I’ve already worked through a bunch of major block collections, and chosen which ones make the grade and which ones don’t. So I had seen the recommendations for Orbit Fox and thought I would give them a try. Except I already tried Otter’s collection by itself.

When I opened up the one called Orbit Fox, I got the exact same block options as Otter. They’re identical, and I’ve already reviewed them (Trying-out-otter-blocks-for-my-wordpress-site/). Well that was a waste of time.

But, while I’m here, I can check out the plugin’s other features I guess.

1. Social Sharing Module — This allows you to create sticky buttons on the left side of your screen for your content, making your share buttons always visible. Umm, how about no? It totally doesn’t integrate with your theme in any way, shape, or literally, form.
2. Gutenberg Blocks — Pass, as I said above.
3. Uptime Monitor — I already have that in Jetpack.
4. Analytics Integration — Integrate Google Analytics? Already have it, thanks.
5. Template Directory — This is one of the few options I see in the plugin worth considering. They have pre-designed templates for pages and, once imported, they operate as “all-in-one” landing pages with an interactive header, FAQs, etc. If you can fit it all in one page, this is a good option. Except, btw, you have to install Elementor for it to work. I didn’t see that ANYWHERE until I got to the preview page. Major pass not only on content but on marketing approach that basically advertises you can simply import them.
6. MyStock Import — The ability to directly import from mystock.photos…with a whopping 1200 or so photos. Umm, I have clipart collections with 10x that number, plus there are sites with free clipart and images with literally 1000s of images. Why would I want this?
7. Policy Notice — a simple notice bar to “inform users about your website policy”. Umm, which website policy? User policy? My policy on Covid distancing? Privacy policy? Yawn.

I jumped over one of their modules in there, mostly because my snark was on a roll and I didn’t want to kill the bad buzz. But they have an option called Menu Icons. A lot of the button blocks you see in the collections gave options to add icons to the buttons, right beside the text. This one lets you do the same thing, but to every item in your navigation menu. Your text remains, but beside Home, you could have an icon of a home button. It’s a nice feature and one I haven’t implemented well in other plugins without a lot of overhead. Nicely done.

Overall, I admit I’m beyond disappointed. The site that reviewed the plugin and collection said nothing about Elementor nor the repetition of Otter’s collection (the same company). So I was pretty jaded, pretty fast. But I’ll admit the menu icons option is decent, if I needed it. Which I don’t. Hard pass.