Loot Crate January 2017 Review, or; unboxing the core crate with the theme “Origins”

From time to time I will do reviews of nice things I get in the post. As a lot of these come from the U.S and takes a while to get here it won’t usually be cutting edge info but obviously, spoilers ahead. (group shot at the bottom of the page!)

If you want to check out Loot crate then I have a referral link here.

So with the themes being origins here I figured I would see a few classic throwbacks and I was not disappointed, it was a good horde as you will see from the image below.

In each box, you will find a tee and a pin and in this box, the first item I saw was the shirt, which has a pixelated Mario with the text “since 1981” showing off the well-earned heritage. As usual, the fit was great and the shirt was overall good quality and comfortable, I am pretty sure this will be my shirt to work Friday (dress down Friday, love it).

The Pin was themed to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which is again another great 80’s brand much loved from my childhood. When you log into the loot crate website each month there is always a digital item to obtain, related to the pin and this month I was really impressed, it was a download code for the first 5 issues of the IDW TMNT Comic, which I have not read and will look forward to reading on my iPad on the train tomorrow.

The other TMNT item I was not so impressed with, a purple shot class (or as LC put it, Mini Tikki Mug) but I always try to share the items in our house and I am sure my daughter will like this. I don’t really feel this mug fits the “origins” theme.

The next two items I am genuinely thrilled about. While I have been a Marvel fan since childhood (originally X-Men like and Spider-Man when I was younger) I never really liked Captain America. I think it was something about the unwavering patriotism, I always thought heroes should be for everyone, not just a flag-clad poster for one nation.  Since the Movies in the MCU have started to feature Steve Rogers, however, I have completely changed my mind and I was thrilled to receive a 1:6 scale replica of the original shield the captain armed himself with (the 1940’s).  The prop replica is a good weighty metal and will live on my desk for the foreseeable future.

The last item is fantastic. It is a re-print of the Action Comics #1 (June 1938) featuring the first cover and story for Superman, the best-known superhero in the world. Rare original copies of this comic in good condition will go for millions at auction, and as a result, reprints are very rare also. I have read this book as I have a digital copy so I will keep this one in the plastic. Although I realise that this is not a valuable original, I like the look and feel its worth keeping.

Although that was the last item it’s worth mentioning also that LC try to ensure that the box can be used also, and this month they have done well. The box is designed in such a way that if turned inside out is decorated like a 1930s era superman book, and the cut outs are outlined to turn this into a file box to keep comics in, great idea and matches the items well.

Overall I think the items are good and the theme has been well followed except the tiki mug.  although this is good quality I can’t help but think they missed a trick, if this had been modeled on a cannister of ooze famed to give the turtles their metamorphosis (i.e their origin story) rather than a character then it would have fit just fine. But this is a fine detail in an overall, great box.