Deadpool Club Merc Fall 2018 Unboxing / Review

Good Lord, I’m buried in subscription boxes this month! Just had notification that my Lucha Loot crate for this quarter was also on it’s way, so stay tuned for that if you enjoy these – I know some of these reviews end up somewhat popular so there you go!

Today, we’re looking at Deadpool Club Merc, a box that (so far) has mostly been on time, and features easily my favorite comic book character of all time, Deadpool! I was honestly worried about this crate a bit due to the tendency for new / meme Deadpool fans only really knowing about the character from social media and assuming he’s just a dude that runs around yelling “CHIMICHANGA!” constantly, like he’s a sitcom character. I’m not gatekeeper by any means, but this take on the character sort of annoys me and is a shell of how layered the character actually is.

I went ahead and paid for a year-long subscription, which likely makes me a sucker in a ponzi scheme if Loot Crate goes under due to the many issues I’ve mentioned in my coverage of Star Trek Mission Crate, but I’m a sucker for ‘Pool merch, and wanted that bonus gift.

was my investment worth it? Let’s find out.

If you’d like to see more reviews of the various subscription boxes I get, please head right on over HERE and check out the spoilers.

If you’d like to check this out, head on over to Loot Crate and search for the Deadpool Club Merc page HERE.

For the next week, you can save 25% on your order by using the code “NYCCLOOT2018”.

Or use coupon code SAVE10 to save 10% on your subscription if you’re reading this from the future.

This quarter’s theme was:

You gotta STAY SHARP, kid! Hone your wits and your katanas with this collection of Deadpool gear that’ll help promote “strong mental focus.” Yeah, yeah, we see the irony.

The Box

While I never care about the box for these (nor the fact that they are often blamed for shipping delays) but figure I ought to share a pic of the packaging for those that want to get the full effect.

Spoiler Card / Small Art Print

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This print is a weird size, but I’m sure I can find something to put it in, I absolutely love art prints as evidenced by the fact that my very own “man cave” looks like some sort of comic shop, and this would look great somewhere.

Deadpool Turnaround T-Shirt

Solid shirt design from the recent Duggan / Posehn comic run, I will likely have to wear this on casual Friday at work this week.

Deadpool Sketchbook

This is where we start to see the theme materialize here, I doubt I’ll actually use this to draw in since it’s so cool looking, it fun idea for a crate item. I’m not sure if you can see it well, but the faux-leather cover is absolutely gorgeous.

Deadpool Pencil Sharpener

When you want to draw in your new sketchbook, better have some sharp pencils! If only I had some of those laying aro…

Deadpool Dialogue Pencil Set

-Oh hey!

Deadpool Corps #1 Art Print

This is an awesome print, it’s done in grey-scale, but appears to be some sort of sparkly ink, almost making it look even more like a legit pencil sketch. it’s yet again a weird size I have no frames for (8 1/2 x 12) but I’ll see what I can do.

Deadpool Knifed Pin

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Enamel pins are pretty standard now for crates, and this is a pretty fun one to have.

BONUS: Deadpool Club Merc Challenge Coin

This is a NICE coin! it’s really heavy and has great art on both sides – featuring Headpool on one side, and Dogpool on the other.

The Verdict:

It might be the addition of the coin for this box, but I really enjoyed this crate despite the fact that many of the items are a glorified stationary set. It’s better curated than most WWE Slam Crates tend to be, and has some really cool items that I actually enjoy a lot. Even the fact of having some nice art on the back of the spoiler card making it the first spoiler card that doesn’t instantaneously end up in my recycling bin.

If I had to choose one item that made my day, the pencil sketch was awesome, and I hope stuff like that keeps up in the future.

Is this one worth the cash? I’d say yeah, but I’m a huge mark for Deadpool and the print and shirt are easily the price of the crate.

Next time:

Deadpool Club Merc oct 2018 (6)

WWE Slam Crate September 2018 Unboxing / Review

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Alrighty folks! It’s once again time to take a trip down to the mailbox and get all that wrestling goodness that I get each quarter! Today, we’ll be looking at yet another edition of WWE Slam Crate, and this one was largely on time after The last few Loot Crate boxes have not been so lucky. After ranting a bit last time, I’ll keep this short and sweet and jumped to the point.

