Wil Wheaton is one of Quarterly's latest curators - this is his third box. Here is a brief summary from Wil of what you can expect from this subscription:
Starting with my childhood and working towards present day, each box will represent a decade of memories, moments, and the objects that defined them.
Wil's third box continues his decade theme trend and is dedicated to the 1990's!
This box was sent to us early for review purposes. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).
The Subscription Box: Wil Wheaton Quarterly Box
The Cost: $100 (plus $8 shipping)
The Products: “Starting with my childhood and working towards present day, each box will represent a decade of memories, moments, and the objects that defined them.”
Ships to: US and Worldwide (Additional shipping costs for International subscribers).
Each Quarterly box comes with a letter from the curator detailing the items included and why they were selected.
Hypnosquare - Value $118.93 on Amazon
The big item this month is this Hypnosquare from Hypnocube. Wil speaks about his experiences in the early 90's of going to clubs and this square, in combination with the curated 90's techno playlist you'll see later, reminded him of that time. It's actually really awesome. There are three buttons on the backside, one for power, and the other two tweak the light patterns.
Here's a look at it out of the box, it's an 8x8 square.
And here's one of many, many, many light sequences.
Early 90's techno playlist download - Value ?
Wil brought in more early 90's with this 'Brink of Oblivion' flyer - which has access to the playlist. To get more info - you call the phone number on the flyer to find out how to get the playlist. Unfortunately, I was pretty much unable to make out any of what was said on the recorded message...so I have yet to redeem.
Rifftrax 90's Cyber Thrillers Download Card - Value $3.50
If you're a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, you're going to love this! Rifftrax riffs on movies, just like MST3k, and this is a special that includes 3 movies.
Cyber thrillers, and in fact the very word “cyber”, ruled the 90s. And, since it was new to most people, ridiculous depictions of the internet ruled 90s movies. In this special, we take some of the biggest offenders to task. First up, Hackers, which unforgivably tried really hard to make the word “crispy,” and also Matthew Lillard, happen. Then we have The Lawnmower Man, which predicted that the future would mostly be about polygonal virtual reality sex between giant dragonflies. Spot on! And finally there’s The Net, in which Sandra Bullock uses chat rooms (whoa!), orders pizza from a site called “pizza.net” (who hasn’t?) and faces off against her cyber-tormentors on the floor of a computer trade show (nothing says “action” like paunchy men in Dockers!)
This really brought back the MST3K memories for me. Also, it's just hilarious. Also - MST3K is trying to make a come back through kickstarter!
Woob - 1194 Album Download - Value $8.99
He includes a copy of the album 1194 by UK artist Woob. I hadn't heard of this one before, but I was also never into ambient music (excluding Mogwai).
Radio Free Burrito Poster - value $10?
As always, a new Radio Free Burrito poster is included - this is probably my favorite poster from Wil to date!
Verdict: At first, I was surprised by the number of items in the box, but in the end I really enjoyed unboxing this one, more than any of his previous boxes. The value is over the cost paid, but it relies heavily on one item, and if you don't like that item then the box has a pretty low value for you - that's pretty risky. The Rifftrax item was just so much fun to watch, and it really has me wanting to watch more. I should mention - In his letter, he does address that it feels weird sending so many non-physical items, especially for a 90's box, but in the end the modern equivalent made more sense. I can definitely agree with that.
What do you think of #WIL03?
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