BCB Ultimate Survival Kit is PATHETIC

The Ultimate Survival Kit from BCB

First impressions: The aluminium container looks sturdy.

Ok that’s it, the rest is a bad story. The Ultimate survival kit retails in the UK for approximately 30 pounds sterling, it contains basically a few pounds of junk! And is a gimmick. I’ll explain why.

The synthetic rubber seal of the lid doesn’t sit right and from it’s design will never seat correctly into the lid. 

Synthetic rubber seal does not seat properly and came twisted

In fact when you invert the lid as you do, ie place it onto the bottom half of the container, the seal falls out immediately or becomes misaligned.

The contents: let’s start with what was good.

A reasonably sized (in thickness) fire steel BCB brand made in China. Ok that’s it.

The other garbage?:

A tampon, they don’t cost anything and are a gimmick, I’ll explain later.

 A chemical light, which are good but this one was already broken inside. That is the glass ampoule containing mixture “B as apposed to the other component, had already been spent up. A common problem when supplied like this, as nasty people think it’s fun to break these and since they can not be seen due to the light protective foil covering. Used to happen all the time at our local boating shop.

A cheapo folding multi-tool brand less, very poorly made.

A condom, again useless for real water collection without making a protective carrying cover to support the weight of water to be of any use in it. They also cost nothing.

Unbranded wire saw with crimped looped ends. Must be used with toggles!

Crappy looking button compasses, I’d rather make my own than trust these. Can’t use them walk a bearing only know which is NSE or W. If you loose/wear glasses, you will  never be able to read such a small face. Total gimmick.

Take away food sachets of table salt (ever heard of drinking your own sweat?). Better to supply real hydration salts, ie Gastrolyte etc.

Water sterilization tabs (ok these could be useful)

Zip lock bag, waste of time, cost them nothing to supply this.

A wooden pencil (assuming you have some dry paper to write on or haven’t lost the plastic instruction sheet).

A candle, alright, this is ok if it is a long burn one (I’ll be testing it too don’t worry about that).

A silver mayday reflector (come on you can make this out of any shiny surface by poking a hole in it) of dubious quality (use watch face, optical glasses, knife blade, box that all of this crap came in etc. Cost them nothing.

Fishing hooks and sinkers and a small amount of fishing line, this is just ok.

Not enough line to catch anything except a headache trying to do so.

Some BCB branded pathetically weak looking book matches

A small section of broken hacksaw blade for the fire steel striker

Some thin nylon cord

A small amount of wire, labelled as “Gold wire” Gold in color maybe LOL!

Some plastic survival instructions (ok these are ok if the one reading it doesn’t need glasses) Bit late to be reading though if you are opening this kit for the first time.

Safety pins can be useful.

A plastic whistle (mine was broken- a small part and choking hazard had come loose, I had to put it back into the whistle. Cheap garbage.

Needle and weak looking thread and a two small plastic buttons.

Some more thin nylon cord.

Finally a single edged razor blade (ok this is good)

Summary

Now I will explain in detail why this is rip off but more importantly something not be relied upon if the situation turns bad.

The BCB Ultimate survival kit doesn’t contain not one piece of first aid material (I won’t make any crude jokes about the condom or included tampon). Not one plaster; alcohol pad, or sterile bandage. This is a MUST, if it is only one of each.

The fish hooks and tackle is OK but better to replace them with quality hardened steel stainless fishhooks for a serious survival kit.

Multi-tool, the jaws did not meet, ie close together properly, a sign of poor workmanship/lack of quality. Maybe in pinch you could use them to extricate a fishhook from your lunch! I’d throw them away to recycling.

Packets of take away/take out food salt??? Ok so I see they are intended for re-hydration or just making that survival meal a little less bland, maybe even treating some diarrhoea? Better to have supplied proper re-hydration salts, as we don’t just sweat sodium chloride, what about all those other electrolytes?

Condoms are a gimmick when it comes to transporting water. Firstly, they do break/tear/easily get holes in them, and can not be relied upon without some woven or cloth bag for protection. You can’t easily collect water with them as they are collapsible and require support.

 Maybe you can cook something in the tin that all of the above came it but then you won’t be cooking much. It’s better to learn or know how to cook directly on or in the coals of the fire or smoke something.

If this is the Ultimate Survival Kit then I’d really hate to see the other versions. Don’t get hung up on this gimmick and pay 30 pounds for it.

I’d include solid fuel tablets (if you are not flying with the kit), first aid, fire steel, quality hooks and 5 to 10kg breaking strength fishing line. Tampons and condoms are for survival mall ninjas.

2/10, one for the cheapo steel and one for the aluminium box, which by the way is not really even splash proof.

BCB may be involved with Military organisations but seriously guys, this is far from an Ultimate Survival Kit, more likely an Ultimate survival gimmick. If I have to make a comparison to the Kizlyar Supreme Survival kit then with the exclusion of the tin and it’s cheapo credit card knife, then the Kizlyar Kit is far better in contents.