the Boblbee, either. Hopefully some mad scientist comes along who can breed the next generation of hardshell packs to have the best features of both.
