Back in January, 2013 CableTV.com asked their facebook fans which show they’d like to have an infographic about. Over 20,000 fans voted for The Walking Dead. What resulted was simply amazing.

The folks at CableTV.com decided to research and present a very cool behind the scenes look into what it takes to become a zombie…ahem….I mean a “walker”, on The Walking Dead. They took over 100 facts and figures pertaining to zombie makeup, Walking Dead special effects and other behind the scenes goodies and presented them in a visually and acoustically9 stunning website packed full of parallax scrolling, HTML 5, Javascript and CSS3 goodness. That’s geekspeak for “holy crap this is awesome”.
The infographic website is entitled: The Walking Dead Zombiefied: A Behind the Scenes Look at a Day In The Life of The Dead.

The web site is done a in very cool and easy to use interactive comic style format that immerses you in the action. After the site loads you simply scroll up and down to progress forward or go back through previous parts of the mini storyboard.

The web design geek in me is blown away with all the cool things that went into this behind the scenes. The Walking Dead fan in me is just as pleased with the site. It presents some cool behind the scenes information. While many big TWD fans will already know much of the information presented, I doubt many of you have seen it presented in a manner so fun and engaging!

Check it out by clicking below:

The Walking Dead Zombified: A Behind the Scenes Look at a Day in the Life of the Dead

It’s not too often something this awesome that is related to the Walking Dead or zombies sneaks past us. Somehow this one did. I don’t know how we didn’t tell you about this back in October but we didn’t. Better late than never and since odds are you missed this too, we’re sharing it now.

The site isn’t all looks. It sounds great too! If you’re a crazy fan like me The Walking Dead theme song gives you goosebumps. I loved hearing it as soon as the site loaded. Scroll to the end of the site and your ears are again rewarded. There’s a sick reglitch/remix of The Walking Dead theme used at the conclusion of the story. It was previously available from SoundCloud user Cryptex but it appears since this originally posted back in 2012 the track has been deleted.

What are your thoughts? Did you like the site? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

The post The Walking Dead Zombiefied: Check out CableTV.com’s AMAZING Interactive Walking Dead Infographic appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

Disclosure: We received a gift certificate from Redbubble.com in exchange for an honest and unbiased review of our shopping experience on their site. As a participant in the Redbubble affiliate program, we may receive compensation if you make purchases from their site after visiting links on our site.

I’ve always been a fan of Redbubble.com because the site contains a plethora of zombie related products. Despite my love for the site, I’ve never taken the time to order from them… until now. DUN DUN DUN. That all changed when we were contacted by the great people at Redbubble.com. They asked if we’d like a $50.00 gift certificate to review any of their products we desired. YES PLEASE!

Since I had never ordered from them I thought I’d review the entire Redbubble.com experience from start to finish from the eyes of a first time customer. No stone will be left unturned, no minor detail will be  overlooked. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what $50.00 got me and why I’m definitely a Redbubble repeat customer for life.

About RedBubble:
Let’s start by taking a brief look at what Rebubble.com is all about. While they have a ton of zombie themed products, I feel it is important to note they aren’t all about zombies. The site is a diverse marketplace for designers, artists and other brilliantly creative souls. It allows independent artists, illustrators and other talented folks a place to sell their designs on t-shirts, stickers, prints, posters, phone cases and all sorts of other amazing high quality products. Designers can upload their creations and Redbubble does all the dirty work behind the scenes to put the design on a variety of products. If you’re an artist it provides a venue to offer your gorgeous and lovingly produced designs to the world.

As a buyer it’s a place to find a seemingly endless selection of unique gifts and products that are worlds apart from the mainstream of mass produced crap you’ll see on store shelves.

Of course Redbubble isn’t just about buying or selling stuff. The site is a also a community full of collaboration and the Redbubble.com blog is packed with free tutorials, inspiring posts and more!

Now that you have a little background knowledge, let’s see what free reign to order $50.00 worth of products from Redbubble is like for a first timer. On with the review!

Product Selection:
Holy ish! One of the reasons I’ve been a long time fan of Redbubble.com is the huge selection of zombie products. You can find designs for pretty much anything you are interested in, but you’re here about zombie stuff and Redbubble has TONS of zombie stuff. In all honesty the worst and most difficult part of this entire process was simply trying to narrow my purchase selections down. If you have a difficult time making decisions this is not the site for you. Our $50.00 gift certificate went a long way but I had a very difficult time narrowing my choices down. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I haven’t ordered until now.