If you’d like to see more reviews of the various subscription boxes I get, please head right on over HERE and check out the spoilers.

The theme this time was:

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They’re big, they’re bad, and they don’t mind letting you know it. Bow down to the supreme Superstars who think they are BETTER THAN YOU! Celebrate the big egos of the WWE Universe with items featuring Alexa Bliss, Elias, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and The Miz!

Spoiler Card / Alexa Bliss Interview

This time the large pull-out includes your standard spoiler card and a large magazine style article with multi-time WWE Women’s Champ Alex Bliss.

Elias T shirt

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Elias has one of those characters that really doesn’t have to do much to infuriate the crowd, this undoubtedly always cracks me up a lot so this shirt will be a proud addition to my shirt rotation despite it being a “wrestler’s face on a shirt” styled shirt that I don’t like as much as simpler ones.

WWE Slam Stars Alexa Bliss Figure

I always talk about how much I enjoy exclusive merch like these Slam Star figures, and I’m really glad that you really can’t get these anywhere else.

Miz Embroidered Patch

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I have a vest that I wear to metal concerts, but have amassed a decent amount of wrestling patches to a degree that I might have to make a “wrestling vest” one of these days. Maybe I’ll start a new trend at wrestling shows, who knows.

Bret Hart Vs Shawn Michaels Pillow

To commemorate one of the most notorious feuds in all of wrestling history, Slam Crate tossed a small decorative pillow in this box. I’ll hand it to Loot Crate, they always keep me guessing as to what goodies come in here, and it’s usually a pretty diverse assortment from month to month.

WWE Women’s Championship Pin

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My biggest gripe with this is that there are apparently two randomly inserted pins this month. I know that this will eventually mean they will both be available on Loot Vault, Loot Crate’s online store, at some point. I just wish they weren’t at the point of going for a cash-grab on these for people like myself that try to collect stuff like this. Hopefully, this isn’t a new normal for this. Otherwse solid pin, and a great addition to the collection.

The Verdict:

This crate is hard to review as it’s pretty diverse from other crates, as mentioned earlier, but doesn’t really have a great stand-out item. To be honest, The previous crate was a bit better. That doesn’t mean this was bad, and believe me, I’ve had some bad crates from this company in the past – most notably from the anime line that I briefly dabbled in. It was just sort of there. I guess if I’d have to choose, I’d say I like the Elias shirt the most.

For Next time: A spoiler –

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Pro Wrestling Crate August 2018 Unboxing / Review

DANG! seems like all of these subscription crates have lined up in such a way to where it looks like I get tons of them all the time. Truthfully, most of these are basically quarterly, but every one in a while it’s like Christmas over here at my house. So anyway, we’re once again looking at Pro Wrestling Crate, perhaps my favorite wrestling related crate that I’ve tried. I pay for these myself, and counting the embarrassing amount of Micro Brawlers that I now have, it shows that I have been a member for 18 months and they’ve never steered me wrong.

Pro Wrestling Crate always gives some of their proceeds to charity and this month is no exception. This time some of the money has gone to the Virgil Flynn III Family Fund GoFundMe plan. Flynn was a Northern California Wrestler and promoter that sadly suffered a stroke at age 33 and passed away.

If you’d like to see more reviews of the various subscription boxes I get, please head right on over HERE and check out the spoilers. If you’d like to get your very own Pro Wrestling Crate USE THIS LINK and use the coupon code “HOME” to get 20% off your first crate.

This month’s theme was:

Mastodon Vader T Shirt

I absolutely LOVE this shirt! Intentional or not, it has this He-Man and the Masters of the Universe vibe. Really wish I would have had this on-hand when I met Vader a few years back before he passed away.

“The King” Ricochet T Shirt

As I type this, Ricochet perhaps just had the match of his WWE career at NXT Brooklyn 4 against The Velveteen Dream – what an amazing talent! I still think I enjoy his Lucha Underground work better, but having this shirt is cool.

