It was whilst looking at various random things I got an email that I
initially pushed off as spam, it first looked like it was one of your normal
write about us and we write about you sort of thing. so I just kind of ignored
it and I was happy to let my spam precautions take care of this. If you ever
email the blog youll see it’s a simple but effective auto-reply but responding
to it confirms youre serious and want to talk. So I got a very polite and
timely reply back and being on my massive retro trip (one result of this is
that im not soley drinking root beer – which is a pain to get in the uk – just
because I remember trying it as a kid) I looked in to it a bit more. It turns
out it was a write about us request but it was the manner in which they were
requesting the posts be written that got me and has, as a result, spawned this
post.
So strangely at the time im looking back and
partially reliving my youth a company called Man Crates, (sounds like a coffin
seller?) contacted me and asked me to write a post about my youth and my
history in gaming. It struck me as odd that they had contacted me and that it
coincided so much, but as they had complied with the spam filter I thought I
would check them out to see if they were on the up and up. Im glad I did as the
site was one I had come across recently whilst looking for random things, its
somewhat of a coincidence, one could almost say serendipitous. So the site
whilst basic is actually quite cool. They, as the name suggests, literally sell
Man Crates, these are wooden crates (with a full on crowbar that’s needed to
open them) full of themed stuff ideal for men (and really women but they trade
on the man part – that sounds rude), so games, snacks, gadgets, tools etc.
Initially I had second thoughts about writing this post as im not really one
for promotion of people or shops I haven’t dealt with (and just for the record
at this point this post wont benefit me in away with any gifts – hint hint man
crates) but given that these guys have really appealed to my current mood I
thought I would talk about my youth and see if any of the Man Crates would be
ideal things for me to relive my past, and once I started looking I found a
few!
So where to begin…………….
Well lets list some of my favourites and what
they remind me of and then we can go from there!
So firstly as I have just become a dad for
the first time and am also an avid airsofter, which as a result means I am a
bit of tacticool weirdo, then it has to be this set - the Dad Tactical Bag!
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| http://www.mancrates.com/tactical/new-dad-tactical-bag |
Not only is there a really useful grab bag –
which I know the wife will never let me use for the baby – which also comes in
coyote, there are plenty of little touches that really make me smile, the ear
plugs and dummy (pacifier for you non brits) are something I now understand the
need for and the honest homour in why they have been included. The redbull is
also rather useful as I have been living on that for the past month or so. For
me this is a brilliant tongue in cheek gift, one I can now appreciate, and do
feel this makes a great gift for first time dads
Next up is the Zombie Crate, now being an
avid Sci-Fi and Horror fan zombie movies have sort of become part of my life
from an early age, possibly too early, and this box is one thing I would love
to have should the apocolyse come. It’s the sort of thing when say watching
films you would say wouldn’t it have been good if they hadn’t lost that last
spade or axe, why didn’t they pack a spare. The whole crate just reminds me of
one too many late night hiding in my room watching movies with the sound down
or headphones in so the parents wouldn’t know (not to mention the one time I did
that and my dad crept in and right at the scary part touched my shoulder –
resulting in my putting my foot through the TV!) I like this box as this one is
one of their real crates and comes complete with the crowbar to open (and as a
useful back up in case of zombie attack) and is in my opinion brilliant, only
down side is I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be allowed to import this in to the UK
due to the mahooosive blades.
as you can see there is a pretty decent
selection of accessories and the ever present Zombie Survival Guide (thank you
max brooks, in the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse we will name the first
free city after you) to help provide helpful tips. The quality of the knives
and survival equipment is very impressive, especially at that price (but I am
looking at this from a uk point of view). What does it for me though is the can
of spam, a must in any survival situation and a great touch.
The other crate crate that caught my eye was
the Snack Pack, this was a nice little find and comes in the full on crate, I really
liked the selection as for some reason (no idea how in hindsight) despite
living in the UK, having no American contacts and not living near any USAF
bases we always seemed to get hold of a lot of American snacks and food stuffs.
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| http://www.mancrates.com/crates/snack-pack |
This create has a good selection of things I remember
like the crunch n munch, mike and ikes and the nutter butters, something I find
harder and harder to get as I move further south. A good selection of things
that when I think about them remind me of evenings watching films or playing
road rash on the old Sega Master System (note: yes I really had one and didn’t get
a mega drive L
) before resorting to the inevitable brotherly bashing that comes after the 29th
game and the umpteenth helping of sugar laden goodies!
This next crate isn’t a crate, it’s an ammo
tin dude! That’s awesome, hang on, its full of caffine as well! Even better! This
is one of my favourite smaller crates as it covers not only my tacticool side
but also the insane love of coffee!
I really do like this and the only way I can
think to improve this would be to pair it with one of the jetboil stoves, a
second mug and some more coffee to make a deluxe package (youre welcome to use
the idea if you send me one man crates :) ) this one for me isn’t about memories
this is about the here and now and heading out to airsoft with friends for a
good brew and shooting :)
My final choice is without doubt one of the
most expensive sets on there but it does have a little brother too, that is the
Retro Gamer Crate, in both sizes it includes not only a console to play games
on (either a repro NES or a NES based portable handset) but it comes with games
and snacks
now this I love not only do you get the retro
games but for me the big thing is the flavours of my youth. I love retro sweets
and I really love American candy (you can keep your so called chocolate though)
and this really does pull a lot of that together (another product tip here Man
Crates – do a small box containing “gamer supplies” to include sweets like
these and drinks like rootbeer and you are on to another winner – that idea is
for you guys but feel free to send me one if you use the idea :)
)
I do love these boxes and would love one but please let us know where you got
all the games as NES games are like rocking horse poo over here! My borther and
I eventualy got a SNES and ended up with I believe it was duck hunt and about 4
other games, this eventually replaced master system and the post game
entertainment got better once we got the light gun and eventual “light bazooka”,
those were random times and ones that wouldn’t have been anywhere near as fun
without sugar and a TV that was so small you had to sit 8 inches from it and as
a result had a permenant tan from the CRT.
So those are some of the offers from ManCrates and I know its lots of cool stuff and looking at a lot of them they do
actually remind me of a lot of things from my youth, but if I was to have to
pick two to for myself now (hint hint) it really wouldn’t be hard, if I take in
to account practicalities (and legalities) then for me it would have to be the
coffee canister and the Dad Pack. Im not gready and wouldn’t spend too much but
these two for me are the coolest and most usuable items for my hobbies and day
to day life. The coffee canister would be a good gift for friends at airsoft
(and an expanded version with a jetboil would be even better) as we all love to
have a sit round at lunch and after the day and have a coffee before heading
back to the different parts of the country we now leave so this is great for a
catch up. The Dad bag would be so useful as I now understand what its like to
be a dad and the things in it genuinely are things you could use :)
So there you have it my thoughts on the man
crates, it’s a cool site and a cool premise. I really do like the products and
would love to get hold of some (lets look in to UK shipping guys) and think
they are a great concept.
Finally I would like to apologise as some of you
might not like me letting a corporate request spawn a blog post but I liked the
fact that instead of a linkshare request (of which I get 100s a week) these
guys have actually put some thought in to their self promotion and have asked
bloggers from various aspects of gaming to tell people a bit about themselves
and see if their man crates products inspired them to relive things, rather
than just dictate what they want people to see. This I think is great and actually
I would like to say that in thinking about this subject and writing about it I
have actually enjoyed it and remembered things I forgot I enjoyed. This was
great fun and I think I would consider doing another retro post in the future.
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