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“ guns. — The Soldier Hold on, this isn't a missile...it's a rocket. A rocket full of ”

Grordbort's rockets (also known as Grockets) are crash-landed rockets, bent to one side, with smoke and flames billowing out. They appeared in the game for a number of months in the year 2011. Their appearance was part of an ARG promoting the release into Team Fortress 2 of particular interdimensional cosmetics and space guns developed by Weta Workshop in collaboration with Valve. Depictions of the rockets, their storyline, and their contents were also represented in Comics and other media published by Valve and Weta Workshop. Both the appearance of the rockets in the game and changes to their appearance proceeded the dates of the release of Content packs of Dr. Grordbort's items.

July 18, 2011 Patch

On July 18, black smoke could be seen rising from behind distant buildings and hills in the skylines of 2Fort, Badwater Basin, and Barnblitz. Spectators could explore and observe wrecked spacecraft.

July 20, 2011 Patch (Dr. Grordbort's Victory Pack Update)

Two days later, the Dr. Grordbort's Victory Pack was released for the Soldier (Cow Mangler 5000, Righteous Bison, Lord Cockswain's Pith Helmet, and Lord Cockswain's Novelty Mutton Chops and Pipe). The comic released with the Patch, Grordbort's Crash, explained that the RED Soldier had found weapons, including the Righteous Bison, in a crash-landed rocket similar to those seen on the maps. The Official Blog explained that the Weta Workshop had developed "some nifty-looking guns" for the game; the art of the post showing the Soldier with items from the pack and also showing the rocket that had crashed into the barn on 2Fort.[1]

Weta Workshop had also published content related to the rockets on Dr. Grordbort's website, reporting loss of a space ship delivery due to irregularities in the space time fabric somewhere north of Earth.[2] A Know Your Rocketry guide suggests that the crashed Grordbort's rockets seen in the game and media were "Endangerer Class" transports. A Missing Shipment Manifest for a rocket named The Sperm Cudgel IV lists all of the items in the Dr. Grordbort's Victory Pack, as well as "Moon Mistress Brand Potato Chips" (Cleavage flavoured).

December 9, 2011 Patch

In the second week of December, the Grordbort's rocket model was changed to show three open doors with three ladders descending to the ground, where the Engineer's toolboxes were seen lying, ​implying that the RED Engineer was scavenging technology from the wrecks.

December 15, 2011 Patch (Australian Christmas 2011)

A week later, the comic True Meaning revealed that a Grordbort's rocket had crashed into the RED Engineer's home where he and Pyro were celebrating the holiday season. Opening the crashed rocket, they found space guns inside and a note with greetings from another dimension (but no super baby). This then was background for the release of the Dr. Grordbort's Brainiac Pack for the Engineer and the Dr. Grordbort's Moonman Pack for the Pyro, as announced in the Official Blog the same day.[3]

In this same Patch, the Grordbort's rockets were removed from the game.

Locations

2Fort Badwater Basin Barnblitz The Grordbort's rocket that crash-landed in 2Fort. The Grordbort's rocket that crash-landed in Badwater. The Grordbort's rocket that crash-landed in Barnblitz.

July 18, 2011 Patch

[Undocumented] Added Grordbort's rockets to ctf_2fort, pl_badwater and pl_barnblitz.

December 9, 2011 Patch

[Undocumented] Updated the texture and model of the Grordbort's rockets.

December 15, 2011 Patch (Australian Christmas 2011)

[Undocumented] Removed the crashed rockets from the maps they were on.

Trivia

The term "Grocket" comes from the filename of the prop in the GCF, grocket_001 , and is an abbreviation of the full name "Grordbort's rockets".

Gallery

The original model of the rocket from July 2011

References