Geek Fuel is a subscription box full of items based around different geek fandoms. Each month you get a magazine, a pin with their robot logo dressed up as a different character, a t-shirt, a Steam game, and two or three other items. Lots of loot in other words.
The box is $24.90 per month, shipping included. Two months ago they said they were going to raise their price by one dollar due to the higher quality t-shirts being sent, but I have yet to see my price change. This was month three for me - that's right - judgement month! The month where I decide if this box will continue or if it has run its course for me. Dun dun dun! Cue ominous, judge-y music.
On to the box!
As I've mentioned before - this box is a thicker cardboard than the other subscription boxes that I receive. It's very durable. Durable as in a toddler can stand on the box and it doesn't even think about denting. Given that there are breakable items included in the box randomly, this is a huge plus. As an added bonus - it never gets damaged in shipping.
Up next was the magazine. To be honest, I don't read these - there are a few articles, pictures of other geeky items that you can go find and purchase, and pictures of people enjoying their past loot. I keep them, but I don't read them. Why? Because they're great for cutting up for crafting. You get really nice shots of geeky things that make great use for templates and scrapbooking and all kinds of stuff. That's right, I keep it for the pictures, not the articles (meant to be an amusing joke at Playboy's expense, but it may fall flat in text).
Next in the box was the Steam game. It's a dungeon crawler called The Dwarf Run. It sells for $9 on Steam, and on the back of the card is a code to redeem in Steam for the game. My partner's the one into dungeon crawlers, so he got this one. He says it's not well designed at the lower levels, but he's also quite picky about his crawlers, so this may not be terrible at all. Take comments I transfer from him with a grain of salt when it comes to video games.
Here's more info on the basis for the game. It sounds like it would be pretty interesting.
A Deadpool dome mini-collectible was next in the box. Or, as I like to call them, "dust catchers." As my partner likes to call them, "mine." He hasn't taken it out of the package yet, so I don't know which one of the nine possible choices he got.
The t-shirt this month was a South Park one. It's very soft, but while we both like the concept of South Park (i.e. the social commentary aspect), neither of us actually like the show. I particularly appreciate why the creators decided to start it. This is a case of supporting the artist and appreciating what the artists were trying to do without actually liking the end result. Neither of us will use this one so it went in the pile of the other things that won't be used from subscription boxes (a pile that I will work on as soon as I get the new site up. Yes, the move from Blogger to Wordpress is still happening, I just have no time.)
And then comes the obligatory pin. You could get one of five, with Shredder being the rare.
I ended up with Raphael. I liked the original Ninja Turtles. I hate the cartoon reboot and the movie reboots. I also have a pile of these pins in the will not keep box, and this one will be joining it. I'd like it if it was just Raph's head, but I don't want a robot based fandom takeover pin thing.
At almost the bottom of the box was the info card. Trust me - the final item does look as cool as it does in this picture, but I could not capture a picture as good as this unrolled, so take this as this is really what it looks like instead of attempting to deal with my camera skills.
The back of the info card shows what the shirt would look like on a human.
And the final item! A Hidden Staircase rug. It actually looks like stairs going down. It's seriously as cool as it is pictured on the info card. Very small though. About half the size of a large welcome mat, maybe a little bigger. It's currently next to my partner's side of the bed, setup so it looks like there are stairs going underneath the bed. Very awesome.
So - let's recap. The only item in this one that I liked was the rug. My partner liked everything but the shirt and the pin. So, that's three items for $24.90, or $8.30 each. Because this month did not have personal fandom items for me, it was a bit of a let down, but it had fandom items for my partner and the rug is seriously awesome. That being said - this is the third box, so I have to take into account the last two boxes as well, both of which were a huge hit. Ultimately, this one is going for another month at least, and here's hoping next month hits my fandoms or more of my partner's fandoms. The lack of a shirt that's appreciated takes away a big chunk of the value for this box for me - especially when you take into account that practically everyone needs a new summer wardrobe and, quite frankly, subscription boxes have been very helpful in making this happen (everything but shorts!), so that's a bit of a let down, like I said. This one will continue on to month four, carried on the shoulders of the two previous boxes and the awesome rug. We shall see where it goes from there!
