LootCrate "Summon"

            Continuing off of last month when I talked about my experience with the Villains 2 Lootcrate, this seems like a fun thing to comment on and so here I go.  This month’s theme is “Summon” and judging by the promo art and the “completely freaking obvious to nerds” logic of my brain I had thought that Magic: the Gathering would be featured, and was happy because Magic is awesome.  I was totally wrong.

The colors of this promo art even align to the color wheel of Magic the Gathering.  Black (really more dark purple here), Blue, White (more like amber here), Green, and Red

Maybe I am wrong to dislike Hearthstone just because I think of it as derivative... I don't think I am, but maybe.

             Here is the first batch of goodies.  This is the typical collection of little stuff that is supposed to revolve around the theme.  To start is the tiny hot wheels car (top left) from “Supernatural” a show I watched the 1^st season of and really liked, but have not found the time to commit to further watching of the program, but since the show is mostly about BANISHING things, rather than SUMMONING things.  Am I wrong?

            Then there is two Hearthstone items, the stress ball with a spiral in the middle there, and the collectable coin at the center of that promo thing just to the left of the spiral.  The collectable coin is kind of cool as is the stress ball, but since I do not play Hearthstone the utility of the free pack of cards is a little lost on me.  This also sticks in my craw a bit because I consider Hearthstone one of the most egregious imitators of Magic the Gathering.

            On the right is a card game, which essentially boils down to Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock, and is completely useless because it requires me to have a friend who also has a set… I have no such friend.  And the “this defeats that” rules are obtuse.

            I do intend to try out the mobile game on the lower left hand side, but since my phone wasn’t optimized for “Fallout Shelter” I do not hold out hope that this will even work.

 

There is also the monthly pin which reminds me of a Mandala, but with Pikachu and Hearthstones.

            This is my favorite item of the box, a Homer Simpson Buddha that holds prayer beads and a pretzel while sitting on a giant donut.  It is a quirky little knick-knack that I think is cute and am currently keeping it on my folding-table-which-serves-as-a-desk.  Whatever the hell this has to do with summoning?

 

Behold, this month's star prize.

            Lastly is the big ticket item, the Pikachu hat.  Even if I did not live in Florida, where it is far too hot to put this on, I am still a gigantic man who would look silly by any standard wearing this.  I do however feel this is the perfect sort of item for a typical anime fan, I could see my friend Sam wearing this.  More than likely I will just box this baby up and keep it on tap to use as a gift in the future to someone I think will really like it.

 

Alright, one picture of my big fat face framed by the ponytail-ish things to the side.

"A man walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything" -Wash, "Firefly"

            Overall, I do think this box was a solid fine.  The theme was a little unclear, my expectations did not line up with what they were doing, and the biggest treasure in the box was not really for me.  I still enjoy Lootcrate and look forward to the next one.

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LootCrate "Villains 2"

            I have been getting LootCrate for 4 months now and this is the first time I had the bright idea to just post pictures of the stuff on this blog, I have no idea why as it is accessible content that appears regularly and my initial experience in getting the stuff was as a birthday present from my roommate so it makes for a good story about friendship… I guess I just blanked on it.  Regardless of past months, let’s look at the items this month.

            First up is a Los Pollo Hermanos kitchen apron from one of the best TV shows ever, “Breaking Bad”.  Since I do not cook this is one of those fun but impractical (for me) entries in the crate.  Most likely the use I will find for it is as a display medium for the numerous pins and buttons that come in a typical crate.

"Breaking Bad"

             These are this month’s button and pin.  It is standard for each loot crate to come with a themed pin (and often they come with pins from other franchises related to the theme).  This one is a villainous monster mouth.  The pin is a highlight of the box, a prop replica of those used in the movies.  While it does seem odd to wear the C’Thulhu esc emblem of a Nazi super-science cabal, it is still cool in spite of the Nazi connection.  Fun aside, the reason there were almost no “real Nazis” in the Captain America movies has to do with toy sales, it is really hard to sell toys that have swastikas on them.

 

"Captain America: The First Avenger"

            Next we have a wooden Joker Toy with a switchable face.  The arms, hands, and to a lesser extent the legs have movement and can be posed.  It is a quirky display item and I like it except for one issue: what do I do with the second face?  There is no storage slot or place to put the extra piece, so it is destined to get lost.  I still like it, stylized representations of characters are always cool.

 

"Just One Bad Day"

            This is the highlight of the box, one of a pair of mugs, I of course got the Carnage mug.  Carnage being a popular villain character of the 90’s Dark Age of comics.  He is a symbiotic alien monster like Venom, but instead of being attached to a jock loser like Eddie Brock, Carnage instead attaches to a serial killer.  The murderer’s mania allows him to bond more perfectly with the alien and they go on several thrill killing adventures in the Marvel universe.  I don’t really like Carnage as a character, but the mug looks awesome.

"A gun that shoots good feelings"

            Lastly we have the LootCrate magazine and the box itself which depicts a Joker hideout where he is building a giant attack size version of the wooden toy.  The magazine is a little thin, it talks about each item and has an article about people in your own life whose toxic personalities might mimic those of Batman’s list of foes, kind of a heady article with a strange framing device.  The magazine’s real drawback is the use of dark red font on black backgrounds which makes some words hard to notice or read.

            The Box is actually badly designed.  There seems to be no logical way to fold it to show all the art it offers.  There are 6 surfaces with art, one is on the bottom of the box, and another is covered when it is folded into a box with the art facing out.  It almost works, but falls short.

 

"Is anyone else getting a little bit of Batman and Joker fatigue?"

            Overall I think the mug makes up for a lack of a t-shirt (I usually find the shirts to be the highlight of any crate) and the other stuff is of high quality and cleanly on theme.  Not a lot of clutter or fat to be cut.

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