Loot Gaming June 2016 - Arena: Review
- collectechmedia
- Jul 13, 2016
- 5 min read
Loot Gaming is a subscription box service offered by the Loot Crate company. Like other subscription boxes, Loot Gaming ships out once a month and contains a number of items with a centric theme. As the name might suggest, Loot Gaming specialises in video gaming collectables and memorabilia, and although the regular Loot Crate still carries gaming themed items, Loot Gaming will consist of only gaming items. Items in the box remain a mystery until they arrive with the consumer. Every box will contain the same items, with an occasional colour or style variation for a given item. The only information available to consumers at the time of subscription will be the title of the box, which is nothing more than a descriptive theme which all of the items will be centred around, and a few brand names that will feature in the box. Overwatch, Team Fortress 2, Street Fighter and DOTA 2 were all teased for June's crate (Arena). So what was actually in the box? The inside of the box is decorated with a picture of a futuristic Olympic cum Hunger Games style event with similar artwork on the included booklet. The booklet details the specifics of each item and provides a small summary of some of the associated franchises as well as an overview of the grand prize that one lucky subscriber could have won this month. The booklet is standard fare for any Loot Crate product but offers no real value to the box. Perhaps discontinuing the booklets and putting the information on the website instead would allow funds for another item in the box, even a small one. Another recurring item in Loot Crate boxes are pins. Originally, boxes came with badges, but in recent months metal pins have been provided instead, and they are a welcome change. the pin included this month depicts the stadium in which the previously mentioned games take place with a number of fireworks going off above. Unlike the booklet, I do enjoy receiving the physical pin as a little collectable extra, but I would not lament losing these either for another 'proper' item in the box Kicking off the main items of the box, we have a Street Fighter branded t-shirt. When I saw that there was a SF item in the box I was really excited, and I'm never going to turn my nose down at a nice shirt, but this isn't really a nice shirt. For the most part the shirt is just a block, bright red, which I don't feel is a particularly great colour for a shirt anyway. The word "Fight" is emblazoned across the chest in a similar font to that used for the logos of SF products. Pictures of some of more notable characters from the series are mashed up and stuffed inside the letters, but it's really quite messy and from a distance it's both hard to tell what the shirt actually says or what the pictures are supposed to be. The key issue I have with the shirt though, is that it's not as advertised. I've been referring to the item as 'Street Fighter' as that's what it is. Loot Crate, however, specifically advertised a Street Fighter V item. This is simply false advertising. The artwork featured on the shirt is NOT from Street Fighter V, and actually more closely resembles something from the Alpha series. Characters are not portrayed in their Street Fighter V outfits or designs, and non-playable characters such as Rolento are featured on the shirt. I would have taken no major issue with this shirt had it been advertised as "Street Fighter", but by advertising a specific entry in the series I expect to receive an item themed around that specific entry. I simply can not rate this item highly at all because of this.
We've got another item of clothing in the box this month. It's a snapback style hat themed to the Scout from Team Fortress 2. It's not actually a replica of the Scout's hat, as including a blain black cap in the box would seem a slightly silly choice, and so the designers have taken a few liberties and simply created a hat inspired by the Scout. I actually really like this item. I don't like hats, and I will never wear this, but objectively it's really quite nice. Box recipients or 'Looters' as they're known can receive either a Blue or a Red Team variant of the cap. I found the Red Team version in my box. The main body of the hat is a dark red, almost maroon colour with a cream bill. The front features a winged foot design embroidered on, and the underside of the bill has the Team Fortress 2 logo printed on, both in matching colours to the hat. The only other notable feature is the Red Team's bomb logo which can be found on the top of the bill in sticker form. TF2 fans are also treated to a second item this week; a small art print of a TF2 poster for the fan-film 'End Of The Line'. This is another nice little inclusion which probably didn't cost a lot of money to produce, but really gives a little extra value to the box. Two items left to cover, and these are my personal favourites and neither I can really fault. The first is a particularly practical DOTA 2 gaming mouse mat. The mat features original artwork sourced from an artist in the DOTA 2 community, displaying a plethora of characters in the game in a slightly oddball plush toy form. It's not the absolute highest quality mouse mat, like those you'd find for £35 in shops, but it's certainly of a much higher quality than something you'd find in a discount store. It's also fairly large in size, to accommodate wide mouse movements players might have to make in-game. The star of the show is a Loot Crate exclusive variant Tracer Funko POP figure from Overwatch. The standard Tracer POP represents her default attire, but this instead references one of her in-game skins, with a sleek black and green colour scheme. Exclusive Funko POP figures are always a great addition, as they're highly collectable and you can take them and put them straight on your shelf for display. Exclusives also tend to have much higher second market value, especially when kept mint in box. To buy this figure separately, you'd be paying more than the entire box otherwise.
This was the first Loot Crate I had bought and it will be the last for a while. I'm not massively impressed with it, and whilst the hat is nice (objectively speaking), it doesn't add any real value for me. The two items I like, I love, and they alone have made the box worth it for me. Of course, this is completely subjective, so I can't tell you whether or not Loot Gaming is the crate for you, and the items change every month regardless. I can however look at this box objectively and say that overall it was fairly successful. The shirt was a bit of a let down, and the hat is inoffensive, and the other items go a considerable way to making up the price you're paying for the box. This month was not a stellar hit, but there's certainly some real value to be found. I'll be certain to re-subscribe should I hear news of another interesting, exclusive POP figure in a future box, but for now, Loot Gaming and I must part ways. Loot Gaming is available for around £26 per month at the time of writing, with cheaper rates for multi-month subscriptions, and is available from www.lootcrate.com.
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