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What’s in the ‘My Geek Box’ from mygeekbox.co.uk , who knows?
Hi everyone I know it’s been a while since my last blog, I feel like I’ve let you down but I’ve had a kick up the backside and told to write some more blogs by you my awesome followers and I don’t wonna disappoint you so here goes! For this blog I chose to review a product and company called ‘My Geek Box’. Who and what are ‘My Geek Box’ I hear you cry well to best describe them if you haven’t heard of them is to sum it up like nerdom in a cube.
Why nerdom in a cube and why is it called ‘My Geek Box’? Is it a box full of geeky and interesting things? Well to be honest yes it is. My Geek Box is a company that sends you a gift box every month containing lots of random and geeky things for a set subscription and charge a month. The amount you pay varies depends on the commitment you are willing to make. If you want to commit full hog you can get a 6 month subscription for as little as 15 pounds a month, how the downside of this is that you have to pay everything up front. If you’re someone like me who likes the concept but don’t know if they can justify the cost you can pay a rolling fee of around 17. Now I know 17 might sound alot when you consider that it’s essentially a gift box but I had several reasons for wanting to try this product out.
The first reason is I’ve heard of this product for a while and have genuinely been interested by the concept and wanted to try it for around a year or so now but never actually commited. The second reason is I need new clothes, yes clothes! You’re probably thinking what??? Well let me explain, part of the box is a t-shirt and rather then go through the horrible task of clothes shopping then buying something I don’t like for the sake of having clothes, you could get nerdy clothes sent to you on a monthly basis without having to go clothes shopping. Now that sold it to me pretty much straight away. Geeky clothes sent to my doorstop rather than going clothes shopping GENIUS!! As for the third reason, it was the lure of this month having an EXCLUSIVE ‘Funko Pop!’ figure. Now for those of you that don’t know what Funko Pop! figures are they are little figures that are based on characters from many and many of our favourite tv shows and movies. Think kinda like collectable figurines, some of the figures out at the mo are from Game Of Thrones, Disney and Marvel. I’ve always wanted to start collecting these but never actually commited to, plus I didnt know where to start, as there are sooooo many. I wanted to start collecting these for my son, so when he gets his own bedroom I can decorate them with these cool and collectable figures. So when the lure of an EXCLUSIVE figure only to the company was promised that pretty much sealed the deal!
So to recap for 17 pounds a month I get a t-shirt, collectable figure and other nerdy stuff? That sounds good to me so I signed up with luckily 24 hours to go before my first ‘My Geek Box’ was dispatched. I didn’t hear much for a couple of days, then when I was out I recieved an email from a courier company called ‘Yodel’. Now I have had nothing but bad experiences with this Yodel company and one quick search online will reveal just the extent of how this company got it’s reputation but I thought I hadn’t (luckily) had anything delivered from them in years, so now it might be different. In the email was a mobile number and a couriers name, he said he would be delivering up to 9pm that night and to text him to let him know when it would be convienient. Straight away I’m like 9pm!!! For anyone who has a young child you know how annoying it can be when someone knocks you’re front door whilst they are trying to sleep. Also having to wait in until 9pm is extremely annoying especially on a Saturday night. So all saturday night I sit on tenderhooks waiting for my parcel to be arrive, ready to pounce and jump off the sofa and get to the door before the delivery driver wakes my son. Then nothing…..
It gets to 9:10pm and the parcel hasn’t come I go on the tracking website and all it says is ‘out for delivery’, no indication of a time, only that my parcel will be delievered between Saturday the 20th and Tuesday the 23rd of june. I decide to go to bed and ponder the location of my box, has it been delieverd to a neighbour, has the delivery driver said he’s delivered it when he hasn’t? Time passes until it’s about 9am sunday morning then there is a knock at the door. I peer through the door wondering who it could be, was it a relative, an angry neighbour? I could just about make out to see it was a kid aged about 14 to 16 and a man aged about 40-50 in a vest and shorts. As you could imagine right now, I was thinking ooooooooook, then I readjusted my vision to see that the young kid had in his hand my parcel! Yes this small child had my cube, what was he doing with it? Then I open the door to see the child hand me over a PDA and ask me to sign! It turned out that the young kid and his shirtless dad were the delivery drivers. Yodel never ceases to amuse me and this is another one to add to the list. Anyway I put my thoughts about Yodel to one side, sign and rescue my cube!
That’s some cool artwork on the side of the box guys
The cube is mine, all mine! MY PRECIOUS!!! On first glance the box was made out of printed blue corrugated cardboard, it was about a foot long by 10 inches wide and 6 inches high. If you wanted to be pedantic, you could say this was a geek prism not a box. But I’m not Sheldon Cooper and this isn’t his review it’s mine. When I held the box in my hands, the mysery of what’s inside hit me, I felt like a kid at christmas, this is a feeling that many of you wouldnt have had in years, you’re there hilding a present, not knowing what’s inside but you know it’s awsome. I’m almost half tempted to shake the box but I don’t through fear of possibly damaging the contents of whats inside. On the side are some snazzy drawings and printings, I like these small kinda touches. I try to figure out how to open it and find a plastic sticky tab, the sticky tap is circular and when I peel it back, I lift the flaps. The lifting of the flaps can only be described as like lifting up the tabs on a pizza box, those of you who have done it, will know what I mean 😉 slowly the box begins to open.
