Loot Crates in General

[HarleyQuinn]

Anybody else doing these? Just signed up for the Loot Crate Anime (courtesy of Anime America's Youtube Channel - lootcrate.com/animeamerica) and geeked out. I know that Horror Guru has done Horror themed loot crate videos as well.

"Loot Crate is a monthly mystery crate for geeks, gamers, and fans of pop culture, delivering cool (and often exclusive!) items like collectibles, t-shirts, home goods, and more directly to your door every month!"

There are lots of crate options including: General, Anime, Gaming, Pets, and specific ones (Halo, Firefly(!), WWE, and Gears of War)

 

[Baby Shoes]

I really like the concept but always justified there would never be one where I'd be 100% interested in the contents.

Then they announced the WWE one and had intro coupons and I came real close but justified I have enough clutter and enough diverse interests where I already spend more than enough that don't need to be doing this either.

No guarantee I won't cave eventually though...

 

[The Amazing Rando]

I was getting the regular Loot Crate for the last two years, but just cancelled because I wanted to put the money to use elsewhere. I also picked up the Deadpool Marvel box when it was out, but cancelled before any of the other ones (though I dug the Women Of Marvel one). I also subscribed to a couple Quarterly.co boxes when they were first starting out, but they are too rich for my blood now.

 

[Mik]

I got two of the regular ones - most of the things inside were from things I wasn't interested in so I canceled.

The WWE one I will be receiving - first one arrives Monday.

 

[NoCalMike]

I am assuming this thread is for all similar products as well such as Nerd Block? I do the Horror Nerd Block. For me, the fact that you get a t-shirt in every box makes it worth the money, considering buying decent horror t-shirts on their own can become pricey. The downside is that you are at the mercy of what they send you and once in awhile the shirts are stuff I'd never wear, but since I've been a subscriber (I signed up for Christmas 2015) there has only been 2 shirts that I was "meh" on but fortunately my wife is also somewhat into horror stuff so she will take whatever shirt I am lukewarm on from me.

As far as the items? They are all decent enough, some better than others of course. There is never a question of "value" though as buying the items individually it would definitely cost you more than the $30 per month you pay for the box (20ish plus shipping) I also like that they constantly survery the customers about what horror properties they'd like to see included in future boxes.

For me I tend to enjoy getting items you can actually use instead of toys. The Skull/Tombstone salt/pepper shaker set, the Zombie hand oven mitt, the zombie door stop, The Shining/RedruM key hook wall mount? Those are really cool because I can put them to actual use around the house. Luckily I have small children so most of the toys, like the plush dolls and such go to them which they appreciate. My daughter is still too young for me to try and do the uber-push of horror flicks, but she really enjoys opening the horror block up with me every month and seeing what, if any, items are in there that she can have.

So yeah for me the horror block gets a thumbs up!

 

[HarleyQuinn]

My daughter is still too young for me to try and do the uber-push of horror flicks, but she really enjoys opening the horror block up with me every month and seeing what, if any, items are in there that she can have.

So yeah for me the horror block gets a thumbs up!

Aww... the future of father/daughter bonding activities Take that, ballet!

I'm excited for the Anime crate as some of the past boxes have had shows I really digged: January had Steins Gate, Akame Ga Kill, and Kill La Kill / February had Soul Eater (if I had only known!), April had Your Lie in April, May had Fullmetal Alchemist, and August had Assassination Classroom.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Dangit...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNBYpyiahz8

No guarantee I won't cave eventually though...

 

[Youth N Asia]

Weird this hasn't come up before.

I was getting Loot Crate's for probably 18 months. After a while I realized I was giving more of the stuff away than I was keeping. So I axed it. I get the DC and Marvel sub boxes. I collect Funko stuff.

My brother gets Arcade Block and he's been very happy with it for probably a year.

 

[BlackFlagg]

I binged on a bunch of em last year, Loot Crate, Geek Fuel, Horror Block, Marvel, Star Wars....got some decent stuff Funko Pops, some shirts a couple coffee mugs and various other things but just don't have the space to keep it up.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Got my first Loot Crate with the November theme of Delicious and it was pretty neat. Highlights: Naruto Ramen Bowl, Food Wars! Kumabear Cosplay Apron, and Sweetness & Lightning Volume 1 Manga.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

December's theme is BLADE featuring Sword Art Online, Berserk, GinTama, and Bleach!

 

[BlackFlagg]

Well I got an e-mail from Geek Fuel yesterday to get me back they gave me this months box free, just had to pay shipping.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Anime's December Loot Crate came and it was pretty neat stuff. Berserk Letter Opener (Guts' Sword), Gintama Wall Scroll, Bleach Lounge Pants, and Manga of Sword Art Online: Progressive 001.

 

[Youth N Asia]

Wife tried my geek box. Total crap

Venom coffee mug. We've gotten enough mugs from subscription boxes
An uninspired Stranger Things shirt
A Magic the gathering Funko pop
A map and a comic book.

 

[NoCalMike]

One thing that annoys me is that they must use the cheapest shipping options humanly available. I am pretty sure Nerd Block ships originally from Canada and then down to NY (following the UPS tracking), so I understand that folks on the East Coast will always get their stuff first, but it seems like it takes over a week longer if not more for the West Coast to get theirs and even then if you live outside of major metropolitan areas, tack on a couple more days at least. I'm in Sacramento and a buddy of mine in the Bay Area always seems to get his 3-4 days before I do.

