Custom Fan Box Review: March 2015

I don't get people. I am putting that out there right now. When I first saw Custom Fan Box pop up on Facebook, I thought, "why not?" What can it hurt to order another geek box? They take PayPal, so I could always get my money back if they weren't legit. I really liked the setup from the beginning, because you choose your shirt, then select shows, anime, games, comics, and movies you really like. You will only be sent items from those fandoms, which is awesome. This is basically the geeky version of Wantable!

Now, I am all for startups. I think it's great that more and more people are going out on their own to do something they love. The job market sucks and you essentially spend your life in servitude to someone who makes you unhappy, so I am one to support a startup, especially when they have something to offer. But it didn't take long before Custom Fan Box's Facebook page was littered with complaints. They clearly identified on their site that March was their first month and that all orders would ship by March 31. So it seems like it would be clear that complaining on March 8 makes no sense, right? Apparently not. 

Anyway, I was extremely happy with my first two shipments of Custom Fan Box. My husband and I decided to each get our own, although we mostly had a ton of crossover. We are definitely ordering again for April (both of us) and this time, we only have one crossover, which is Game of Thrones. Otherwise, each of us picked only a small selection of items because we want to see what comes (of course, this also means our Supernatural, Firefly, Doctor Who, and other fandoms are statistically less likely to appear, but I think it's a fun experiment). 

This month, there was only one item that we both didn't like, so I think that says a lot about Custom Fan Box, as well as about how much my husband and I think alike!

So essentially the March box included the same items for every customer, but they varied for your interests. Everyone got a shirt (which you picked out in advance so there were no surprises there), a Funko POP, a mug, a patch/iron-on, two pins, and either a lip balm or tin of mints. They asked if you preferred bacon or cupcakes, so you got mints or lip balm in the flavor of your choice. For April, they asked for shoe size so I am guessing socks?

My husband and I both got this Star Wars patch. My pins are the two above - Firefly and Bioshock. My husband got the Eye of Sauron and one from The Punisher, which was the only item I would have been meh about. 

The mugs were really nice - my husband's is Edward Scissorhands and mine is Doctor Who. I will never complain about something that lets me drink more coffee!

As vegetarians, we obviously picked cupcakes over bacon. My husband's box arrived almost a week before mine, thanks to the USPS. They were shipped the same day (maybe a few hours apart), but mine came here, went to New Jersey on vacation I guess, and then came back to be delivered. So when we got the first lip balm, I expected to see two - and was pleasantly surprised to see mints instead! I apparently didn't take a picture of those, but I think these were cute bonus items. Some said this is like most geek subscription boxes - a shirt and a POP with a lot of filler. I think that's slightly true, except you are guaranteed to like the items and also the filler isn't so bad when it's not the only thing in the box. At least I also got actual items, like a shirt and a mug and a POP - all things I will use. 

Speaking of POPs, we each got Game of Thrones, which is awesome and surprisingly, we didn't get repeats! We have a lot of these and I was excited to get two major characters we haven't gotten yet. Tyrion, in typical Tyrion fashion, is refusing to take a picture the way he's supposed to. :)

Sadly, even the Mother of Dragons is no match for the USPS and Daenerys came smashed up. Her box is barely staying together, so she will have to be let free. It's somewhat fitting, since we all know how well dragons stay locked up, don't we? ;)

Finally, there were our shirts. I'm sure you are so surprised that I selected a Doctor Who one, given my obsession with Companion Tees! 

My husband's shirt was also for me. :) I basically picked his box and just let him select his items, because I wanted this shirt. I can pretend it was because of variety, but really, I wanted a Nuka Cola shirt, too. This is one of my favorite games of all time and I certainly spent enough time over-encumbered thanks to Nuka Cola!!