There are a LOT of box subscription services. There are so many that (according to Wikipedia) critics of subscription boxes have attempted to study their impact on the environment. But, those people suck and don’t like seeing other people happy as far as we can tell. The Whiskey & Waffles team, on the other hand, are huge supporters of subscription boxes. And the latest they got a hold of is the Stan Lee Box.

Powered by Stan Lee’s Pow Entertainment, JC got to check out one of the coveted first boxes of the new subscription service. Coming in at $49.99 for a single box (or $44.99 per box for a year long bi-monthly subscription), the Stan Lee box is on the upper tier when it comes to box cost. It is actually about $5 more per box than Loot Crate DX if you go off the standard plan so this means expectations are pretty high.

The MCU has a lot of mysteries in it. Some have been revealed and become major plot points for the whole universe, like the ultimate fate of Tony Stark’s parents. Others have been hinted at and probably won’t get full explanations. Two of these minor mysteries have become questions for the fan community and revolve around the non-powered Avengers, the Black Widow and Hawkeye. 

The first is “What happened in Budapest?” Stemming from a seemingly throwaway line, this question has made the Avengers community speculate as to whether this was a battle the two took part in during their S.H.I.E.L.D. days or if it was something more personal.

The other question is how the two met. In The Avengers, Black Widow recalls, “I got on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call.” And that was it. Needless to say, it leaves a lot to the imagination as to what could make a top agent like Hawkeye defy orders from the top brass.

Going to Comic-Con in San Diego is a commitment. It’s not just the travel, the hotels, the Lyfts and Ubers, the food, and the drinks (…oh so many drinks), it’s much more. The floor of SDCC is the ultimate test of maintaining your composure and measuring your self-restraint.

And many, if not all of us, fail. New vinyl collectibles, classic non-sports trading cards, prints, sketches, autographed memorabilia, comics, nostalgia filled unpackaged toys, trades, meet & greets are just the start of the ways that your wallet can bottom out within just a few hours if you aren’t careful.

I, like many, try to go down with a plan on what I will be purchasing. As a Comic-Con veteran of nine SDCC’s (eight of them being consecutive), what I look for in advance is the list of the exclusives. This gives a good baseline for what will most likely be purchased.

This is the first of three (possibly four) recap videos from San Diego Comic-Con International 2016 from my trip this year. As it is my eighth year going as a part of The Flickcast, it has been an honor covering the convention in a variety of ways such as photo galleries, interviews, visual tours and unboxings. This year will be no different. Later this week, our Comic Con shopping haul video will release followed by our Field Trip video where we take you down to the Con floor and even some of the VIP parties.

Our first video kicks off with the Loot Crate Gallery of Heroes Convention Exclusive Crate. Founders of the monthly geek in a box phenomenon, Loot Crate has maintained the top spot in the subscription box community.

In just a few hours, almost 200,000 people will meet in San Diego, CA at the annual gathering of all things geek and pop culture. The Flickcast has gone every year since the site began in 2009 (with many of us having attended before that). To help jog our memories and get things started, WallE and I kicked things off at Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles last week and talked about some of our favorite convention moments.

With the first story happening to Joe back in 1989 and featuring Stan Lee to WallE’s Hall H line nightmare to my encounter with Raptor Jesus (Yes, that’s a thing, watch the video), this trip down memory lane got everyone ready to experience the “grand daddy of them all” again.

What characters were rip-offs of others? Are comics and pro wrestling actually tied together? Is the story from the comic better than the story in the movie? Just what the heck was happening in comics in the 90’s?

These are some questions any reasonable human being who contributes a portion of their weekly salary to the funny books may ask. The Flickcast alumni Jonathan ‘Wally’ Weilbaecher and I join forces with Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles to answer these and more.

With regulars Joe Slepski of The Joe on Joe podcast, Pablo Romero-Estevez and Alan ‘Sizzler’ Kistler of Crazy Sexy Geeks and some guests like Lucha Underground’s Joey Ryan and The Flickcast co-founder Matt Raub, we haven’t come to many conclusions but we have had a ton of fun arguing our way there.

Con Season 2016 has begun! With everything from PAX East this upcoming weekend all the way to Comikaze in October, the best half of the year is underway. In an effort to best cover these, The Flickcast has made sure I have appropriate credentials to get on the floor (or at the least, a map of where all the best bars and parties are) at each convention.

First, I headed to WonderCon as a part of The Flickcast team and Whiskey & Waffles. At the event, I had four very important ‘jobs’:

1. Speak on the SKYBOUND panel about digital video creators

2. Take the Mighty Wallet Challenge

3. Snag one of Loot Crate’s 2016 Convention Exclusive Crates

4. Cosplay as Hawkeye

The recent Jem & The Holograms feature film is not what anyone would call successful. With an estimated $5,000,000 budget and a worldwide gross of only $3,000,000 it could be argued that the team behind the film really missed the point. That’s exactly what the all girl YouTube group known as CreatureTubes felt when they released a Jem Reacts video with the original cast reacting to the new feature film.

After a positive response to their video (and likely more viewers than the movie garnered, the group decided to take a step in a positive direction and instead of looking at what didn’t work and focus on creating what they feel should have been the Jem film. But since no studio is going to touch that property for a good decade, the girls are turning towards Kickstarter to make it happen.

Comic-Con comes and goes but the memories never leave… because we take video… and add music to it… and post it to YouTube. This was the 7th year The Flickcast has been at SDCC, and though the whole crew couldn’t make it down this time, those of us who did made sure to fully represent. As always, way more happened than we could fully capture on camera but we did our best to catch as much of it as possible as we could.

Some of the highlights for this year:

The Con Season has officially begun! E3 is already in the bag and this past weekend JC ventured to the halls of Anime Expo all by himself. Not being the biggest anime fan, outside of Attack on Titan or Neon Genesis: Evangelion, JC doesn’t know much about what lies within the walls of AX 2015.

Luckily for JC, he isn’t alone as he found his friends from Mega64 to help him on his journey. Rocco, a man of few words, lets pictures explain his feelings of the event and Garrett explains the majesty of fur suiters. In addition, Spry Cooper of OGeeku shows up too but adds even more confusion.