First and foremost because this is a Marvel post, RIP Stan Lee, thank you for bringing so many influential characters into my life that have shaped me since I was a child. You will be missed by so many but your influence will live on with every fan whose heart you touched with a character, a comic book strip, or a delightful cameo in a film that made everyone wonder “when is Stan Lee coming in?” The first film without one of your cameos will be difficult, thank you for everything. 

            Per usual, all of these views are mine and I’m not holding back on this one. This is no shade to Funko or their very creative staff who create some of the coolest and most fun collectables that I own. I am talking very much about the quality of the box as well as the confusion I am feeling for the execution of the theme within this box. 

            This post is going to be super long so grab some popcorn or a snack and dig into this with me.

Now onto the box itself, I feel like I have no words for how I feel about this box. I had to stop and write my thoughts down on how disappointed I am with this box. I was so hopeful that after the Venom box being so much better than the Deadpool box that the Marvel Studios 10 Year box would be super cool because 10 years is a big deal for a lot of fans. I expected a nice spread that was representative of the first 10 years, 20 movies, and countless characters that have changed the lives of so many people both from the comics as well as the feature films. The box contained four items, I am going to say this right here right now, I miss the pin, patch, and comic book; I know that I have said that before but I feel like I need to say it again louder for the people in the back. It took some of the magic of the box away when they got rid of so much of what made the box so cool to get every other month. 

The emotion I am tying to this box is confusion, there are no other emotions that I can tether to this in this moment beyond utter confusion as to the choices and the items within the box itself. I feel like I need to do a show and tell with the items before I actually explain why I am so confused with the whole thing.

The box was pretty standard but it came inside an Amazon box, granted I am going to use the outer box again but I thought it was kind of pointless to ship a box in a box when in the past it has never come in a second box; unless they had a rash of thefts with other boxes, if that is the case then it is understandable but then why put a Collector Corps box on the inside, just ship it in an Amazon box and put a card in it that explains things and some themed tissue paper.

The contents of the box were underwhelming, I even texted a picture to my mom and she said she was unimpressed and she used to think these boxes were really neat, they aren’t neat anymore. 

The first item I pulled out of the box was a Hulk Pez dispenser, the Hulk was from Thor: Ragnarok and I was confused as to why they chose something from Thor: Ragnarok and not a more recognizable Hulk from any of the other films that The Hulk has been featured in like one from one of the Avengers films? I just found it odd that using the Hulk with the battle helmet was their choice, it is also gold. It makes the character not less recognizable but less detailed than it would have been with the traditional coloring of the Hulk.

The next item was a movie moment which is a pretty new series from Funko and the movie moment was the fight between Whiplash and Tony Stark (Iron Man) in Monaco on the race track from Iron Man 2. It’s pretty cool and it was the highlight of the box. I am again confused why that was the movie moment that was chosen to be featured, I can think of many others that would encompass the first ten years of Marvel Studios better than this one. I was one of the few people I know who actually like Iron Man 2 but it is my least favorite Iron Man solo film, I would go even so far as to say that it is my least favorite movie with Iron Man in it. Like I said highlight of the box, it was the only thing that wasn’t gold. I would have liked to have seen a movie moment from one of the ensemble films because I feel personally that would have been more representative of the magnitude of the Marvel Cinematic Universe when it comes to the impact of the first 10 years of Marvel Studios. 

I feel like there was a very King Midas moment with this box, everything but one thing was gold. Like I said with the Hulk Pez, it makes them much less detailed. The last two items in the box were two pint Sized Heroes in Thanos and Thor from Thor: Ragnarok. I am going to start with Thanos because I need a moment before I go into it about the tiny Thor.

 I understand why Thanos made it into the box, he was the foreshadowed ultimate villain, the final boss if you will for much of the first 10 years but again, he’s gold. I can understand one gold item but not three, on the card in the box it said gold was chosen to represent the magnitude and the weight of the first ten years so one item, sure, but not three. Give me something that I can’t go and buy in a store and spray paint myself. Give me something that actually has some weight to it. Thanos is cute, Thanos should not be cute.

Now on to tiny Thor, again this is from Thor: Ragnarok so half of the items in this box were from one movie. One movie, let that sink in; out of 20 movies in the Cinematic Universe they chose two items from one film, a film that came out last year. When I first saw it on the card insert I thought it as Mordo from Doctor Strange which confused me even more but seeing that it is Thor on the packaging I was a little less confused; just a little. It’s gold, I didn’t know who it was until I looked at the packaging because when you make something all one color it makes it harder to know what it is on a figure that is small and not as detailed as a regular Pop! Figure. 

Now onto the fun part (not really more of the review of the tape after a losing game), my full and honest review and why I am cancelling my subscription. This box was in a word disappointing; I have no other adjective to describe it. Maybe in a few days I will but at the moment I was just incredibly disappointed in the quality of this box and the lack of quality in the last two out of three boxes that I have received. I want to break this down into a few categories as I go through this, the content, the reasons I am unsubscribing, and everything else.