It is not easy to limit yourself when there are literally hundreds or thousands of awesome zombie product designs to choose from. After several hours of browsing and debate (I wish I was kidding) I managed to come up with a game plan and I simply had to agree with myself that I’d return to make many more purchases later.  For around $50.00 (okay. . . I ended up spending about $5.84 out of pocket to get everything in my shopping cart) I managed to order the following:

• 1 – Zombie Hunter T-shirt
• 1 – 8″x12″ Zombie Huntress Photographic Print
• 7 – High quality zombie themed stickers.
• 1 Poke’ssan – Pokemon/Assassin’s Creed sticker
• 1 Assassin’s Creed Black Flag themed sticker  (My son is a big Assassin’s Creed fan)

No worries because we’re going to take a detailed look at the products themselves a little later.

Shipping and Logistics:

Redbubble does things right when it comes to shipping and notification. We received 3 emails regarding our order: an initial order confirmation email and a shipping notification email for both of our shipments. Each email included tracking information so we were never left in the dark about the status of our order.

The order confirmation email contains links to VUIAYO (Very Useful Information About Your Order): information on things like changing your order, when you can expect to receive it and more.  Another noteworthy aspect of their notification email is it includes profile and social media links to the individual designers responsible for each design you purchase. Awesome!

There’s a very fun dose of humor and humility sprinkled into nearly  all of Redbubble’s communications. For instance, our notification email starts out like this:
Thank you for using Redbubble.
Your order has been received and is currently in production.

We’d like you to now take a moment. Stare up at the vastness of the multiverse and understand what a splendid thing you have done. Somewhere an independent artist is cheerfully dancing in the knowledge that someone likes what they do. It’s a wondrous thing. You should feel good right about now.

That beats an ordinary order confirmation email any day. The fun doesn’t stop there because the same email is signed, “Big love, Mr Baxter – Executive Sender of Emails and Chief Pencil Sharpener” Ha! Maybe I’m easily amused but little touches like this are nice.

Order Completion Time:
We placed our order on Friday January 17th, 2014 and the first part of our order (the Michonne inspired “Huntress” print) shipped out the same day. The remainder of our order was packaged and shipped out on Monday January 20th, 2014. We received our first shipment on January 21st and the remainder of our order arrived on January 25th. From start to finish our entire order arrived in 8 calendar days which included a weekend and Martin Luther King Jr. day. That’s pretty prompt when you consider only 5 of those 8 days were actual business days.

Packaging:
All of our items arrived in perfect condition thanks to the light but effective packaging. Our Michonne inspired Huntress print arrived in a plastic sleeve packed in a cardboard mailer with double cardboard carding inside. It arrived undamaged and with no folding or bending. The photos below are photos of our actual shipment. Click the images to open a larger view.

The stickers and t-shirt arrived packaged together in a durable plastic mailing envelope. The stickers were protected by a cardboard mailing envelope within the t-shirt envelope itself. We even scored a free Redbubble decal with our order!

Product Review:

The products we ordered and received were generally exactly as, or better than, we expected. Each product was made with high quality materials that left us feeling satisfied we got what we paid for. Let’s take a look at what we received.

Michonne Inspired Huntress Print:

One of our favorite designs on Redbubble is the Huntress design from Redbubble user Fuacka. We ordered up a Huntress print in an economical size and finish. We opted for a photographic print and since we were trying to get the most bang for our buck we chose a “small” 8 inch wide by 12 inch tall print in a lustre finish. This print ran us only $6.60 but the sky is pretty much the limit. You can order a metallic finish, a bigger size, a poster, a framed print, a canvas print, and more! We chose to be cheap and order this one economical solution so we could review a wider ranger of products, but I can’t help but think how amazing this print would be in one of the larger sizes.

The zombie print itself is done on professional quality photo paper like you’d expect to receive from a professional quality photo lab. The colors are vibrant and really pop off the paper more than I was able to capture here in these images.

I was so impressed with this print I just had to frame it. I ended up matting this to 8″ x 10″ and then framing it in an economical 11″ x 14″ frame I had left over from previous projects. You can do this economically yourself or spend a little more and let Redbubble handle things for you with high quality professional mounting and framing for an additional fee. Here’s what I ended up with after I matted and framed the print:

Zombie Hunter T-Shirt:

I had an extremely difficult time deciding on which of the endless zombie t-shirt designs would be my final choice. In the end I decided on the Zombie Hunter design by Redbubble user “ShantyShawn.” I ordered this design on a basic black t-shirt. We could have chosen from a variety of other colors or even opted for a long sleeve, hoodie, v-neck, organic, girly fit or other t-shirt design. You can even choose whether you want the design printed on the front or back of your shirt. Too cool!

I went with black because I like black t-shirts and also because I was curious to see how well a dark design came out on a black t-shirt. I think you’ll agree the results are amazing. Even with the darker design on a black t-shirt everything looks fantastic. The t-shirt is a 100% cotton t-shirt made in the USA by American Apparel. The design and shirt itself are high quality and worth every penny of the cost. Pricing for this shirt starts at $22.90 and varies based on the style and sizing you choose.

