The Walking Dead Puma Shoes

Puma GV Special TWD

The new footwear released on March 25th, 2019 and are a result of a collaboration between AMC, Footlocker, Puma and designer Alexander-John. The limited edition Walking Dead Puma shoes are a limited edition, collectible custom version of Puma GV Special sneakers. If you’re expecting the typical over the top TWD style with blood splatters and in your face styling, you’ll be disappointed.

The Walking Dead Puma sneakers take a subtle approach. At first glance we weren’t thrilled. Then we realized the design was heavily inspired by the Whisperers storyline within TWD. None of the shoe’s externally visible style cues would indicate they’re a Walking Dead collectible. This seemed odd to us but then we looked at the insoles. They feature an image of Whisperer’s leader, Alpha. Then we got it. These shoes, much like the Whisperers themselves, are designed to hide in plain sight. They aren’t meant to scream out to those who aren’t in the know and we actually love that.

The white design sports a pale yellow stripe that hints at the dull colors and post-apocalyptic wardrobe styling and cinematography frequently seen in the show itself. The black laces add some simple and stark contrasting. Light touches of hand painted “dirt” stands out from the clean white design. Aside from the painted dirt details, the insoles and custom box are the only details that even hint at these being Walking Dead merchandise.

These Walking Dead Puma shoes allow you to display your love for TWD while hiding in plain sight. Those who know will instantly recognize the subtle details without flashy blood splatters or decaying corpses on your feet to turn heads and garner unwanted attention.

Check out the Walking Dead Puma Shoes Trailer on Instagram:

Where Can I Get Them?

These shoes dropped yesterday, 3/25/2019 and are available via Footlocker.com and select stores such as select PUMA Labs and Foot Locker’s Times Square POP shop. The listed MSRP is $200.00 USD. These are a limited edition collectible. That typically means they will sell out quickly. We recommend ordering yours now if you’d like a pair. Many common US sizes such as 11, and 12 are already sold out. The folks at FootLocker recommend you order a half size larger than your normal shoe size if you have wide feet.

If you couldn’t cop a pair directly from FootLocker you’ll have to turn to resellers. In fact, these sneakers are already listed on ebay. No worries. We’ve rounded up all the relevant ebay search results for you here.

Another great site to try is StockX.com where all shoes are authenticated to help reduce or eliminate the sale of counterfeit products. The down side to purchasing from a reseller is you’ll almost certainly pay much more than if you purchased at retail before the product sold out.

Louisville Slugger Lucille Bat:

The launch of the shoes also coincided with a very cool The 34″ commemorative baseball bat is a tribute to TWD and Negan’s “Lucille.” It features a TWD logo along with printed barbed wire graphics. You probably won’t be swinging this bad boy on the sandlot this summer. (The retail price for the bat is currently $150.00)

The post The Walking Dead Puma Shoes Available Via Footlocker appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

It happens to the best of us. You drag your lifeless corpse out of bed in the morning and shamble to the coffee pot to brew up something to get you through the day. Coffee, in a way, is the cure for that foggy zombie brain we all get from time to time. We’ll admit it. We’re not immune to zombie brain either. We often reach for the cheap plastic coffee can we picked up at the grocery store. It’s not the greatest stuff but it’s cheap and it does the job. There’s no reason you can’t indulge and treat yourself to a tastier zombie cure. We’re always up for trying new coffee, so when the Coffee Cousins offered to send over some of their DEATH TO ZOMBIES coffee for review we couldn’t resist.  Did it live up to the claims and our expectations? You’ll have to read on to find out!

WHAT IS IT?
DEATH TO ZOMBIES is a premium organic gourmet coffee in subtle zombie themed packaging. This is fresh roasted Honduras 100% Arabica coffee touted to be the “World’s smoothest, most delicious Coffee”. At the time of this review, DEATH TO ZOMBIES is available in ground, or bean variety if you prefer to grind to your own tastes. You can choose either 32 oz or 12 ounce bags. (We received the smaller 12 oz. bag for review.)

PACKAGING:
DEATH TO ZOMBIES comes in a high quality bag with a one way valve to help seal in and preserve freshness. The bags are such high quality that we actually underestimated how difficult it would be to cleanly tear off the top to open it. We’re used to cheap packaging and we weren’t expecting the top to reluctantly tear away leaving some jagged edges. We’re not too OCD so it only bothers us a little. Luckily it lends itself to the whole zombie theme.

After clumsily tearing off the top of the bag, we were convinced we’d destroyed the zipper seal area. In hindsight spending a few seconds with a pair of scissors would have been smarter. Fortunately our sloppy tear remained above the zipper seal area. It functions. More importantly, it stays put. That may seem like a small thing but it’s something we’re very thankful for. Everyone has used one of those frustrating zipper seals that won’t close or stay shut. They’re one of life’s obnoxious soul sucking little aggravations we can do without.  Fortunately there are no issues here because the zipper works every single time. WIN!

The zombie themed branding is very subtle with no cheesy neon green, “in your face” zombie graphics. True zombie fans will notice the name and image right away. The “normal” folks might pass right on by without noticing this is “zombie” coffee. Just the way it should be!

Click the images below to open a larger view:

AROMA:
We’re not coffee snobs around here but we are coffee aficionados and coffee Fans. Some might even go so far to call us coffee connoisseurs. Most importantly we have a mild chemical dependency when it comes to caffeine.  Our addiction to coffee means one thing:  we drink a lot of coffee! We’ve consumed enough of the cheap and bitter nasty stuff to know good when we taste or smell it. This is good stuff!

The second you tear open a bag of DEATH TO ZOMBIES, you can tell it is gourmet coffee. Just sitting in the bag it has that fresh roasted aroma that lets you know this is better than that plastic tub you drug home from the big box store. Start brewing and the aromatic goodness really gets cooking! The scent of this coffee brewing gets every coffee drinker in the vicinity shambling to the coffee pot.

The bottom line is this stuff smells amazing!

GRIND:

We won’t pretend to be coffee gurus here. We do know the coarseness of a grind is typically related to the brewing method that will be used. That being said, ours arrived as a nice all purpose medium grind perfectly suited for the old drip maker. That being said, you could get all fancy and throw this in a French press, siphon brewer etc. without issue. If you’re worried about the perfect grind level or maximum freshness you might as well go the extra mile and order beans and grind it yourself! If you don’t want the headache, rest assured DTZ arrives with a good general purpose medium grind that will please all but the most finicky coffee snobs.

FLAVOR:
There’s none of the cheap, half stale, highly acidic bitterness we’ve had to choke down so many times in the past here. We’re not sure we have enough experience to validate the “World’s smoothest coffee” claims but it’s worlds better than the cheap stuff.  DEATH TO ZOMBIES is honestly much smoother and less acidic tasting than the Columbian and Puerto-Rican coffee blends we’d been drinking prior to this review. It also has a slightly sweeter flavor and seems to be just a bit lighter and less strong in comparison as well.

There are some good starting points for figuring out how much coffee to use on the packaging but they’re just that: starting points. Brewing the ideal cup of coffee is highly personal and one of those “to taste” recipes you need to figure out for yourself. We ignored the measuring mumbo jumbo and went with our tried and true “this many scoops” method. We simply threw in the same number of “scoops” we used with our previous coffee. Afterwards we decided it was just a bit weaker than we’d like so we needed “a little more”. It’s a highly technical process to say the least. Now that we know how many “scoops” we need to fling into the coffee pot every morning (and afternoon. . . and sometimes evening) we’re very pleased!

