December Marvel Collector Corps Crate

The December Marvel Collector Corps crate theme was "Guardians of the Galaxy" and cost $45 USD, or about $70 NZD. This crate has been slammed pretty hard online and I'm posting it up pretty late but lets see what we got.

The contents:
Scarf
Comic
Star Lord mug
Groot and Rocket bobble ornaments
Pin and patch

So I accidentally wiped my camera memory card before pulling the pictures of everything still in boxes so this photo is all I'm going to do. If you have seen the past crates I've posted I'm sure you can guess why the internet was furious with this one...

Lets start with the big item, the mug. It is a 3D mug, an exclusive version to fit in with Funkos mug range (like this.) I said this with the Venom mug I got from Loot crate, I hate this kind of mug. They are hard to use, ugly and have to be hand washed. At least this one has a passable paint job, but a simple printed mug would have been WAY better. A lot of nerd-rage was around this replacing an actual Pop! figure, which everyone would have preferred, myself included.

Replacing the shirt this month is a winter themed scarf. It is a nice scarf, feels like it is good quality and the pattern is good. Its a shame that this arrived in the middle of summer and that it doesn't get cold enough for me to ever wear scarves. Would have preferred a shirt, much like most other people not living in the colder climates.

The two ornament figures are the high point of the box but I am unsure as to who thought making bobble heads into ornaments would be a good idea. As it stands, the figures can't stand by themselves so I will have to hang them to display them, making them no longer bobble...

That leaves the comic, pin and patch. The cover on the comic is nice, but the actual content of the comic is a bit poor. Half of it is about Thing, with cameos from Rocket. Pin and patch are good and will add to the pile.

So this was a huge letdown of a box. It furthers my stance that holiday themes are a bad idea and that Funko/Marvel had a good formula to the boxes so why change it? After the feedback they have had I imagine things could go back to the old formula pretty quickly, but it may not be soon enough. The next box theme is "Deadpool" which leaves me in a sticky situation. I could drop the subscription because of this box and miss out on some cool stuff (assuming they learnt their lesson), or choose to keep the subscription and end up with more junk (because Deadpool may already have been finalised). It is a lot of money to gamble with and I have to figure it out before I am billed in February. Or forget and have it decided for me, whatever works!

October Marvel Collector Corps Crate

The October Marvel Collector Corps crate theme was "Villains" and cost $45 USD, or about $70 NZD. This crate had a lot to live up to after the last one, lets see what we got.

The contents:

Shirt featuring several villains sketches

Comic

Morbius Pop!

Loki Dorbz

Venom keychain

Pin and patch

The shirt isn't too bad but is lacking colour. It is still a high quality shirt though and the grey is a nice change from the more common black ones from other boxes.

The comic is another variant cover. It seems like they were going with a Halloween theme a bit with this box as the cover incorporates zombie villains. The pin is of Green Goblin and the patch has Red Skull.

The figures on offer this time are a Morbius Pop, Loki Dorbz and Venom keychain. This is a pretty solid haul, 3 figures is pretty much what I want out of every box. The Loki and Venom are pretty cool, Morbius is a pretty odd choice though which points more strongly to the Halloween theme. Morbius is also the random drop in this box, he comes in zombie and normal forms.

I've spoken to a couple other people and the vibe around this box wasn't great. Some videos online say the same thing. I think this is definitely down to the Morbius Pop. If either of the pin or patch characters were swapped with Morbius I think people would have been much happier. As I said above, 3 figures is awesome, so I'm pretty happy anyway.

Value: A Pop and a Dorbz come in at $50, so with a shirt the value easily rises over the $70 spent.

The next theme is "Guardians of the Galaxy" which is awesome...

If you want your own you can subscribe here.

August Marvel Collector Corps Crate

The August Marvel Collector Corps crate theme was "Secret Wars" and cost $45 USD, or about $70 NZD. This is the first Marvel crate not tied to a movie release so makes things a bit different.

The contents this time:
Shirt featuring 4 Pop! vinyl style characters
Comic
Spiderman Pop! figure
Thor Pop! figure
Pin and Patch

The shirt is another official Pop! product and is very nice. The print is really cool, much better than the Ant-man one as it is more prominent.

The comic is an exclusive cover of the Secret Wars #1, featuring a Pop! Thor. Nice, but as the comic has been out for a little while I already have a copy. From the May Comic block, with an exclusive cover as well. This is a shame and with the theme as it is, not surprising. It was at least bagged and boarded this time, so an improvement. The badge and patch are both cool, I'm liking my little collection.

Last up are the figures. Not one, but two Pop! vinyls this time. This is excellent. The Spiderman and Thor figures are both great, the Thor doesn't balance very well, all the hair at the back means it doesn't really bobble either though. Not a big issue (most people seem to keep these in box anyway, weirdos... *Joking*) so I'm really happy.

