Humanity does a lot of sitting. Sitting when we work, sitting when we relax, and, of course, sitting when we game. A few years back, office chair sales went bananas to accommodate all the extra sitting time when we were all locked in our homes, and bottom comfort and back support has remained in high demand ever since, resulting in keeping people’s posteriors well-propped becoming something of an art form. So, does the Boulies Master Chair have what it takes to make your buttocks and back feel like their ensconced on a cloud, or is it more akin to perching on one of those weird butt-hating blue seats of despair located in bus stops all over the land?
First off, the box the Master Chair Rex arrives in is insanely heavy. The delivery man was literally crying sweat and weeping tears dragging the enormous behemoth along my driveway. Unless you’re an Olympic Power Weightlifter, it’s probably best not to attempt to lift the box on your own. Also, it’s probably worth not trying to lift the weighty chair up the stairs after it’s been built, as I did, promptly sending my back muscles into spasm. This did, however, fill that first time sitting in the chair with relief for my suffering body.
Building such a heavy chair was also a challenge, and not one to undertake without a protein shake and a DIY partner. The instruction book – well, more like a leaflet if I’m being entirely honest – is hilariously unclear. A poor English translation and murky images make for much confusion. Fortunately, I had enough DIY experience to figure things out, but if you’re new to the office chair building game, get ready for some head scratching befuddlement as you attempt to put the Master Chair together.
The actual individual pieces of the chair feel very high quality, though, with plenty of aluminium, steel, and solid building blocks. When you do figure out which bit connects to what bit, they clunk together in a satisfying manner. Bolts are chunky and robust, ensuring that once the chair is built it’s absolutely going to stay in one piece.
Once you’ve sat yourself upon the imposing chair, it does rather feel like you’re an evil emperor plotting to take over the Universe. Still, you’ll definitely be a comfy evil emperor plotting to take over the universe. The style leans toward the gamer end of the market, with that overall car seat style, instead of the “lots of floating panels” that’s more common to offices, but it’s a mature take without even a hint of neon orange stitching.
Every aspect of the chair can be tinkered with until you find your optimum set-up. The 4D arm rests can be moved to pretty much any position – up, down, shifting front-to-back and side-to-side, and twisting – and then lock in place, and there’s adjustable lumbar support built into the back that can be increased or decreased using side-mounted knobs to find just the right amount of pressure to keep your back in a good shape. Even just sitting down, there’s 15º of tilt in the base, and then the back can tilt back and lock into position at 15º increments until you’re practically lying down. With the Master Rex variant, you can flip out the leg rest and you can have a little snooze, even.
The material of our review unit, Ultraflex PU leather, is luxurious to behold and is surprisingly easy to clean, as an early accident with a chocolate milkshake aptly demonstrated. You can also opt for a water repellant fabric, or go all-in with Nappa leather (at a cost). While there’s claims that the castors are friendly to wooden floors, I wasn’t able to test this as I have carpets, but they’re simply plastic and the sheer weight of the chair would have me suggesting you still invest in a floor protector.
With a starting price of £370 (currently on offer for £290) for the standard Master Chair, this is great value when stacked up against the similarly featured AndaSeat Kaiser 3 (£400) or Secretlab Titan Evo (£469 after discount). The Master Rex does bump the price up by £40 for the leg rest to £410 (discounted to £330), while larger humans have the Master Max as an option.
The only thing is that it turns out this style of chair just isn’t for me. It’s so heavy and cumbersome to move and so blinking massive that I find myself returning to my old budget priced office chair more often than not.