I originally ordered this special Zavvi ZBox release several months ago, where it suffered from several delays.
The Zavvi ZBox is a monthly UK based geek subscription box, similar to all the others in the genre. Occasionally, they release special one-off bonus boxes and that is what is being reviewed here.
This box is one of three released as part of the Gamer Edition series, with my choice for the Nintendo system. The other options were PlayStation and Xbox. The cost, including delivery within the UK, was the ZBox standard of £19.99 GBP ($30 USD).
I must admit that my hopes for this box went down a lot due to the delay and due to the very poor Doctor Who special edition ZBox that I received recently.
After several delays, this arrived through Royal Mail in a similar sized box to usual, with an outer plastic wrap. Unusually, the inner box was branded IWOOT (I Want One Of Those), part of the same family of companies, rather than Zavvi.
There was no information card within the box.
Box Contents
Nintendo Game Boy T-Shirt
I believe that the T-Shirts for these Gamer Edition boxes were originally advertised as all exclusives, but I can’t find anywhere to back up the claim at present.
This is a rather uninspired design – this looks like a cheap white home made T-Shirt with an ironed on transfer.
I’ll use the standard T-Shirt value of $10 USD.
Yoshi Plush
This isn’t the first Yoshi Plush I’ve had in a box, but it is slightly larger than some and it comes with a tag to show that it’s an official Mario item.
I make this 8″ tall.
There are lots of Yoshi Plushes available on Amazon.com.
Prices vary a lot. I’ll use a fairly standard price for official plushes of $15 USD, although I would never buy this.
Super Mario Bioworld Key Ring
This looks decent enough and has a rubber feel to it.
The price is again more than I would pay as is common for an official item. These rubber Super Mario key rings are available on Amazon.com and sell for around $8 USD, although I can’t find this exact version.
Ultimately though, when there’s lots of these in boxes, I just rate them as cheap items to pad out the box.
Super Mario Festival Wristbands (2 sets)
These are wristbands, with one denoting Mario and the other Luigi
There are two sets of these in the box. Not sure if that was deliberate or if that was a packing error. I can’t imagine that I’d wear either of them.
You can buy Super Mario Festival Wristbands on Amazon.com. They sell for $10 USD per set (so, $20 USD for the pair). I do think that people would be mad to pay that much.
Super Mario Premium A5 Notebook
This is the best of the items in the box and is an official Nintendo Licensed Product.
It is a red hardback notebook with a subtle image of Mario etched into the front and sealed with a question block. The paper is slightly off white.
Lots of pages to use in this one too.
These sell for around $15 USD.
More from this box: all our Zavvi ZBox reviews.
Box Review
This ZBox is a disappointment and shows a complete lack of effort to include anything unusual or anything that doesn’t seem like a cheap filler item.
Although this was billed as a Nintendo box, all the items apart from the T-Shirt were Mario related. Thankfully, I like Mario.
Many of the items are the cheap filler type that I deplore in geek mystery boxes.
Despite that, if you were to buy these items individually, you’d be paying around $68 USD. That’s way above the box price.
The problem is that I would never consider buying most of these items and they look cheaper than they really cost.
As it stands, I will use the notebook and there are some items to gift in here, so this isn’t a total loss. But, I think that I’ll be steering clear of the Special Edition ZBoxes until there are some items with more perceived value placed in them.
Zavvi ZBox has since stopped running, so the subscription link that originally sat here has been retired. You can still browse every Zavvi ZBox review on this site.
