It's difficult to come by someone who enjoys video games who isn't aware of The Binding of Isaac, let alone own it on one platform or another. For those fans who have played all the games, maybe own the boardgame spin-off The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls, and are still wanting more Isaac in their life today Edmund McMillen has announced the launch of The Unboxing of Isaac. McMillen was kind enough to sit down with us recently to talk about the t-shirt box, the inspiration for it, working with the artists, and what will be available in some of the boxes.
The Unboxing of Isaac is a monthly subscription box that will allow fans of the franchise to earn a series of monthly goodies that will include an exclusive t-shirt, cards for The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls, and other merch such as stickers. You can subscribe to this box right now at the Unboxing of Isaac website, the first month box will begin shipping by the end of the month. T-shirt sales were something that McMillen explained he was very interested in, but that it took a lot of forward planning in regards to the creation, as well as in targeting what kind of audience you're appealing to, he explained "there are a lot of different types of Isaac fans".
The most requested merch item during the Kickstarters was t-shirts, and although we did some, we really wanted to push it and make a series of bold and creative Isaac-themed merch that fans will love, You asked and we listened!
When describing how excited he was for the t-shirts that they could bring to fans through this subscription box McMillen did take some time to lament how awful some of the knock-off t-shirts he'd seen before were. He would meet fans who were excited to show their dedication to Isaac showing them a shirt they were wearing, but the designs just wouldn't look good.
There will be a total of 12 Unboxing of Isaac packages that will be shipped out once a month for the next year. You can purchase them as a single box ($35), purchasing a monthly subscription ($30/month), or by buying the year's worth of boxes ($350) which will also give you a bonus box only obtainable through the year purchase. McMillen wanted to add further flexibility with his t-shirt box, while each of the different shirt designs can be wildly different and very bold there's an option to alter the size with each month. If the technicolor explosion that is the June "Rainbow Blight" box isn't your style, but you know someone else who might like it you'll be able to get it for them with minimal issues.
The themes of the boxes were all set in advance, and then based on the theme the Four Souls cards were designed. Some of the Boxes are themed purely off the monsters they're named after, and other times they've been themed around the month that they fall in. McMillen confirmed there will definitely be something special for October and Halloween, and that there will of course be something for Mother's Day.
The first three month's themes have been revealed, but after that the themes will be hidden until the month that that box will be available so make sure you're paying attention when a new month rolls around:
- May: Dogma
- A black t-shirt with the Dogma v2 design illustrated by Orighost
- Three Four Souls cards: Christian Broadcast, Static, and Dogma v2
- Holographic sticker of the t-shirt design
- June: Rainbow Blight
- A colorful Rainbow Blight t-shirt designed by Ahoy
- Three Four Souls cards: 3 Dollar Bill, Griller Bombs, and My Little Unicorn
- A sticker sheet of artwork from the Four Souls cards
- July: The Horsemen
- A shirt displaying the Four Horsemen designed by Jimbo Phillips
- Three Four Souls cards: Cube fo Meat, Cube of Meat, and of course... Cube of Meat
- A sticker of the shirts artwork
TechRaptor would like to thank Edmund McMillen for taking the time to talk with us about the Unboxing of Isaac
