Eric Ravenscraft
Subscription boxes are an awesome way to get a gift for your friends and family (or yourself), but some of the generalized boxes can come with stuff you don’t care about. If you want to make sure the person you’re buying for gets something they’ll like, one of these fandom-specific boxes are just the ticket.
J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World: Show Off Your Hogwarts House Pride
Price: $38 every two months
Few fandoms can boast as many devoted fans as Harry Potter (or, more properly, J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World). The Wizarding World box—one of a few fandom-specific packages from LootCrate—features five to seven items every other month, centered around a theme from the stories, such as the dark arts, or house pride. You can pick which Hogwarts House you belong to, so you always get gear that fits your personality. At least, according to the sorting hat that is.
Marvel Gear & Goods: Super-Powered Home Goods and Personal Accessories
Price: $35 every two months
Another of LootCrate’s fandom boxes, the Marvel Gear & Goods box is less about the figurines and keychains like you can find in every other box on the planet. For that, you could probably find a cheaper subscription. Instead, this package comes with home goods like pillows, coffee mugs, and plate ware, as well as some personal gear like notebooks or backpacks. You may occasionally get some cool collectibles, but overall this box is aimed at the adult fans who want practical, useful items while still showing off their Marvel pride.
Mickey Monthly: A Disney Theme Park Gift Shop Mailed Right to You
Price: $7-200 per month
Surprisingly, the company behind this subscription isn’t affiliated with Disney, despite that company’s obvious love for selling branded toys. The regular Mickey Monthly packages contain toys, pins, snacks, and more all featuring Disney-owned characters (which, given how many properties Disney owns, borders dangerously close on making this a general-interest box). However, the real treat are the Theme Park Edition boxes. In these, you’ll get a collection of exclusive toys, snacks, and souvenirs straight from inside Disney theme parks. Since this isn’t a Disney-owned subscription—and since Disney tends to have plenty of gifts that you can only buy in the parks themselves—this means every box you get contains something that a person walked into the parks to buy. This box is probably one of the most overpriced subscriptions in our list, but that only seems to make it that much more of an authentic theme park experience.
Star Trek Mission Crate: Standard Issue Starfleet Collectibles
Price: $40 every two months
The Star Trek Mission Crate is another specialized LootCrate box that comes with four to six Star Trek items including shirts, figurines, and exclusive accessories. Like the Hogwarts box, you can customize your crate to your preferred Starfleet Division, including Command, Ops/Engineering, Medical, and Sciences. No, I’m not sure which one includes the red shirts, or even if shirt colors have any consistency. You’ll have to take your chances.
Game of Thrones: Clothes and Gear From Westeros’ Noble Houses
Price: $50 per quarter
Like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones went from a series of beloved books to a massive cultural tsunami sweeping everything up in its path. That’s about where the similarities between the two franchises end. This Game of Thrones subscription box features clothes, figurines, and more in a four-times-a-year box that should hold you over until season 8 drops in 2019. Or until George R.R. Martin finishes the next book, some time in the 22nd century.
The Nick Box: Retro Goodies From the Golden Age of Nickelodeon
Price: $50 per quarter
Nickelodeon used to own the children’s programming block in the 90s, with shows like Doug, Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, Rocko’s Modern Life, All That, Kenan and Kel, and plenty more. This quarterly crate packs memorabilia from all your old favorites into a themed box delivered to your door once per season. The kids in your house might not remember the shows these toys are from, but the nostalgic adult sure will.
Pusheen Box: A Package Full of That Cat From Your Facebook Stickers
Price: $50 per quarter
Pusheen started life as a comic strip character, but you probably know it best as that adorable sticker pack everyone uses. Over the years, Pusheen has taken on a life of its own, ending up on everything from plushies to clothes to toys. With the Pusheen Box, you can get all of those collectibles and more in a quarterly box filled to the brim with the internet’s most adorable cartoon cat.
WWE Slam Crate: Turns Out, Pro Wrestling Is Geeky Now
Price: $33 every two months
When you think of nerdy fandoms, the WWE probably isn’t the first thing that comes to your mind, but in recent years it’s taken hold in geek culture. It’s full of outlandish characters in colorful costumes that compete in a serialized show characterized by interpersonal drama and wildly unrealistic physical violence. Put another way, pro wrestling is a live-action comic book movie. If this appeals to you or your gift recipient, the WWE Slam Crate from LootCrate offers a selection of shirts, figurines, pins, and more to celebrate your favorite costumed heroes before they inevitably become actors and probably end up in a Marvel movie.
