Saturday, March 25, 2017

Review: Legend of Zelda Collector's Fun Box

Here at Ashton's Blog, we like to be diverse with our blog posts, so here's something we haven't done yet: a product review.


Several months ago, maybe even a year or so, it was announced that there would be Legend of Zelda trading cards released.  I've always had a soft spot for trading cards because of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards from when I was a child and the Fleer X-Men cards from when I was a teen. Being the Zelda fan that I am, this announcement excited me.  It also brought me dread, because the last thing I need is something else to collect.

I first saw the LoZ Collector's Fun Box at Walmart a few weeks ago.  This was the first I'd seen of the trading cards and thought it would be a cool start to the collection, especially since it included a pin. After much deliberation, I decided that I had room for one more collectible in my life and bought it.


As you can see, it includes over 30 items!  The first thing to catch my eye was the pin.  The second thing to catch my eye was the 8-bit Link just below the pin.  I'm all about some old school LoZ and liked the promise of having some in this box.  It also says it comes with a poster, foil cards, decals, and tattoos.  So let's open'er up and see what's inside!


So there's the poster featuring some Twilight Princess art.  I like it!  It's not huge, but it fits perfectly at my desk at work and is a nice backdrop for all my figures (I'll post a pic at the end).


Up next we have the pin.


As you can see, it's a gold wingcrest.  My first thought was to put this on a guitar strap, so I did.


This is what pushed me over the edge and made me decide to buy the Fun Box.  Most places sell lapel pins for at least $5-$7.  At $10 for the box, which includes four packs of cards and a poster, I couldn't pass it up.

There are two other pins available; Link's shield and the Legend of Zelda logo that's on the box.  I prefer the crest, so that's the one I went with.

The main purpose of this box is to give some extra fun stuff to go along with the trading cards.  So here are the cards...


The packs contain six cards and either a decal or a tattoo.  Each box also comes with one Midna gold foil card.  I couldn't wait to rip open the packs of cards, so that's what I did.


The cards have art from Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, and A Link Between Worlds.  These were the five most recent game releases (with OoT and MM being reissued and updated on the 3DS), so I guess it makes sense that the cards feature those games.  I'd have liked some stuff from the other games, too, but I guess they can release those in later series.

Here are some close ups of some of my favorite cards.







Here's one of the tattoos:



And one of the decals (or "stickers," as we call them in Mississippi):




Final verdict:

I'm a fan of this set.  The pin is the highlight and the cards are fun and bring back nostalgia of trading Ninja Turtles cards on the playground in elementary school.  The biggest problem I've encountered is a lack of individual packs of cards in the wild.  I haven't been able to buy any of them anywhere.  I could order some on Amazon, but where's the fun in that.

If you have the collectors' bug like I do and are a fan of the Legend of Zelda, you should get this.  Hopefully we'll see more series with art from earlier games and Breath of the Wild, but for now, this is well worth ten bucks!

Bonus pic of LoZ merch with the poster in the background!