Geek Subscription Boxes: List, Recommendations, and Thoughts

Everyone is very different, so what I consider a great subscription box could be way off for someone else. However, my husband's students asked him recently about Loot Crate, and he had plenty to say about why that would be a waste of the kids' money, but he couldn't remember which ones were the best. We get so many that it often becomes hard to track what comes from who and what's worth the expense. He asked me to make him a list for his students, but I was already thinking of doing that anyway. Recently, BuzzFeed had its own list and I was excited to see some of the great ones on there that don't get as much hype as the others. Instead of a best kind of list, I decided to do a pros and cons  overview - BASED ENTIRELY ON OUR EXPERIENCES AND PREFERENCES. I collect Funko POP figures and I love Harry Potter and Game of Thrones. My husband and I are gamers and he has read comics since he knew how to read. We don't really play Nintendo and we don't have kids. These are the kinds of things that do make a difference, because what we prefer may not be the same as someone who doesn't like the same things.

I'm going alphabetically and I'm also including a few that are geeky in their own right, although not technically fandom-based. I also included a link to a review for each so you can see the items included in the box.

Infinity Crates Review: March 2015

There are so many geek subscription boxes and, like geek fandoms, each caters to a certain kind of person. What is a total win for someone could be an epic fail for another. We like different things and even if you're like me, with a wide range of interests, you may find certain types of items more valuable than others. I love POP figures and collect them, so I feel a box that includes one as a guarantee each month gets a boost over ones that don't. Others don't care about those things, or prefer more variety. Again, it's a personal experience. 

I really loved my box from Infinity Crates last month and was so anxious to get this. It shipped almost a month ago and I was getting worried. It does come from Wales, so that means more waiting, but I was starting to think it had been lost. In fact, I went to the Infinity Crates Facebook page and posted that it had been lost - only for my mailman to drop it off literally five minutes later!! 

Anyway, I didn't love the Adventure theme as much as the Nostalgia theme, mostly because it's a pretty broad topic and I surprisingly didn't receive anything from Game of Thrones, which is a bit of an obsession here. At the same time, I am pretty happy that I didn't, because I have a lot of the POPs from the series and I'd be more likely to get a repeat had it been included. Still, although it wasn't as good, I still truly enjoyed this box and plan to keep this subscription. 

Infinity Crates Review: February 2015 (Nostalgia)

So I have a problem when it comes to the geek collectible boxes, because I subscribe to basically all of them (except the so-called leader due to their horrific customer service). At the very least, I will try any box at least once that caters to geeks and nerds, because I feel like I need to try them to decide which ones work for me. You're never going to like everything in pop culture, but my tastes are pretty broad - and when you add my husband's interests, we can generally be pleased easily. Lately, though, I've gotten a little discouraged because they all have started to feel like pandering and there's an entire contingent of really psychotic "fans" who will attack you for even playing on a different console as a gamer. "Geek culture" has gotten inherently hateful lately, so my preference has moved onto the boxes where I feel valued and I feel like the people involved are more interested in sharing love of something than feeding into negativity.

With that said, I wasn't sure about Infinity Crates, mostly because the exchange rate from the UK is killer. They need to do a bit more than the others for me to justify the added costs. Since I knew that, I set this up for one month, planning to cancel when I tried it because I just couldn't see them being able to offset that expense. I am so happy to say that, at least with this box, I feel it's worth it. This box had a shirt and POP figure, plus a few other great items. From what I gather, they always include a poster, shirt, and POP - and that's basically value for me right there. 

Of course, this was an extra awesome box since the theme was Nostalgia and they really hit on a bunch of franchises we love.