After umming and erring for a while I decided that I needed a new bag to cart my laptop etc around with. Up until this point I'd been using a normal backpack with a few big chunky pockets and it'd been doing me well. I've got a backpack fetish and I'm not ashamed of it, so I took a gander across the internet to see what else there was about!

Anyway, I was nerding around the www.addict.co.uk store and noticed they did a Recordpak MK 4 record bag. Having never seen this before, I went about researching it on their site.

First Impressions:

On first impressions, it looks pretty nice. I chose the fetching Olive Camo. They do have another colour for sale on their site, "Stealth Black" but it was all about the camo for me. From what I can gather online, they seem to do different colours overseas as there was a snow camo one that I saw on another website also.

Build Quality:

The build quality of this bag looks solid, although I am not too sure about the zips durability as they're not a known brand such as YKK, however, the only way to know for sure is by seeing if they stand the test of time. The bag itself is made of a heavy duty Poly Ripstop canvas and the sides are held out with removable plastic covered cardboard (like you normally get at the bottom of a sports bag). I don't see these lasting and will most probably replace them with some perspex or harder plastic or something.

The accessories compartment also features a small pocket big enough for for my mouse, as well as a few little ones for my 3.5mm jack adaptors, some ear plugs and a couple of pens. These are all made from canvas material, and it would have been great if they were made from a more elastic material so I could hold my torch in place. On one side is a pocket that has enough room for a wallet, phone or few leads, but not much else. I use this to store a long 3.5mm jack to RCA lead, 2 spare USB leads and my torch for when I can't see behind a desk!

These pockets are protected from the elements by a cover that clips into place with four clips. These stop bits falling out and keeps the rain off of your hardware! The additional clips on the sides are a little excessive, but a nice added feature.

The Addict Recordpak Mk4 also comes with a combination padlock allowing you to lock the vinyl compartment to stop people nosing around your collection or getting to the good bits! I would also have liked to see a compartment where you could put a card saying who this bag belonged to. You never know when you'll come across someone honest who would return such a bag of plenty had it been found!