30/07/2014

So a little bird told me....




Just a very quick update to let people know i now have a twitter… still not really figured out what to do with it… But at least i have it.

Follow me at @TWiddesgard and make a side bet on when or if it will be anything useful on it

(first tweet does not count due to tutorial reason). .. The winner will get an image of a cupcake they can print and then think about consuming as long as they provide me with proper credentials. =)


So I guess I have to welcome myself to 2006… I wonder if there is a achievement for being a late adopter… =P

28/07/2014

My first LootCrate

Today my first LootCrate  arrived, and now you ask what a LootCrate is.

Well it is a kind sampler box for nerdy stuff. A Swagbag but without having to attend the tradeshow. LootCrate has a theme each month and past months have been such as Dragons (a dragon themed one.. No real surprise there) or Attack on Titanfall (an Attack on Titan / Titanfall themed one) and it cost 13.37$ (yes… I kid you not… =) It is kind of adorable). You can read more on lootcrate.com and should you feel like you want to try a subscription I ask if oyu can use my referral link as it gives me some loyalty points to spend on fun stuff. Should I get enough to use i will try to give back to you who helped me get there. 

My referral link

 


So this month’s theme is Villains so I was pretty sure that I would like what was in the box since I am a big comics fan and a lot of the promo material for the box have had the Joker and Harley Quinn in it.

So here is the box as it looks when I picked it up.

Inside some lovely scoundrels had doodled all over it.  =)



With every lootcrate you get a small magazine that contains articles, editorials and info on the items of the month. The cover at is always special made for LootCrate and the theme of the month.



Now for the good stuff… The actual stuff. Opening up the crate the first item is a T-Shirt with a custom print made for LootCrate and the theme of the month.
 


This month we see a mashup between the trickster god of Asgard Loki and the clown-prince of crime the Joker in what can only be described as daringly clashing outfit. Now this is a mashup i´d like to see in comics… Having the controlled and scheming chaos of Loki butting heads with the raw chaos of the Joker. Yum yum… Destruction ensues. The T-shirt itself is black and made from a thin but not overly cheap material. I will come back on how well the print holds up as this is my first shirt. 



Next up we have more clothes, as I said before the content of the box varies from month to month and there is no set patter for what goes in to them beyond the T-shirt, the magazine and the button(I will get back to that later).


 
While Ambush Bug are looking for a pair of argyle socks… I can keep my feet in style with a pair of Deadpool socks. Now there are people who argue that Deadpool is not a villain… They might have a point… But seeing as he is an egomaniac that has no regard for others and most of the time take immense, almost inappropriate pleasure in causing widespread destruction and chaos I feel it is semantics. Any way I think they are very cool. Again I will have to come back about quality as there is no chance in hell I am putting on a pair of socks right now… You people should be glad I am wearing boxers at all. Bloody heat-wave.


As I mentioned I am a comics, especially super hero comics so it was nice to get a special variant cover one in this box. Now you do not need to be a rocket scientist to figure out why a Guardians of the galaxy tie-in comics ended up in this month’s crate… But as cool as Thanos is… I´d much rather seen an item with a closer tie to the theme. 



Now I like a nice poster as much as the next guy and these two, yes there is actually a perforated line in the middle to split them if you like, these two are fairly nice but a bit small. Also I have no real good place to put them and I am not sure what to do with them. So not really a homerun but by no means a bad item, I just need to figure out a place to put them. Maybe the guest bathroom need some color. After all who would not enjoy staring on that Joker face while answering the call?


Rounding off the comic villains is a documentary (or what you want to call it) that take a look at the DC stable of villains, narrated by Christopher Lee himself. So if nothing else you can just close your eyes and listen. I have seen this before and it is pretty good. Not very deep or digging but still a fairly interesting bit of work. Also no matter how you turn it DC have some of the most interesting villains in comics. If Marvel are the masters of the flawed hero, DC rules the land when it comes to villains with broken but interesting personalities.



Now you cannot have a villain crate without the granddaddy of them all, the original man in black and the most effective practitioner of management by fear. Darth Vader. Here seen as a small key-chain thingy. It is a soft rubbery material so it is unlikely to cause any harm to your leg should you bump in to someone or sit down at the wrong angle, but it also means that it will wear out over time. It can also most likely be used as an emergency eraser should the need arise. Beyond that it is a nice detailed (that you can’t see in the photo because I suck.) little hanger that will look good on both your key-chain and your bag. It is a tad too heavy for an earring but should work nice as a pendant.




Another original villain is the big B himself. A nice and fairly big fridge magnet that let anyone know that there is a castle that need a princess and that you can in fact be that princess. Or he need more Koopas… Either way if you like fridge magnets this one is clean and bright with a nice motif.



As with every LootCrate there is a small collectible button that you can… Well… Collect. It has the same image as the magazine just a bit cropped and the theme, month and year printed on the orange ring... Making it a bit hard to read at times. I would suggest a more contrasting colour.





So did it live up to my expectations? Yes for the most part, I did some serious research before getting it so I knew that the content could vary wildly between crates and that the theme dictated how much or little you would like the content. I feel I absolutely got my money’s worth even if the content itself can be a bit hard to price due to a lot of exclusive items. In fact the T-shirt alone was worth the price of the box in my mind.

I will absolutely get a few boxes more before I give an absolute verdict but so far so good.