You may find this hard to believe, but for once the lateness of this subscription box review is not at all my fault! Loot Crate has been showing up later and later in the month for the past several months, until finally this time it didn’t show up in the right month at all. What’s up with that? I have no idea, but I just thought I’d clear up that it is not, in fact, my fault.
August’s Loot Crate was the ‘Villains 2’ box, the sequel to last year’s rather popular ‘Villains’ box. So did it live up to the legacy? Let’s check out the video!
Did you notice a distinct lack of enthusiasm? I’ll explain why as we go through the breakdown.
Los Pollos Hermanos (“Breaking Bad”) apron:
Now I have to admit that it’s interesting to see something different like this apron in one of these boxes, but it just doesn’t appeal to me personally. The reason isn’t the fact that I haven’t actually seen a “Breaking Bad” episode with “Los Pollos Hermanos” in it (don’t flog me!) but rather just that I don’t wear aprons and probably never will. I can’t really see my husband using it either, even though he loved “Breaking Bad”, so that makes this product pretty much a bust for me. And that’s too bad since this apron takes up the vast majority of the box’s value. Believe it or not, a “Los Pollos Hermanos” apron retails for $30 on multiple different websites, including the official “Breaking Bad” online store. I can’t even fathom someone paying that for an apron, but that’s what the internet tells me so I guess I have to accept it.
DC Comics “The Joker” painted wooden figure (exclusive):
I may have been a little hard on this item when I was doing the video; it is pretty cute, it’s just that it feels less like a collectible to me and more like a craft. I don’t dislike it, exactly, I just feel that of the wide world of Joker items that Loot Crate could have chosen, this chunky wooden desk toy is on the lower side of the list of things I would have chosen. It’s well-painted though, and it is an exclusive to Loot Crate subscribers, so there’s that. The other available options are Batman and Superman, and I half feel like I should pick up Batman just so chunky wooden Joker has someone to hang out with on the shelf. The other options go for about $13, so I’m going to go ahead and call that the value of this item.
“Captain America: The First Avenger” Hydra lapel pin:
I usually sigh a little inwardly when I get pins in my subscription boxes because most of them come with collectible pins anyway, and they often enough come with those packs of 4-6 round pins with stock images on them. This lapel pin, however, is very different, and I actually rather like it. It’s a brooch-style pin of Hydra’s octopus-skull symbol, and it’s also an official prop replica from the movie, which is pretty cool. That said, while I’m happy to have it it’s definitely not something I would ever purchase for myself, given it’s $20 price tag. Yikes!
“Venom” (“Spider-Man”) 16 oz 3D mug:
I would probably like this mug a lot more if it weren’t for the fact that I cringe and sigh every time I open one of these boxes and find a mug inside. Our household is pretty full up on mugs (including a couple of geeky ones we bought for ourselves, like my Thor mug and the hubby’s Batman one), and it seems like another one comes via one of these boxes every two or three months. As I said in the video I’ll probably just end up putting this one on the shelf with the rest of my Marvel stuff because it is pretty cool-looking, and Venom is one of my favorite Marvel villains ever. We also apparently could have gotten Carnage, which would have been okay, but I prefer Venom. I found this on several different websites, and the average price seems to be about $15.
Loot Crate mini-magazine and pin:
I don’t usually include these two items in the list, but I thought I’d throw them a mention this time around simply because this particular Loot Crate only had four items, whereas they usually have five or six. They’re not really worth much, except collector value, but I’ll assign them $1 each just to say I did.
Total approximate value of box: $79
Total approximate cost to me: $40
So there are a few things to say for sure. Right off the bat I want to point out the fact that the cost to me has gone up even more recently. The overall cost of Loot Crate has always been less than the boxes in the Nerd Block family because their cost is a set value of $30 US while Nerd Block’s is $20 plus shipping and handling (and said shipping and handling is outrageous), but everything has gone up recently because the Canadian dollar has been pretty firmly in the toilet. Because of this even Loot Crate is getting to the point where it’s hardly worth it for me to waste my money.
That said, I can’t argue with the fact that the value was there for this box – in fact, I think it was the highest value box I’ve ever gotten from Loot Crate. However, as I mentioned earlier the overwhelming majority of that value is caught up in one item, and it just so happens to be the item I like the least, unfortunately. So we find ourselves balancing on that dangerous fence again: is the box worth the value or not?
Aside from cost and value arguments, I do have to say that I did not enjoy the “Villains 2” box nearly as much as I did the “Villains” box. My husband suggested that this might be partly due to the fact that I’m fondly remembering the “Villains” box as the first one I ever got from Loot Crate, so I did myself a favor and went back to look at what was in that original box. And you know what? I stand by my original feeling. Though the “Villains” box wasn’t as wonderfully amazing as I was remembering it to have been, it was still better than this month’s box. It had the “Joki” t-shirt, which I love, the Deadpool socks, which I also love, and a Darth Vader keychain (which broke on me, but I loved it while I had it), among other small things. None of the stuff was way up there in value, but it was all fun stuff, and there was quite a bit of it. This month’s box has items of much higher value, but there are only four items, one of them is a total bust, and another I’ll likely never use for its intended purpose.
So there you have it, I guess. It wasn’t the worst Loot Crate box I’ve gotten, but it wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as I was expecting it to be, and the fact that the cost to me has gone up makes the sting hurt just a bit more.
What did you think? Was the “Villains 2” box a win or a loss? What was your favorite item? Least favorite? Do you feel like the box is (still) worth the cost if you’re outside the US? Please let me know!
No Page Left Blank 