The Robotic Loot Crate has arrived, including one robot in need of assembly, corrupted data from a parallel universe, a shirt for the workforce where synthetic life is made and marketed, and a reminder of how effective androids are against alien queens, as well as Robotic’s funnest and easiest crate craft yet, and a Robotic pin almost as shiny as R2D2 and C3PO in the Royal Award Ceremony of Star Wars.
My favorite item this month, simply due to my long admiration for the franchise, is Loot Crate’s glow-in-the-dark Blade Runner 2049 t-shirt, depicting the logo of the Wallace Corporation, the sequel’s parallel to the Tyrell Corporation. Which isn’t to say that this marvelous shirt wouldn’t have elicited my appreciation all on its own, as I freak out for in-universe t-shirts, and I love the suppleness and warmth of the black cotton, but Blade Runner, after Star Wars (1977), was the second movie that wowed me three times, twice in the eighties with the 1982 voiced-over original and the Marvel Comics Super Special with its sizzling Al Williamson four-color noir art, then again in the nineties, with the Blade Runner Director’s Cut, which restored the Vangelis soundtrack and showed us the original vision of the Philip K. Dick inspired film, in which even Decker is not so certain of his human pedigree. As you can see, in my replicant-worthy rant, I’m a bit of a Blade Runner fan.
My second favorite item this month, partially due to my Borg-like assimilation of every Star Trek episode, and partially due to my excitement that Loot Crate has distributed yet another original comic book, was the exclusive Star Trek: The Next Generation: Mirror Broken. Half a million Loot Crate subscribers now own the origin story of Mirror Universe Data, as written by Scott Tipton and David Tipton, as illustrated by Josh Hood, and with a cover by J. K. Woodward. Though the first original Loot Crate comic book, the hilarious Harley Quinn special, set an incredibly high bar for original material in Loot Crate, I’m a huge Star Trek, TNG, and Data fan, and I’m sure I’ll find something to like in here.
The first entry in the collaboration between Loot Crate and Phat Mojo, the exclusive Aliens “Queen Takes Bishop,” is an attractive mini-figure set from all angles. I like the contrast between the cartoon mascot style of the mini-fig and the realistic style on the alien queen—it reminds me of Dobby the house elf’s death at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange—and I’m curious to see future installments.
Not only does the eighty-one piece Star Wars R2D2 IncrediBuild look like a ton of fun, but I’m really glad that the true hero of the original trilogy, R2D2, was the model’s chosen subject, as he’s hands down my favorite Star Wars character. When this gets built, I’ll update this review with the pictures. Loot Crate and Insight Editions provided some incentive for subscribers to build this quickly, as those who build and decorate their R2 unit by November 3rd, 2017, then tag phtotos @Insight Editions and @LootCrate on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtags #IncrediBuilders #Contest, will be entered into a contest with IncrediBuilds as the prizes.
Loot Bot must have a good agent, because he parlayed his previous Crate Craft appearance into a second guest appearance in Robotic, featuring not only on the Loot Pin, but this month’s Cog Crispies cereal box Crate Craft. Everyone in our house—all cereal lovers—was really impressed with the Crate Craft, which like a real cereal box, is packed with text and makes for good breakfast reading.
Like science fiction robots themselves, the Robotic crate not only had a sense of fun, but a sense, in its Blade Runner and Star Trek: Mirror Universe inclusions, of the way our human-formed AI friends can easily be flipped from serving humanity to self-serving menaces. Robotic not only provided timely merchandise–I have an in-universe Blade Runner 2049 shirt to wear to the premiere–but an effective theme, in that but two of Robotics’ robot-themed items had to be built. Robotic was yet another excellent installment in Loot Crate’s subscription box service.
While Robotic is no longer available, you can order October’s Mythical Loot Crate by October 19th, 2017, and receive a goodie box containing items from Ghostbusters, Stranger Things, Marvel, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
October’s theme is #MYTHICAL featuring #Ghostbusters, #StrangerThings, #Marvel & #Buffy! Order by 10/19 at 9pm PT: https://t.co/SueayG98wR pic.twitter.com/NlaPi2Gex7
— Loot Crate (@lootcrate) September 20, 2017
Loot Crate sent the review copy.
