The Mysterious Package Company: The Century Beast (Mailing Experience)
April Marie
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The very first time I saw a Facebook post for The Mysterious Package Company I was intrigued. The company name on its own was enough to catch my interest, and what they purported to deliver even more so. The Mysterious Package Company explained themselves as exactly that, a company that delivers mysterious packages. Well whatever could that mean? At the time, I honestly didn’t really care. I’m like just about everyone else on this beautiful planet Earth, I love surprises. I equally love getting packages. There’s just nothing like getting something in the mail knowing that the sender put a lot of time, effort, and love into crafting the package. The Mysterious Package Company really delivers on all three of those notes. They clearly put a lot of time and effort into their creations, and there’s just a little bit of love in there too.
Now what exactly am I reviewing here? The Mysterious Package Company sells “experiences.” These are a set number of mailings within a themed experience that you can ship to anyone you’d like, or you can order one for yourself. The company will let you know when each of your mailings have shipped but they will not tell you what to expect at your doorway. My first mailing came in a small envelope, but some of the others came in larger bubble mailers, and the pièce de résistance (the second to last mailing) was a large wooden crate contained within a shipping box. I’ll get back to this in a moment, because for now I would like to talk about the earlier mailings.
The experience that I was sent is called “The Century Beast.” The company describes it thusly, “With The Century Beast, we share the story of an ancient secret, a story of the ocean that has taken countless lives, a story told by Vikings and by pirates, by puckish children and oblivious tourists. None of those who tell this tale were left unscathed; all were lost to madness, to death, and worse.” If you’re getting an H.P. Lovecraft vibe, then you’ve hit the nail on the head. I don’t want to spoil the story contained within The Century Beast for those who might give it a try down the road either for themselves or a family member. However, I will tell you this, the madness and death part can be taken literally. There are many souls intertwined in the tale of the Beast, and you’ll learn their fates.
The actual Mysterious Package Company experiences are all different depending on which one you’ve ordered, so this review is for The Century Beast specifically. In my mailings I received letters, newspaper clippings, small artifacts, and other papers that all told an evolving story. I received them all at varying times over the course of about three months. At the least you know you are getting your money’s worth in these experiences for the sheer volume of time you get out of them. I kept thinking the last mailing was going to show up on my doorstep, only to find another in the mail a few weeks later. The fact that I knew how many mailings there were going to be meant almost nothing since I would forget which number I was on in the process of waiting for the next one. The variety of what was included in the envelopes and bubble mailers also kept things interesting. While much of the items were of the paper variety, they were also still variable enough that the experience held my interest.
The actual items contained within are deceivingly mass produced. What I mean by this is there are many personal touches on these things. Like tear marks to lend realism to pages supposedly torn from books. There are fold marks and dog ears on certain items. However, if you look closely at the letters you can see that the handwriting is in fact printed on rather than handwritten. This is to be expected for a company of any size, it would cost much more to have everything handwritten than would be worth it for the subscribers. To be fair to The Mysterious Package Company though, I had to look really close to be able to tell that it was printed rather than written. The realism still stands.
Without giving anything away (since the discovery is really the whole point of the experience) there are other items included that are a bit more interactive than just paper. One in particular required me to go to my computer.
The second to last mailing that I mentioned earlier is one of the biggest selling points for The Mysterious Package Company. They ship their showpieces packaged in a wooden crate that is nailed shut. I was fortunate enough to have a friend on hand that works out fairly often. He made quick work of the crate for me, but others might want to have a crowbar on hand. The item contained within is clearly created in small batches, and is detailed enough to look fantastic on anyone’s mantle piece. At the very least you will have a fantastic story to tell to go along with the item. It was also incredibly heavy, more than I ever expected, which lends more credibility to the promised handcrafted nature of the artifact.
The Century Beast from The Mysterious Package Company is probably best received as a surprise gift from an unknown friend or family member. I can only imagine what it would be like to have these parcels arrive at your home without knowing where they came from as each one included a letter that referred directly to you like the sender knows you. But even as a recipient who knew the packages would be arriving, I was still surprised. The name “The Mysterious Package Company” did not appear on any but the last mailing, so I wasn’t sure what the first package was until I opened it. It was only after the first few mailings that I began to recognize “Wong Trading International.”
All in all, if you’re looking for a very unique gift for a friend or relative and want to experience it from the outside looking in, The Mysterious Package Company is a great option. When the friend approaches you to talk about these strange things they’ve been getting in the mail, then you can enjoy it with them. Otherwise, if you just want to see what in the world they might send you, buying one for yourself can be equally fun. In either case, the artifact that is mailed near the end of the experience is worth it in and of itself. It’s high quality, feels expensive, and has a hell of a story to go with it. The Mysterious Package Company has been on my radar for a long while, and will continue to be into the distant future.
For more information check them out online at the official The Mysterious Package Company website.
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