Grabby Quarterly Art Club Box Review: The Best Box Yet, But Is It Worth $69.99?

Introduction

Grabby has changed its subscription model. The art club box that used to arrive monthly now ships four times a year, and along with the slower cadence comes a higher price: $69.99 per quarterly box. That combination made this the most expensive Grabby box so far, and after previously being underwhelmed by one box and delighted by the next, this felt like the right moment to see where the new format lands.

The short version: this is the best box Grabby has produced, filled with its own branded art supplies and anchored by a genuinely charming nature-themed activity book. Whether that justifies the price is a more complicated question.

The New Quarterly Format

First, a practical note for anyone considering a subscription. Grabby now ships quarterly rather than monthly, so a new subscription may involve a wait of up to two months for the next box in the cycle. If you subscribe right after a box has gone out, you will wait the entire cycle. It is worth checking the cycle timing on the website before ordering so you know what to expect.

At $69.99, this is a significant spend, particularly in the current economy. The value question comes down almost entirely to how much you enjoy the activity book and how much you like Grabby’s own product line, because the box is now built almost entirely from Grabby-branded supplies.

What Comes in the Box

The theme this cycle is clearly summer and the outdoors, with a recurring “unplug and go outside” message printed on the packaging. Unboxing reveals a nicely curated spread:

• A full activity book with prompts and creative exercises
• A pre-printed canvas board with a paint-by-numbers design, plus a cardboard display backing
• A paint-by-numbers paper sheet
• A 36-pack of Grabby-branded colored pencils
• Two small detail paint brushes (sizes 0000 and 0)
• Grabby-branded washi tape
• A set of dual-tone dual-tip acrylic markers
• Travel-size paints
• A Grabby sticker
• A small zippered carrying case

One nice touch with the canvas board: it comes with a cardboard frame insert so that even if the painting goes wrong, it can still be displayed as intended. The carrying case, meanwhile, is surprisingly practical. It comfortably fits the markers, brushes, washi tape and paints, making it a genuine grab-and-go kit for outdoor sketching sessions.

The Activity Book Steals the Show

For many buyers, the activity book will be the real reason to subscribe. It is a well-made, full-sized book full of prompts and playful exercises with a heavy nature focus: find a leaf that matches an illustrated frog, go for a walk and collect interesting sticks to decorate, meditate outdoors and draw your thoughts, do a blind drawing of a scene without looking at the page.

What makes this valuable is that it gives every other item in the box a purpose. Instead of a pile of supplies with no direction, you get ideas for what to actually do with them. The book alone is the kind of thing that might cost $10 to $15 on its own, and it ties the whole theme together. It is the single strongest argument in favor of the box.

The Supplies: Hits and Misses

The standout is, once again, Grabby’s acrylic markers. The dual-tip format initially caused some confusion because each end looks identical, but the two ends are different colors, effectively doubling the palette. Across the set, that works out to roughly 72 colors. On a swatch sheet, the markers lay down bold, saturated, impressive color, and they perform beautifully on unconventional surfaces: they were used directly on a decorated twig during testing, and the coverage was excellent.

The 36 colored pencils are a more mixed story. They feel lightweight and cheap in the hand, though testing showed they are surprisingly pigmented and not at all like the worst budget brands, with just a hint of scratchiness. They are clearly better than they look, but they are the weakest item here and the only thing that would not fit in the carrying case.

The travel-size paints are the low point for anyone who dislikes small paint pots, since they tend to dry out quickly. That said, the paint itself seems likely to be decent quality, just in an inconvenient format.

Things to Consider Before Buying

The honest question is whether this box is worth $69.99. On pure contents, no: nothing here is jaw-dropping on its own, and the pencils and travel paints feel like filler. There is also a structural trade-off worth knowing about. Because Grabby fills the box with its own products, it controls quality and branding, but buying its own supplies in bulk also lowers the cost of curating each box compared with sourcing from multiple brands. Whether those savings get passed on fairly is debatable.

What tips the balance in the box’s favor is the activity book and the theme. The whole concept of taking the kit outside, following the prompts, and making art in nature is coherent and genuinely fun. During testing, prompts like the blind tree drawing and stick decorating turned an ordinary afternoon at a dog park into an entertaining creative session, even in the rain.

Who This Box Is Best For

This box suits hobby artists who want structure and inspiration rather than professional-grade materials: people who enjoy guided creative exercises, families looking for outdoor art activities, and fans of Grabby’s acrylic marker line who want to expand their collection at a reasonable per-item cost. Serious artists seeking premium supplies will find the contents modest for the price.

Buying Advice

If you subscribe, plan around the quarterly cycle and do not expect a box immediately after ordering. Go in for the book, the theme and the markers rather than the pencils and paints. If $69.99 four times a year feels steep, it is worth deciding upfront how much the activity book’s value means to you, because that is where most of the box’s worth lives. Compared with Grabby’s earlier boxes, this is a clear step up in curation and cohesion, even if the price has climbed accordingly.

Conclusion

Grabby’s quarterly art club box is the best version of this subscription so far. The own-brand marker line remains excellent, the carrying case is a practical bonus, and the nature-themed activity book gives the entire box direction and charm. The pencils feel cheap and the travel paints are an awkward format, and at $69.99 the box is not objectively cheap. But for hobbyists who want a ready-made creative outing rather than a pile of supplies, it delivers more value than the price tag first suggests.