Review – Funko Smugglers Bounty Star Wars Subscription Box The Resistance

The second Funko Smugglers Bounty Star Wars subscription box has arrived. I’ll break down the contents and tell you what I think about this subscription box now that I’ve received two of them. If you’re interested in reading my review of the first Funko Star Wars Smugglers Bounty box you can find that here.

Just What Is the Funko Smugglers Bounty Subscription Box?

If you’re familiar with Loot Crate, Nerd Block or other gift subscription boxes then you’ll have an idea of what this is. It’s the same idea, you sign up for a subscription and receive a box of random goodies every so often, as defined by the terms of your subscription. This is typically once a month, every other month or quarterly depending on the service.

The Smugglers Bounty box comes every other month and is a partnership between Funko and Lucasfilm that is themed entirely for Star Wars and contains items made by Funko and available exclusively via the subscription box. The cost for this box is $25 plus an additional $6.95 for shipping in the US. If you’re outside the US you may be subject to a higher shipping fee and/or taxes and import fees depending on your location. The Smugglers Bounty box bills and ships every other month. You can subscribe month to month or sign up for a longer subscription term. Funko promises to deliver at least $50 worth of goods in every box.

Funko Star Wars Smugglers Bounty The Resistance, What’s Inside The Box?

The Smugglers Bounty box for January 2016 was themed “The Resistance” and was delivered the third week of January. The contents of the box were similar to the first box but there were five items in the box this time instead of six.

There was a BB-8 patch

A Poe Dameron Pin

A Star Wars The Force Awakens movie poster themed T shirt

A ceramic C3PO coffee mug

A Chewbacca Funko POP figure

I don’t know if there were any other “rare” items that were randomly added to this months box like there were last month. I’ve looked at several other reviews and unboxings and they all contained the same items as the box I received.

Funko Smugglers Bounty The Resistance, Thoughts and Comments

Normally I’d try to follow a review format where I’d have a couple more sections titled “what I liked” and “what I didn’t like” about the box and then sum things up. I’m going to do things a little differently this time.

First up I’m gonna skip the “what I liked” section because I’m just not crazy about the contents of this box at all. If I have to choose a favorite item then it’s got to be the t-shirt. I like the idea of a Star Wars The Force Awakens movie poster themed t-shirt and I think the Funko art style is cool. I expected a Funko POP of course and that was fine, however I was a little surprised that it was Chewbacca. Being that theme is “The Resistance” I was expecting a BB-8, Poe Dameron or even a Rey POP figure. I’ll be honest and tell you that I found the coffee cup a little disappointing and wasn’t that thrilled about it. I also think the patch and pin in every box are going to get old really quickly. To be fair, I like the BB-8 patch a lot but the pins so far are kind of lackluster. My other issue here is that Funko pushes this as a box of items that exclusive to this subscription and I don’t see anything to indicate that this Chewbacca POP is different than ones you can buy online at places like Amazon. Lastly, and I complained about this last month, there is no paperwork in the box. There is nothing here to tell you anything about the items in the box or to even confirm that you’ve gotten everything you’re supposed to get. My first reaction on viewing the contents was “only 5 items, are there supposed to be 5? Are there supposed to be 6 like last month and I’m missing something?”

In terms of value, I usually try not to judge too hard on the dollar value of the box contents when it comes to these subscription boxes but this definitely does not feel like it’s $50 worth of stuff and to be honest it barely feels like a good value at $32.

I’m gonna be honest here, two boxes in and I don’t think the Smugglers Bounty box is a very interesting subscription box. When I opened the box this month my reaction was “very underwhelmed”. I’m actually starting to think that the fact that these boxes are exclusively Funko makes them worse than they could be if they were a mish-mash of Star Wars items from varied sources. A quick search on Amazon for Star Wars will result in a thousand items that would fit in one of these boxes with other items. Think of the possibilities, small LEGO sets, a small ship from Fantasy Flight Games X-Wing game, a book, PEZ dispensers, dice, keyrings, flashlights, you get the idea, I could go on forever with suggestions. I love the idea of a Star Wars themed subscription box but I think the box being all Funko items is too limiting to be interesting for very long.

In my opinion Funko would be better off long term if they placed one or two Funko exclusives in the box, say a unique POP figure and/or a t-shirt and then partnered with other companies to round out the box with other items. Part of the appeal of these boxes is the “wow factor”. You want the box you’ve just received to be exciting so that it immediately leaves you with a sense of anticipation for the next box. The Smugglers Bounty subscription box as currently constituted isn’t varied or interesting enough for me to be all that interested in continuing my subscription long term. If you love the idea of an all Funko, all the time themed box then I’d recommend it but if you’re not completely sold on that idea I’m betting that you’ll lose interest after just a couple of boxes. I’ll likely stay subscribed for one more box just to see if there are any changes but if the next Smugglers Bounty box is the same uninspired effort it’ll probably be my last.

 

Get your own Funko Smugglers Bounty subscription here