What’s that you say? Our coffee slurping ways are too crude and barbaric? No worries. When you’re feeling fancy or looking for a more personalized coffee experience you’re good to go with DTZ. We tried this some in a French coffee press and it was as good as we had hoped. (Save the ooh la la jokes, we’ve heard them all.) Why would we bother with pressing coffee? It allows us to control temperature, brew time, yield and more. This is where good coffee like DEATH TO ZOMBIES really shines. Sure you get weird looks and comments from the mouthbreathers but that’s another story for another day.

PROS:

• Quality packaging
• Freshly roasted and/or ground just prior to shipping
• Premium gourmet Honduras Coffee
• Available as beans or ground
• Available in 12 oz. or 32 oz. sizes
• Free shipping to the USA
• 100% 90 day money back guarantee
• Organic
• Fair Trade
• 100% Arabica (No mystery blends)
• Smooth, tasty flavor
• Great Aroma
• Available as a single purchase or “subscription” style purchase

CONS:

• A bit pricey (Currently $19.99 for the 12 oz. bag and $29.99 for the 32 oz.) This pricing does include free 2 day shipping so in the end it’s actually quite fair and on par with what you’re probably paying now for gourmet coffee.
• The smell of this coffee brewing makes you very popular with coffee lovers. Not so great when you’re not in the mood to share.

CONCLUSION:

Our useless and meaningless rating: 4 out of 5

Good stuff! It smells and tastes amazing. Whether you want to be meticulous with a fancy brew or you just want to toss this into a drip maker or reusable K-cup, DEATH TO ZOMBIES coffee doesn’t disappoint. Ours was long gone within days of opening it. We’re not sure this is the cure for zombie brain but it certainly helps. The aroma also draws hordes of coffee mug wielding caffeine deprived zombies every time we brewed some up.

WHERE TO GET IT:
Go to the Coffee Cousins website or www.death2zombies.com for ordering information.

 
 
Enjoy DEATH TO ZOMBIES coffee out of an awesome zombie coffee mug:

The post Death To Zombies Coffee Review appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

This week brought good news for fans of the  zombie and post pandemic video game genres.  Sony unveiled gameplay from the upcoming PS4 exclusive game, Days Gone.

This latest project from Bend Studio shows some promising open world play sure to please fans of zombie video games.  Sony also published a blog post outling the plot synopsis of  Days Gone:

 “Set in the beautiful, volcanic scarred high-desert of the Pacific Northwest, Days Gone is an open-world action-adventure game where you play as Deacon St. John, a Drifter and bounty hunter who would rather risk the dangers of the broken road than live in one of the “safe” wilderness encampments. The game takes place two years after a global pandemic has killed almost everyone, but transformed millions of others into what survivors call Freakers – mindless, feral creatures, more animal than human but very much alive and quickly evolving.”

View the Days Gone trailer below:

While they may not officially be called “zombies” the feral infected human “Freakers” are close enough to meet our definition and definitely close enough to creep us out. If there is one form of infected that makes us quiver every time it is runners. Flesh hungry infected with the ability to sprint is the stuff nightmares are made of. What’s worse than that? Hordes of fast infected working together by the hundreds.
 
 

Days Gone E3 Gameplay Footage:

The gameplay from Days Gone seems to indicate this game may have the ability to creep out even seasoned zombie and horror game fans and that’s something that isn’t easily done. Check out the gameplay footage revealed at E3 2016 below:

Days Gone Release Date:

An official Days Gone release date hasn’t been revealed yet but online sources for pre-ordering are pointing to a Holiday 2016 or late December 2016 release date with some sites listing December 26th and December 29th as potential release dates. We cannot wait to get our hands on this game and we’ll keep you posted when we learn more!
 
 

Pre-Order Days Gone Today!:

 
 
Preorder at GameStop.com
 
 

The post Days Gone Zombie Game Displayed at E3. appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

Many fans of The Walking Dead will remember our review of the Official AMC The Walking Dead Survival Kit about a year ago. First My Family, the company behind those full survival kits, is back again with a smaller Official AMC Walking Dead Zombie Preparedness Apocalypse Kit. When they offered to send out a sample of this new kit for review we were more than happy to oblige.

Let’s face it, zombies probably aren’t going to be walking among us any time soon. Planning for a fictional zombie emergency may seem silly, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Preparing for the zombie apocalypse is really just like planning for any other disaster. In most emergency or disaster situations you need the same basic survival and emergency supplies. Things like basic first aid, light, shelter from the elements and tools to build fire are vital in nearly any disaster or emergency whether it be of the undead or more plausible variety. Planning for the zombie apocalypse just happens to be a lot more fun and a great way to get family and friends onboard with the prepping cause.

The Official AMC The Walking Dead Zombie Preparedness Apocalypse Kit, or “ZPAK” for those who want a less wordy title, is a perfect affordable basic survival pack for emergency or everyday use.    The “ZPAK” features a handful of basic survival supplies tucked into an awesome custom Walking Dead branded Nalgene sport water bottle. Let’s take a look at what your purchase of the ZPAK includes.

CONTENTS OF THE ZPAK

Custom The Walking Dead Nalgene Sport Water Bottle:

Without a doubt, the highlight of the ZPAK is the beautiful custom screen printed Nalgene water bottle. This 32 ounce bottle is manufactured by Nalgene, the king of manufacturers when it comes to water bottles for the active outdoors lifestyle.  This bottle looks like it is just the standard 32 ounce Tritan Wide Mouth water bottle which is made in the USA.  These are the gray bottle with black cap, which looks great with the custom branding.

The best part of this bottle is the awesome custom branding. The bottle features a large AMC The Walking Dead Zombie Preparedness Apocalypse Kit and First My Family design in white on the front. Subtle dark red blood spatters placed throughout the bottle put a beautiful stunning final touch to the look of this bottle. The bottle itself truly is a beautiful work of art. We’re confident many Walking Dead collectors will purchase this kit simply to add this gorgeous bottle to their collection and we can’t say we blame them! Click any of the images in the gallery below to open a larger view.

Of course this water bottle isn’t just attractive. It’s durable, practical and functional. We were so pleased to see a Nalgene bottle used for this kit. Based on experience we can tell you these things are nearly indestructible. They’re durable, easy to clean and worlds above most other bottles on the market. AMC and First My Family could have cut corners here and went with a more affordable and more profitable water bottle. Fortunately they chose a quality product that will stand up to daily use. This bottle will be part of your survival and emergency preparedness kit for years to come.

The basic design of this bottle may not seem like much at first glance. Don’t let the simplicity fool you. Decades of manufacturing refinements and improvements make these bottles nearly perfect. They’re honestly ideal for emergency and everyday use. The smallest details seem insignificant at first, until you start using these bottles while camping or out in the field.  The large wide mouth opening is perfect for several reasons. It allows you to pour and drink easily from the bottle. For everyday use the large opening makes it easy to add ice cubes to your bottle. The large opening allows many water filters and purifying straws to be used without issue. It also makes mixing powdered drinks much easier as well. Finally, it allows stuffing items into the bottle much easier. Space is at a premium in any bug out bag or emergency disaster kit. There is no point not cramming this bottle full of valuable emergency preparation items until it is needed for water storage.

The cap of this Nalgene bottle features threads designed to seal well and made to withstand tightening without stripping. The top loop makes sure the cap never gets lost while simultaneously creating a convenient way to attach this bottle to a bag, backpack, belt or other area. First My Family has even added a convenient carabiner to make attaching and detaching this bottle even easier!

