Curiosity Box review – A fun subscription box for thinkers, geeks, and nerds

REVIEW – Subscription boxes for adults are typically not very exciting. There are fruit of the month, coffee of the month, etc. You get the idea. Okay, some adults might get excited by a coffee of the month subscription box, but Gadgeteers will be more excited about a box full of fun geeky things, and that’s what the Curiosity Box subscription offers. Let’s take a look.

What is it?

The Curiosity Box is a premium subscription service that sends science toys, experiments, and collectibles to curious adults four times per year. Developed by Vsauce, each limited-edition box contains a carefully curated selection of high-quality items.

What’s included?

Each box is different, but the one they sent to me included:

• T-shirt (goes with the knot theme)
• Why Knot book by Philippe Petit that shows how to tie a variety of knots
• Not sticker sheet
• Picture Pie
• Shadow Alphabet puzzle
• Martian soil (simulated)

When you first open the box, you’re presented with a card that has an overview of everything included in the box.

A small magazine is also included in the box which goes into more detail about each item in the box along with articles and detailed information about each item.

Martian Soil

The first item I pulled out of the Curiosity Box was the canister of Martian Soil. No, it’s not real soil from Mars. Wouldn’t that be awesome? It’s simulated Martian Soil created here on Earth.

The sample is included in a steel canister that has the “ingredients” listed on the outside.

There’s also a warning message that pretty much tells you not to touch it… Ummmm, ok…

Inside the canister is a plastic bottle that holds 50 grams of soil.

Due to the warning message that says not to handle the soil, I didn’t open the bottle. But the soil looks like fine reddish-brown dry powder. According to the Curiosity magazine:

The soil is used to precisely chemically and geologically replicate the regolith found on the surface of other worlds. MGS-1 simulant is based on the mineralogic profiles of Mars produced by the Curiosity rover, specifically from the sample material found in the Gale Crater.

Kinda cool, but since it’s not real, it’s just interesting… The magazine goes into a lot of detail about the soil and how you can try to grow a plant in it. I didn’t try this.

Picture Pie

Packaged inside a small pizza box inspired package is our second item, the Picture Pie.

Inside the box are four plastic disks, a cardboard disk, and a push pin. The directions tell you to choose a disk, a sheet of blank paper (not included), and sandwich the blank paper between the plastic stencil disk and the cardboard disk.

The included push pin secures everything in place. Just be careful how hard you push in the pin because it went all the way through the cardboard disk and stuck into my wood desk. 😳

You’re instructed to rotate the disk so that the “1” is at the top in the 12 o’clock position. You draw a mark to orient the disk and then fill in the “1” stencil line. Then you continue to rotate the disk for each number and fill in that line.

When you’re finished, you lift the disk to find your masterpiece. This time it was the Curiosity Box mascot.

This item reminded me of playing with a Spirograph as a kid, and I really enjoyed it.

Why Knot? book

Nex up a hardback book called Why Knot? by Philippe Petite. Also included is a sheet of knot stickers and the T-shirt with the knot graphic.

The front cover of the book has a coiled rope embedded in it. You have to cut through the protective plastic to remove the rope.

The book has 251 illustrated pages with step by step instructions on tying a wide variety of knots.

I would have absolutely loved this type of book when I was a kid.

The Curiosity magazine also contains a story about knot theory and mathematical knots.

Shadow Alphabet Puzzle

Now we’re up to a package of 67 refrigerator magnets. The magnet shapes are included in two sheets.

The idea is that you disassemble all the shapes and you can “build” the alphabet by placing them the right way. It’s harder than it looks, and for non-puzzle people, it can be annoyingly frustrating. I didn’t find this one to be very fun (for me).

Pricing

The Curiosity box arrives in your mailbox every three months and you are charged once a year for the subscription $220 (which works out to $55 per box for four boxes). That’s the default subscription plan. You can also subscribe using the quarterly plan which is $60 per box every three months. You can cancel either subscription at any time. However, all sales are final. That means if you already paid $220 for the yearly plan and decide it’s not for you and you want to cancel after receiving the first box, you will not get a refund for the balance of the year.

What I like about the Curiosity Box

• Surprise box of geeky items
• Potential fun items

What needs to be improved?

• It would be nice to get a heads-up on the theme of the box and have the option to skip it so you don’t end up with a bunch of items that you don’t really care about
• Seems expensive (unless you use the special 50% discount code below)

Final thoughts

My favorite items in the Curiosity box were the Picture Pie disk drawing kit and the T-shirt, which I think they may end up selling separately for $30 on their T-shirt page. I had fun going through the box, reading, and trying the various items. As a fun STEM educational kit, I am not sure that I agree that this box is for adults. I think it would be more fun for older kids and teens vs. adults.

Price: $220/yr for four boxes or $60 per box
Where to buy: Curiositybox (50% off discount of the first box (quarterly subscriptions), not of the annual subscription as a whole with code: gadgeteer )
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Curiositybox. Curiositybox did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.