”

Introduction

When visiting the Channel Expo trade show in Birmingham a few months ago, I stumbled upon one booth with a product that really caught by eye. The booth was owned by “TheGamingCollection.co.uk” who were demoing a new version of the classical gaming chair, this one called the Renegade. It features speakers in headrests, 12 individual motors for rumble response from the chair itself, and a built in drinks holder and storage space. Needless to say, with my quick impression at the show I had to get one for review, and thanks to GamingCollection, that was made possible. So today it’s time for me to take a second, more detailed look at the Renegade Gaming Chair.

Features

• 12 game-synch’d vibration motors
• Headrest mounted 3D stereo speakers
• Game-triggered lighting effects
• Compatible with all game consoles, handhelds, PC and home theatres
• Use any wireless controller, steering wheel or other gaming accessories
• Maximum gaming comfort
• Stylish racing seat design
• Variable massage mode
• MP3, headphone jacks
• Stores easily

Specifications

Click to enlarge

Box and Bundle

The box for the Renegade is, in a word, ridiculous. It’s absolutely huge, measuring over a metre in length and almost the same for width and height. Don’t expect to be throwing this in the back of your hatchback, let’s put it that way.

NB. In fact it’s so big, it doesn’t fit in our XSR photography area.

Click to enlarge

Once opened, there are lots of bits to take out which is always exciting. You have the arms of the chair, the top half, base, a pack of screws with an allen key, a small fitting manual, power cables, audio connectors and the side mounted drinks holder. No real extras, but lots of parts and they all come very well wrapped in padded foam sleeves.

Building the Renegade Gaming Chair

Before I can get started on what the chair itself looks like, we’ve got to build the damn thing. This obviously is designed to cut down on packaging size even more as in it’s full upright position, the box would have to be at least twice this size.

Disregarding the manual in typical male arrogance I dived in with my screwdrivers only to remember I had to use the annoying, slightly greasy allen key. With key in hand I first attached the two arm wrests to the base, securing each end firmly with 3 screws.

Click to enlarge

Even when fully tightened the front of the arm wrests don’t sit quite flush with the base of the chair. It doesn’t affect it in a practical sense at all, but aesthetically, it does mar it a little bit.

Click to enlarge

Once the arms were attached it was a question of fitting the top half of the chair. Ask anyone who’s ever built a chair before (PC chairs usually), attaching the top half is always the biggest pain. However, due to the base being much sturdier than your average PC chair, this wasn’t quite as bad; though it’s still quite fiddly. To attach the two halves, you have to slide two plastic runners situated at the bottom of the top half, into the base in the correct position. Obviously from the angle you are forced to hold the chair to do this makes it impossible to see where you’re putting it, but a bit of guesswork will get you there quick enough.

Click to enlarge

One thing that mustn’t be forgotten at this point is the cable connections. In the small gap between the base and top half of the Renegade are 4 small connectors, 2 from either end of the chair; these must be connected or the headrest mounted speakers won’t work.

Click to enlarge

The only other bit of “building” that must be done to finish construction of the Renegade is to attach the included cup holder. This is a simple slide/snap on affair and can be completed in seconds.

Click to enlarge

And we’re done.

Click to enlarge