Check out some more photos of the zombie t-shirt and the very cool tag attached to it:

Stickers:

With the remaining funds on our gift certificate we chose to sample some of the stickers available at Redbubble.com. This was a great way to get some of the designs we wanted on a print or t-shirt but just couldn’t afford. Pricing on stickers varies widely but pricing around $2 to $4 seems most common. I was worried our sticker budget wouldn’t get us many stickers but then I realized if you order 6 or more stickers from Redbubble, all of the stickers in your shopping cart are 1/2 off. Let’s just say it was easy to go sticker crazy. Before checking out I decided I probably shouldn’t order 50 stickers on the company’s dime and I ended up choosing about 9 of my favorites. I went with:

• The Subway inspired Zombie Eat Flesh sticker designed by user Adho1982.
• A simple yet awesome Team Prison Walking Dead inspired sticker (Design by user WalkingMatt)
• A Watching Dead sticker (Design by user theduc)
• 3 Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies Mode inspired stickers (Jugger-Nog, Tombstone Soda, Doubletap Rootbeer) designed by user LocoRoboCo
• A ZOMBIE sticker featuring a design by user Mbecks114
• 2 Non zombie designs for my son who is a big fan of the Assassin’s Creed video game series:  A pokemon/Pikachu/Assassin’s Creed mashup from Redbubble user “InaBox” and an Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag inspired sticker featuring a design from Redbubble user kyranosauros.

Overall we loved the high quality decals we received. My only complaint is I received the stickers in strips of twos, meaning two stickers were attached together. You can see how they arrived in the photo above. I had to cut between pairs of decals to separate them.  This is probably safer for shipping anyway and was, at worst, a very minor inconvenience for me to cut them apart.

The stickers themselves are impressive. They’re printed on a very thick and high quality vinyl type material. When I attempted to tear some of the material it was very strong and actually stretched a little before it finally gave and tore. These are definitely not cheap paper stickers!

The size varies a little depending on the design you choose but around 3″ or 4″ at the longest dimension is generally what to expect.  Each sticker is die cut, meaning the outer shape is cut to compliment the shape of the  design. No boring square decals here! The die cut is complete and our stickers separatesdeasily from the surrounding material with no issues. The adhesive seems very sticky but I also get the impression you could carefully reposition or remove these if you needed to.

The colors are rich and vibrant and I was unable to scratch the color off the decals when I attempted to do so with my fingernail. I don’t think I’ll need to worry about the color rubbing or scratching off of these on a laptop or other heavy use item. These are definitely high quality zombie decals crafted with attention to detail. I don’t know  if these are intended for outdoor use, but judging by the quality I can just about guarantee they’ll take whatever you throw at them indoors. They might even survive the zombie apocalypse! The photos below show a detailed look at the stickers we ordered. Click any of the images to open a larger view in a new window.

So there you have it: an in depth look at the products we received. Overall I was thrilled with the quality of the zombie products I received from Redbubble and I can honestly say I now highly recommend ordering from them! Let’s wrap things up by taking a look at a breakdown of what I loved, what I didn’t like, and what our overall rating was.

What’s Great:

• Huge Selection of zombie products: If you’re into zombies you can spend hours browsing the Redbubble site. If you aren’t into zombies (why are you here again?) you’ll still spend hours browsing their site because they have a ton of amazing designs available on a pretty unbelievable assortment of products. Choose from posters, prints, stickers, t-shirts, hoodies, phone cases and much more! When ordering t-shirts you even get to choose your shirt color, t-shirt style and whether you want the design printed on the front or back. Talk about options!

• Designs available on a variety of products: Love 15 designs but can’t afford 15 t-shirts? No problem! Most designs are available for purchase on a more affordable option such as a sticker or print.

• Support Independent Artists:  I love the thought that my purchase makes some talented artist or creative person happy as well as earns them a little spending cash.

• Fast Order Completion: We ordered on a Friday and the first part of our order arrived the following Tuesday. That includes a weekend and a holiday on Monday. The rest of our order arrived on January 25th for a total order completion time of around 5 business days.

• Great Packaging: Everything arrived in great condition, which is something I always worry about when ordering stickers and prints.

• Amazing Communication: We received several emails from Redbubble so we never had to wonder about the status of our order. We could follow the shipment right to our doorstep thanks to the tracking information that was provided.

• Order 6 or more stickers and get 50% off all stickers in your order!

Meh. (What’s NOT So Great):

It’s not all roses, rainbows and hugs. With the good comes the bad and a fair review isn’t fair without pointing out any negative aspects we encountered.  I can honestly say there is VERY little to complain about with Redbubble.com. That being said, here are a couple minor points for us to gripe about.