Does ‘Nerd-vana’ await me or it is a ‘Geek-apolypse’?
Immediately upon opening it, a couple of things catch me attention for instance BATMAN!!! There’s a batman logo, which means batman goodies YAY!!! There’s also some other bits and pieces but my eyes are drawn to a gold packet, it appears to be facing backwards so I have no idea what this is. When I turn it around I see it is….
Spidey cards, as long as they aren’t Andrew Garfield ones I’ll be happy 😉
A pack of ‘Spiderman Heroes & Villans’ trading cards, I think this is pretty cool as I am a big spidey fan, these are yet to be opened, later I google these to find out that the packs are worth about 1 pound on ebay, which means they are probably about 3 pounds in a shop so I’m happy with this. Will I open them? Will the curious part of me over rule the nerdy part? Who knows! (As of press, the currently remained unopened although the curiousness grows by the hours) .
Batbadges, batbadges, BATBADGES!!!
The next item is a series of batman badges, amongst the many badges are joker badges as well, these are pretty cool and they are glossy pin badges too. These are high quality items too, a quick look on Amazon and I see the same set for sale in America at $8.20 this works out to roughly 5 pounds. So two items in and I’m already at about 8 pounds worth of stock!
A replacement for Mjolnir???
My eyes are then drawn to the side where I see a small rectangular prism called ‘Now & Later’ it looks like chewing gum. On closer inspection I can see there is the word pineapple on there. I unwrap the packet to see what can only be described as small rectangular sweets, that are so hard you can hammer nails in with! I try one and almost crack a tooth, now to be fair the wrapper does say they are ‘long lasting chews’ I think the phrase ‘substitue for a hammer’ might be more apt for this one. Perhaps even Thor’s hammer, hmm maybe that’s why they chose it! The only sweets tougher than almighty Thor’s hammer haha. Flavour wise they are ok, but they are just too hard for me to eat, which is a shame as I love American sweets. A quick search online shows them to be about 50 pence, so now I am up to 8 pounds and 50 pence worth of stock and I haven’t even got to the big items in my box.
One for you Star Wars fans
My eyes are then drawn to something that has ‘Star Wars’ on it. It turns out to be a mouse mat, it’s a pretty cool mouse mat that that features Anakin, Yoda and some Troopers, however who uses a mouse mat these days? Maybe it would have been cooler if it was a coaster or something? A quick search reveals the item to be for sale on around 5 pounds so now we are up to about 12 pounds and fifty pence.
That is one AWESOME t-shirt
I am then drawn to a white t-shirt the quality is quite heavy cotton and I am immeadiately impressed, however thoughts enter my head as I turn it round. As this is a geek box it could be literally anything! It could be a ‘My Little Pony’ t-shirt! How would I explain that one to my mates? Have I spent 17 pounds on a t-shirt I’d never wear? When I turn it around I see it is a pretty cool looking ‘sports style’ t-shirt with the words ‘Mutant Academy Athletic Department’. For me a veteran of many ‘cons I have seen similar t-shirts on sale for around about 15 pounds so I know that with t-shirt alone, I am happy with the amount spent on the box. A quick search and I am unable to find a similar product online, so for arguements sake I’ll say it’s about 15 pounds, this takes the value of the box up to about 28 pounds.
Cute
Finally we come to the most important part of the box! Skatronixxx Jr’s exclusive Funko Pop! figure. I glance at it quickly and see it’s a Marvel figure, it’s some kind of X-Men character, then the eyes give it away. It’s an unmasked Cyclops figure. I think this is pretty cool, although Cyclops is not on the same level of awesomeness as Colossus, Juggernaut or Wolverine, he’s still alright and the fact that I get a rare collectable one to give to my son’s collection the better. After all it could have been a ‘My Little Pony’ one!Sorry to all the Bronys out there for the anti-MLP vibes in this article. A quick search online and I can see that some people are already selling thier figures on certain websites for around 15 pounds, although I expect that figure to up in the future.
So that’s everything from my ‘My Geek Box’ overall I worked out the total to be around about just under 45 pounds, which isn’t bad for an initial 17 pound outlay, would I use it again? Well if they gaurantee a Funko Pop! figure and a t-shirt in every box I’m sold. If it’s just a t-shirt? I’d seriously consider it. Just a Funko Pop! and no t-shirt? possibly.
What are the pros and cons? Well lets start with the cons, mainly the first being the delivery company but I know you can’t judge a product on how it gets to you as once it leaves the warehouse it’s out of their hands, but then again if you are trying to sell your product it should be an enjoyable experience from start to finish as this part let it down. Another con is the thought that goes into it, although it’s definitely good value for money alot of the supplementary items seemed kinda random. I know there are themes with each box but I would have liked to have seen it more dedicated to one thing, like with the X-Men figure and t-shirt, why not have X-Men trading cards and badges too? Although I know some people would like the variety I prefer more rigid themes I guess that’s just the Sheldon Cooper in me.
As for the pros it’s definitely 110% worth the money if you can afford it and even more so if you pay in advance, the more you pay, the more you save! As a casual one off purchaser like me it does seem kinda pricey but if you are buying it with a reason in mind like a t-shirt or collectible figure you do make your money back.
I’m still on the fence with ‘My Geek Box’ although I like the idea and mystery of not knowing what’s inside, I think an option to choose what to include as supplementary items i.e. less badges more sweets or vice versa would make it an even better experience! That’s my thoughts what about yours?
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