      The Contents:

            This box was supposed to be a representation of the first ten years of Marvel Studios, it was supposed to encompass 20 films, it encompassed two and a general character. I was shocked to see nothing from Guardians which is a major part of the Cinematic Universe, I was really shocked to not see anything that was Captain America themed, that is one character who is a huge part of the franchise, he was the “First Avenger” after all and it was just so odd to not see anything in this box that featured him. There were so many characters that could have made appearances in this box and they didn’t, pick a villain that people love to hate, Ultron, Ulysses Claue, The Mandarin, Loki, (don’t come after me, I like Loki but in the beginning he went from misunderstood to trying to rule Earth, redemption was great but come on.) Red Skull, heck Ego. Give me the heroes that we all love, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Vision, Scarlet Witch, The Falcon, War Machine, and so many others that are huge parts of our popular culture.

There were only four items in the box where when it was under the Funko umbrella it was usually more and the quality of the items and the theme was more cohesive. They could have picked a different movie moment it would have had more impact if it would have been from a more popular Marvel film or a more memorable moment, it was not groundbreaking to me. I want to know how they chose this moment out of thousands that were more impacting on the franchise. Heck Black Widow flipping Happy Hogan would have been more memorable, or Rhodey and Tony in the botanical garden after the Hammer expo and that is two in that film alone, I mean if it was possible doing the moment of Tony sitting in the donut with Fury and Black Widow looking on would have been cool too, or even Coulson telling Tony if he left he would tazer him and sit and watch Super Nannyand all of those moments are from Iron Man 2, Tony next to the car holding the door after Whiplash took it off, that would have been cool too. I understand that they have to keep it on the simpler side because it is so much work that is put into even creating one of these let alone many but in my opinion this was not really a good representation of the magnitude of the first 10 years. 

Everything else was gold, I am not going to get into that again, I already did that above, but I would have preferred to see my favorite characters looking like themselves instead of spray painted. Also with the pint Sized Heroes, I think it would have been cool to have a certain number that were gold and then that would have made it super special for some people. 

            On the card in the box it said they chose three distinctive Funko styles, movie moments came out either earlier this year or last year, the Pez is something that I don’t personally collect and I don’t know many people who do, Pint Sized Heroes are cute but they were underwhelming. Putting a Pop! Figure in here, putting in a keychain, putting in a tee-shirt or a wearable, putting in something from the homeware collection, putting in a plush, or putting in something that you can use like stationary. They had so many options and one I get, two not so much. 

      Reasons I am Unsubscribing: 

            In the last three boxes since Amazon took over the subscription service two have been confusing and underwhelming, they have not upheld the quality and the content that I came to expect when it was under the Funko umbrella. The Venom box was pretty cool, there was a variety of things in that box that made me think that maybe they were getting their feet under them, that they were listening to the feedback from people from the comments on their website. Then this box came out and it was just them throwing some stuff in a box and shipping it out, that’s how it feels; disjointed. If you have a theme I love themes but for the collector these boxes are fine, they are not great, they are not groundbreaking and you can disagree with me, I have no issue with that. I didn’t like it, I gave it two chances and now I am just sitting here disappointed that it wasn’t all that I hoped it would be. Before you come after me read the other two reviews, they will be linked somewhere in this post, go on Amazon and read some of the reviews for the Deadpool box like I did after I got it. I can imagine that there will be some reviews for this one as well. It seems that the first two boxes focused on one character one they did really well one they did poorly, I gave them the benefit of the doubt after the Deadpool box that it would get better; it was the first box, they are still figuring it out. I can’t do that anymore, I can’t wait and hope that the next box in January will be better, I can’t justify spending money on these when I am going to like one or two items in it. It is not worth the price tag if that is the case. 

            There is just too much missing from the original Funko boxes that I loved so much, I loved getting them in the mail and unboxing them; it was so much fun to see all of the collectables that I couldn’t get anywhere else. It didn’t feel like I was forcing myself to like them then, now I feel as if I am lying to myself trying to give the benefit of the doubt. Maybe in six months I might try again and see if the quality has improved and maybe at that time I will resubscribe. This isn’t the first box I have unsubscribed from because it was no longer something that brought me joy or there were more items that I didn’t really like opposed to the items that I absolutely loved. So for now I am going to say goodbye to a box that I have subscribed to since February 2016, that may not be a long time in the grand scheme of things but it became a part of my life, my routine, and added some really cool things to my collection. It’s like saying goodbye to a friend, someone who used to bring you joy and has slowly changed to a point where you two no longer see eye to eye. I know that is a really heavy metaphor for just unsubscribing to a box but that’s about the thin and thick of it, I don’t want to spend money to be disappointed in this box anymore. I miss when it was still a Funko held box, when it was coming directly from them because the moment it stopped coming from them it was like the other side of the coin and it went from a nice shiny quarter to play money. 

            Okay, that’s it for me, a lot of things and if you have a different opinion; you know what, that’s super cool. If you subscribe are you loved the box I am happy for you, it just maybe isn’t for me anymore. If you do subscribe what are your thoughts? 

Have a good week and see y’all Saturday! (That’s right I am actually going to try and keep to my intended blog schedule for the first time in months!) 

-MJ