• Cost: At first glance, some of the products are a little expensive at Redbubble. Before I ordered I found myself thinking $25.00 or $30+ for a t-shirt was expensive. However, when you consider the fact that you are purchasing a unique design  and supporting an independent artist or creator in the process it all makes sense. You aren’t buying mass produced garbage from a big box retailer reselling items they’ve purchased in bulk from a foreign sweat shop. You’re buying high quality products that are pretty much made to order.  You’re buying a unique design you might not find anywhere else created by an artist that has outsourced production of their beloved design to Redbubble and their qualified production team. There has to be enough meat on the bone so the artist, Redbubble and everyone else in the chain can cover costs and be rewarded for their hard work. In the end everybody wins and it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg.

• Shipping Costs: Some of the shipping costs on Redbubble are a little higher than you might expect, but again there’s a reason for it. Different products might come from different sources and parts of large orders ship at different times.  The total shipping cost for our order was just under $12.00. At first glance that seems like a lot to ship a t-shirt, a print and some stickers. However, our order shipped from two different locations in two different shipments. That  makes our shipping charges seem much more reasonable.

• Stickers In Strips of 2: We received stickers in strips of two and I was expecting individual decals.  We ::GASP:: had to cut the stickers apart if we wanted to separate them for some reason. (First world problems! …Cue the violin music here)

Final Verdict: 4.75 out of 5  (We likey!)

In the end we were blown away with our Redbubble.com shopping experience. There was next to nothing to complain about. The products were all high quality, the service was amazing and our order was completed quickly. The only complaints we could muster boiled down to the fact that I’m extremely cheap and nearly too lazy to lift scissors to cut apart decals. That’s as near perfect as it gets and that’s why we gave Redbubble a near perfect score of 4.75 out of 5.

The people at Redbubble know how to do things right from start to finish. Based on our experience we highly recommend ordering from them and they receive the ZombieGift.com seal of approval!

Disclaimer and Disclosure:

The FTC and our paranoid attorney wanted us to state the following:  We received a $50.00 gift certificate from Redbubble.com in exchange for a fair and unbiased review of our shopping experience on their site. No specific content requirements were made pertaining to our review.  The gift certificate did not bias our opinion in any way; it simply allowed us to purchase any item(s) we wanted to for purposes of sampling their products and service.  As a participant in the Redbubble affiliate program, we may receive compensation if you make any purchases from their site after visiting links on our site.

Review Update: 3/22/2018:

It’s been about 4 years since we originally posted this review. Some of the products shown in the review have been discontinued. As a result, we had some broken links here. We’re removed broken links and updated links as necessary. As far as quality goes we’re still pleased with the quality of the products. The T-shirt has held up as expected. The decals were all used indoors and have held up just fine.  The print is high quality with no signs of fading or other issues. Overall we’re very happy and still recommend the site as we did back in 2014.

The post Zombie Review: Zombie Products From Redbubble appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

Here at ZombieGift.com we truly believe everyone should have an assortment of affordable and effective knives, machetes, machetes and samurai swords on hand at all times. Just because you need to be prepared doesn’t mean you need to spend an arm and a leg. Nor does it mean you have to purchase cutlery that doesn’t look killer too! Our friends over at SwordShack.com have your back!

SwordShack.com has a ton of great knives, swords, machetes and more at amazing prices. You can find everything from simple folding knives and camouflage knives to tomahawks and swords! They even sell accessories.

We were pretty blown away with their awesome selection and their great prices. The good news is we can save you even more! Simply enter coupon code: sas5 at checkout to save 5% off your entire order! (Coupon code expires 11/7/2013.)

Head on over to SwordShack.com today to browse their great site!

UPDATE:   We first told you about Sword Shack back in 2013. Unfortunately it appears the website featured above no longer exists. Sorry folks. It looks like the zombies got this one! We’ll update the links here if we get any new information. In the meantime, browse some of the killer zombie weapons featured on our main site or check out the awesome selections below:

The post Awesome and Affordable Knives, Machetes and More at Sword Shack appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.

One of the things we really like about their Zombie Survival section is the way they have it broken down into two parts. There is an “On the Run” section as well as a “Make a Stand” section. Each different category is packed with useful information and products to help you survive a zombie apocalypse, whether you decide to flee or fortify a location and fight!

Of course the good folks over at Sportsman’s Warehouse know a zombie apocalypse isn’t very likely; they just know how to put a fun zombie spin on the topics of survival, disaster preparedness and self defense. Although these are serious topics, there is no reason we all can’t have a little fun when preparing for whatever actual disaster the world may throw at us. This new section of Sportsman’sWarehouse.com is just more proof that everything is better with zombies.  We love the new addition to the site guys and keep up the zombie themed fun!

For more information see the official Sportsmans Warehouse Zombie Press Release.

The post Sportsman’s Warehouse Website Launches Zombie Survival Section! appeared first on ZombieGift.com Zombie Blog.