Pick up your sword, your blaster, your infinity gem! Time to fight!

Weaponry in stories are as varied as imagination. Laser blasters, light sabers, starships, and floating bombs all came into being because a story needed something neat to excite their audience. I'm not sure why we like our weapons, but it's obvious we do. For example, the light saber instantly fascinated everyone watching "Star Wars"--despite hardly being used, due to technical limitations, and not even being used in grandiose style. Pick a unique weapon and I'm sure it's been used in a story at some point.

Like the "Star Wars" usage of the light saber, these weapons don't even need significant focus in the story for them to become legendary. For instance, in the stories about Drizzt Do'Urden (a dark elf ranger in the Forgotten Realms novels), his two swords are so iconic that people have created them for real--despite them only being described with words. And, if you're familiar with the movie, "Tron," I'm sure you've pretended your Frisbee is a Tron disk as you imagine yourself in an epic battle.

I love roleplaying games, and one aspect I know well is that giving a weapon a name almost instantly makes it special. The television series "Game of Thrones" is awash with named weapons, yet people love them and collect all manner of replicas. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised for a moment if Han Solo named his blaster, as it's with him all the time and the first thing he grabs when stuff goes wrong. Can you name Thor's hammer? I bet you can.

- M

Thor's mighty hammer (Marvel Studios version)