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1UP Box Subscription Box Review – February 2015

Liz Cadman
ByLiz CadmanFeb 24, 2015 | 33 comments

1UP Box Subscription Box Review - February 2015 Box

1Up Box is a newer geek/gamer subscription box. My husband is pretty obsessed with these boxes, so as soon as a few readers recommended this one we signed up!

1UP Box Subscription Box Review - February 2015 First Look

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process postto learn more about how we review boxes.)

1UP Box Subscription Box Review - February 2015 Items

The Subscription Box: 1UP Box

The Cost: $18.92

The Products: "1Up Box is a monthly swag distributor that offers something remarkable, something creative, and something unique in which all geeks and gamers can fancy. Each month 1Up Box assemble a mystery collection of 5-8 items, all of which are kept secret until the boxes are delivered."

Ships to: US and Canada ($29.99 a month to Canada - price includes shipping).

Delivered via: USPS

1UP Box Subscription Box Review - February 2015 Info

Each box comes with a card detailing the items included. I like that they show all the variants subscribers may receive. This month's theme is Apocalypse.

1UP Box Subscription Box Review - February 2015 Tee

Super Cross Bros Tee - Value $12?

(65% Polyester, 35% Ringspun Cotton).

This tee is pre-shrunk and the fabric is very lightweight and soft. It isn't sheer, but if you hold it up to the light you can sort of see through it (to give you a sense of fabric thickness). From what I can tell this is an exclusive mashup tee for 1UP Box subscribers, and I like that the tee material is different than what we've seen in most other geek subscription boxes.

1UP Box Subscription Box Review - February 2015 Sticker

Hey Listen Sticker Set - Value $1?

Nintendo Mushroom Candy Tin - Value $3

I'm not sure if they include stickers in each box (this is our first month), but it is a nice bonus. And this little mushroom holds more candy than I expected:

1UP Box Subscription Box Review - February 2015 Candy

1UP Box Subscription Box Review - February 2015 Rick

Walking Dead Wind Ups in Rick - Value $12

We're big Walking Dead fans (and my husband has about 20 of the Walking Dead POP Funkos so far), so we were excited about this item. Subscribers will receive one of seven variations. I'm glad we got Rick, but I'm thinking the Walker option would be most appropriate one to match the wind-up walking motion!

1UP Box Subscription Box Review - February 2015 Spray

Zombie Strike Global Outbreak Toy Grenade Stress Ball - Value $2?

Zombie Anti-Virus Hand Sanitizer - Value $1?

A grenade shaped stress ball is fun - I'm sure my husband will keep this on his desk. The hand sanitizer is a nice idea, but I couldn't get it to work after trying to spritz it for 30+ times so I'm thinking I got one with a defective pump.

Verdict: Based on my estimates, this box has a value of about $31. 1UP Box guarantees a value of $40+ each month, so I'm guessing they have different values for some of the exclusive items like the shirt. I'm OK with the $31 value fo the approx $19 cost, and I am impressed with their curation and theme.

What do you think of 1UP Box?

Liz Cadman
Liz Cadman
Liz is the founder of My Subscription Addiction. She's been hooked on subscription boxes since 2011 thanks to Birchbox, and she now subscribes to over 100 boxes. Her favorites include POPSUGAR Must Have, FabFitFun, and any box that features natural beauty products!

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33 comments

James

Can someone tell me where to go online to swap items form these boxes. Is there a site/blog? I’ve seen a few people mention swapping items on this board and am curious? Thanks

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Liz Cadman

swap.mysubscriptionaddiction.com

(It is in the top navigation too. Hope that helps!)

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Nai

Hi Liz, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, how long is the waitlist for the swap site? I just signed up for it today. I love your blog btw. I check it obsessively every day :). Thanks for all that you do!

LordShamrock

I think I am going to have to give this one another month or so.. I loved the shirt but I wasn’t crazy about this month’s theme.

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Tami

I concur!

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kitkatnef

Interesting and a good price! I sub to many boxes and my Fam wanted in on the Boxes too!lol So we did the LC for a few mos but this past mo was meh..so i subbed to the Horror Block since we all love the Scary movies and i feel they could split that one up more. I’ll be keeping my eye on this 1Up tho.

