One helluva letter opener

That's basically what my friend Chuck said when I sent him the link to this Amazon Exclusive Gears of War Lancer replica (now available for pre-order). Unfortunately it's not sharp enough to do even that.

It's a cool idea for use with a costume but that's about it. Here are the "features."

• Trigger activates motorized "chainsaw" sound and vibration feature (ooooh!)
• Side handle folds in & out and slides back & forth
• Removable clip (handy for your imaginary bullet reloading)
• Created from the actual 3-D data used in the Gears of War 2 video game
• Powered by 3 "C" batteries (not included) (of course!)

For $139.99 you'd think they could throw in some batteries but no they spent that budget using blueprints from the game to make the damn thing. I'm pretty sure there's some fans out there who could have done it with their eyes closed. To be fair, pre-ordering the lancer actually gets you the new game for free. Just the Standard Edition though, if you want the Limited Edition Gears of War 2 you need to pay an extra $10.

Of course if you're really serious you'll shell out almost a grand for this replica from Project Triforce.

Honestly, I'm not really into Gears of War, but if I was I think I'd go for the impressive Nerf version instead.