Every year, businesses get in on the April Fool's fun, attempting to trick us into believing they've either had a stroke of genius or the entire board of directors has gone stark raving mad. And then we notice the date, April 1, and reality – along with either a sigh of relief or a spot of the sads – sets in. But now, one of these pranks, the Razer Toaster, is becoming a reality.
Most of these ideas are ludicrous, but every year, a few of these prank products are so appealing, many of us wish they were the real deal. Think, Via's Tandem Bike Share or SodaStream's actual-astronaut-endorsed SodaStreamMe. Another of the more popular prank products of the last few years was gaming company Razer's Project Breadwinner, aka the Razer Toaster, which was kind of a running joke for a couple of years before it became an official joke in April 2016.
The idea proved so popular among the Razer faithful, that a fan page "Give us the Razer Toaster" was promptly set up. Razer's co-founder, CEO and Creative Director, Min-Liang Tan posted that if the page gets 1 million likes, he'd create the Razer Toaster for real. Someone – possibly Tan – then sweetened the deal with the announcement that each legitimate Project Breadwinner/Razer Toaster tattoo posted on the page would equate to 100,000 likes.
Of course, few thought this would get anywhere beyond a fun fan folly, let alone encourage anyone to get a real life tattoo but, gamers are passionate creatures who love a challenge, so, 45,000 page likes and 12 fan tattoos later, Tan relented and the Razer Toaster is on its way.
Tan went onto Facebook to declare victory for the fans. "Alright – I didn't think these guys were going to make it – but they did. It was to hit 1M likes and with each Razer Toaster tattoo being equivalent to 100K likes each....and they now have 12 Razer Toaster tattoos." Tan said. "Well....what can I say. I've just officially liked their page – and I'm going to put together my team of designers and engineers. It will take a few years – but I'll be sure to share the progress – and make it a community affair."
So what does this gaming-inspired toaster do? Apart from the possibility of some USB ports, that's still up in the air. The Project Breadwinner page is now dedicated to involving fans in the features the upcoming toaster might employ, such as Synapse-enabled in-game toast notifications; PopUp Projectile Delivery System; a Razer IntelliToast printing system, and a Highly Experimental Low Orbit Ion Toasting Cannon.
While "a few years" doesn't give us much in the way of a release date, I for one can't wait to be able to charge my phone, make breakfast and slay (ahem, toast") orcs all at the same time.
Source: RazerToasterPlease on Facebook