The water bottle is constructed of BPA-Free Eastman Tritan copolyester. This material has superior impact resistance. If you have doubts just look up some of the Nalgene torture test videos on YouTube and you’ll soon see these things are tough! There’s a reason they’re guaranteed for life. In addition to their resistance to breaking and shattering, these bottles can withstand temperatures from -40°F to 212°F. You can even pour boiling water into a Nalgene bottle without issue or damage to them.  Thanks to the construction material, this bottle is also resistant to staining and retaining taste and odors.

Supplies:

In addition to the water bottle, this kit features a handful of basic survival essentials.  Here’s a list of what our kid included:

• 10 Medical Grade Adhesive Bandage Strips

• One 12 hour chemical light stick: Unwrap, snap and shake for up to 12 hours of light

• One Emergency poncho. Keep yourself dry, use it for signaling for help and more!

• One Emergency Mylar Space Blanket: This reflective blanket helps you stay warm

• One 5 in 1 Emergency Whistle: This whistle helps you signal for help and packs some potentially lifesaving features. As the name implies, this isn’t just a whistle.  It has a weatherproof compartment for storing matches and other small items. A compass on the lid may help you navigate your way to safety and the signaling mirror on the reverse side of the lid just might help you signal for help from rescuers.  A flint rod on the whistle can be used to create a spark and may be just what you need to start a life sustaining fire.

• One custom carabiner:  Perfect for clipping the water bottle to your bag, backpack, belt or for similar uses. This product is not suitable for climbing use.

Click any of the images in the gallery below to open a better view:

Granted, there isn’t a ton of survival gear in this kit, but it’s not supposed to be a full kit. This is simply a small pack meant for coping with emergency situations in the short term. This is perfect for storing in your car or carrying with you for everyday use. It would make a great addition to a full survival kit.

We know what many of you are probably thinking, “I can make a similar or better kit for less money.” We had the same thought at first, but then we started doing some math and quickly realized it isn’t worth the trouble.

Let’s cover the obvious point first. If you do it yourself you won’t get the awesome Walking Dead bottle.  In our opinion, this is worth the bulk of the purchase price alone. We can easily see this bottle selling alone for $19.99.  Let’s say you don’t care about the Walking Dead logo, putting together this kit yourself isn’t as cheap as you may think.

A typical 32 ounce wide mouth Nalgene water bottle retails for $11 to as much as $20 alone. A similar 5 in 1 survival whistle typically runs $4 to $5. The survival blanket typically runs a few dollars and a rain poncho can often be picked up for $1 to $2.  What about the light stick? If you can find individual industrial quality 6 inch light sticks locally you’ll likely pay at least a dollar a two. A box of bandages will run you anywhere from a dollar to a few dollars depending on quality. We’re also assuming you can find all of these items together in the same store or two locally. When you factor in the cost of your time and fuel , or shipping costs, you can easily see the cost of this kit is very reasonable. In our opinion there’s no real reason to attempt putting this kit together on your own, especially if you’re a fan of The Walking Dead. In most cases you wouldn’t save enough to make missing out on the custom bottle worth it.

PROS:

• Beautiful The Walking Dead Bottle: The custom Walking Dead Water bottle is gorgeous and sure to be a hit with collectors and preppers alike.

• Lightweight: The water bottle and contents weigh just under 13 ounces making this super portable and a great addition to a full survival kit.

• The Nalgene brand water bottle is super tough, durable and designed to be practical.

• Affordable: Priced under $30 before shipping

• Perfect on the go kit for basic emergencies and everyday use.

• Plenty of room to add to and improve upon this kit.

CONS:

•  This kit doesn’t contain much in the way of survival supplies but we feel it is important to note this isn’t intended to be a full survival kit. While an emergency blanket, a poncho, some bandages, a whistle and a light stick might not sound like much on the surface they can all make the difference when it comes to short term survival in an emergency situation.

• We know what every self-respecting do it yourselfer is thinking.  With some work you could probably build a similar or better kit for the same amount or perhaps a little less money, but you won’t get the custom Walking Dead bottle.

• Our bottle had a slight blemish in the white graphic on the front. You can see a small area where the white logo logo is missing above the letter “A” in the word, “PREPAREDNESS”. Upon closer examination it looks like this may be a simple manufacturing defect. None of the photos of other bottles we’ve seen have this so it’s highly unlikely you’d have any issues with your purchase.

• The kit doesn’t contain anything that will work to help you easily create a spark with the flint rod on the whistle. This isn’t too much of an issue because most of us have something on us that would work. That being said, it is probably a good idea to make sure you have a small pocket knife, razor blade or something steel in the kit to make this chore much easier. We tried using the carabiner provided in the kit, thinking it would throw a spark. It didn’t work for us. A knife blade got sparks flying 6 inches or so.  Starting a fire with a flint or Ferro rod can be challenging enough on its own. You don’t need the lack of something to create easy sparks compounding your problems.

Where Can You Buy It?:

At the time of this post, the official AMC The Walking Dead Zombie Preparedness Apocalypse Survival Kit is priced at $29.95. It is  available directly via FirstMyFamily.com and can also be found on Amazon.com.

Final Thoughts:

The official Walking Dead ZPAK is a great idea and priced right. The beautiful custom Walking Dead Nalgene bottle is almost reason enough to make the purchase. This lightweight emergency survival pack contains enough resources and materials to help you survive a short term emergency situation without being heavy.  We really like the idea of adding to this and making it our own. Overall this is a beautifully done survival pack that is sure to help you survive many emergency situations. Whether you’re concerned about zombies, natural disasters, car trouble or all of the above, this kit just might save your rear one day. If not, at least you’ll have the coolest water bottle in town.

Rating:

4.5 out of 5

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

We plan on adding a small pocket knife, small flashlight, some paracord, an energy bar, and some char cloth or some sort of tinder to make this kit even more useful. What would YOU Add to this kit to make it your own? Let us know by leaving a comment in the comments section below!

The post Official AMC Walking Dead Zombie Preparedness Apocalypse Kit Review: Our Thoughts on the ZPAK appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

Update 11/2017: It has come to our attention iZombie hot sauce is no longer available. Feel free to read our review below and don’t be afraid to try one of PuckerButt Pepper Company’s many other delicious hot sauces and pepper related products.

Original Review:

You might be surprised to discover zombies  don’t have a great sense of taste. We agree. It’s hard to believe with all of the brain craving and flesh devouring.  Fortunately the PuckerButt Pepper Company has created a hot sauce made with the world’s hottest pepper to liven up the palates of both the living and the walking dead: iZombie Hot Sauce.

Fans of the new zombie TV series, iZombie, on The CW will know zombies really can’t taste much their food.  It turns out they prefer their food super spicy.  It seems when you reanimate, your taste buds stay dead along with many other bodily functions.  When it comes to zombie food, the hotter the better.  That’s why iZombie’s main character, Liv, pours hot sauce on pretty much every brain themed dish she consumes.

The folks over at PuckerButt created a special iZombie themed hot sauce made with the world’s hottest peppers.  When we learned of this we decided we had to get our hands on a bottle. PuckerButt sent us over a bottle for review purposes and we tore into it with the fervor of a horde of flesh starved zombies.  Were we able to take the heat? Do we recommend this zombie themed hot sauce? Read on to find out!

Packaging:

Our bottle of iZombie Hot Sauce was lovingly packed in a heavy small cardboard box, wrapped with bubble wrap.  Everything arrived safely in great condition.

Bottle and Label:

iZombie Hot Sauce comes in a 5 ounce glass bottle complete with a very cool iZombie themed label.  The high quality label features an image of Liv holding a brain in a jar along with the iZombie logo.   The bottle is so cool most fans of the show, or adorable zombies in general, won’t be able to part with it when empty.

