Posts with tag merchandise

WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold?

With only five shopping days left until the Feast of Winter Veil, it is officially holiday crunch time. To inspire you in your shopping goals or maybe point out the perfect gift for that special raider in your life, WoW Archivist presents the zaniest WoW-themed real-world merchandise of all time.

Strange swag

Every BlizzCon has its swag bag, but 2008's edition, celebrating the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, has to be the zaniest ever. In addition to Diablo III "sinamints," a can of "zerg creep" goop, and a pandaren beer cozy, the bag included an inflatable Frostmourne or an inflatable "Bubble Hearth Beach Ball." The latter is a Divinely Shielded dwarf using an uninterruptable hearthstone -- in beach ball form.

The bag also included a package of tissues labeled "QQ noob," masks of Azeroth's races (reminiscent of the Hallow's End in-game versions), and a Frostmourne keychain. The keychain is notable for its several outward-facing spikes. It takes falling on your keys to a whole new level of pain. The full-size Frostmourne replica is more dangerous, but you're also not carrying it around in your pocket mere centimeters from your genitals.

Or are you?

BlizzCon's merchandise preview sale has been going on for BlizzCon ticket holders for the past week, with lots of fun items. Mysteriously, the official BlizzCon T-shirts have absent artwork, signaling big announcements at the main keynote for the event. Virtual ticket holders will be granted access to the BlizzCon merchandise preview sale Friday, Sept. 23, at 10 a.m. Pacific. All you have to do is log into the Battle.net account that you purchased your virtual ticket under, hit the Blizzard store, and you have early access to all of the BlizzCon official merchandise for the 2011 convention.

Probably the biggest surprise is the lack of T-shirt artwork for the official BlizzCon T-shirt, signaling a big, secret announcement that is important enough to revolve the entire convention around. New WoW expansion? Most likely. Cool new artwork to add to a shirt? That's a pretty big deal. Virtual ticket holders will want to get in on the sale quickly, as many items sell out quickly. The store will see you virtual ticket holders tomorrow.

Check out our gallery of some of the items available this year at the preview sale.

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Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

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Just like last year, Blizzard has made certain BlizzCon-exclusive items available for preorder by BlizzCon 2011 ticketholders. There are almost 100 pieces of merchandise available this year, from designer toys to poker sets to calendars to Starcraft 2 Mega Bloks sets, and they're ready to be viewed (and purchased) right this very moment! Check out the presale on the Blizzard Store, but keep in mind that you won't be able to see the new merchandise unless you're logged into a Battle.net account with a BlizzCon ticket (or virtual ticket) attached to it.

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After last year's BlizzCon merchandise presale delays, Blizzard is doing pre-sales early this year. The merchandise pre-sale will go live on Sept. 16 for BlizzCon ticket holders and Sept. 23 for digital ticket purchasers. If you'd like to avoid delays like last year and have your stuff available for the con, it is advisable to order early.

We will have a gallery of the pre-sale merchandise available as soon as the store opens up for business.

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Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

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After a little bit of a snafu earlier this weekend, Blizzard has finally opened up the BlizzCon 2010 48-hour sale for ticket holders. Getting in early is advised, as some items, like the sheet music to Lament of the Highborne, are already sold out. We've included a gallery of the official, exclusive merchandise from the site for those of you without tickets. Get your BlizzCon ticket-holding friends on the phone now, because this stuff is going fast.

It's time for me to put my money where my mouth is. A while back, I tweeted that if they released official prints of the Gnomeregan propaganda poster, I'd buy one. I'd like to thank Blizzard, because they are now offering a large selection of original posters through Printwarcraft.com. Selections include the Gnomeregan and Echo Isles propaganda posters, as well as artwork from many past major patches and in-game events, even as far back as the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj and the Shadow of the Necropolis.

Most of the art is actually familiar, having appeared on various websites and art books long ago, but it's still pretty awesome stuff, and more than worth hanging on a wall. If your home or office has some bare walls, this might be a good excuse to fill them. You can check at the selection at PrintWarcraft.com.

Following on the heels of J!NX's new winter line of WoW merchandise, Hot Topic has released a new line of Blizzard-themed apparel just in time for the holidays.

Included among the many newcomers to the line are "spray-painted" Alliance and Horde logo shirts, faction insignia wallets, Starcraft II and Diablo III shirts, hoodies with a neat piece of art depicting an Alliance/Horde battle (replete with male model rocking a worrisome mustache) and, for the ladies in your life, a cute purple "Fight Like a Girl" t-shirt with a set of the highly feminine night elf hunter and blood elf paladin. That's right -- now you too can have a qtbelf on your chest, or the chest of a female WoWer near and dear to your heart. As long as she's a size small or medium, anyway. The other sizes are sold out.

Speaking of near and dear to my heart, that model! Aye aye aye. For her, if that shirt was available in mens' sizes, I'd buy it even if it said "I play as a female character in World of Warcraft." I mean, I do. Several of them, but. You know. Still.

All the new pieces are available at HotTopic.com or at your local Hot Topic store. Remember, those places are guarded by level 14 elite scenesters. Bring friends.

You lucky European ducks may just have finally gotten that one thing you can hold over the heads of those Americans with their superiority complexes. The official online Blizzard store is now offering, exclusively for Europe, a set of Frostmourne-themed merchandise. Enclosed in a special box, the set contains one Frostmourne hilt keychain and one insulated metal mug with Frostmourne's runic engravings on one side.

Steely-eyed readers may notice that the keychain is the same one as, or at least identical to, the one that came in your BlizzCon '09 goody bag. Of course, this one is "made of rhodium, a rare metal offering even higher quality than silver." The mug, on the other hand, is a never-before-seen piece of merch.

