The Corner Penthouse

I reviewed several of Neca's $9.99 themed blind bags in the past. After getting many duplicate items, I stopped buying them. Well, today I saw a new for 2022 Neca Blind Bag in my local Target, this one named "Best of Neca Blind Bags". It's a HUGE 12"x18" bag with all four logos on it: Sci-Fi and Horror, Pop Culture, Gamer, and Superhero. Proclaiming "over $100 worth of toys and collectibles", this new supersized blind bag carries a MSRP of $39.99. That's four times what the usual blind bags cost. Could it have four individual $9.99 bags inside, one for each theme? Out of curiosity, I bought one of the two that Target had (the other was mostly air). Was it worth it? Read on to find out...

If you haven't read any of my previous reviews of Neca's themed blind bags, here's the down and dirty lowdown on them: Each of them contains leftovers from Loot Crate mystery boxes from years past, usually without the original packaging. Sometimes the items are randomly placed in the bags, and sometimes there's a specific set of items in the bag. The normal $9.99 bags usually have four items in them, though sometimes you get five. At four times the price, I expected to get four times the items in this huge bag. Did I get 16 items? This photo will tell you the answer to that.


This $39.99 blind bag contained:

• Lord of the Rings Travel Mat
• Breaking Bad "Los Pollos Hermanos" Apron
• "The League of Regrettable Superheroes" (The Loot Crate Edition) by Jon Morris Hardcover Book
• Fallout Terminal Phone Stand
• Fallout Crate #20 Plan Vault Boy Enamel Pin
• Napoleon Dynamite Lion Enamel Pin
• LootCrate DX Birdcage Enamel Pin


Lord of the Rings Travel Mat - This mat originally came in a Lord of the Rings box from September 2019. I didn't open it up and unravel it, but a quick bit of online research tells me that it features imagery of Saruman the white wizard facing off against Balrog. Okay, that's pretty cool.


Breaking Bad "Los Pollos Hermanos" Apron - I've never seen Breaking Bad, so I have no idea how this plays into the show. I'm sure a fan would like it, but this does nothing for me. You can buy one at Amazon; this same official one from an August 2015 crate, and a cheaper knockoff.


"The League of Regrettable Superheroes" (The Loot Crate Edition) by Jon Morris Hardcover Book - This 128-page 6"x8" hardcover book from 2015 details obscure and kinda lame comic book superheroes. You can buy this reduced 128-page Loot Crate Edition or the original 256-page version at Amazon. It is one in a series of "Regrettable" books from Morris. Others include The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains and The League of Regrettable Sidekicks. While the book is nice, considering that it's only half of the full version, and probably half the physical size, too, I can't say that I'm too happy with it.


Fallout Terminal Phone Stand - This is another example of why it really hurts that Neca doesn't include the original packaging with the items in these blind bags. I had no idea what this was supposed to be, other than a vintage computer that looks like it belongs in Egon's secret lab from Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It says "Micro Computer Power Supply" on the back, and has some old DOS-like text on the front for a "Robco Industries Unified Operating System". Well, a search online found me a photo with the outer box, and it's a cell phone stand that was in a 2018 Loot Crate box. I had a feeling that it was a holder of some sort. It's nice looking, but I have no use for it.


Fallout Crate #20 Plan Vault Boy Enamel Pin - Dated 2021, this is one pin from a set of, at least, 22 pins. I got a Vault Boy statue in a previous bag, which sits on the corner of my desk next to other video game statues. I really have no interest in a pin of him, especially one that is part of a set I would feel compelled to complete.


Napoleon Dynamite Lion Enamel Pin - I absolutely detest the movie Napoleon Dynamite, and have made a point to never watch it. I have no idea what this pin is supposed to be of. It looks like a drawing of a lion. Pass.


LootCrate DX Birdcage Enamel Pin - It's a bird flying out of a birdcage. It doesn't seem to be a licensed item, bearing only a "The Loot Company LLC" copyright from 2020. I have no idea who would want generic Loot Crate merch. Not me.

Well, that was a complete waste of $40. If I bought four $9.99 bags, I would have (likely) gotten 16 items for the same $40. Here, I didn't even get half of that amount - AND THREE OF THEM WERE PINS! I have nothing against pins, but they're the cheapest items you could find in these blind bags. There is no way this is a "over $100" value. I don't even think it's a $50 value. At the $40 price, each item has a $5.71 value. If I look at it like that, each item doesn't seem so bad, but I have zero interest in almost all of this stuff. The most valuable item here is the Lord of the Rings Travel Mat, in my opinion. If this bag were to have cost $20, I think it would have been worth it. For $40, I think I got ripped off. Simply put: DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE $39.99 NECA BLIND BAGS. Buy four of the $9.99 bags, instead, and pray that you don't get duplicates.