Ingredients (Know Your Enemy):

There isn’t much left to the imagination here. The ingredients are listed as: vinegar, onions, peppers and garlic.  You would think something so simple would be pretty tame. You’d be wrong.  iZombie is made with the world’s hottest pepper: “The Carolina Reaper.” Yes. It is just as intense as it sounds. More on the heat later.

Appearance:

The sauce has a beautiful rich orange amber-red hue and a medium consistency. It’s not the thin watery mess you’d find with your typical cheap hot sauce but it’s also not as thick as some other sauces we tried. It’s basically the perfect consistency for you to heed the warning on the bottle: “Tread Carefully.”

The sauce is just thick enough to frustrate heat freaks.  Brave souls like us wanting to bathe their food in a sea of sauce will want to remove the plastic plug from the mouth of the bottle that restricts the flow of the sauce. For all you mere mortals . . . it’s there for a reason.  Baby steps my zombie friend. . . baby steps.

Aroma:

iZombie has a beautiful earthy pepper smell with just a hint of vinegar. This isn’t the pungent vinegar smell you’d associate with the cheap stuff. It smells like the quality sauce it is.  It smells very similar to some of the premium ghost chili pepper hot sauces we’ve reviewed in the past. The aroma hints at some heat, but your olfactory buds alone could never fully alert you to the angry fire packed inside this little glass bottle.

Taste:

We were surprised at how sweet iZombie was.  At first taste iZombie tickles your taste buds with a pleasantly sweet pepper flavor.   The flavor is almost fruit-like and this sauce really does taste great. . . until the heat kicks in and obliterates your mouth with sensory overload.

Yes. iZombie Hot Sauce is HOT.

Heat:

We know. We know. You want to hear about the heat.  Well, Puckerbutt knows heat. Puckerbutt Founder and President, “Smokin’ Ed” Currie developed what is now known as the world’s hottest pepper: Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper®.  The pepper was awarded the Guinness World Record in November of 2013.

How hot is the Reaper?  It typically measures over 1.5 million on the Scoville Heat Unit Scale but can hit peak levels over 2.2 million Scoville Heat Units.

Let’s put that in terms non pepper-nerds can understand.  A jalapeño pepper typically measures anywhere from 2,000 to 8,000 on the Scoville scale. That means the Carolina reaper is usually several hundred times hotter than a  jalapeño. Yep. That’s as hot as it sounds.

There’s a brief moment of bliss between the sweet savory roasted goodness of iZombie’s flavor and the heat.  Enjoy that brief 15 to 30 second window; the end is near.   Shortly after you find yourself thinking how unexpectedly flavorful iZombie is, the furious fire filled heat pummels your mouth.

The flavor subsides and the heat quickly begins to take over.  It all starts innocently enough.  It begins first as a warm tingling sensation on your tongue and in the back of your throat before rapidly building over the course of a few minutes in an angry and intense burning crescendo.  Your blood vessels will dilate. Your sinuses will open. Sweat may bead on your brow and tears may form in your eyes.  None of that compares to the burn.

The heat clearly lets you know Mother Nature doesn’t think people should be consuming peppers so hot.  They’re hot for a reason stupid!  Your mouth will burn. Oh will it burn. The burning is soon accompanied by a tingling and numbing of the lips. The intensity of these sensations depends on your heat tolerance and how much sauce you use.  One thing is certain. The Reaper hangs on tight.

The burning and numbness will persist for a good 15 minutes and that’s IF you’re already accustomed to hot and spicy sauces. The Carolina Reaper® lives up to its name!

In our opinion, if you’ve braved hotter peppers like the Bhut Jolokia Ghost Pepper or the Trinidad Scorpion, you’ll conquer the heat of this sauce without much extra effort.  If you’re expecting this sauce to be noticeably hotter than sauces containing the aforementioned peppers, you’ll be a little disappointed.  At a certain point ridiculously hot is just ridiculously hot.  Distinguishing variances at these extremes is difficult and subjective.  That being said, if you consider jalapenos or habanero peppers hot, you may want to ease into this sauce on your day off.

Side Effects:

It’s not uncommon for the uninitiated to experience some side effects to a sauce this hot.  Fortunately we’re fairly accustomed to hot and spicy peppers around here and we didn’t experience much in the way of side effects.  Aside from 15 minutes or so of mouth numbing and mind melting heat, iZombie didn’t bite back.  We experienced a pleasant warm sensation in our chest area for about 45 minutes or so.  Fortunately for our friends and family, the only PuckerButt we experienced was the company’s name.

Final Rating:

4.75 out of 5

What We Love:

• Great Aroma
• Sweet Fruity Flavor
• Intense Heat
• Awesome High Quality iZombie Label
• A Little Goes a Long Way
• All Natural
• GMO, Gluten and Nut Free

Meh. (What’s Not So Hot.)

• $12.00 a Bottle (But One Bottle is sure to last you a long time.)
• HOT is HOT!  If you’re expecting a HUGE increase in heat over sauces containing peppers like the Bhut Jolokia Ghost Pepper or the Trinidad Scorpion, you’ll be a little disappointed. This sauce feels hotter, but not significantly so.

Parting Thoughts:

If you like it hot we recommend picking up a bottle of iZombie from PuckerButt Pepper Company today.  A 5 ounce bottle currently retails for $12.00.  Aside from our reluctance to shell out $12.00 for a bottle of hot sauce (it really is worth it) there is little to complain about here.  iZombie Hot sauce would make an ideal zombie gift for fans of the show or zombie fans that love their sustenance served up in a blaze of burning flavor.

About PuckerButt Pepper Company:

• For more information about PuckerButt Pepper Company visit their website today at PuckerButtPepperCompany.com
• Subscribe to PuckerButt on YouTube
• Like PuckerButt on Facebook
• Follow them on Twitter

About iZombie:

iZombie Currently airs on Tuesdays in the US at 9pm/8c on The CW. For more information visit http://www.cwtv.com/shows/izombie.

Want your Zombie Product reviewed or featured on our blog? Would you like your zombie product featured on our site? Contact us for details! http://www.zombiegift.com/zombie-blog/contact-us/ or send email to blog@zombiegift.com or advertising@zombiegift.com.

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About the Tokens:
The Walking Dead Tokenz are round disc shaped tokens featuring decals with imagery from AMC’s smash hit TV series.  The front of each token features a popular character, walker or other image from the scene.  Each token measures approximately 1-9/16  inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick.  Thanks to their weight of about 10 grams, they feel very sturdy.

According to the packaging and checklist, there are 48 The Walking Dead  Tokenz to collect in all: 42 regular Tokenz and 6 Virtual Reality tokenz. That number isn’t entirely accurate if you’re looking to collect the entire set.  The number doesn’t seem to reflect the fact that there are also foil variants of the regular tokens. While the packaging and checklist don’t specifically mention how many foil tokens there are, the tokens we received lead us to believe there is simply a corresponding foil version of each regular token.  This puts the total number of available packaged tokens closer to 90:

The tokens are different colors and there are 5 different colors for the base and foil tokens:

1. Blue
2. Brown
3. Burgundy
4. Gold
5. Green

The virtual reality tokens are all black.

At this point any serious Walking Dead collector is starting to worry. While we have no official word from Bulls I Toy on this, it does not appear you’ll need to worry about completing a different collection for every token color.  (Yes some of us collectors really DO worry about these sorts of things.)

Based on the tokens we received and from the checklist provided in each package, it appears the images are not randomly stuck on colored tokens. There does appear to be a set pattern and for that we could kiss each and every person involved with the token design.  You won’t need to worry about obtaining each token in all 5 possible colors.

