How Bungie’s Gjallarhorn Came to Life With NERF > News

When you think about the world of Destiny, a lot of what you visualize probably lives within the game, such as beautiful graphics, immersive stories, space magic, fashion choices. What you may not always think about are the pieces outside of that realm. All the toys, books, T-shirts, and other collectibles that come to life are thanks to Bungie’s Consumer Products team. 

We got a chance to hang out with the Bungie Consumer Products team, an incredibly talented group of humans that come together every day to bring you all the real-world loot that Bungie has to offer. They are the ones in charge of brainstorming, designing, sourcing, gathering, and launching gaming memorabilia that we can’t wait to get our hands on. 

Today, we get the exclusive opportunity to dive into a project quite close to many Destiny players’ hearts—the NERF LMTD Destiny Gjallarhorn Blaster. A labor of love between Bungie and NERF, let’s go back to how it all got started. 

Katie Lennox (Director of Consumer Products, Bungie): I have worked at Bungie for nearly seven years, and ever since I started NERF Blasters have been something that leadership, my colleagues, and the team at Bungie at large had wished for and said, “Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had a NERF Blaster for Destiny?” So, this has been on our radar for a long time!  

But partnerships, especially this sort of high-level activation, take time. You must have the right moment and you must understand what is coming up next. It really wasn’t until we realized that Gjallarhorn, a fan favorite and arguably one of the most iconic weapons in the franchise, was going to be returning to Destiny 2 in December of 2021, as part of Bungie 30th Anniversary Content Pack, that we all looked at each other and said, “This is the moment.” So, I reached out to Pete Bognanno (Director, Global Brand Development and Marketing at NERF), and we had some conversations and things started to grow and take shape from there.  

Nate Purswell (Manager, Global Brand Development and Marketing): Just to elaborate a little bit on the NERF side, Destiny is one of those games that has such a massive library of equipment that our designers and engineers have always been impressed by and really respect. In 2020, we had our very first NERF LMTD Blaster, which is our line of products for the biggest fan communities with really showpiece products that we can’t do anywhere else. Because of that, we found that we suddenly had a home for Destiny. And Destiny was one of the very first properties for the NERF LMTD line. It’s the perfect overlap and we are thrilled to bring some of these fantastical items from the game into consumers’ hands for the first time. That’s something that both of our teams are incredibly passionate about. And hopefully what we’ve created is exactly what these fans have pictured Gjallarhorn to be. 

Justin Saccone (Senior Project Engineer): We are all super passionate about the Destiny universe and we’ve all played the game. Because of that, the idea of bringing something like the Gjallarhorn to life was just too exciting to pass up.  

As soon as these talks began and we really started to dial in on the Gjallarhorn, we went back and looked at in-game footage— animations, size and scale, reference from the game itself and extrapolated that into what we knew and how we would bring that product to life. That process began with really looking at how to capture the essence of the Gjallarhorn—knowing it wouldn’t be an exact copy or else it would be just unwieldy, massive, and heavy. We were making a product that not only is beautiful and representative of the Gjallarhorn, but also a functional toy. It is a NERF Blaster, so marrying those two things is what we’re super passionate about. It’s what we love to do.  

Tim Hernandez (Senior Artist, Bungie): What NERF built was awesome! I was responsible for collating reference material and gathering input to share with the NERF team. They are complete professionals and really understand their craft which made the feedback process so much easier. Growing up with NERF Blasters and now being in this industry, it’s awesome to work with a company I admired as a child. Talking with the NERF team and seeing their passion made me feel like being a kid again. Being a part of shaping this experience for others is a really cool opportunity that I’ll never forget. 

Justin Saccone: Our first pass at the Gjallarhorn didn’t have as much ornate detail or the filigree that comes in the iconic look of the Gjallarhorn. We had to look at things like the ergonomics of this thing, how do we even grasp the sense of scale of this while still making it functional, so we built an early model.  

We needed to make sure what we were working on also tied back to the game, which led us to the Wolfpack Rounds. I mean, obviously it’s the main appeal of the Gjallarhorn. We went with a shell for NERF MEGA darts, which if you’re not familiar,…