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Leah

I am IN LOVE with this months box. I was so sad when I saw this review because I had actually never heard of this box and therefore wasn’t subscribed. I went online and subscribed but it said I was signing up to get the March box. I emailed them to see if there was any way that I could purchase a February box. Within minutes I received a reply saying yes they had extra and to confirm that I wanted one and they would bill me for it. I confirmed and within an hour had a tracking number. I am so excited because I LOVE the Walking Dead AND Zelda and am very pleased with their customer service.

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Sme

First, I LOVE your reviews. It’s almost as good as getting the box myself 🙂 But, I think I should stop reading these geek-centric box reviews because I continue to be surprised (and kind of annoyed) that anyone would want this junk, much less would want to PAY for it!

Seriously, how many t-shirts can one person own???!!! Add that to endless stickers, pop funkos, and happy meal style toys, where on earth do you keep all of it!? I get it that, occasionally, a super fan will get something amazing that they never would have seen before, but that happens so rarely!

I guess I just can’t imagine spending over $200 for one year worth of this junk.

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Shannon P.

You know what I can’t imagine? I can’t imagine wearing stilletos to Walmart. I can’t imagine voluntarily attending a NASCAR event. I can’t imagine why people like dogs over cats. I can’t imagine why women like to wear gstrings. I can’t imagine why there are so many colors of nail polish. I can’t imagine not loving the snow. I can’t possibly imagine why trucks are so popular. I can’t imagine why people aren’t fastidious label readers. I can’t imagine enjoying white chocolate.

You know what else I can’t imagine? I can’t imagine that everyone else is just like me.

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Orlee

Well said!

This box isn’t for me, but I love that it exists and gives people a little slice of happiness.

Ryan

So, because you don’t like it, no one should? People are allowed to have as many shirts as they want. How many other clothing sub boxes are there that you aren’t questioning? Clearly many people love these and it’s not your place to tell anyone else what they should like.

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Shanna

I think before slamming this genre as a whole, you need some perspective: in my family, we are two adults and three kids, and all of us are geeks for different sci fi or fantasy movies, tv shows, etc. Boxes like these satisfy most of us. Horror, Star Trek, and Firefly go to me. Game stuff goes to my son, anything with Walking Dead or Game of Thrones to my husband. Doctor Who goes to my older daughter, anything cute to my younger daughter. Stickers go on school folders or laptop cases. In this month’s 1Up, for instance, I gave my son the shirt and stickers (he took one heart, gave his twin sister one, and their older sister the half heart since he said that’s all she really has 🙂 ). My older daughter clipped the sanitizer to her backpack. I kept the stress grenade to keep in my office for when I’m grading student essays. My husband got the windup. My younger daughter got the mushroom.

I get that these boxes aren’t for you, but for many of us, they’re a fun, monthly, inexpensive surprise full of goodies we didn’t know about but have fun with or put on shelves to enjoy. I could go on about the creative things we do with Funco stuff, but I hope you get the idea!

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Raquel

I absolutely LOVE your reply Shanna. I have 3 boys and a family of Geeks and Gamers (Brothers, Uncles, Cousins) and my dad a super Sci Fi geek too. So first and foremost I got the t shirt in a size that both my youngest son and I could fit in if I didn’t like the shirt (but since this month was Walking Dead mash up it was mine) and between this and the Loot Crate box, have been able to divvy up the monthly goodies between myself and my family. This month my boys really loved the 1UP box over the LC box but they still cannot wait for family game night to break out the board game. Since I spoil myself with beauty boxes and lifestyle boxes like LLB, BB, PopSugar, Bare Bliss, and a few Quarterly boxes…this is one of the packages that is a whole family monthly surprise and my boys love it.

