Review: The Walking Dead Survival Kit

Are you and your family prepared for an emergency situation? If an earthquake strikes and takes out power, do you have what you’ll need to ride it out until emergency services can get to you? What if the government is overthrown and you’re forced to go on the run? Do you think that you could survive these events with what you currently have in your house? Well, The Walking Dead and First My Family want to help in making the answer to all of these questions “yes”.

First My Family, LLC has produced a The Walking Dead survival kit. Unfortunately, outside of the logo on the front, the survival kit really won’t help much with a zombie apocalypse. It will, however, do an adequate job of keeping you and another person alive for 72 hours. Plus, after you’ve used the contents you’ve got a cool bag that all of your friends (or whoever survived the disaster) will be jealous of.

I had the good fortune of getting my hands on one of these survival kits. A family member decided to surprise my mother with a gift and one day, in the mail, we received a little pre-order card for The Walking Dead Survival Kit. Once ordering was opened, all we had to do was input the pre-paid code on the card and pay a $15 shipping fee. A couple weeks later the survival kit arrived and was ready to be stored for use.

According to the First My Family site, this kit contains:

• Exclusive AMC The Walking Dead – We’re Survivors Patch to the first 10,000 orders
• Kit contains enough emergency supplies to assist two people to survive for 72 hours
• Kit Contents Include:
• High end military style messenger bag with brass fittings and custom The Walking Dead Logo
• 2 – Datrex 2400 Calorie Emergency Food Ration. Stays fresh for up to 5 years
• 12 – Datrex 4.22 oz packs of Emergency Water. Stays fresh for up to 5 years
• 1 – Premium Lifeline First Aid kit, 85 Pieces
• 1 – Lifegear Glow LED Flashlight. Lasts up to 400 hours
• 2 – Emergency Mylar Space Blankets
• 2 – Emergency Ponchos for Severe Weather
• 1 – Leather Palm Work Gloves for moving debris
• 1 – Waterproof match booklet (where permitted)
• 4 – Procedural Face Masks

Total price for this kit? $129.99.

So I opened this baby up and started tallying up the loot inside. At first I was confused because all I saw in the main pouch were gloves, a first aid kid, some rations, and a flashlight. That’s definitely not what I paid for, right? Well, the trick to this bag is this: POCKETS. There are a ton of pockets on this thing and most of them are filled with something. For a total pocket count there is:

• One large main pocket
• Two zip-up front pouches
• Two side pockets that don’t zip
• One ‘hidden’ zip-up pouch inside of the main bag

The bag is definitely solid quality. It feels like it is almost military grade. Tough fabric and a study strap makes it feel like something I really could sling over my shoulder and carry for miles if I needed to. After all, durability is the key in a disaster situation. I don’t want my bag ripping open as I’m trying to escape from zombie hordes.

So first, I took out all of the non-ration supplies. Since this kit is made for two people, there are at least two of each item. There are two ponchos, two survival blankets, two hand warmers, FOUR face masks (as if those will help keep an airborne zombie virus at bay, please), and two glow sticks in case you feel the need to have a rave somewhere along the way. You’ll have to fight your disaster partner for use of the flashlight and the heavy duty working gloves though (or you could leave them to die and have twice as much stuff for yourself; your choice).

There is also an 85 piece first aid kit and a pack of matches. I didn’t want to crack the first aid kit open, but it seems sufficient for small injuries. Be sure not to lose a leg or something, though, because I don’t think it would be much help in that situation.

Supplies-wise, I’d give this survival kit a 7/10 rating. I personally would have liked to have seen some shelter building materials in the event I’m stuck in the woods. A coil of light rope, or even some twine would be great. The addition of water purifying tablets would also have been nice because even though they provide water pouches (mentioned below) it would be nice to have the option to tap into natural water sources and leave the pouches for real emergencies. Over-all, though, I imagine it will do as it says and last someone 72 hours or at least get them to safety.

Rations-wise, the kit is pretty boring. There’s 12 pouches of drinking water (so six each if you’re a party of two, or 12 just for you if you’re cool leaving your disaster partner for dead). Obviously they didn’t want to put too much water in the pack because water is heavy, and these definitely add a certain heft to the bag. There are also two blocks of what I’m going to assume are rationed energy bars. I doubt they’re anything like Elvish Lembas Bread but I imagine they’d do the trick in a pinch.

So for this part of the survival kit, I’d give them an 9/10 rating. They’ve given the basics and what they’ve included will do a decent job at keeping people alive in the short run. I, however, would personally add in a few more rations and would also like to refer back to the water purification tablets I mentioned earlier in the post that would make the water pouches unnecessary as long as there was a body of water nearby.

Final Verdict: Not bad. Cool bag filled with stuff that will probably help you in most emergency situations. You can keep it in your house, in your car, or in the underground bunker you have in your backyard. Over-all the bag gets an 8.5/10 rating from me in terms of survival. I truly believe it will do what it says: Keep two people going for 72 hours. However, there is definitely room for cheap improvements. Items like water purification tablets, a knife, needles (which could be fashioned into fishing hooks if need-be), twine or rope, and a bit more food would definitely help make this pack the ultimate survival pack.

Will it help you survive a zombie apocalypse? Probably not. But at least you’ll look hella-stylish as you’re fleeing from the undead.

This item is currently out of stock, but costs $129.99 + shipping & handling and can be found on the First My Family website