In other words token #10 is Carol Peletier. It is shown on a gold token on the checklist. We received two of these tokens in our package and both were indeed gold tokens. Fortunately obsessive collectors won’t need to also obtain a green, blue, brown and burgundy Carol token as well! The foil version of each token should be the same color assigned to the base token.

The Walking Dead Tokens can contain some pretty gruesome and scary images from the TV series and the relatively small size may present a choking hazard for children under the age of 3. Due to these facts, the official age recommendation for this product is ages 14 and up.

We took plenty of images of our Walking Dead Tokens. Click any of the image thumbnails below to open a bigger view:

About the Virtual Reality Walker Tokens:
Each package of The Walking Dead Tokenz features one “virtual reality” token. These black and white tokens feature an image of popular Walkers from the TV series and they have a very cool additional bonus feature.  They can be scanned with the free Scan It mobile app available in the Apple App Store for Apple products and for Android Devices via the Google Play store. Once scanned, the special virtual reality tokens should show the corresponding walker come to life in virtual reality on your device’s screen.

Packaging:
The tokens come blind packaged in foil packages with 3 regular tokens and one “Virtual Reality” token for a total of 4 collectible tokens per package.  We checked around major retailers and the tokens appear to be priced at $2.99 per package in our area.

With all of the background information out of the way, let’s take a look at what we thought about  The Walking Dead Tokenz.  On to the review!

Our Review of The Walking Dead Tokenz

Initial Thoughts:
We were most struck by the weight of these tokens. Our package of review tokens contained a random sampling of 10 packs and it was much heavier than we anticipated. Given their novelty nature and their low price, we were expecting some chintzy lightweight thin plastic discs. Instead the Walking Dead Tokenz are very high quality products with some weight to them.

Packaging: 
The product packaging is pretty top notch given the affordable nature of these collectibles. The glossy foil pouch style packaging is as durable as it is attractive. It also does a great job explaining what you’re buying, what to expect, and more. There’s even a blurb on the the back of the package the breaks down the approximate odds of receiving the special foil and virtual reality tokens. While the package clearly mentions 42 different base tokens and 6 virtual reality tokens, it doesn’t clearly indicate how many foil tokens there are. Nor does it mention here may be another 42 foil tokens you’ll need to obtain for a truly complete collection.

The durable foil packaging makes these collectibles a little difficult o open with your bare hands. That’s great for preventing people from sneaking a peak in stores, but it might mean using a pair of scissors for many collectors.

The checklist included with every package is supreme quality as well. We weren’t expect high quality glossy paper and vibrant colors and imagery. With the low retail selling price, Bulls I Toy could have easily taken the easy way out and cut costs with a cheap checklist or no real checklist at all. Instead of pinching pennies and sending you to a virtual or printable checklist online they provide you with a high quality checklist complete with details on how to obtain an in app exclusive: a virtual reality token of Daryl Dixon!

Tokens:
Overall we love the tokens. They are an ideal size for collecting and they feature surprising weight and sturdiness we just weren’t expecting.  The tokens definitely conjure images of poker chips and our beloved pogs from the 1990s.  While we’ve heard some fans complain about this,  we feel those are just more reasons to love these!

The images are clear and crisp on the base tokens and Virtual Reality tokens and all tokens feature many of our favorite characters and walkers from the TV series.  The images on some of the foil tokens, while still very cool, are sometimes a little scratched and less clear than their corresponding base token counterparts.

Randomness and Collectibiltiy:
The tokens appear to be fairly packaged in a random fashion.  This makes completing your collection fun while still being a relatively obtainable feat. If you don’t have someone to trade doubles with you could still grind it out and complete your collection the honest way without going broke in the process.  In our sampling of 10 packages we received:

• 18 Base Tokens (4 were duplicates)
• 12 Foil Tokens (1 duplicate)
• 10 Virtual Reality Tokens (One complete set of 6, 4 duplicates)

The ScanIt App and Virtual Reality Tokens:
Each package of The Walking Dead Tokenz contains one Virtual Reality token. The concept is pretty brilliant.  You simply download the free ScanIt app for your Apple or Android moobile device and then scan your Virtual Reality walker token with your device’s camera in a well lit area.  When scanned, the tokens are supposed to show a virtual reality version of the scanned walker right on your device.  This was one of the aspects of the review process we were looking forward to the most.  Unfortunately it ended up being a disappointment.

We simply couldn’t get the app to scan our tokens. None of the 10 virtual reality tokens were correctly scanned by the app. We tried multiple android devices running android operating systems from Ice Cream Sandwich to Jelly Bean to KitKat.  The app and tokens didn’t work on any of them.  We’ve seen some of our fans post pics and screenshots of their scanned Virtual Reality walker tokens so we know the app at least worked in some cases for some people. Unfortunately it doesn’t work for us. Yes. We followed all instructions. Yes. We only scanned the actual virtual reality tokens. We tried different devices running different android operating systems, we tried re-installing the app, we tried scanning the virtual reality tokens isolated on a single background color with every lighting and angle setup we could conjure. Some of us are pretty android tech savvy so we tried all the geeky solutions we could think of to make the app cooperate.  We stopped short of trying the app on an iPhone or other apple device. (We’re not THAT desperate!)

We decided to check some reviews for the ScanIt app in the Google Play store and we quickly realized this isn’t an uncommon occurrence. It seems many android users have found the app to be defective.  It also seems many android users are frustrated that their negative reviews in Google Play don’t seem to be acknowledged or addressed with an update.

Posting the negative aspects of a product we review isn’t fun, but it’s our job. Dealing with  Mobile App issues in a product review can be very tricky. Sometimes users don’t follow instructions or they attempt to utilize an app on older device that isn’t capable.  We can assure that isn’t the case here. Issues with mobile apps associated with toys are further complicated by the fact that the toy company itself often has very little to do with the actual development and support of  the app.

We debated on what to do. We realize Bulls I Toy has outsourced the app to a third party (Metaio) for development and support, but the average consumer probably doesn’t realize this. We also realize it’s Bulls I Toy touting the virtual reality capability on their product packaging so they ultimately have some responsibility to ensure the app gets fixed and is usable for at least the majority of  their consumers.  We debated on contacting Bulls I Toy regarding the app before posting our review to give them an opportunity to fix it. Since we only post honest and unbiased reviews (and we know Bulls I Toy respects this) we decided not to. Instead we put off the review for a couple more weeks to see if the app was updated and if the negative app reviews were addressed. At this point they haven’t, but we’re confident eventually any issues with the app will be fixed.

Aside from issues with the virtual reality app there really isn’t much we were displeased with. Let’s wrap things up by taking a look at a list of pros and cons associated with The Walking Dead Tokenz.

What’s Great:

• High Quality Tokens and Packaging: Even the checklist is fancy!
• Affordable Pricing (A pack of 4 tokens is perfectly priced at just $2.99)
• Good Number of Token Provides Good Balance for Both Casual Enthusiasts and Serious Collectorss: Casual collectors can settle for completing the basic token and virtual reality token collections. Serious collector can accept the challenge of collecting the randomly inserted foil variants.
• Virtual Reality Tokens; The 6 Virtual Reality Walker tokens are a great idea if you can get the free app to cooperate for you and your mobile device.
• Size: We like the size. These are basically the same size and weight as high quality poker chips. This makes storing them pretty easy.
• Different Color Tokens:  We like the different color tokens. It makes for a colorful collection and should also make sorting when searching for doubles easier.
• Fun for Young and Old Collectors Alike: These tokens are officially recommended for ages 14 and up and should please any Walking Dead fan whether young or old! It’s a great hobby to share with children.

