It’s that time of the month again, new Loot Crate!

Following up a pretty stellar (in my opinion) FANTASY crate in April, this month’s theme was UNITE. I really didn’t know what to expect with this particular theme, but I was guessing that teamups and the like would be focused. Overall I was pretty happy with the gear this month, but I will not hide my disappointment that there was nothing from Captain Planet. Your theme is UNITE but you don’t have anything from the show about people combining their powers to summon a green-haired super man. Poorly played Loot Crate. Let’s see what we got. Oh, and I apologize for those weird purple spots on the photos, my camera is a jerkbag.

Rick and Morty Puzzle

I have no idea what Rick and Morty is. Is it a cartoon? A comic book? Or is it just a puzzle? I had to look it up to find out that it was an AdultSwim show. Now, usually when I get something liscenced and I don’t know what it’s about I’m like meh, however, this is a little different. It says created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon. Lots of people know Dan Harmon from Community fame, but I used to know him from a little website called Channel 101. That’s also how I know the name Justin Roiland, he made a show called House of Cosbys that was sort of amazing. The fact that these guys are doing something and I’ve never heard of it totally gives this a boosted heart rating since Loot Crate basically just told me about something that I will probably like and I’ve never heard of! Hurray! I also like puzzles!

Happiness: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

An Unending Parade of Marvel Swag

This Marvel stuff makes a lot of sense. Avengers just came out, the catchphrase for the Avenges is “Avengers, Assemble!” and the theme is UNITE. I’m willing to bet that the hype-machine over at Marvel wanted this whole box to be full of Marvel stuff, they came close. 3 different things in this month’s crate weere Marvel themed. Let’s see it:

Marvel Ice Cube Tray

Sarah and I love special ice-cube trays. We’ve got skulls, hearts, flowers, the Titanic (that floats half sunk and has iceberg shaped molds too) so this was a pretty great get. My only beef is that unless you get really luck with the molds, once they ice comes out, it’s a little hard to see exactly what you’re really looking at. Meh, we like drinks, we like superheroes.

Happiness: ♥ ♥ ♥

Avengers Decal/Sticker Thing

What is this for? Am I supposed to put it on my car? Maybe my laptop? Does it glow in the dark? Sadly, a big ole’ Avengers sticker just doesn’t get me very excited. I might give it to my nephew so he can put it on his skateboard or something. This is pretty much a throw-in though, so I can’t be mad.

Happiness: ♥ ♥

Marvel Laces

I think that Loot Crate is getting wise to their client base. These are clearly laces that were originally designed with children in mind, but they are at a length that would fit adult shoes. It’s like they’ve finally realized that the people getting these things are adults, not children. Although, I can imagine that if you got your kid a subscription to Loot Crate he’s going to be awfully mad about not being able to use these sweet laces right away. I’ve got a lot of shoes (I swear it’s because I skateboard and not because I’m a consumer whore), so even though I intend on giving these away as a gift, they might just end up on a pair of sneaks. Fun laces are fun.

Happiness: ♥ ♥ ♥

Special Unite The Stupid Mad Magazine

I am not going to lie, I haven’t opened this up yet. But somehow, I’m vaguely excited for it. My cousin used to collect Mad Magazines, and I used to get my dad to get them for me on roadtrips (my mom thought they were drivel). It’s been a long time since I’ve picked one up, probably bordering on 15 years or so. I’m kinda excited in a nostalgic sort of way to see that art/humour again. This was a neat throw-in that I was totally not expecting.

Happiness: ♥ ♥ ♥

Team Fortress 2 Pin Set

In case you needed more pins, they’ve got pins! I never really got into TF2, but I know plenty of people who are. I also know that if I was into the game I would be super excited for these Team Red and Team Blue pins especially. In fact, I might just pretend that they’re from Red vs Blue and tell people that. Pins are also an easy re-gift.

Happiness: ♥ ♥

Bravest Warriors Comic Book

I like getting comics from Loot Crate, as I’ve previously mentioned, I usually take in my comics digitally, so it’s a nice change of pace to occasionally get a real-world book to flip through and read. I’m also a big Bravest Warriors fan. So much so that despite the rest of the party’s resistance, I refer to our D&D adventuring party as “The Bravest Warriors”. The DM (Jon) has also started doing that so I’m pretty sure it’s official. This is a big comic too. Seems thicker than the usual. I’ve been meaning to pick up some of the Bravest Warriors comics to check them out and having read this issue, it seems like the kids do a good job transitioning to print. I’ll probably be picking up more issues down the road

Happiness: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Green/White Ranger T-Shirt

No supergroup really does a better job of exemplifying “Unite” like the Power Rangers. I mean, they literally all get into their own robots and then when they can’t beat a bad guy they unite into one giant robot. However, the Green Ranger kind of did his own thing, which makes it a weird choice for the UNITE crate (ok, so technically, 3 of the Dinozords could combine with Green Rangers Dragonzord to form Dragonzord Battle Mode, but that’s not even the whole team, let’s pretend I didn’t go down this train of thought). This is a cool shirt though, so whatever.

Happiness: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Overall impressions:

This was a pretty good month, even if it felt kind of filler. Lots of this stuff is going to get regifted though and there’s no arguing that it was worth more than the price of admission. My only complaint, and it’s not directly with this Crate but just the fact that this is now 3 consecutive months with no figurine, which is kind of a bummer.

Next month’s theme is CYBER, which is what we used to call sexting back when it was done on computers.

Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.