Tama Tonga Micro Brawler Figure

I think I’m literally like 3 members away from having an entire line of Bullet Club figures at this point – maybe just Chase Owens, Bad Luck Fale, Ishimori, Hikuleo and Tanga Loa and I’ll have all current members.Hell, at this point I hope they go back and grab former members as well. Anyway, not much else to say other than I love these things!

Ribera Steakhouse Custom Menu

This is what I assume to be a facsimile menu from Ribera Steakhouse – a legend to professional wrestling fans. Ribera is a Japanese professional wrestling, boxing and mixed martial arts-themed steak house restaurant with two locations. The original location is in Gotanda, and there is a second, larger location in Meguro. Professional wrestlers frequent the restaurant when touring in Tokyo, a rite of passage in the wrestling community. In addition, some wrestlers receive a satin Ribera Steakhouse Jacket from the owners which has become almost infamous to fans.

Road Warrior Animal Autographed 8×10

This is actually like the third autograph I have from Animal as he frequents a local wrestling federation that I live near, but this is still cool. If you get a chance check out his podcast, he tells some good stories.

Joey Ryan “Big In Japan” Socks.

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There isn’t much I can really say about receiving novelty socks in these things, yeah I could do my due diligence and wear them all day and do an elaborate review on some sort of sock comfort scale – but get real, that’s silly. Pretty nifty socks though!

Kenny Omega “Change the World” Exclusive Collectors Pin

Another fine lapel pin for my collection.

AJ Styles Making an Impact DVD

I believe this DVD was originally called “Leaving an Impact” and was sold as a DV-R by High Spots.

The Phenomenal One, AJ Styles has been the face of TNA for the past 11 years, but that all changed on December 15th 2013 when his contract expired. Highspots caught up with AJ in his man-cave in Gainesville, GA on Jan 2, 2014 and he opens up about what led to those negotiations breaking down, his relationship with Dixie, what it feels like to be a free agent after all these years, returning to the indies and would he ever go to work for Vince. AJ also reflects on his classic matches and angles during his time in TNA and shoots on the “money” guys that didn’t care about the product. You don’t want to miss this over two hour interview with the Phenomenal AJ Styles.

Another Solid month from Pro Wrestling Crate, that Vader shirt is the MVP of this box by far and will likely be in my rotation quite a bit.

Join me again next month for another box review! the theme will be:

Lucha Loot July ’18 Treasure Chest Unboxing / Review

A few months ago, we were informed that Lucha Loot was going through some changes including losing the ability to pre-pay for future boxes and a switch to a bi-monthly schedule instead of monthly. I suggested that this was likely for the better as getting too many loot boxes all of the time would probably get stale, and with three subscriptions (WWE Slam Crate, and Pro Wrestling Crate) it’s possible. So here we are, two months later, was it worth the wait?

Oh, before we move on….If you’d like to see more reviews of the various subscription boxes I get, please head right on over HERE and check out the spoilers.

Spoiler Card

Not much to say here, but I’m glad to see a spoiler card because I sometimes am not sure what person an item relates to with this box.

Sangre Chicana Mask

This one was pretty interesting for me as I’m not really familiar with the Sangre Chicana Family. Reyes made his professional wrestling debut in 1973, wearing a red mask with a gold stripe, under the name Lemus. A year later he changed his name to Sangre Chicana but kept the mask with the golden stripe. He rose to prominence in a feud with El Cobarde and Fishman that led to a Lucha de Apuesta, mask vs. mask match where Reyes lost his mask. His two sons “Lemus, Jr.” and “Sangre Chicana, Jr.” have carried the lineage on, wearing variations of this same mask.

Luchaverse Ancient Medallion pin

It was announced a while back that Masked Republic (who produces this box) decided to get into the comics industry by creating a brand initiative called Luchaverse. This pin by Lapel Yeah is basically the “logo” of the brand. Even without knowing what it ism this pin is pretty cool!

Marty “The Moth” Martinez Sticker

While the fans might chant “creepy Bastard” to old Marty here, nobody can deny how great he has been on Lucha Underground these past 4 years. While I’m not sure I’ll be tossing this sticker on anything prominent of mine, the art is cool and it’s cool to add to my folder of swag that I have.

