#Unboxing - Wizarding World of Harry Potter Loot Crate #3 - Mar 2017

I didn't do an unboxing for the January box - oops! It was a pretty good box! There was a t-shirt with Snape on it, a Funko Pop that I already had (Yule Ball Ron) which is getting taken to Angie when I go to visit her, a prophecy pin, a really neat pair of Platform 9 3/4 socks, a time turner necklace, and a Deathly Hallows pocket watch. The pocket watch is my favourite thing from the box. I am obsessed with pocket watches! I resolved to do better and NOT forget to do a post for March's box when it arrives and it arrived last week. So without further ado, let's see what was in the March box:

So one of the most exciting parts about this subscription box is that when you sign up you tell them your Hogwarts House so that they can send you house specific merchandise. I have been so looking forward to that because good Ravenclaw merch is not easy to come by! And now, for the first time since the start of the service, the box contained 2 pieces of house specific merch!

1. Hogwarts raglan shirt

I love nerdy t-shirts. I have about a billion. I especially love literary themed shirts (because I don't feel guilty wearing them to work) and within that, I especially love HP shirts. So for me, this shirt is perfect. It's got three quarter length sleeves. The Hogwarts crest artwork is super vivid which I love, and very well done.

I do have two main complaints about this shirt, though.

First is that they didn't get all the house colours totally accurate in the crest. Out of the four quadrants, the only totally accurate one is Hufflepuff's. Gryffindor and Slytherin are both 50% correct, with Gryffindor's foreground being correct and Slytherin's background. But then there's poor Ravenclaw which is just totally canonically wrong. The colour of the blue is right but it should be the background colour, not the bird. And the bird should be bronze. My other complaint is that the shirt itself is a teensy bit short in overall length for my personal taste. So even though I am dying to wear it to work I haven't yet because I haven't yet looked at how it looks on me in a mirror.

This item gets 4 lightning bolts out of 5.

2. Sorting Hat pin

Since having to take the pins off of my bag for fear of losing them I am kind of over pins now, but they keep showing up in all the boxes every month haha. I am pondering a new method os displaying them. I think I've mentioned that before though so I shan't get into it again.

In this case, it is a really nice pin. For being a mono coloured pin it is very detailed! It definitely looks like what it is supposed to look like and it's small and discrete, especially when compared to the ginormous prophecy pin that was included in the January box. Might actually pin this one to the flight jacket on my build a bear from me and Angie's 2013 trip (Angie will correct me if I've named the wrong trip I'm sure, I may have miscounted my bears!).

This gets 2 and a half bolts because I am over pins.

3. Hogwarts Express Lanyard

I like the idea of lanyards. I think they're dead useful and the geeky ones are just awesome. Last year I got a Captain American Civil War one in one of the Marvel Collector Corps boxes. But I haven't used it yet and I don't expect I'll use this Hogwarts one either. It's  not because I don't want to, though, it's because I have no reason to use a lanyard. I don't need to keep an ID badge around my neck, and I prefer to keep my keys in my pocket.

This is a gorgeous lanyard. I like that it has a clip instead of just being a straight piece of material. I also like the styling. It's night to see our favourite train getting some love for once! And I do really like the little Hogwarts crest charm on it, that's a nice little addition. If Angie uses a lanyard I shall give this one to her for work.

3 and a half bolts for this. It'd be a 4 if I used a lanyard but since I don't it's not.

4. Hogwarts House Duffle Bag - Ravenclaw edition!

The first ever piece of house specific merch and it's absolutely spectacular and perfect and I really couldn't be happier!! There was a lot of excited squealing when I pulled this out of the box. When I was little, about 3, my godfather had given me a toddler sized sea foam green duffel bag. I was madly in love with it and carried it off and on for years as a purse until it fell apart. By the time it had fallen apart it had a cigarette burn among other things in it, but I never stopped loving it.

This bag is the grown-up version of that bag. A sporty style duffle bag with perfect Ravenclaw styling. I love absolutely everything about this bag. The very next day after it came in became my brand new work bag replacing my Harry Potter Alliance "When in doubt go to the library" tote bag. It's the perfect size for a work bag and I can carry it on my shoulder like I never could with the tote bag. It's already gotten me several comments too. It just makes me super happy.

This gets 5 bolts because it is perfection :D.

5. Hogwarts House Beanie - Ravenclaw edition!

I live in Canada, just a reminder in case you didn't know that yet. So yes, where I live it's cold weather a good 5-6 months of the year most years. Snow, wind, rain and what have you. It's good weather for warm clothing for about 50% of the year. Therefore beanies, or as they are more often called here - toques can come in very handy. Especially when I am out walking the dog or shovelling off the driveway. Last year in one of my other subscription boxes I got a Stormtrooper beanie with a pompom on the top and at the time I thought it was the best toque that I had ever seen.

And now I know that I was wrong.

It was only the best beanie because this one did not exist yet. Now that I have this beanie in my arsenal I will definitely be cracking it out more often next winter. It arrived a little bit too late for this year's cold season, which I am glad about because I really miss the nicer warm weather haha.

It's a great hat. I have a big head and it fits my head nicely but not over snugly. It has a good stretch to it. The stitching on it is great for something that has been machine made. It's a very warm hat. It definitely kept my head warm when I tried it on. The word Ravenclaw looks great. Although I think they seem to have been going for a Raven instead of the correct Eagle? Or am I seeing things there?




4 for this one, it's a great hat but I don't love it as much as I love the bag.

Overall rating

4/5 bolts this month. I like all of the items, a few less and a few a lot more, but it evens out enough that I am able to say 4/5.