Loot Crate Unboxing and Review for October 2014

Of the subscription boxes I’ve been trying (Nerd Block Jr not-withstanding), Loot Crate has definitely been my favorite thus far. Regardless, I expected that this month’s box wouldn’t be all that great for me, because this month’s theme was “Fear”. That said, the box was still half-decent and included two items that I rather enjoy. First, check out the vid:

Now, for a breakdown!

Dead Rising 3 Custom Weapon collectible: This is an exclusive item and, as such, is difficult to put a value to. I didn’t realize it at first, but it’s actually a pen if you pull the saw end off. Personally I don’t think it’s worth a whole lot since it’s just a small plastic thing, but I’m going to give it a value of about $5 since I can imagine a game store charging about that much for it.
“Death by Kitten” t-shirt: At first I was a little taken aback by this shirt, but I quickly decided that it’s actually pretty cool. It’s different, kinda cute, and kinda scary all at the same time. And as an exclusive, I’m assigning it my go-to value of about $15.
“Fear” Collectible Pin: What do I usually assign to these Loot Crate buttons? About $1? I think that’s it.
Toxic Waste candy: Since you only get one piece and you can normally buy a pack of 40 for about $6, the value of this item is pretty much negligible.
Loot Crate Membership Card:
I guess they hand these out after you’ve hung on to your membership for a few months? I dunno. I guess it’s worth about $1
“How to Survive a Sharknado” book: Now this is what I’m talking about. As both a reader and a loser, this book really appeals to me. Two thumbs up, and also it’s worth about $13
“Walking Dead” artwork: It turns out that this is an exclusive “Super Emo Friends” print by JSalvador, which is pretty awesome if you’re into that stuff. Now, I looked into it, and JSalvador charges about $17 for his prints, so that’s what I’m going to assign to this Walking Dead drawing, but I just want it on record that I would never pay that much for a postcard-sized print.
“Slashes and Bites” temporary tattoos: I believe these tattoos are a Loot Crate exclusive as well, so I’m assigning them about $2, since that’s probably what you’d pay for something similar in stores.
“Smite” costume download code: Smite is a free-to-play game, and to be honest, I’m not willing to put in the time into figuring out what these costume downloads are worth. I’m assuming it’s like similar games where you have to pay real money to unlock certain things. That said, I don’t believe in those kinds of games, and I’m giving the code away, so I’m giving it a value of $1 just for the sake of giving it a value.
Loot Crate “Fear” Magazine plus 3D glasses: I usually don’t mention these magazines, but it occurs to me that I probably should because they put a good bit of effort into them. This month’s magazine was printed in 3D and comes with the glasses to view it with, and I’m going to assign the pair a value of about $3.
Walking Dead comic #132: This comic has a variant cover especially for Loot Crate, which is pretty neat. The cover price for the original version of the comic is $3, so I’m going to make it $4 for the fact that it’s a variant cover.

Total approximate value of box: $62
Total cost to me: $30

So as you can see, there was quite a bit in this month’s box (even though a few of those things were really small), and the value is there. The only real comment that I have about the box’s value is that I would never in a million years pay $17 for that little art print. No offense to JSalvador, because his stuff is really cute, but it just seems like a godawful amount of money for something so small. On the other side of things, the t-shirt and the Sharknado book really made the box for me, so everything else is really just fluff. In conclusion, it was a good box, but previous Loot Crates were better, in my opinion.

Horror Block Unboxing and Review for August 2014

By far the best member of the Nerd Block family, in my opinion, is the very young Horror Block. There have only been two shipments of this block so far, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed them both. First, check out the unboxing video:

And now a breakdown of the items:

Cult Classics Jigsaw Killer figure: Figures like these tend to vary in price depending on where you’re buying them, but the average cost seems to be about $20
Bone Pen: This cute little novelty can be yours for about $2
Alien t-shirt: As usual, I’m assigning the shirt a value of about $15
“Vintage” Tales from the Crypt comic: I’m going to be honest, I really have no idea how to price this one because I can’t find it anywhere online and I’m not willing to spend any more time searching, so I’m going to assign it the value of an average comic today, $5
Zombie wall decal: I couldn’t find the exact decal (the one I keep finding online is the same head but also includes a hand), so I’m going to assign this approximately half the cost of what I’m finding, which is approximately $10
Rue Morgue Magazine: And, as always, if you enjoy Rue Morgue this item is valued at about $10

Total approximate value of box: $62
Total cost to me: $33

So the value for this box was definitely there, mainly because of the Cult Classics figure. There are a lot of characters that I or my husband would have preferred over the Saw killer, but it’s still a great addition to the box. One thing that I will say (that my husband pointed out) is that if we were “serious” collectors we would probably be very annoyed with this Horror Block because the packaging for the Saw killer figure was totally crushed in order to get it in the box. As it stands, we’re the kind of (apparently not “serious”) collectors who rip everything out of the packaging so that we can enjoy it in all it’s glory, but I just thought I’d point that out.

The shirt is also a plus, in my opinion, and the wall decal will make a cute Halloween decoration. All in all, it was a pretty good box. Not as good as last month, but as I mentioned in the video it’s really hard to beat a Sharknado Funko. 😀

Horror Block Unboxing and Review July 2014

One could say that I’m becoming a little bit obsessed with these subscription boxes, and one would probably be correct. But I was actually not going to bother trying this particular subscription box at first. Being a box for “horror” fans, it seemed like something my husband might enjoy more than me, and since I haven’t been having what I would call “a lot of luck” with the other versions of Nerd Block, I initially said “screw it” to the Horror Block.

But then I spent almost a full month thinking about how July’s Horror Block was going to include a Sharknado item, and on the very last day before block sales close I found myself signing up. Guess what? I’m glad I did. Please check out my unboxing video first:

Did I seem a little excited about the Sharknado Funko? I may have been a little excited.

So here’s the breakdown:

Sharknado Funko Pop figure: $12
NIghtmare Before Christmas series 1 trading figure: I couldn’t find a single figure for sale, only the completed sets. The set of 6 is going for about $25 on some sites, so we’ll just say that a single fig is worth about $4
“Frog Brothers Vampire Hunters” shirt: pretty sure this is another Nerd Block exclusive (does anyone know if they only do exclusive shirts?), but it seems to be really nice quality, so I’m giving it $20
Zumbies “Walking Thread” doll: there seems to be some discrepancy over the value of these, so I’m averaging out to about $7
Aliens pins: could not find these anywhere, so I’m going to go with $1 per pin, for a total of $4
Rue Morgue magazine: $10

Total approximate value  of box: $57
Total cost to me: $33

So right off the bat, the value isn’t too bad. Personally I would never pay $10 for that magazine, but even if you knock it down to what I would pay for a magazine, I still got about 160% value in the box. As you may have been able to tell from the video, the Funko was what sealed it for me, but some of the other stuff was pretty cool too. None of it is stuff that I would ever purchase for myself, but I don’t mind that I got them. Jack Skellington is now hanging out on my shelf, and I’m trying to figure out what to do with the Zumbie doll that won’t be likely to wind up with the chain broken. The Aliens pins might end up on my large luggage as a cute way to distinguish it in the airport, but I’m not sure yet.

All in all, I totally thought this Horror Block was worth getting, and I’m happy that I did. I just hope that the awesomeness continues!