Luchaverse – Rey Mysterio Comic Book

This is the first release of the aforementioned Luchaverse line of comics from Chido Comics.

“The current in a family line of Mysterios that dates back centuries, each one trained to be a champion of the people and to take on a great evil that has been prophecised to return and plunge the world into darkness. Rey Mysterio is on a quest, aided by the military clandestine group known as “The Ambassadors”. The mission is clear: retrieve the one thing Rey will need to take on this returning evil…..THE MASK OF THE FIRST MYSTERIO!”

I have decided to do a full review of this Comic HERE.

El Mesias Ricky Banderas T-Shirt

Ever since seeing him in the short-lived and somewhat baffling Wrestling Society X, I’ve thought Banderas was pretty cool. This is especially true now as his Mil Muertes character on Lucha Underground has become one of my all-time favorites.

Masked Republic Keychain

This is a fun little take on the Masked Republic logo in Perler bead form – not sure I’ll be using this as Perler bead scultures always seem somewhat fragile, but it’s cool none-the-less.

Black Danger Autographed 8×10

Solid autograph from the former Junior Champion from The Crash Lucha Libre.

All in all, solid box with the stand-out items being the El Messias shirt and Rey Mysterio comic book. If they keep tossing the comics in each box, I’ll be very happy and hop this acts as a subscription of sorts. Really, this is a great way to keep up with Lucha Libre here in the US, now it’ll be hard to wait two months for the next one.

If you’d like one of these, check this out here

WWE Slam Crate June 2018 Unboxing / Review

Before going into any review for a box from Loot Crate, I wanted to touch base on a bit of controversy they seem to be perpetually embroiled in lately. Since I actually pay for these boxes, you won’t see any fake glowing reviews without criticism on my site. You see, I have been a member of WWE Slam Crate since the very first box and recently signed up for Star Trek Mission Crate (well about 6 months ago). Until recently, I had absolutely no issues, but this spring – Summer has been ridiculously bad for the company for many reasons. It seems that, for whatever reason, Loot Crate can’t keep any of their boxes on schedule lately. This WWE crate, for example, was supposed to be shipped well over a month ago, apparently a Firefly Crate is really far behind, and my personal annoyance being Star Trek Mission Crate. The first STMC was supposed to ship sometime in January with the second arriving in March. If I recall we received #1 in February sometime and have YET TO RECEIVE #2!

Apparently the reason behind this is allegedly the shipping materials getting messed up or something, but I honestly could care less if my swag shows up in a model of a Star Trek shuttle craft (as the first one did) because after the initial novelty it will proudly be residing in my recycling bin because it’s a shipping box. I’d rather the money go to making sure delays like this don’t happen again. Allegedly, these will be shipped in about a week, but we’ll see

sigh…

Well, without further ado, lets actually talk about this particular crate instead of ranting! This quarters theme was “Larger Than Life” and promised items from some of WWE’s biggest superstars, let’s see how it stacks up with my other wrestling crates like yesterday’s Pro Wrestling Crate.

The Box

I already mentioned that I never keep these boxes or anything, but this one was pretty cool – Wish there were more people on this like Kane or Giant Gonzalez, but for what is basically getting thrown away, I won’t worry too much.

The spoiler booklet/Poster

While I don’t really hang these posters up, it’s a cool way to make the spoiler card something to hold onto.

Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase Money Clip

Hilariously, this is not the first Ted Dibiase money clip I’ve got from a subscription box, although this one’s a bit classier. Well, at least flashier.

Undertaker Shirt

Not much to say other than this is a really cool shirt, and I absolutely love that there is nothing printed on the back which 9/10 times ruins most WWE shirts.

WCW World Heavyweight Championship Pin

These pins are always so cool – I have amassed quite the collection of these these past few years, and this is already one of my favorites seeing how big of a WCW fan I was. We’ve already received a pin version of the infamous NWO spray painted version of this belt, so it’s nice having the clean one as well.

