Bungie's absurd $185 Nerf Gjallarhorn reloads like the in-game weapon

The Destiny rocket launcher Gjallarhorn is one of the most-beloved guns in a game that, let's face it, is all about collecting guns (OK, OK, and shooting things with them). Ludicrously sized and ludicrously over-powered (to varying extents, depending on which period of the game we're talking), if there is such a thing as an iconic Destiny weapon then this is it.

Last year Bungie announced a collaboration with Nerf, makers of countless foam-blasting toy weapons, and Gjallarhorn was the obvious choice. Now the finished product is being shown off in advance of pre-orders opening up next week, and there's a lengthy blogpost on Bungie's site about the design process.

Nerf Gjallarhorn goes big: designed to use three of the company's biggest darts at once. Justin Saccone is a senior product engineer at Nerf, and says: "With that shell, we're shooting three of those MEGA darts at once, which gives that visual sense of the Wolfpack Rounds swirling and flying through the air towards your target."

Now, here comes the best part. "From there, we looked at all the reloading animations, and how these function in the game," says Saccone. "We wanted to integrate how it reloads in the game so the entire top housing of the Blaster itself shifts forward, it opens the loading bay just like it does in the game, you pop the shell in just like the animation, and then you pull it back and you're ready to blast off a burst of three MEGA darts, which is super awesome."

I felt a great disturbance in the force: as if thousands of nerd wallets cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I certainly know a few members of the PCG team who'll be licking their chops at this. I mean: just look at the detailing, nevermind the (40 inch!) box.

Destiny being Destiny, there's also some hoops to jump through if you want to have the best chance of landing a pre-order. I'll list them below but the long-and-short is you have to be in Bungie's rewards thing, and play a specific Destiny 2 quest to get the gun, whereupon you'll gain entry to an early access pre-order window.

On this point, while it is utterly daft that one should have to go through any kind of rigmarole in order to buy a toy, you could argue this makes it more likely that the first run of these things goes out to the most dedicated fans. We also live in an age where limited and desirable items like this are bought-up en masse by armies of scalper bots, which presumably will have more trouble completing a Destiny 2 quest than bypassing a captcha.

Allie Eibeler, a product development manager at Bungie, is predictably stoked about all the lovely synergy going on: "you have to earn it in the game first and that's just so cool [...] it's an awesome way to make sure the people who are most excited, who've been waiting for this for a year at this point, can get their hands on the NERF LMTD Destiny Gjallarhorn Blaster first."

The blaster's full name is one heck of a mouthful. The conditions for purchase (of a goddamn foam gun!) are as follows:

• This special Early Access Window to the Bungie Rewards pre-order offer will be available starting on July 7, 2022, at 10 AM PT.   
• Early access to the pre-order will be granted to players who acquire the Gjallarhorn Rocket Launcher by completing the quest in the Destiny 2: Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack before July 7, 2022. Eligible players must be signed up for Bungie Rewards and Bungie Store to purchase during the Early Access Window.  
• For more information on how to sign up for Bungie Rewards please visit our help center. 
• For more information about the NERF LMTD Destiny Gjallarhorn Blaster please visit our store page. 
• Remaining units will be made available to everyone after the Early Access Window, subject to availability. Due to the unique nature of this item, shipping availability to locations outside of North America, European Union, Australia, and United Kingdom may be restricted.

Phew! I mean, there's no doubt that that companies involved have gone pretty all-in on this. I'm never going to buy a Destiny Nerf gun but, if I was, I'd certainly appreciate the lengths this recreation goes to (if not perhaps the price). I just hope some of these things get used IRL, rather than spending their existence in a 40" box.