Meh. What’s Not So Great:

• We really don’t have many complaints with this Walking Dead collectible.  That being said nothing is perfect and here are the two or three  aspects we weren’t so pleased with.
• The Virtual Reality ScanIt App Didn’t Work
• The Tokens Can Be Difficult to Display. Round discs tend to roll away or fall over.
• Some of the Foil Token Decals Appear Lightly Scratched Right Out of the Package.  (Likely due to sliding against other tokens etc.)

Final Verdict:

Overall we really like The Walking Dead Tokenz. These high quality small round collectibles are an ideal size and contain fun Walking Dead images that are a blast to collect. We’d like them even more if we were able to get the ScanIt virtual app to work correctly on our devices.  Storing these collectibles is a breeze, but easily displaying them can be a challenge. We’re hoping Bulls I Toy takes advantage of the opportunity to offer a storage album.  A plastic or sturdy cardboard Walking Dead themed bifold display album or binder would be an ideal way to display these tokens and a way to get collectors to willingly part with another $10 bill or so. The completed collection would look great displayed standing up in a album.

Without the added coolness of the working virtual reality tokens, we rated these with an overall score of 3.5 out of 5. If we were able to get the app working on our devices we’d probably rate these somewhere near a 4 or 4.5.  Our issues with the app shouldn’t deter you.  These Walking Dead collectibles are a blast to collect and enjoy!

3.5 Out of 5

Where to Buy:
According to the Bulls I Toy website, the Walking Dead Tokenz are available at many major retailers such as Target, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Kroger, Hot Topic, Giant Eagle, Five Below, Fred Meyer and more.
 
Or you can also Complete your Walking Dead Tokenz collection on ebay.
 

The post Zombie Product Review: The Walking Dead Tokenz from Bulls I Toy appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

We receive a lot of zombie products for review. Many of them are just so-so, but every so often our trusty postal carrier delivers one so cool that we can’t wait to share  our initial thoughts with all of you. That very scenario played out today when we received our copy of Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema by Jamie Russell straight from the publisher. We’ll be doing a full review in the near future, but here are our initial thoughts:

• Substantial Amount of Information Packed in 376 pages
• Suggested Retail Price of $24.95 is Much Cheaper Than We Anticipated. (Given the size we’d normally expect a $30-$40 price tag.)
• Seems like a good balance of background information on the zombie film genre and zombie movie listings
• Approximately 137 pages of zombie film listings and summaries alone!
• Short, concise reviews and summaries.
• Covers zombie films from blockbuster major motion pictures to the obscure and  horribly bad  Z movies.
• Over 300 new zombie movies are listed in this updated volume.

This hit our desk and when we saw the size we couldn’t help but flip through it quickly and snap some photos. Our initial impression of Book of the Dead is this is a high quality zombie movie encyclopedia worthy of a spot on any zombie lover’s bookshelf. Look for a full detailed review here on our blog in the very near future.

 Buy Your Own Copy Today!

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Tired of all the same old boring Chia pets? The folks at Joseph Enterprises have you covered! This Halloween season they’re bringing Chia Zombies to store shelves near you. Grow them if you dare!

Zombie fans can choose from one of three awesome zombie themed Chia Pets. Theres the “Restless Arm” which is a zombie hand reaching up from the grave. There is also a male and female zombie head to choose from. Grow some lovely Chia locks on either “Creepy Holden” or “Lifeless Lisa”.

Check out the photos below for a closer look:

• Each Chia Zombie box includes everything you need to grow your very own zombie themed chia!
  1 Unique Handmade Pottery Planter (Zombie Arm, Male Head or Female Head)
  Enough Chia Seeds for 3 Plantings (Plant, Grow and watch them shrivel and die. Then do it again!)
  1 Plastic Drip Tray
  Easy to Read and Follow Planting and Care Instructions

For more information visit the product links below!

Where to Buy:

Chia Zombie is available via Amazon (See the product grid below) as well as stores near you such as Home Depot, Walgreens, Rite-Aid and more.

Ebay is also another great source to score these chia zombie pets at a great deal. Don’t worry.We’ve done all the dirty work for you. View current ebay listings for chia zombie pet products here.

Which Chia Zombie is your favorite? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post Zombie Chia Pets appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

The new officially licensed The Walking Dead Wind Ups toys recently hit store shelves. These adorable collectible plastic wind up toys are brought to you by our friends over at Bulls i Toy. If the name sounds familiar it’s probably because they’re the same company behind other awesome Walking Dead collectibles such as Walking Dead Dog Tags, Chibis and more! It seems the folks over at Bulls i Toy really appreciate our detailed and honest reviews. They were interested in our thoughts on their new Walking Dead Wind Ups toy product line and offered to send over a sample set for review. Naturally, we jumped at the opportunity.

The entire set (or at least this series) consists of 7 individual Walking Dead Wind Up Toys.  These fun plastic wind up toys are fun for nearly any age, but they’re recommended for ages 3 and up. There is a possibility small parts could come detached and pose a potential choking hazard.

Here’s the set pictured above (Left to right from the top left)

1. Michonne
2. Rick Grimes
3. Walker
4. The Governor
5. Daryl Dixon
6. Andrea
7.  Glenn

Packaging:

Each Walking Dead Wind Up is packaged in a small cardboard window box package. That’s right collectors, we get a much deserved break from blind packaging! That means we won’t need to spend a small fortune to complete our collections.  This time around we get to see exactly what we’re buying.  This temporarily eliminates the blind packaging and the random frustration and desperation that often accompany it.  There’s no need for feeling packages while store staff and fellow customers give us weird looks. Walking Dead Chibis collectors you know what we mean! No worries however, blind packaging will return with the upcoming Walking Dead tokenz from Bulls I Toy.

Each cardboard box features the familiar dirty and distressed earthtone and blood splatter background design we’ve come to associate with the majority of AMC’s Walking Dead collectibles. Every box features a cardboard hanging tab flap on the top.  The top flap is usually secured with a piece of clear tape on the left and right side. The bottom flap isn’t glued and can be very carefully opened to allow collectors to open their items for display without destroying the original packaging.  Once opened there’s a second cardboard background inside the box. The actual toy itself resides in a plastic tray within the outer box.  Each box appears to be identical so there’s no character name or anything obviously unique to each different character. The back of the outer package features a handy visual checklist to ensure you collect all seven.

Here’s a photo of the visual checklist on the back of each box:

Daryl Dixon fans rejoice! He’s part of this series!

We took photos of each Walking Dead Wind Up toy. Check out the photo gallery below. Click any of the thumbnail images to open a larger view:

Price:

We found the Walking Dead Wind Ups we purchased at our local Target store for just $4.99 each. In our opinion this is the ideal price point. These are affordable enough and the series is small enough any collector should be able to complete the set. At this price you’d be able to collect all 7 for under $35.00 before taxes. Try that with any other Walking Dead collectible.

Toy Construction:

The Walking Dead Windups measure just under 4 inches tall and are constructed of plastic. The main body and head of each figure appear to be a two piece construction.  A small visible seam runs along the middle of each wind up toy where the front and back half meet. Three small metal screws appear to hold each piece together.  The mechanism to windup the figure protrudes from the right side of each figure. This small metal post is covered with a white plastic knurled knob for grip and comfort. The wind up mechanism feels surprisingly sturdy.  We tested all of our review samples and some of our own purchases and experienced no issues.  I remember some wind up toys from my childhood were very fragile. They’d typically be destroyed if they were wound backwards or if they were overwound.  Fortunately doing either seems pretty difficult with the Walking Dead Wind Ups. You’d have to be make a deliberate effort to forcefully overwind or otherwise damage the winding mechanism from winding backwards etc. If you try to break them I’m sure they’ll give. Otherwise these are built much better than we were expecting.

