Star Wars Smuggler's Bounty. March: Rebels Unboxing.

I don't know about you fine folks out there but for me and mine, the month of March has been dizzying. Every day there's something else to deal with, whether it's basic shit like extra shifts at work or more outlandish events like someone developing a rash in reaction to antibiotics. Suffice to say it's a good time to treat oneself on a regular basis and it's all the better when that treat comes as something of a surprise. Such was the case yesterday when somewhere between house appraisals, mushroom Alfredo, and the aforementioned rash victim visiting urgent care, a box arrived. Yes it was time again for Smuggler's Bounty from Funko, a company with a lean on ten percent of my income.

For March, Smuggler's Bounty went with the theme of Rebels, the current animated Star Wars series set between the prequel and original trilogies. Personally I've only seen maybe five episodes of the show as I'd like to finish The Clone Wars before moving forward. Still; I generally liked what I saw. The characters and tone seemed to have a better balance than Clone Wars and I liked how the format allowed the show to focus on a tighter group of characters. Reviewing the series is a topic for another day though. What's important right now is whether Funko was able to make this box worthwhile for someone who has yet to delve into this particular subject. Let's see how they did.

Broken record time. Here's the patch and pin...they're both patchy and piny. Honestly I really do appreciate getting these two items consistently thought there's only so many ways to write about them. The Zeb patch is kinda ugly while the Sabine pin is sorta nice. That's that.

Clothing time and I'm finally lucky enough to get a shirt outta this box and a none too shabby one at that. It's the entire pop form crew in an action pose with some nicer coloration. In all fairness I'd have been stoked to get a lackluster shirt after receiving hats and socks I'll never wear so this was getting a pass anyway. Still; it's one of the better Pop Tees I've gotten thus far so a major thumbs up here.

Now for the lifeblood of each box, the toys. This box doesn't skimp on the goodies offering not one, not two, but three whole vinyl collectibles. Funko revealed one of the pops long in advance, and the other one was leaked soon after but the third item made for a nice surprise.

So what have we got? First there's the aged Captain Rex dual-wielding some blasters. While not the most impressive Pop ever there's some good detail and a nice paint job on this old boy. I've seen mentions that there's some sort of block when it comes to Clone Wars based Pops. Not sure if that's true but if so then this is probably the best Rex fans can hope for.

In the middle is Darth Maul and man does he look terrific. It's tough to tell in the picture but there is a good amount of detail to this guy, making for a vast improvement over his previous Pop. This item was my primary motivation for picking up this box. Maul was one of the few cool elements of The Phantom Menace and while his later resurrection was a bit cheap, it finally allowed the character to grow and be more than neat looking action figure.

The third figure is part of the fairly new mini-Hikari line that have so far only appeared in these subscription boxes. This time around we have Chopper, the demented astro-mech, in one of five color variations. I ended up with the red one that looks distinctly like a giant gummy candy. It's nowhere near as nice as my Skeletor Hikari but it's a great addition to the box an I am more than happy to add one of these to my Funko collection.

Smuggler's Bounty really went with what works this time around. It's just a buncha toys & a shirt and I gotta give the service mad props for that choice. Much as I like the occasional dip into oddities like mugs or Christmas ornaments, I love the refreshing nature of a box that's just good, solid, toys. I'd place this one right among some of the best boxes I've ever received. It may not have been terribly surprising but there wasn't a bad item in the bunch.

The May box is going to themed after the 40^th anniversary of A New Hope. Not sure if I want to get that one or not. On the one hand it's an opportunity to present something really amazing, yet at the same time such open themes rarely make for solid Funko boxes, remember Women of Marvel? Oh yeah, and for any of my readers who are into Disney, Funko's launching a subscription service for that next month. It's not something that really appeals to me but I like to let people know what kind of goodies are out there.

Gotta split for now folks. Have to be at work in a few hours. Like I mentioned earlier, this March is weird.