merch
Latest
The Daily Grind: MMMerch
You'd be hard pressed these days to find a popular item that hasn't had its brand expanded with a bunch of new products for consumers to snatch up. Games certainly follow this trend; for example, games that were originally planned as standalone works might suddenly spawn sequels if sales are higher than expected. Then there is merchandise. If you fall in love with a game's world or its characters, you might feel tempted to buy figurines, posters and the like to demonstrate your fandom. To see the kind of items that are out there, just look to Square Enix, one of the biggest providers of game merch (due to Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest in particular). That little slime is so darn cute.So, if you're an obsessive collector, now's your chance to brag about it. Do you have any MMO merchandise you're particularly proud of? Got a famous MMO mascot figurine on your desk keeping you company this very moment? How about non-MMO game merch? Or would you never, under any circumstance, pay for this stuff?
RockBand.com updated, custom merch now available
The Rock Band website has received a rather massive overhaul. Navigation has been streamlined, a catalog of every RB song has been added (each with a written description) and the long-awaited Merch Booth section has opened up, allowing you to take pictures of virtual band and purchase merchandise -- buttons, stickers, posters and shirts. Perhaps the coolest addition is the ability to order 6" figures of your Rock Band 2 characters. As of this writing, the servers are being hammered, so we've unfortunately been unable to even preview what The Blueberry Muffintops look like in miniature, plastic form. Let us know if you've had any luck and, please, feel free to show off your band photos in the comments below.
Halo 3 MacFarlane figures packaged, pretty, coming soon
Gird your loins, because the McFarlane Toys line of Halo 3 action figures is on its way. Still due to drop in March, the snazzy-looking collectibles have already gone through packaging design, and X3F has collected some photos of what to look out for on retail shelves.With war-torn backdrops, and minimalistic packaging (except for the bizarre "Cortana LIGHTS UP!" sticker), these designs were clearly made to show off the figures, and for good reason. We might just pick up a few Spartan soldiers for ourselves, to re-enact our favorite Halo 3 multiplayer moments.
Mario Kart + slot car racing = awesome
File this under "amazing gamer gift ideas." Sure, we haven't really touched slot car racers since we were ten, and all we can really recall is flying off the damn track every twenty seconds, but this still makes our hearts flutter. German slot car manufacturer Carrera has created a high-quality Mario Kart slot racing set, complete with star-laden track, and Mario and Wario racers in their own unique karts.The Mario Kart Go! set is officially licensed by Nintendo, and features about 20 feet of track (we're not slot car racers, so we don't know if that's good or bad). The set is apparently popular, because it's already sold out, with a new shipment due in this Tuesday, December 12th. We'd prefer to see Yoshi, Luigi, or even Bowser as Mario's slot car rival, rather than Wario, but who can complain? Mario Kart and slot car racing is truly a match made in heaven.
Bring your character home with FigurePrints
Sure, there are already licensed World of Warcraft figurines by way of DC. But those are just so generic, you know? Now, what if I told you you could get a figure that looks exactly like your in-game character, outfitted in any gear you own? That's exactly what FigurePrints, a new venture that is set to go live on December 11th, promises to do for you. They are apparently official -- check out the "Licensed Blizzard Product" badge in the bottom-right -- and I find the idea quite intriguing. From one perspective it's the next logical step in merchandising, but really, look at the future we're living in: create a character in an online fantasy game, and have a third party step in, take a model of the character, make a custom 3D print of it, and mail it to your doorstep. This type of stuff has been done before, yes, but the quality on the sample FigurePrints is quite impressive.Here's some information from the site's FAQ: The data is pulled from the Armory, which makes me wonder: how do they get your appearance right? The Armory, unless I'm mistaken, doesn't include things like hairstyle and the other various customization options. The actual statuettes are built using rapid prototyping (AKA 3D printing) using vertically-stacked slices of "plaster-like powder" and then hand-finished. The scale is 1:18, which means a male human comes out about 4 inches tall, not counting the base. And the price? $99.95, plus $14.95 shipping and handling. They warn that availability is limited, and that the best way to guarantee you get one is to make an account at their site, although I wasn't able to get past the "Open December 11th" banner to actually click on anything. So how about it? Will you be lining up to pay $100 plus shipping to bring your toon out of Azeroth?
Guild Wars merch now at Penny Arcade store
Do you like Guild Wars? Do you like merchandise? What would say if I told you could combine these two loves into one unique shopping experience? We're not really sure to what we can attribute this piece of news, but the word has gone out on the wire, and apparently there is now a selection of Guild Wars merchandise available at the Penny Arcade store. The selection is fairly limited, mind you, restricted to a handful of t-shirts and limited edition 13"x19" prints, but it's probably safe to say that they'll be expanding the line of merch they have available. That is, if they like money anyway.The real question this raises is whether this is a sign that things are a-changing over at the Penny Arcade store. After hiring people to make "real" business decisions for them a couple years ago, the PA duo have branched out from being merely a web comic monolith and have spread out to take the reins of the biggest gaming trade show since the E3 of yore and have grown the biggest gamer-based charity on the planet from the ground floor. Is the next step making their online store the one stop shop for MMO (or games in general) merch? Time (and maybe today's news post) will tell.
First women's suffrage and now this
As far as game merch goes, us girls usually get shafted. We get Princess Peach shirts and men get ... everything else. For the most part though, the merch here at GDC is pretty well divided. There are women's tees that match the men's, and they aren't even pink. But for the truly discriminating lady gamer, there's also this Game Developers Conference 2007 lime green mini tote.I don't know about the rest of the female public, but, for me personally, part of being a lady has never included needing a ridiculously tiny tote bag. In fact, years of experience as a girl has taught me that women's stuff is -- get this -- the same size as guys'. Now, if they sold tiny GDC notebooks, tiny GDC pens, and itsy bitsy little GDC laptops, then ... I take it back, that tote would still be mugly.
Countdown to Burning Crusade: Day 6 winner
"You not LOOK twenty one..."The people have spoken, and the winner of the day 6 horde caption contest is commenter 4, spencewah: "You not LOOK twenty one..." For his trouble, spencewah will take home an I survived Barrens chat tee-shirt. Grats to spencewah, thanks to all who participated (and those who voted!), and check after the jump for the complete poll results.