All of our Wind Up toys walked smoothly and without issue. Each figure’s arms move up and down as they step. It’s a nice touch because without it they’d ambulate with a boring shuffle. We only had one small issue with The Governor toy.  He would occasionally fall. His feet occasionally catch on each other. It’s very subtle and it’s just enough to cause the toy to fall from time to time. It’s a minor issue and if we were going to tie someone’s shoelaces together during the zombie apocalypse, The Governor would be near the top of our list. Check out our photos of Rick, Glenn, The Governor and Daryl Dixon in the photo gallery below. Click any of the image thumbnails below to open a bigger view:

For the most part paintwork and details on our Walking Dead Wind Ups was very well done. The flesh or main body area of each toy is a shiny skin colored plastic. (At least for the human characters.) The identifying characteristics of each character are well done and most details are very well done. Glenn has his baseball cap and jersey from Season 1.  Rick Grimes sports facial hear and his King County Sheriff’s uniform. The bottom line is every stylized character is instantly recognizable.

We do have some minor complaints. First Michonne’s hair comes off a little lazily done. The flat black paint for her hair doesn’t look horrible , but there’s room for improvement. Michonne sports her headband and some of her dreadlocks  hang down over the front of it. From the back and sides her hair just looks odd. If the two dreads weren’t dangling in the front it would almost look like she’s wearing a helmet or swim cap. It’s hard to explain but there is just a little added detail needed. Maybe some dark gray highlights to define individual dreads or to give some texture? We’re also a little disappointed in the katana on Michonne’s back.  It looks a little lame and like more of an afterthought. The tiny white and black katana look like someone hastily drew the at the last minute. Sorry Michonne. We don’t mean to beat up on you, but you’re one of our favorite characters and the detail work on your Wind Up toy just don’t live up to your level of awesomeness.

Andrea’s white shirt and gray tanktop undershirt look a little odd. We’re huge fans of the show so we know exactly what the designers were going for here. For those less familar with the earlier seasons of The Walking Dead it may be a little confusing.   At first glance it almost appears as if Andrea’s torso is bandaged. There were also some issues with the pain work on Andrea’s hair.  There were some scuff marks and dark marks within her blonde hair, but nothing too awful.

Our favorite figure in this series is definitely the lone walker.  The reason may be because he’s the only zombie. Then again he might be our favorite due to his bright color scheme, the blood spatters or the added level of detail present. Whatever the reasons we love the Walker and he’s pretty much perfect in our eyes!

Here are a few more photos of the walker. Click any of the image thumbnails below to open a bigger view:

Let’s wrap things up with a breakdown of what we loved and what we weren’t so pleased with.

What’s Great

The Price:  We’ve seen these routinely priced around $5.00. (Our local Target store sells these for just $4.99). We consider this an ideal price. These are affordable enough to make them obtainable for collectors of any budget.  Completing the set of 7 won’t cost fans an arm and a leg and that’s something we appreciate. Avid collectors can afford to buy two of their favorite characters and leave one sealed permanently.

Window Box Packaging:  Thanks Bulls i Toy! We desperately needed a break from blind packaging. Don’t get us wrong.  We don’t mind buying our collectibles in random blind packaging from time to time. It keeps things interesting and definitely feeds the urgent rabid need to complete your collection. Bulls i Toy easily could have blind packaged these. After all each one is the same size and shape. Paying around $5.00 to constantly get duplicates doesn’t sound like much fun. Paying $5.00 and knowing exactly what we’re going to get makes us smile. It also makes completing your collection easier and more affordable. We’ll save our pennies for collecting the upcoming Walking Dead Tokenz!

Sturdy Windup Mechanism:  Many of you won’t play with these. Should you decide to, they can take it. The winding mechanism was more durable and stronger than we expected.

The Arms Move Too:  It’s a subtle little addition to the walking motion but we really like the added realism of each figure swinging their arms up and down while they walk. Very cool!

Ideal Size:  Any serious Walking Dead collector runs out of space to store their collectibles pretty quickly.  Fortunately these Walking Dead Wind Ups are the ideal size. At just under 4 inches they don’t take up much shelf space.  Their small packaging doesn’t add much bulk which means there’s no significant difference in space requirements whether you choose to display them boxed or unboxed.

Reasonable Series Size:  We like the fact that there are only seven of these and the fact that we don’t need to chase down 3 different random and rare variants of each one.  There IS a set of Hot Topic Exclusive Wind Ups which consists of a a glow in the dark version of the set, available only via Hot Topic stores. Even with the exclusives considered, this is a reasonably sized edition that is achievable for any collector.

Equal Appeal as Toys and Collectibles:  These are affordable, cute and collectible.  Should you choose to remove them from their package they’re also fun low tech toys for nearly any age. This is the type of collectible you’ll find yourself playing with or letting your kids handle.

What’s Not So Great

Michonne:  We hate to complain, but the Michonne Wind Up is a bit of a disappointment.  Michonne’s hair just looks odd and incomplete. While it’s difficult to explain, her hair needs a little more detail as a finishing touch. A few added paint details could likely give her hair the added texture and detail it needs in order to look more like her famous dreadlocks. As it stands her hair looks like a flat black helmet from the back and sides. We found Michonne’s Katana a little comical too. Although these are cute and stylized toys, her katana just looks a little too simple and cartoon-like.

Only One Walker:   We really love the one walker in this set and wish there were at least another one or two zombies to collect.

Window Box Packaging:  While we’re thrilled with the ability to see what we’re purchasing, there is a down side. Resellers, ebay sellers and others can pick their favorites from your local store shelves. While we haven’t noticed this as much as we expected in our area, don’t be surprised if fan favorites like Daryl Dixon, Rick Grimes or the Walker are sold out if you find these in stores.

Final Verdict:

The affordable price and easy collectibility of this series make these a no brainer. It comes down what you like as a fan and collector.  Either you like cute and stylized Walking Dead wind up toys or you’re opposed to the idea. There really is no middle ground. We love them! While they aren’t perfect they’re adorable, collectible and perfectly priced!

4.75 out of 5

About Bulls i Toy:  

“Bulls i Toy’s Mission is to lead the toy industry by providing the most fun and creative products through a commitment to excellence in partnership with customers, suppliers, and employees.”

– BullsiToy.com

Bulls i Toy manufactures many Walking Dead products including  Chibis, Dog Tags, Tokens and more. They’re also known for many other fun toys that aren’t Walking Dead related.  Be sure to check out their full product line using the link above.

Like the Bulls i Toy Facebook page for updates, contests and more!

Where To Buy:  The Walking Dead Wind Ups from Bulls i Toy are available at many big box and major retailers near you.  We’ve personally seen them at Target and have heard reports of them being available via Kmart and Walmart stores.  There’s a also a set of glow in the dark variants available only at Hot Topic stores. If all else fails you can always shop on ebay

The post Walking Dead Wind Ups Review and Unboxing appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

We love zombies and naturally we love AMC’s The Walking Dead.  In fact we’re pretty sure we’re up there with the best of them when it comes to  useless The Walking Dead trivia knowledge! Think you know your stuff too? You just might be able to prove it with the new trivia game from Cardinal Industries. When we came across their The Walking Dead Trivia Box we knew we just had to grab one and do a review for you. So let’s get to it. Here’s our review of The Walking Dead Trivia Box!

