October 2013 Loot Crate: Survive!

Happy Halloween, folks!

Sometime last night we passed 100k page views and people like to celebrate round numbers, so to thank all you weirdos that come by, there's a contest below!

Before I dig into this month's Loot Crate, I have to show you what the Great Pumpkin dropped off last night...

Thank you, Great Pumpkin!!

October's Loot Crate theme is "Survive!" Can you make it?

Disclaimer 1: This Loot Crate was provided to me in exchange for a review
Disclaimer 2: Potato Head monster is not part of the Crate, he just wanted to help out.



First up we've got a chewy eyeball. Mmmmm, grape, my favorite eye flavor! Next to that is an adorable zombie card. He looks like he just needs a hug. Won't you hug him? The inside of the card says he also likes you for your brains.



Here we've got the Loot Crate mini-mag that details all the goodies in your Crate and shows off the Looter community. It's also got a little interview with Max Brooks, author of World War Z and the Zombie Survival Guide. Below that are temp tattoos that let you declare your allegiance: infected or safe. Then there's a trio of vintage video game inspired zombie buttons: a crossbow, health kit and a hand breaking from the ground. On the right is your official Loot Crate Zombie Hunter license! There's spots on the back to fill in all your info.



Your very own copy of the Zombie Survival Guide! This book is essential for zombie fans, hardcore or casual.I already have a copy of this in my monster hunting library so if you need this, I will send it to you if you pay shipping.



Lastly is this awesome Star Wars and Walking Dead mash-up shirt. I love it and I think I'll be wearing it today. At least until the sun goes down.

If you're still reading you either like the site or you're just here for the promise of a contest. Either way, I won't judge you! The fine folks at Loot Crate want to give you a one month subscription to their awesome box o stuff. Honestly, I don't know why they didn't call it
Box O Stuff to start! Haha.

All you gotta do is leave a comment below answering my Inside the Actor's Studio-ish questions.

What do you hope to get while Trick or Treating?
What would you get that would cause you to egg a house?
(this is purely hypothetical, so even if you're not the kind of person that would egg a house, it's ok to answer it)

Be safe out there tonight, and most importantly, have fun!!

Monster 500

You've probably already heard about the Monster 500 toy line that debuted exclusively at Toys R Us a couple weeks ago, but if not, you're in for a treat. Not only is it a toy line, but it's also a free to play game on iOS and Google. Here's some of the cars I've picked up.

They're sold in 3 packs and as single carded racers. The multi-packs work out to be a little cheaper but some of the cars are only available as singles. Their also seem to be chase versions. On an endcap fully stocked with cars, I only saw one so naturally I had to snag it.



I tweeted the folks at @Monster500Buzz to see if they could give me more info about it.
So I'm not sure if this was intentional or...

Pardon the misuse of their/there, I blame AutoCorrect!

Currently there are two waves of 5 cars each, a couple of Hot Wheels style playsets and four larger scale electronic cars. Their website shows there are two more waves coming in 2014. Each toy comes with a trading card that has a code on the back that will unlock a car in the app. You can see what the cards look like under the Meet the Monsters section of the site.

Here's Werewolf Blitzer...



Drac Attack...



and Captain Heinous from Uranus!



I really like the character design in these. They're a lot of fun! They manage to combine the style of Rat Fink and the cartoon craziness of Wacky Racers. They each have their own specific vehicle that fits their background.



So, how's the game?
It's not bad. I haven't played it for maybe more than an hour total but it seems decent. I think the main thing that sets it apart from other cart racers is the cartoony monster theme. There's Monsterized standard power ups to hamper your opponents and boost pads to speed you down the track. One of the things that can be fun, or annoying if you're the victim, are the environmental hazards that you can activate.



The bones you win from racing can be used to unlock new racers and upgrade your current ones in 5 categories. As with every free to play game, you have the option of spending real money to buy a premium currency: skulls. All the cars can be unlocked with bones (with enough grinding) or skulls but the available paint schemes can only be gotten with skulls.

The codes on the trading cards seem to unlock a random racer and not necessarily the one pictured on the card. Or it may be that because I had already unlocked one of them, it gave me one I didn't have yet.

And if you're on Game Center, go ahead and add me as Dex1138 and maybe we can get a multiplayer race going sometime! There's a couple more pics over on Flickr, too.

Head over to Countdown to Halloween and Blog-O-Ween for more Halloween fun!

Looney Labs' Monster Fluxx

Just in time for Halloween, Looney Labs unleashes the latest flavor of their

popular card game Fluxx. It's called Monster Fluxx!

The game starts out relatively simple. Everyone gets three cards and follows the basic rule on their turn: draw a card, play a card. Sounds easy, right? That changes pretty quick in Fluxx! There are rules cards in the deck that alter how the game is played like changing your hand size or how many cards you draw per turn. On top of that, the condition for winning the game (called a Goal) can also change, sometimes more than once a turn!

 

So how do you win? You play cards called Keepers (above) to the table. You win by having Keepers in play that match the current Goal. But there's also cards that let you remove or steal other people's Keepers. Due to the randomness, some games can end very quick while others can take a bit longer.

Although they don't use any famous licensed movie or TV characters, you can see from the Goals above what they're going for. All of the Fluxx games are basically the same under the hood but they do a great job when they publish a new themed version. 

A few of the others that might interest you are Star Fluxx (sci-fi themed), Pirate Fluxx, Cthulhu Fluxx, Zombie Fluxx and even Monty Python Fluxx!

Be sure to visit Countdown to Halloween and Blog-O-Ween!