Andre The Giant Fleece Blanket

It was astonishingly hard to take a picture of this for some reason, but here it is draped over my couch in perhaps the worst pictures on this entire post. It’s about 6 feet tall and has images of Andre’s actual hand and foot size which is cool. This is possibly the standout item of this box.

Braun Strowman Figure

I wasn’t too sure about these figures when they first started sending these as the last thing I need are a bunch of things like Funko Pop Vinyls cluttering up my nerd room, but these aren’t too bad. They are definitely better than the heavy die cast metal figures that the first few crates had.

And that’s it! all-in-all this was one of the better crates from these guys as I can see myself using that blanket and shirt and I LOVE the belt pins. In the past, this crate has send some sort of “meh” things (a problem with Lootcrate as a whole) and I believe I would rather have these larger items instead of a ton of small stuff if that’s the route they are taking. Perhaps my only issue with this selection of items is that it didn’t really take too much advantage of the theme of “big guy” wrestlers as it could. Now, here’s hoping the companies issues get ironed out.

Next up is going to be a crate called “Better Than You” which could be fun as it appears to be a heel crate.

They’re big, they’re bad, and they don’t mind letting you know it. Bow down to the supreme Superstars who think they are BETTER THAN YOU! Celebrate the big egos of the WWE Universe with items featuring Alexa Bliss, Elias, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and The Miz!

Lucha Loot May ’18 Treasure Chest Unboxing / Review

I occasionally partake in the subscription box craze that seems to be going on right now, mostly gaming and wrestling related. There’s been some good ones and some bad, but the wrestling ones are largely my favorite ones to get. As an avid collector of wrestling memorabilia and signed autographs, these things are always a pleasure – well aside from that time WWE unloaded a ton of Enzo Amore merch on everyone before he got released for being an alleged rapist.

This week I’m going to look at the Lucha Loot May ’18 Treasure Chest from Masked Republic. First thing’s first – the spoiler card:

Looks pretty solid, a bit heavy on the Masked Republic branded Merch, but I have a possible answer for that later.

Mask – Huracán Ramírez

One of the forefathers of Lucha Libre, Huracán Ramírez, aka Daniel García, was one of the handful of luchadors so popular that he was given his own feature films. He was an active wrestler for more than 30 years, and passed away in 2006. During his career, his true identity was a closely guarded secret except to the closest family and friends, more closely guarded that any other luchador of that period. Following his retirement the “Huracán Ramírez” name and mask has been used by others, primarily because García did not own the rights to the name and the mask.

Pin Set: Juventud Guerrera

Solid pin set, instead of one enamel pin (as usual), we get two buttons this time.

Sticker: Masked Republic Japan X Haoming Logo Sticker

About the size of a baseball card.

Masked Republic Beer Koozy

I have more wrestling Koozies (that looks weird) than any sane person needs.

Shirt: MAD

I need to get caught up with recent happenings in AAA, as I had no idea that MAD had reformed or that Konnan had buried the hatchet with the promotion. The logo is really cool, and doesn’t scream WRESTLING SHIRT (not that I care like some folks) but it legit looks cool. It’ll definitely get added to my rotation!

Autograph: Mascarita Dorada

Better known in the US as El Torito, the diminutive Bull character that used to accompany The Colons a few years back when they were dressed up as Spanish bull fighters, Mascarita Dorada is awesome! one of the better autographs from this subscription.

Dr. Wagner Keychain

Solid keychain currently residing on my keys. Or other way around…whatever… Plus Dr. Wagner Jr. is one of my faves, so this was cool.

Here’s what I was talking about earlier:

Looks like Lucha Loot will be switching to a 6 boxes per year model instead of a monthly model as it now stands – I assume this is why this box had a lot of in-house swag as they are rebuilding for some reason. I hope it’s not some sort of monetary issue as I love these guys and their customer service is pretty awesome.

All in all, solid box with the stand-out items being the shirt and autograph. If you have some spare cash laying around, give these guys a shot – it’s like a lucha filled Christmas in your mailbox every month. I would say that you could set aside money for the pre-paid subscription like I did, but that’s no longer an option.

Anyway, check this out here