It’s a new Loot Crate! September’s theme is ROBOTICS, featuring items from Aliens, Star Trek, and more!
Here’s some blurb:
LootCrate is a monthly box full of geeky awesomeness. As well as their classic original Loot Crate they have several other box types, including boxes for pets, gaming, anime, and wearables!
I’m reviewing their original box, the Loot Crate, which contains 4 – 5 items each month, including exclusive and licensed items, with a value of at least $45.
They have four subscription levels:
- 1 month – £24 p/m
- 3 months – £22 p/m
- 6 months – £21 p/m
- 12 months – £21 p/m plus a bonus t-shirt
- All crates include a t-shirt; you select your size when you order your subscription.
Well, let’s have a look at what’s on offer this month!
Here’s their box. It won’t go through the mail box of course, but hopefully you’ll be in when it arrives, because it’s always an exciting moment.
This one rattles a bit. I wonder why?
So this is what I saw when I opened up the box. I see the t-shirt, and Aliens, and R2-D2. I can see why it seemed a bit empty.
Something from Blade Runner! The new movie! I can’t wait until it comes out.
This is a Wallace Corporation T-Shirt.
Loot Crate t-shirts are always fab, and they’re finally making them 100% cotton as standard. This one is gorgeously soft as well.
Oh, and see the logo? It glows in the dark!
Remember that little Aliens box sitting next to the t-shirt?
This is what was inside.
And when you put all these pieces together…
This is called Queen Takes Bishop Mini Figure.
Brilliant pun, huh?
That’s an amazing pose right there.
Fantastic detailing. Damn, she looks pissed.
Now, if you did not cry in this dramatic and pivotal moment in the movie, or at least when poor Bishop dragged himself across the floor to save Ripley, you have a heart of stone and don’t deserve the genius that is Aliens.
Rant over.
Getting back to this fantastic figure, this is the first of hopefully many collaborations between Loot Crate and PhatMojo.
OK, when you see the next two items it’ll be clear why the box looked so empty.
This is an Star Wars R2-D2 Incredibuild.
It’s a bit like a jigsaw. You pop out pieces from a precut sheet of wood and fit them together to make a model.
The wood is natural coloured so you can decorate it how you like. It could be true to life, or just go crazy!
This is another exclusive Loot Crate item, a comic book: Star Trek: The Next Generation Mirror Universe.
Mirror universes are a pretty common theme in sci-fi and comic book worlds, and this one tells the story of Data in the Star Trek universe.
Sorry about the reflections, the pages are pretty shiny!
Finally, this month’s Loot Pin.
This is Loot Bot. Isn’t he cute? Look at him waving at us! I love the circuit board pattern on the backing as well.
Also at the bottom of the crate is this month’s menu booklet.
The menu also shows you this month’s crate transformation. Fortunately it’s not at all complicated this month.
All you need to do is unfold the box, turn it inside out, and refold.
(Mine didn’t want to stay together so I had to tape it.)
It’s a pretty cute design this month, a box of cereal for robots!
There’s a lot of detail as well. Someone’s clearly spent a lot of time thinking about the blurb for this fantasy cereal!
Loot Crate claims that each box contains at least $45 (about £35) worth of goodies. Most if not all items are Loot Crate exclusive, so it’s difficult to assign a commercial value. However I can sort of find equivalents and guesstimate, though I don’t use eBay as I find their prices are not a useful guide to value. I’ll also add my thoughts as I go along.
T-shirt – geeky t-shirts usually retail around £10.
Aliens Mini Figure: this is a Loot Crate exclusive, and I can’t find an equivalent. PhatMojo are kind of hard to price, so I’ll be generous and put it at £10. It’s a pretty small figure (though it’s very cool) so I think that’s a fair value.
Star Trek Comic: Again, an exclusive. Comics are difficult to value because so much depends on their rarity. I guess as this is an exclusive I’ll call it £10, though I think it’s a bit on the generous side.
R2-D2 model: I can’t find this exact thing. You can find it easily on Amazon in a set with a book included, which costs £14.71. But as there is no book (shame) I’ll put this at £8.
Pin – again, total exclusive, but comic pins are around £5.
Total: £44
So even for your 1-month subscription price you’ve got plenty of bang for your buck.
Here are my thoughts:
The t-shirt is awesome. My husband was most put out it was too small for him. Even though it’s too big for me for regular wear (it’s size L, which is pretty baggy on a size 10 person!), I wear my Loot Crate t-shirts in bed. Though I’ll be tempted to wear this one anyway when Big C and I watch the new Blade Runner movie.
My husband and I are also both massive fans of the Alien franchise, and we both adore this figure. Even though it’s pretty small it’s got great details. Did you notice the white ‘blood’ around Bishop’s mouth? This is a fantastic figure.
I’ll say now that I’m not a Star Trek fan, though I did enjoy recent movie reboots. So the comic feels a bit meh for me. However I’m sure Trekkies will love it.
The R2-D2 model is quite nice, but tiny. Apparently it measures less than 3″ in height when completed. I discovered when I was trying to price it that it retails as a set with a book. I can’t actually find the model-only version for sale anywhere. Having discovered this I can’t help but feel a bit bilked. It’s totally fine to include non-exclusive items, but I don’t think it’s a great idea to make them a less good version of the one you can get on Amazon. It would be fantastic to have a book as well, as frankly, I think a book has a lot more long-term use. Oh well.
I do like the pin. It’s really cute and fun, and a great addition to the collection.
This might sound picky, but I don’t think the overall aesthetic is very good. Two flat items make the box look really empty, so even though I was excited to see something from Aliens, my initial reaction was disappointment. Also, the menu booklet looks kind of dull. The basic layout is the same every month, but previous menus have been a lot more colourful. This one was not a feast for the eyes, and reading it was not very exciting.
Also, there’s nothing ‘useful’ in the box. The July and August boxes both contained something that could actually be used. I love having things which are both geeky and practical, as there’s a limit to how many figures and stuff I can fit into my house!
Despite my pickiness, this box is overall fine. The theme is well represented, and they’ve fit four franchises inside.
The value is good, but as I said, two flat items (especially as I’m not so keen on them) made it feel a bit lacking. It just so happens that I’m not a fan of one of the franchises. I love Star Wars, but I don’t really want to make a tiny wooden R2-D2.
But fortunately the t-shirt and the figure are fantastic, and the pin is a lovely design, so they more or less make up for the rest.
A different version of this review was first published on allsubscriptionboxes.co.uk.