Mine had an original arrival date of Friday, then was notified there was a delay, and it changed to today, it was scanned into the post office in West Sacramento (next town over, 2 miles from my address at the most) and then I checked tracking today and now it says the ETA is Tuesday....? WTF? The fact that it was scanned into the postal service in West Sac yesterday at 1:05pm, how does it sit there for a few days before being delivered?

 

[HarleyQuinn]

WWE SLAM Crate has the below as an exclusive...

"Some WWE Superstars are larger than life, not for the size of their body, but for the size of their heart. This crate’s theme is DREAM BIG, and we’re celebrating the superstars who inspire us to never give up, in life or in the ring, with exclusive items, including an Authentic Tee you can’t get anywhere else."

 

[NoCalMike]

Well just as I post a gripe on Nerd/Horror Block they go and do something really awesome. So this month's shirt was a Cthulhu Christmas shirt. Apparently they were out of stock on my size they not only did they send me the shirt in one size above my selected size but for the "inconvenience" they also included a bonus shirt for me, which ended up being a Treehouse of Horror shirt. Keep in mind I knew nothing about this ahead of time, I just opened the box and there was a typed letter to explain the situation.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

That's pretty cool of them

EPISODE 14'S THEME IS Galaxy
Blast off and explore the GALAXY! We’ve got astronomical items from Cowboy Bebop, Sailor Moon, Robotech, and Space Patrol Luluco, including stellar exclusives and more!

Galaxy Ends 12/27 at 9pm PST

 

[Mik]

WWE SLAM Crate has the below as an exclusive...

"Some WWE Superstars are larger than life, not for the size of their body, but for the size of their heart. This crate’s theme is DREAM BIG, and we’re celebrating the superstars who inspire us to never give up, in life or in the ring, with exclusive items, including an Authentic Tee you can’t get anywhere else."

The second Slam Crate was definitely better than the first. It had this, which my daughter really enjoys. A pretty nice Styles shirt, a Cena figure, and a Daniel Bryan winter hat with a very small unobtrusive Yes logo on the front. Not too bad at all.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Due to getting into all the Lego Dimensions stuff with all the deep discounts during the holiday season, I signed up for the February LootCrate with the Build theme. With the discount code I found it will be like $19. Figured I should do it on the rare chance it is an exclusive mini-fig, as the other exclusives (Green Arrow from Comic Con and Supergirl from a special PS4 kit) sell super high online ($50 to $100). Even after Gamestop ran a promo for Green Arrow, those are still going around $13, almost the price of the crate itself.

Batman/Power Rangers/Tetris stuff, I should get my $20 worth, just have to figure out cancelling in time for the next one.

 

[The Dames]

I had Loot Crate for about a year. As the year went by, I got more and more junk and finally canceled. I subscribe to the Marvel Collector Corp now. At least the exclusive Funko's are worth the price of the box alone most of the time.

 

[Baby Shoes]

So got that Loot Crate box I ordered and controversy hit before it even came out. Shortly before shipping they pulled the "box exclusive" detail about Lego Dimensions. A lot of people ordered thinking there was something exclusive Dimensions and then they just included one of the sets at random that have been in discount stores. They gave me the Wonder Woman one which is one of the rarer ones and recently discontinued, so even though it defeated the purpose of my ordering, I got the most desirable. I was pretty pleased with the sweet Power Rangers shirt I got:

Got an e-mail for March's Guardians of the Galaxy Hero Box and I am debating looking into it because I wanted the sweet ass limited Edition NOVA hat

 

[BlackFlagg]

Nerd Block is doing a bi-monthly Doctor Who block, might have to hop on that and see what the first box brings. https://www.nerdblock.com/doctor-who Is an expensive one though $49.99 if you do the 1 at a time, so it def better have some quality stuff in it. That price includes the shipping though, unlike the others where you pay for it on top of the monthly price, so I guess if one box includes the same amount as 2 of the regular monthly ones it'd be pretty much equal price wise.

 

[BlackFlagg]

Nerd Block is also doing a special Star Wars Celebration box, https://www.nerdblock.com/star-wars-celebration It's $89.99 but the items are all convention exclusives so def has potential.

 

[BlackFlagg]

For anyone interested Loot Crate is doing a Sports based crate https://sportscrate.com/ promo code SPORTSCRATE10 to get $10 off the first one.

 

[NoCalMike]

I haven't been overjoyed with the t-shirt designs in Horror block lately. In the last say 4-5 months, at least 3 of the shirts have been on the "cartoon-y/cutesy" tip. I am more a fan of either straight up putting a movie's box art on the shirt or some type of design from the movie itself, possibly even just the movie's title. I don't like the designs where it is bordering on an animated version of the villain's face splashed on the shirt. I expect those shirts to come every once in awhile, but 3 times in the last 5-6 months seems too frequent.

 

[NoCalMike]

Looks like Nerd Block inc has gone out of business. Problems have supposedly been going on behind the scenes for awhile, but it became visible to customers starting with May's block where not only was shipping very delayed but most people didn't get the shirt due to "printing errors" Then June's block was delayed even longer and ended up just being random items thrown in from previous blocks. July's block never came at all, and then August was never charged because it's over with.........for now.

Supposedly they've been struggling with funding for awhile, not sure if they weren't able to keep up with the customer base growth, but they haven't been paying carrier fees and owed tons of money to artists and content creators they made deals with for items including in the box.

Was fun while it lasted. I've looked into other similar horror related mystery boxes, but none seem as good. For me, getting a shirt every month really sold it.