One of the first things you’ll notice is the outer packaging. As the name suggests, this trivia card game is packaged in a box format. The outer cardboard cube packaging measures approximately 5.25 inches on each side.  The front of the box features Rick Grimes pointing his Colt Python revolver.  One side features an image of Michonne and the other features Daryl Dixon with his crossbow.  The top of the box sports a large Trivia Box logo.  The background for all the imagery is the prison and overall  we really like the images and the color scheme on the packaging.

Take a look at some photos of the product packaging in the photo gallery below. Click any of the images to open a larger view:

The box itself is a little more sturdy than poster or card stock. We were honestly expecting it to be a little on the flimsy side. That wasn’t the case. It’s actually a little thicker than we were expecting.  Opening the box without damaging it was a bit of a challenge however.

Many Walking Dead fans and collectors are particular about their packaging. We may decide to open an item but we still want to do it without mangling the packaging. Opening the top of the Trivia box seems simple enough. It’s simply a flip up flap with a tab on the front.  Two clear round tape decals secure the top on the sides.  Our approach here is typically just to carefully slit the tape with a utility knife and cautiously open the lid. That was the plan anyway! Unfortunately the Trivia Box lid had other ideas.

Unfortunately the tab on the lid of this product is slit and slotted just enough to provide the top with a death grip.  It really does do an awesome job of staying closed. The outermost edges of the top flap tab grip down almost too well, making this product pretty darn difficult to open without damaging the package. We tried all our normal tricks. We inserted small flat objects under the edges and gently pried up and out.  No luck. We carefully wiggled, jiggled and shimmied. We did our best to gently coax that top flap open. Nothing worked. We had no choice but to tug a little harder than we wanted to in order for the flap to release. We ended up slightly tearing and bending the front corner on the top flap. While that may not be a big deal to everyone, it made us a little sad.  Once we peeked inside the Walking Dead Trivia Box our disappointment continued.

The entire contents of the game is simply a small deck of cards.  Don’t get me wrong. We know this is just a trivia game.  We knew it had an amazing low price. We’re not sure what else we were expecting either. That being said the box for this small deck of cards measures over 5″ a side cube.  The larger packaging leads you to believe there might be more than a deck of cards in the box. No sir! Open the box and here’s what you get:

The card deck consists of game cards measuring about 3″ square.  There’s one card featuring the game rules, 20 character cards and 189 trivia cards featuring two questions each. That means 100’s of triva questions to keep you and your friends and family entertained.

The 20 collectible character cards include Rick Grimes, Carl Grimes, Daryl Dixon, Michonne and Walkers.  There are three cards each for Rick, Carl, Daryl and Michonne.  The eight remaining character picture cards consist of popular walkers from the TV series. These include Bicycle Zombie, Michonne’s pets, Tree Walker and more.  We were a little disappointed to see Little Girl/Teddy Bear Zombie and RV Walker missing. Hopefully these and other past popular zombies from the series will get their just due in a future edition.

About Gameplay:

Playing the game using the provided instructions couldn’t be easier. This game can be played by two players or three or more players with slightly different rules. The recommended age range for this Walking Dead trivia game is ages 12 and up.

One of the aspects we liked about the game is the fact that there is a good balance of hard and easy questions. This will make the game enjoyable and playable for both serious and casual Walking Dead viewers. You’ll find some pretty easy questions such as , “True or False: Merle Dixon cut off his hand as a method of survival.” These easy questions are balanced with some more difficult questions and references to obscure minor plot details sure to stump even some die hard trivia buffs.

The questions are presented in either a True/False or multiple choice format. There are about 189 trivia question cards with 2 questions each. That’s nearly 400 Walking Dead trivia questions covering Seasons 1 through 4! Many of the cards also feature fun “Factoids” for information hungry fans. An example of one such factoid is as follows:  “Factoid:  Herschel Greene is of Irish descent, though his family has owned a farm in Georgia for at least 150 years.”

The varying levels of difficulty keep this game fun for fans of all knowledge levels. Difficulty could be increased for super fans by altering the rules and not reading the choices for the answers of the multiple choice questions. Making the multiple choice questions short answer could make it a little more difficult for those Walking Dead savant opponents.

One thing we don’t like about the format of the trivia cards is the answers are actually provided within the question itself. This makes it difficult if you’re bored and want to quiz yourself. For example, in a multiple choice style question the question is listed along with a choice of answers: A, B and C. The answer to the question is printed in bold. It’s a minor issue but we would have preferred another solution such as printing the answers at the bottom of the card.

Check out some photos of the trivia cards below:

The Walking Dead Trivia Box game is available now and is typically priced under $10.00. We found ours at a Walmart store for just $5.97! While this game is far from perfect, the price makes it a no brainer! The cost is worth it even if you only use it once or twice.

What’s Great:

• Attractive Packaging: We love The Walking Dead images on the box itself. The outer packaging seems to be a little sturdier than we expected given the low purchase price.

• Beautiful Collectible Picture Character Cards: They look great!

• Easy to Understand Rules: The rules are condensed on one single card and they’re very easy to comprehend and follow.  This allows you to start playing in minutes!

• Hundreds of Questions: You get nearly 400 Walking Dead trivia questions that are sure to take you at least a few game plays to master!

• Questions Through Season 4: This game features trivia questions spanning seasons one through four.

• Affordable: This game is available locally and online at a variety of retailers under $10.00. We scored ours at a local Walmart  regularly priced for just $5.97 US! That makes this an affordable Walking Dead zombie gift idea.

Meh.  (What’s Not so Great.)

• The Box is Difficult to Open Without Damaging It:  We’re a little weird and we don’t open many of our Walking Dead collectibles. When we do, we try to do it with minimal damage to the packaging.  The Walking Dead Trivia Box game is difficult to open without bending or slightly tearing the top flap. That slotted tab on the lid grabs on for dear life even after being opened repeatedly.  That’s great news if you’re worried about spilling the contents. It’s bad news if creasing, bending or tearing packaging gives you nightmares. Fortunately the low price allows weirdo Walking Dead collectors like us to purchase two games: one to open and play and one to leave sealed.

• You Can’t Quiz Yourself:  We didn’t like the fact that the answer to multiple choice question is bolded within the list of answer choices. The answer to the True and False questions are also very close to the question.  This makes it difficult to enjoy a night home alone quizzing ourselves on Walking Dead trivia. Yes. We’re lonely.  In all seriousness we get bored and don’t mind quizzing ourselves when friends or family aren’t available to play. The format of the trivia cards makes this nearly impossible. You almost need to have someone read the question to you to avoid giving away the answers.  This is a non issue if you don’t plan on quizzing yourself. Since the game is designed for two or more players we shouldn’t be complaining but we still thought it warranted a mention.  We’d prefer the answers printed in smaller font near the bottom of the trivia cards or some other solution.

• The Cardstock is A Bit Thin:  The picture and trivia cards are a bit thin and flimsy.  While we understand this helps keep the price low, we can’t help but wonder how long the cards will last. We’d love to see some glossy or heavier weight stock used for the cards, even if it added a dollar or two to the overall cost.

• The Box is About Twice as Bis as it Needs to Be:  The game storage box measures about 5 and a quarter inch on each side. It gives you a little false hope. It could easily be half the size and still look awesome!

The Final Verdict:

3.25 Brains Out of 5

The Walking Dead Trivia Game isn’t perfect, but it’s great fun and an affordable Walking Dead gift and collectible. As long as you don’t plan on playing by yourself or having the game last forever, you won’t be disappointed!

Where to Buy:

Get The Walking Dead Trivia Box for only $9.99 here!  Or check your local big box stores such as Walmart and Target.

Search and browse Walking Dead Trivia on Amazon:

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