Merchandise

Merchandise

Over the course of TF2, Valve have released numerous amounts of merchandise relating to the game, and have offered a wide selection of products available in the Valve Store. These have ranged from simple apparel such as Caps, T Shirts and Mugs, and Mousemats, branching out to more types of merchandise as time goes on. One of the more popular types among the fans are the posters, which depict often detailed artwork of gameplay elements such as the Heavy, in a physiological cross section to show his various insides, or the cover for the Sentry gun's operating manual. Most of the merchandise is either RED or BLU team affiliated if it is not specifically promoting a class, such as the Mugs or Gelaskin covers, or otherwise neutral, as with the TF logo hats and Mann Co. shirts.

Updates

Valve have also made several pieces of merchanise that tie in with the Class updates and are promoted in the updates themselves as new additions, often using artwork from the update pages. Some examples of this are the Soldier and Demoman T-shirts linked to from the 'Buy War Bonds' link in the WAR! Update, or the 'Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and Brother, I hurt people' design as seen in the Scout update. A series of postcards have also been released, showing the various comics took part in by one of TF2's side characters, Saxton Hale, and the various exploits he is involved in.

Trivia

• The Saxton Hale postcards were originally sent to fans that sent in the cut out coupons on the Force-A-Nature's update page or the coupon on the Spy's first update page as a joke, with any money they had included being either sent back or given to charity (due to legal reasons preventing Valve from accepting it). They also recieved a Mann Co. envelope with Saxton Hale's face on it, and a special letter from Saxton Hale himself, which could be interpreted as either a thankful note or a murderous threat through a series of 'Delete as appropriate' word choices.
• One of the people who sent in the Force-A-Nature coupon prior to the Sniper and Spy update recieved a keychain instead of the postcards as they had not been created yet, and an invoice which said that they were out of stock of the Force-A-Nature but in doing so quietly revealed the name of the (then unknown) primary unlockable for the Spy, the Ambassador.