Crate Club General Box Fall 2022: What's Inside and Whether It's Worth It

Introduction

Crate Club changed its structure recently. The General tier used to ship quarterly alongside lower tiers, but now the General Box is the only quarterly option, with the lieutenant, captain, and major tiers moving to monthly shipments. The Fall 2022 General Box arrived as a large crate with six items, a cheat sheet, and a combined retail value that, added up, comes to about $623.93 against a quarterly subscription price of $399.99. That is a strong paper value, but paper value only matters if the items are actually useful. Here is what showed up and how each piece held up.

What Came in the Box

The crate included six items: the Tactica M.020 camping card multi-tool, a Cyclops 10-watt LED spotlight, the M3 Tactical Force Recon fixed blade, a Wildview Stealth Cam Relay cellular trail camera, the Pale Blue Home Conversion Kit of rechargeable batteries, and a pair of Ridgeline Gear Hitch Rack dry bags. The General Box itself is large enough that it does not fit comfortably in frame, which is consistent with past General shipments.

The Highlight: M3 Tactical Force Recon

The standout blade of the box is the M3 Tactical Force Recon. It is a full tang fixed blade with a CPM D2 blade, black removable G10 handle scales, an overall length of 7.875 inches, and a blade length of 3.375 inches. The design is genuinely striking: a beautifully executed ring in the pommel and aggressive jimping along the spine give it a look and in-hand feel that impressed immediately. It ships with a click-in sheath, and it arrives coated in protective oil that needs wiping down before use. Retail is $189.99, and as a first impression of the brand, it is a strong one.

The Best Item: Pale Blue Home Conversion Kit

The Pale Blue Home Conversion Kit may be the best single item to come out of a General Box in a long time. It includes eight AAA, twelve AA, four 9V, and four D rechargeable lithium batteries, all with micro USB charging ports and built-in LED charging indicators. Onboard smart technology handles safe charging. The D cells are particularly notable since rechargeable D batteries are genuinely rare. The kit ships with three multi-charging cables: two that split from one USB-A plug into four batteries and one that splits into two. Retail is listed at $250, around $200 on sale, and the batteries come in their own storage cases. If you own flashlights that already use Pale Blue cells, this kit slots right in.

The Rest of the Crate

The Cyclops 10-watt LED spotlight is a rechargeable work light with 850 lumens on high (one hour burn time), 280 lumens on low (three hours), a swivel stand, dual switch, and both AC and car charging adapters. It is powered by a sealed 4-volt lead acid battery, which is a downside since the battery cannot be removed or replaced. The housing feels plasticky and a bit cheap, so it is best treated as a garage emergency light rather than a daily driver.

The Wildview Stealth Cam Relay is a cellular trail camera with 16, 8, or 4 megapixel modes, four power infrared emitters, a 0.4 second trigger speed, rapid fire burst mode, and time, date, and moon phase stamping. It supports SD cards up to 32GB and runs on eight AA batteries, which are not included. A screw-on antenna, tree strap, and 12V DC auxiliary power port round it out, and setup runs through the Stealth Cam Command Pro app.

The Tactica M.020 camping card multi-tool crams a surprising list into a card format: a sundial, bottle opener, ferro rod fire starter with striker, rope cutter, metric and inch rulers, flat screwdriver, can opener, pry bar, tent peg puller, and rope tensioner. Non-conventional card tools are rarely great at any single task, and the screwdriver is a case in point, but the integrated ferro rod is the genuinely useful part here.

Ridgeline Gear Hitch Rack Dry Bags

The final item is a pair of Ridgeline Gear Hitch Rack dry bags. Unlike rigid rectangular hitch bags, these use a roll-down top that adjusts the bag to the size of your load and creates a waterproof seal when you secure the quick-release buckle. Each offers 17 cubic feet of capacity, heavy-duty straps hold everything in place, and each bag folds down into a small stuff sack that stores behind or beneath vehicle seats. They are self-explanatory, always appreciated, and hard to complain about.

Value and Verdict

Added up, the Fall 2022 General Box carries roughly $623.93 in retail value against the $399.99 quarterly price, with the Pale Blue kit and the M3 Force Recon alone covering most of the cost. The Pale Blue battery kit and the knife are the clear keepers. The dry bags and trail camera are solid, the camping card tool is a fun curiosity with one genuinely useful feature, and the Cyclops spotlight is the weakest item due to its sealed battery and plasticky build. On balance, this is a very decent crate, and the two headliners make the math easy.

Conclusion

The Fall 2022 Crate Club General Box rewards subscribers most through its two big-ticket items: a genuinely impressive M3 Tactical fixed blade and an unusually complete rechargeable battery kit. If you want a subscription box where the value is concentrated in a couple of substantial, useful products rather than spread thin, this crate makes a good case for itself.