Well, this one was an odd duck: it seems to be the product of Chinese manufacturing that pre-loads seemingly random selections of survival gear items into a fairly sturdy water-resistant plastic storage box, with several different varieties available branded with assorted names using more or less the same pool of items and a selection of the same boxes. What you get for the price of admission in this kit is a reflection of that: an assortment of mostly mediocre made-in-China items for padding, a few genuine stinkers that are barely worth the price of shipping, and a couple of items that look and feel surprisingly serious by comparison to the rest. In the case of this "Antarctica" kit:
The Good: The "tactical" flashlight, "tactical pen" (glass-breaker with aluminum body and write-anywhere pen), "tactical folding knife", and multi-tool. You can find much better-quality items from brand names like Maglite, Gerber tools, and so on, but this sort of kit would be many times more expensive! For beginner-quality items to tide you over an overnight roadside emergency, these items seem to be fine for what they are, and the knives seem just about sturdy enough to do their job, with care. The box is surprisingly nice for what it is, and a definite keeper as well. (I kept these core items in my modified version of this glovebox kit.)
The Bad: The wire saw and survival card are infamously goofy padding for these sorts of cheap survival kits, the keyring-storage-container seems to be a cheap plastic "tactical pill bottle" thing with sturdier aluminium alternatives available to upgrade it. The paracord bracelet (with whistle, fire-starter, and compass) is just about as goofy, given that the built-in whistle and ferro-rod are almost useless and the button compass doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, but the paracord, at least, could come in handy for the usual paracord purposes (cordage, tinder, fishing line and thread, etc.) The "tactical" tourniquet is probably dangerous, while the band-aids are kind of a hilarious way to round out the first-aid options for this kit: you go from band-aids to tourniquet instantly, with nothing really in between, and would be better off in every way with any standard budget roadside first-aid kit! The flimsy mylar blanket is pretty much standard-issue for cheap survival kits and better than nothing as a "shelter" component for such kits, but the wool blanket I keep separately in the car is an instant upgrade for me, and anyway I've already got a half-dozen or so of the mylar blankets stashed around in first-aid kits and so on between my car, home, and "bug-out" backpack. (I'll toss the tourniquet into my first-aid kit as a just-in-case sort of thing for any injury too bad for bandages, but hope I never have to use it; most of rest of these items will be chucked into my box of unused survival junk, to be offloaded in a garage sale one day.)
The Ugly: For the mediocre filler, it's hard to go very far wrong with a generic stand-alone ferro-rod and striker, the "tactical spork" with built-in whistle is hilarious and out of place in any survival kit but could probably get its job done in a camper's backpack mess kit, the carabiner compass is surprisingly better-than-average compared to the usual cheap button compass that bargain-basement Chinese survival kits usually come with, the stand-alone metal whistle seems to be workman-like but reliable and a little more impressive than the usual plastic whistles in low-budget kits, the little keychain screwdrivers seem to be fine for what they are, the other small items like the jute tinder, cordage, key-ring loops, and minimalist fishing kit are barely noticeable but hard to goof up. (Most of these items got moved out of my kit into my actual survival kit, first-aid kits, or my office desk tool kit in the case of the key-ring screwdrivers, as I intend to use the "Antarctica" kit itself as a glovebox automotive roadside survival kit to supplement a more complete trunk toolkit.)
Over all, this kit includes some items that seem nicer than usual for Chinese off-the-shelf survival kits, but the kit itself seems to have been built in a fever dream without any real planning… that spork in particular is a weird item to shoehorn into a kit of this size and composition, but other design decisions – like the "first-aid" options being limited to a choice between a tourniquet and a band-aid, along with a mylar blanket and plastic "tactical pill-bottle" key-ring fob – are pretty darned weird, too. There's a lot of strange redundancy in a kit like this: one couldn't really complain about having one whistle, ferro-rod, and compass in a kit like this, but two of each seems a bit much, especially since some of those backup options are pretty wimpy and might as well have not been there at all. Over all, there's a lot of goofy junk to ditch from the kit to build something a little more focused out of it…
To that end, the plastic box, weight of most of the better components, and the inclusion of a windsheild-breaker point on the "tactical pen" suggested to me a roadside emergency kit, so I stripped the kit down as described above to the box, pen, flashlight, multi-tool, and folding knife, then added from other sources a ratchet-and-socket combo, weatherproof pocket notebook, and lighter.) A proper toolkit, scissor jack, jumper cables, and air pump in the car's trunk, under-the-seat first-aid kit, and wool blanket in the back seat would be my go-to for any serious roadside repair work and other emergencies, but for a self-contained grab-it-and-go glove-box "emergency" tool kit, this stripped-down customized "Antarctica" kit seems fine, covering the barest minimum of "survival" items to get me through a typical overnight roadside problem – flashlight, knife, basic mechanical repair tools (pliers, wire cutters, screwdrivers, and the like as included between the multi-tool and small ratchet/socket set), and a weatherproof notepad and write-anywhere pen to write notes, directions, insurance info and contact numbers etc. into. The "Antarctica" kit items I saved were mostly worth the price of admission for this purpose!
As noted, above, most of the other mediocre items were IMHO better-suited for my survival/camping/hiking/bug-out bag as camping gear, or in some of the goofier, chintzier cases will be disposed of in a garage-sale novelty "survival gear" grab-bag….
In the end, it averages out to a 3/5 stars for me: the best items in the kit are better than expected for this sort of thing, and unusual enough on their own that they are almost worth the price by themselves, but the rest of the kit is a strange dog's-breakfast of mediocre and ineffective survival gear almost haphazardly bundled together into a strange little package. The plastic box and better items are not a bad basis for rebuilding the kit into something that makes a little more sense, though, for the price!
There are no reviews yet.