The set is, of course, limited edition, so if you want to make this the perfect gift for the burgeoning death knight in your family, you'd best act quickly. Then again, I don't think they like warmth very much. Maybe an insulated mug isn't the best gift idea. I'm thinking -- hear me out -- macaroni necktie.

The newest in Blizzard's ever-expanding line of customizable merchandise, Print Warcraft just opened its doors to the public. Like FigurePrints, the site allows you to create merchandise based on your in-game characters, this time art like posters and prints.

While we've been having a bit difficulty accessing the site, likely due to launch-day growing pains, we know that the service allows a ton of customization options. Start by selecting your character, realm, and print size. Then choose from a number of templates, borders, backgrounds, character poses, pets, and more! The prices range from $17.99 for a 12x18 print to $29.99 USD for a 40x27 poster.

If you're actually able to place an order, please let us know how it comes out when you get it in the mail! If the price is right and so is the quality, it might be a decent Winter Veil gift to deck somebody's walls with. Or yours.

3 Point Entertainment (makers of the official World of Warcraft steins) has released a brand new stein, modeled after the epic Brewfest mug the Tankard o' Terror. As you can see above, this beauty of a brewholder is much different from the other mugs -- it's made to look exactly like the ingame item, even though that means it's more angled than curved and a little bit primitive-looking. It's also a huge piece of stoneware, standing over nine inches tall and weighing four pounds. I don't know that you'd ever want to drink anything out of it, but I guess, fittingly for a tanking tankard, if you hit someone over the head with it, they'd feel it.

Alex will be able to tell us what that's like, as he's already got one ordered. This mug is also much cheaper than the other mugs -- it's only $39.99 (as if "only" was a fitting adjective for a purchase like this), which means that 3 Point has probably heard your complaining here in our comments sections and decided to offer up a lower price point option. I won't be going for this one, but the idea of replicating Azerothian cookery in real-life is intriguing. I might buy a Cookie's Tenderizer if I had the chance.

I don't have a lot of detail on this, but the news from Comic-Con is that Blizzard is finally starting to sell gold! Collectible WoW-inspired gold, silver, and copper coins, that is. What did you think I was talking about?

They'll come in both Horde and Alliance versions, and are being made by DC Unlimited. DC also handles the WoW comic, so that's unsurprising. If we hear anything more on pricing and/or availability, we'll be sure to let you know.

The amazing Breanni of WarcraftPets.com, once loved so much by Blizzard that he got immortalized in the game, has apparently gotten another of Blizzard's C&Ds. First, we saw iPhone apps pulled off of the App Store with what seemed like legal action, and then we heard that webcomic Shakes and Fidget was contacted by Blizzard legal, and now Breanni has pulled down his merchandise store, as well as posted a "formal apology" to Blizzard. Breanni doesn't say exactly what happened, but he says that he "became aware" that what he was selling was violating Blizzard's trademark policy, and calls the store a "lapse in judgment," and says that he hopes to "continue to recieve Blizzard's blessing." It's almost like hearing one side of the conversation -- we don't know what Blizzard said to him (if anything), but he definitely sounds spooked.

This is a slightly different issue from the other C&Ds we've seen -- Breanni was making money from selling what we presume were actual images of Blizzard's copyrights and trademarks, so a store like that is pretty plainly in violation of copyright law (Mania's Pets calendar, for example, uses fan art rather than actual screenshots). But what's interesting here is, if they did contact him, why Blizzard has decided to do this now, and why they've only moved against Breanni. There are certainly lots of other places to find Blizzard art printed on products for sale. We're not suggesting that Blizzard should just let it all go, obviously, but why now?

We've had requests for comment out to Blizzard ever since the first few iPhone apps were pulled off of the App Store about all of this recent C&D action, and we've added this one to the stack. If we hear anything back from them, we'll let you know.

[Thanks, John E!]

Remember those World of Warcraft steins you thought were way too expensive and passed on buying? There's another one. Three Point Entertainment has released a new stein, this one featuring everyone's favorite bad guy, the Lich King himself, brandishing Frostmourne and leading an army of the Undead in the way he's apt to do. We have to admit, it does look cool and all, but at $90, we'll be drinking our ale from the usual sippy-cup, thanks.

And just in case you happen to be burdened with too much money in this horrendous economy, you can get a "Legendary Collection" version for $175 that's signed by the artist, is limited to only 750 steins worldwide, and includes "premium hand painting throughout." No idea why you'd want your hands painted, but if you're really spending $175 on a World of Warcraft mug, you're already nuts.

The new steins start shipping in late April and May. Considering all of the bailouts lately, your house will probably have regained its value enough for you to afford one of these, right? We say go for it.

A bubble-hearth ball? Inflatable Frostmourne? Now that we know what they're giving away at BlizzCon '08, it looks like it's turning into a kiddie party. Don't get me wrong, though, I think I would have a lot of fun poking people with a poofy little sword of unadulterated, soul-sucking evil. I think I'll even good-humoredly kick around a bubble-hearth ball, one of the game's long-running gags on my favorite class. There are other cool stuff, like Diablo health and mana stress balls and Pandaren brewmaster bottle openers.

A while back, I asked what kind of WoW-related merchandise and spin-offs you had or liked. Let's turn the tables this time around and pretend you could make swag for BlizzCon, or any Blizzard event like the Worldwide Invitational (where they gave away keychains and door hangers). What if they gave away Halaa Battle Token soaps? What wacky stuff will you make or like to see? Surely it can't be any zanier than an inflatable cursed runeblade.