#GeekFuel Review: July 2016

Our final Geek Fuel box offers more of the same: a perplexing array of geeky sundries.

Review by Matt Cummings

NOTE: This review has been updated to include our cancellation of the Geek Fuel subscription box.

With 2016 half way completed, Geek Fuel is not exactly weathering the subscription box storm. With our interest in monthly boxes finally at an end, it's time to bid GF a fond farewell. July's box makes a strong case for cancellation, featuring yet another hodge-podge of seemingly random items.

Before diving in to the misery, let's review the details:

The cost for a Month to Month is $17.90, $16.90/month for a 3-month subscription, $15.90/month for a 6-month tour and just $13.90/month for a one-year subscription.

Shipping $6.00 to the US, Canada, and at least a few other countries.

We use QUALITY and TIMING to base our reviews, so let's see how this box stands up. As always, we'll end our review with some additional thoughts after the unboxing:

First Thoughts
Depending on whether you are a fan of Ghostbusters, Alien, and Doctor Who, Geek Fuel's box is either a passable or a perplexing disaster. In our opinion, we bend towards the latter, not because we aren't fans of these genres, but because the quality is so definitely diminished. Sure, the appearance of fan favorite Slimer is nice to see on the t-shirt, but the quality of the material already feels scratchy, and the artwork on the shirt is also cheaply conceived. I'm also concerned about the lack of a theme to this box, which used to serve as an anchor for these monthlies. Not anymore: what we've gotten the last few months is a collection of unrelated items, perhaps what GF could secure from vendors in the short amount of time they have, hoping their customers would appreciate yet another example of a raid on a Hot Topic store.

Take the Boo-Busters button: it's obvious that GF couldn't secure the licensing for a real Ghostbusters button, and its inclusion here feels very 99 Cent Store. Just because you slap an 'exclusive' label on something, doesn't mean that item is of real quality. And then you get to the Alien playing cards, which look interesting but just feel out of place here. There's nothing happening on the Aliens front (the celebration happened back in April), so why include it? Using our standards of QUALITY and TIMING, I have to say that this month's box misses both benchmarks by a wide margin.

The Bottom Line
July's Geek Fuel once again delivers a disappointing collection of geek sundries. From a scratchy t-shirt to a general lack of cohesion to this box, it's clear that a monthly plan might be better suited for someone with lower standards. Like 12 year olds. It's time to say goodbye to the monthly model, as the adult in us just won't allow this kind of uneven performance. Not even GF's promise of Avengers, Batman, Star Trek, and Back to the Future in near-future boxes was enough for us to keep our subscription, nor was that one-year gift for our commitment worth it in our opinion. Perhaps the monthly model still works in some other line; but with Loot Crate a distant memory over the same issues, Geek Fuel never delivered a consistently good box.

Want to read our other sub box reviews? We've got them all listed below: MARVEL COLLECTOR CORPS
May
June
August
October
December
February
April


LOOT CRATE REVIEWS
March
April
May
June
July
August
December

GEEK FUEL REVIEWS
September
October
November
December
January
March
April
May
June
SMUGGLER'S BOUNTY
January
March
May

July - COMING SOON Discuss this review with fellow SJF fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @SandwichJohnFilms, and follow author Matt Cummings at @mfc90125.