This is yet another solid offering from Marvel Collector Corps. I feel like this is what Loot Crate and Nerd Block set out to be in their infancy but have since deviated. For me, I want cool figures, shirts and pins/badges/patches. Comics are a bonus. By sticking to this formula Marvel Collector Corps will keep getting my money. As long as it is spare anyway.

The pattern is looking pretty clear now: Shirt, Pop!, Comic, Pin, Patch and a wildcard figure. Nothing wrong with that in my books!

The value of this crate: for a Pop! shirt, 2 Pop! vinyls and a comic you would expect to pay $90-$100. For any given geeky shirt and 2 Pop! figures you could pay around $70. Either way you slice it you are still getting a little ahead, definitely not losing money.

The next theme is yet to be revealed, it should be in the next few days though...

If you want your own you can subscribe here.

June Marvel Collector Corps Crate

The June Marvel Collector Corps crate theme was "Ant-Man" and cost $45 USD. (About $69 NZ.) This crate was a little late due to some payment issues with my initial subscription but is still available if you start a new subscription.

The contents this time:
Shirt
Comic
Pop! figure
2 blind box figures (with 4 possible figures)
Pin and patch
All of which are Ant-man themed

The shirt is nice quality and is from Pop! vinyls new clothing range. It gives me high hopes for that range as it is nicer than any shirt from Nerd Block and on par with several of the Loot Crate ones. The print leaves a little to be desired, it is cool and clever but that doesn't always make for the best of geeky apparel.

The figures this time are really good. I'm all for boxes that are mostly figures so I was bound to be happy. We get an unmasked Pop! Ant-man with exclusive mini Ant-man and two blind figures. The full sized Pop! is great and the mini figure is cool but it is claimed as a bobble head, which doesn't work very well. On the other hand the blind box figures are really good. It helps that I really wanted Yellowjacket and got him but they are also bobble heads and work great.

The last items are the comic, pin and patch. The pin and patch are great, the same quality as the last crates offerings. The comic was a nice read but does drop you in the middle of a story a bit. As it is issue number 5 this is kind of to be expected but in some ways I would have expected an issue 0 or 1. This is an interesting move since not many people knew much (or anything) about Ant-man before the movie, so it does tie in well that way. (I assume issue 1 covered some of the origins, much like the movie...) This poses the same issue I was worried about with Comic Block, how often are we going to be dropped into a story part way through, without knowing much about who is in the book?

So the pattern of the Marvel crates is starting to unfold, with the first one containing a shirt (with 4 possible prints), Pop! figure, comic, extra figure, pin and a patch. It seems like you will always have something that has variable odds which is a nice little feature to go with the guarantee of a Pop! and a shirt. The next one (orders close on the 16th BTW) will really solidify what these will contain in the future.

So what is the value from this box? Well the shirt, Pop! and blind figures add up to about the cost price, so the comic, patch and pin are free. Everything is exclusive though so you could swing the values a bit that way. This does mean that if there is something in the box you don't like (particularly a bigger item) then you may struggle to find the value.

The next theme is "Secret Wars" which will be pretty interesting...

If you want your own you can subscribe here.

April Loot Review

For Aprils loot review I received a Loot Crate and the new Marvel Collector Corps box. Pricing structures below:

Collector Corps - $25US/bi-monthly + $20US shipping = ~$60 NZ
Loot Crate - $13.37US/month + $16.52US shipping = ~$41 NZ

The Collector Corps box:

A Thor vs Ultron shirt, 6" Hulkbuster Pop vinyl, Ultron Dorbs vinyl, Avengers comic and a collector corps badge and patch.

The Loot Crate:

A D&D shirt and bow-tie, Harry Potter bag tag, Game of Thrones magnets and USB (4Gb), Princess Bride playing cards, inflatable crown and badge.

Another good Loot Crate, the USB is particularly cool (shame it is only 4Gb though) and the shirt is nice. I haven't got a bow-tie so may as well have a really geeky one. The wife particularly likes the bag tag and I suspect the crown will go down well with my daughter once she is a little older.

The Collector Corps box definitely came out swinging. There is nothing in the box that I don't like and two figures is a good place to start from. The shirt had 3 other possible variants (each with a different hero) but all had the 'fight night' theme so there aren't any serious issues over one being cooler than the others. There is one gripe though, my Hulkbuster has glue marks in several places and a splotch of blue paint on the front (there isn't even any blue used on this figure...) I've looked through some other comments from people who also got the box and this seems to be rather common. My guess is that things got a bit rushed trying to hit the shipping windows so quality control dropped a bit. I'm still happy though and expect that things will be ironed out for the next box.

I've picked up a sub for the new Comic Block out of Nerd Block so look for a review of that later this month. Or early next month, whatever the case may be!

Loot Crate - May theme is Unite
Collector Corps - June is Ant Man (April is still available right now though!)