Michelle

To be honest, this is the first 1 Up Box that I felt fell a little flat. Up until now, it has been pretty awesome, especially for a gamer nerd audience (the boyfriend). This is pretty much the first time he’s given up anything for swapping from a 1 Up Box (only because he doesn’t watch The Walking Dead). They seem to include more video game (especially Nintendo)-based items, and actually their price started out a lot lower, too. We were lucky to have locked in the original lower price (for being in one of the earlier groups of subscribers). We cancelled Loot Crate after 6 months because it seemed to be rather hit or miss. I hope 1 Up Box doesn’t go in that direction. (Just for reference, we also kept Arcade Block but cancelled regular Nerd Block, did not keep My Geeky Goodies (better for people who love getting Funko stuff in their subscription boxes) but keeping Geek Me Box for the time being. Cool New Box, F Box, and Geek Fuel seem to be similar to My Geeky Goodies. Stay away from Otaku Crate and Gizmo Crate. For the anime fan, Fanipack seems to be doing okay.)

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Emily

I was considering canceling Loot Crate this month to switch to 1Up Box and decided to put it off because I’m not a Walking Dead fan. I am pleasantly surprised by LC this month, but still think 1Up might be a better fit for me since they have so much Nintendo theming every month. I hope someone puts the Zelda stickers up for swap!

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bunnygirlbrem

You can have them if you send me an SASE. 🙂 Email me for my address (sorry if this isn’t okay to do, Liz). betnapcpaws at cox dot net

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Emily

Awesome! I just sent you an e-mail. Thanks so much!

me

Target carries the wind ups for $4.99

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bunnygirlbrem

I really liked it. I didn’t even realize that the “value” wasn’t there because I thought the items were so cool and the box so well-curated. I did to get the Daryl wind-up, however, so that probably helped. 🙂 I got it for just this month, but I wouldn’t hesitate to buy again if they had a theme that sounded good to me.

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gcc

they just emailed that next month is: villain

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Rain

BRB, subscribing to 1up now. 😛

b cranston

This was the first and last time I will be getting a 1up box.
It was VERY cheaply made stuff and nowhere near the value that they seemed to promise.

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lily

I’m not fond of this box. The grenade and the tshirt design are the items I’m not thrilled with. For a new subscription 1upbox has a good price point, that includes a tshirt. This like many of geek boxes seems to be more for men then women. I prefer lootcrate, it seems to have a little more variety. I found the last lootcrate box interesting how they showed ways that a woman can use the tie as a hair scarf. Something I did not think about before. Seems very tough to have a 1 geek box for a demographic of both men and women. I keep hoping that one day there will be a geek box more for women.

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Laura Diniwilk

I just ordered this for the hubs, thought it would be a fun surprise. In your experience, are the T shirts true to size? I went with the larger of the 2 sizes I was debating between because it always seems like this type of shirt shrinks.

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lily

I noticed the jan box having a thicker tshirt then the feb box. They both seem true to size. I ordered a size up because I’m always shrinking shirts. I normally order a size up, unless it specially says “preshrunk”. Because it is easier to shrink a tshirt verses unshrink a tshirt.

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Ryan

I really don’t get the appeal of the 1up Box. It’s typically a cheap t-shirt and a handful of items you’d find in a banks promotional gifts closet. Loot Crate is the same price and their items are always valued over $60.

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gcc

I got the three month sub for my husband for Valentine’s Day since he’s a geek and we’re both Walking Dead fans. I think I built up my expectations too much… The box was only okay… The t-shirt is thin, and stress balls are freebies when I go to conferences (none that look like grenades but then again I guess I just don’t find a grenade shaped stress ball very interesting anyway). He got the Michonne wind up and it looks NOTHING like her…

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Shanna

My husband does not love all the money I spend on sub boxes, but he pretty much squealed with happiness when I gave him the Governor wind-up I got. 🙂 One thing you might mention, Liz, is that 1Up now offers t-shirts in kids’ sizes! I really don’t wear t-shirts and my husband is drowning in them because of boxes like this, so my 8-year-old son was THRILLED to get this month’s shirt!

I gave up Nerd Block and Loot Crate for 1Up and My Geek Box, and have been really happy.

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Cristina

I was gonna buy this for my boyfriend for his birthday but I’m kinda glad I didn’t. There’s not really a wow factor in this box which is disappointing because we both are big fans of Walking Dead.

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