I love Retro gaming. Many of my happiest memories date back to growing up with classic game systems like the ZX Spectrum, so I knew that the regular Zavvi ZBox box for March 2015, themed “Retro” had to be a winner.
Unlike many of the geek boxes out there, Zavvi release this box monthly for the UK market, but I haven’t found a subscription option as of yet.
Deliverable was using a private courier (likely one of those companies who goes around with boxes in their car at times to suit them), which was left waiting outside the front door – thankfully without the contents having been opened. The arrival, on Wednesday 25 March 2015, was about three days after the dispatch notification.
Price And Shipping Options
The price for this one, including UK postage, is £19.99, although I benefited from a discount coupon to bring the price down to £17.99 (about $27 at the current USD exchange rate). Within the UK, cashback is also available through TopCashBack (currently 2.62% – about £0.47). Zavvi are a large company and this box is just one facet of their operation, so international shipping is available. For the US, it’s just £0.99 more for standard shipping (higher for tracked and expedited).
Unusually for a geek or nerd style box, this one is still available for order even though the contents are now known, however it is likely to be replaced soon as the April box is being advertised.
Box Contents
Joystick Junkies Retro Styled T-Shirt
Sega Game Gear Styled Hardback Writing Pad
Game Download of Tango Fiesta for PC or Mac
Flump Bar (Candy)
Retro Exclusive Mini Mag
Lemmings Door Hanger
Sonic The Hedgehog Socks
Pac Man Pixel Bricks Model
More from this box: all our Zavvi ZBox reviews.
Box Review
This is a good enough box, all well-presented with clever packaging, but it’s missing any kind of “must-have” item.
There are a few nice little items if you enjoy unwrapping things.
The Sonic socks will definitely get worn and have the “cool” edge to them. The T-Shirt is an exclusive as well, but one colour text on white looks a little cheap, so will just likely be worn as an under layer. The notebook is bound to get some use around the house.
The Pac Man Pixel Bricks is a fun item with 289 Lego style pieces and that will get put together on a rainy day sometime.
The other “big ticket” item is the downloadable game, with a cited value of £9.99, but isn’t one that I’d ever likely buy. A game that felt a bit more “retro” would have fit the the bill here.
Otherwise, the items are mostly filler. You may get slightly different items, including different consoles for the gaming notepad.
Mini Mag And Overall Verdict
The mini mag is a particular disappointment is you’re expecting articles of the quality of Retro Gamer magazine. This is 24 A5 pages, with unboxing photos, word searches, adverts and the like. The typical person buying a box like this isn’t going to be a young child, so something more substantial would have been appreciated (even if this involved licensing some articles from Retro Gamer).
Overall, this is just about worth its money. I do like the opportunity to review the ZBox theme before purchasing (and possibly even purchase after the contents are released), so this is one of those boxes that you can pick and choose each month.
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.
Comments from the original site (2)
Would be better if you could include the official website of each box in each post so that its more convenient for us to visit the website when we are interested.
Thanks, have updated all the posts with links to make it easier to find out more about the different subscription boxes.