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New Hobby Box Subscription Box Review + Coupon – July 2016

Anna Rodriguez
ByAnna RodriguezAug 11, 2016 | 15 comments

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New Hobby Box
4.4 overall rating
13 Ratings | 8 Reviews

New Hobby Box is a subscription that sends you everything you need to take up a new hobby every month! I love learning how to do new things, so I was really excited to try this!

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My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out our review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

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The Subscription Box: New Hobby Box

The Cost: $30 + $7.26 shipping = $37.26 per month with discounts for longer commitments

COUPON: Save 10% off your first box with ADDICTION (6-month subscriptions only)

The Products: Everything you need to try out a new hobby every month

Ships to: US

Good to Know: You can skip any month you're not interested in!

Check out all our New Hobby Box reviews and the Lifestyle Subscription Box Directory!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

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This month's hobby is lock picking! That's so unusual!

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One of the items they sent this month was this lock box. It's a pretty clever way of hiding things!

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They also sent this padlock. Notice that it's clear. You can see all the internal parts. That's important because you can see how the lock works on the inside, which is helpful in learning how to pick it.

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This is a set of lock picking tools that was included. They kind of feel a little cheap / flimsy to me. I think if I was working hard with this they would be easy to break.

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Here's a look inside the instruction booklet. To be honest, the directions printed here weren't very well written or easy to follow. Fortunately, New Hobby Box has instructions on their website. Those weren't the best instructions, either, but they were much better. They also provided links to videos on YouTube about lock picking.

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I didn't really have a "final product" picture to show you this month, so here's a picture of how I learned to insert two of the tools from my lock picking kit into a padlock to start picking it open. It takes some time and patience, and I'm sure with practice I will get better, but I did, in fact, learn to pick this padlock open repeatedly.

Verdict: I have subscribed to New Hobby Box for several months now, but I feel like the past couple of months have been pretty disappointing. I did learn to pick this padlock, and I have a set of tools to work with should I decide to pursue lock picking as a hobby in the future, so that's good. I think the instructions were pretty bad, though, and the tools seemed lacking in quality. I also found it kind of strange that there is no information either on the printed material or on the website concerning the lock box. I tried picking the lock, but was unsuccessful. It's a different kind of lock, though. Am I supposed to store my lock picking tools in it? It's a cool thing to have, but I don't really understand why it was included. This box was a bit of a miss for me this month, unfortunately.

Spoiler Alert: September's hobby is game night!

What do you think of New Hobby Box?

Starting at $29.99
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New hobby Box is a subscription box for men and women, 18 years and older, that sends you a new hobby every month. The hobbies are meant to expose you to new things and teach you lesser known skills.
Anna Rodriguez
Anna Rodriguez
Anna has been a fan of subscription boxes since joining Birchbox in 2013, but didn't become a true addict until discovering subscriptions she could share with her children. Her favorites include Kiwi Crate and Fab Kids.

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15 comments

Nicole

I needed a place to vent about how FRUSTRATED I am with this service. Seemed like a cool idea to me and I subscribed only to find out two days later I had to drop a wad of cash on my car. When I cancelled, I experienced the worst customer service in my life and wasted countless hours trying to make send of the information that they were giving me.

Not worth it. Stay away!!!!

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Johnna

I’m holding out for the safe-cracking box.

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Amber P

I normally slam this box because I just don’t think they do a good job of providing any value, but I was really anxious to see this lock pick box and you know, I think it’s pretty cool. I think they provided a good mix of stuff and I think the lock box is a pretty good valued item itself.

Very cool!

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tpop

I seem to recall reading that possession of lock picks are illegal in some places. But I think it was in a detective novel, so it might not be true.

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tpop

Upon quick research it seems the addition of “intent to commit a crime” is necessary to be arrested in most states. So keep your nose clean. We like you around here!

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chris

This is awesome! I think you have an interesting new icebreaker for parties now.

Partygoer: Nice to meet you, Anna! So what do you like to do for fun?

Anna: Nice to meet you! I recently started lock-picking, before that I was mostly into wood burning. So lock-picking and wood burning. You?

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Anna

Lol! That’s too funny chris! I do love trying new things.

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chris

I love all the creative hobbies in this box! They do a really nice job with that.

BONNY ADAMS

Lol, I kind of like the items in the box. I love the lock box. I’m a nurse ( I know this sounds odd) and I work with patients in their homes. I have went to many homes where the meds are LOCKED in a lock box. I can’t tell you how many times over the past 10 years I have had to call somebody to come break off the locks off of lock boxes that contain life saving medications. Locks were faulty, incorrect codes, or sometimes a new patient that had a nurse agency that never showed back up, causing a patient to miss days worth of medications.
I kind of want these items. Lol…strange.

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Anna

That sounds like an awesome reason to get lock picking tools, Bonny! Go over to howto.newhobbybox.com and see the tutorial and links to other tutorials and see if any apply to the types of locks you’ve come across. Hope this helps!

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Donna

Anna, that was a great review! You seemed as confused as I am as to why anyone would want to take up lock picking as a hobby. lol. I can’t imagine how that knowledge would come in handy unless you locked yourself out of your house or car or maybe…..never mind. lol

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Anna

Thanks Donna! Oh I’m sure it will come in handy at some point. I don’t lock my car or house with a padlock, though, so I would need to do more research to get more into it, I think. Also, the one time I got locked out of my house was when my older son was a toddler and I stepped outside to get the mail and he locked me out! I didn’t even have on shoes much less a lock picking set! Lol! Fortunately I lived next to some teenagers so they sprang it for me. 😀

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Ragan

That sounds better than the time one of my brothers and I got locked out of the house when we went to get food and no one was home (we left through the garage and we didn’t remember to take keys). He had to climb onto the roof from a rickety back porch railing, go all the way over/across the roof, and force his way into a second story window….my mom would’ve been so mad if she’d ever found out. Also we had the *brilliant* idea to take a (cage free) pet hamster with us, so I got to watch the hamster during the roof-climbing. I don’t know what we were thinking.

Sarah

Neat. Anna, do you feel like you could pick the same padlock open now without looking at its “guts”? Like, can you cover it up and pretend its a real lock and be adept enough with your new skills to pick it? Or do you need to see what you are doing to pick it? I’m just curious how steep the learning curve. Thanks!

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Anna

Hi Sarah! Yes, I think I could pick this padlock blindfolded now, lol! The first time took about 20 minutes, now it takes about 5. I haven’t tried other similar padlocks, but I am confident I could do it. You basically use the L shaped tension wrench to constantly apply torsion, and then you jam the other tool in and jig it around until it springs open, in a nutshell. Don’t know about other kinds of locks though. Does that help at all? 🙂

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