For those that dont know Nerd block is a monthly subscription box of nerdy goodies. They are auto-renew subscriptions meaning that the subscription will automatically renew and you will be charged unless you cancel before the deadline. They have different boxes that you can subscribe to and they are Nerd Block Classic, Sci Fi Block, Comic Block, Arcade Block, Nerd Block Jr and Horror Block, so theres a lot to choose from. They also have some specials called grab blocks that allow you to purchase a mystery box that contains items from previous blocks for about half the price of a regular block. The blocks also ship out at different times of the month. Sci Fi ships out on the 5th of the month, Horror and Arcade ship out on the 25th of the month and the classic block ships on the 15th of the month.
I started receiving the arcade block and horror block in September. I added the classic nerd block in October and ordered the Sci Fi block for January 2016. I have decided though to cancel all of my blocks due to being unhappy overall with the products received and unsatisfactory communication with customer service on a late box.
Pros:
1. There is a t-shirt in every box! They are good quality, wash well and fit well.
2. Website is easy to navigate. Cancelling, suspending, or skipping boxes is easy to do.
3. Products are decent quality. I have gotten some fun nerdy themed items but nothing mind blowing or highly collectable. They seem to go with quantity over quality and thats okay if that is what you are looking for.
4. You can also switch blocks so if you wanted to try a different box you can do so without creating a new subscription.
Cons
1. Lack of contact info. They dont have a phone number, so in the instance that you may need to talk to someone immediately you are out of luck. Email is your only option to contact customer service. At best it has taken a couple of days, the worst was one week.
2. Lack of highly sought after collectibles. Most of the items in the blocks were off the shelf items that can be found in any retail store; they arent bad items but they arent exclusive to the box. You will not get many Funko Pops (if you are interested in those, I know lots of other boxes include them) and when you do get them they are not block exclusive pops.
3. Exclusives that are included in the box are not that exclusive. Most sub boxes include an item that can only be found in their box. Usually its just a variation on an already existing item but still you can only get it in the box. Nerd Block does have exclusives but I have noticed recently these exclusives showing up on Nerd Blocks sister company website shirt punch who also provide the t-shirts for the blocks. If you are going to label items exclusive to your subscription boxes you shouldnt be able to buy them later on, whats the point of the box if you can pick and choose what you want later on from another website?
Neutral
Blocks dont have a specific theme. The theme is loosely mentioned but if you look on their site they dont say what the months theme is, they tell you what fandoms you can expect in the box. Included in each block is a hint of what you can expect in the next block. The fandom you can get in the block is also displayed on their websites but it makes it difficult to decide if you want to skip a box or not. Even when they give you the hint you dont know how big the item will be, it could be the theme of the t-shirt, it could be a vinyl figure or it could be buttons. This can be disappointing if you really like the fandom and the item inside isnt that great. Other subscription boxes have a theme so if you can decide if you want to skip that month or not. Also, not every fandom is mentioned in the hint, so you may miss out on your favorite fandom because it isnt listed. I know its kind of a mystery box, but I think thats why themes can be important.
Overall it was fun for a couple of months to get nerd blocks but since the products were not really that great the boxes seemed to get worse as time went on. Only one box completely knocked it out of the park for me out of all the blocks I got. There were a couple of items in each box that I liked and the shirts every month were nice, but two items and a t-shirt dont justify the cost of the block for me, especially since I could get the same items and sometimes the t-shirt from shirt punch.
I would recommend browsing un-boxing videos on you tube for your Nerd block of interest to see if the items included are things you would want to receive and then just get a one month subscription.