Right now, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is hitting all the right notes as a Borderlands spin-off. It essentially takes the Assault on Dragon Keep DLC from the second game, which is arguably its best DLC, and turns it into a full game. Complete with an epic new quest, new customizable characters, tons of loot, and more, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands fans will be able to get hands-on with it on March 25, 2022.
When they do, of course, they’ll get to experience all the changes for themselves. One of the first things many may notice, however, is the weapon manufacturers’ name changes. Each has a slightly symbolic touch to the rename, but players can know about this before Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands does release.
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Borderlands – Wonderlands Manufacturer Name Changes
Discovery of the name changes belongs to JoltzDude139, who found the information in the upcoming Bunkers and Badasses board game. As it is the franchise’s fantasy take on Dungeons and Dragons and is what Tina is technically “playing” in the game, it stands to reason that many elements of the real-life board game would match up with Wonderlands.
t's further corroborated by the recent Tiny Tina's Wonderlands trailer, where "Feriore" from Bunkers and Badasses can be seen in-game. Specifically, here are the name changes:
- Jakobs becomes Blackpowder
- Vladof becomes Stoker
- Dahl becomes Dahlia
- Maliwan becomes Malefactor
- Tediore becomes Feriore
- COV becomes Skuldugger
- Hyperion becomes Hyperius
- Torgue remains Torgue.
What Each Wonderlands’ Manufacturer Name Change Implies - Jakobs, Vladof, Dahl, and Maliwan
Looking at why each name was changed into what it is—not just because they need a fantasy take—is rather interesting. For example, Jakobs are typically non-elemental weapons that fire as fast as the player can pull the trigger, and the name Blackpowder ties into that well, adding an almost Pirate-like fantasy twist to Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' version of the manufacturer.
Meanwhile, the name change for Vladof is a bit more simplistic. While Vladof weapons typically follow Russian and Eastern European naming schemes in Borderlands, Stoker is Irish in a sense—because Bram Stoker was Irish. Stoker wrote Dracula, Dracula was inspired by Vlad the Impaler, Vlad is in the name Vladof, Vlad the Impaler WAS Eastern European, and it all circles back to Vladof being renamed Stoker for a vampire reference in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands.
Dahl is a little less clear. By being renamed Dahlia, it could just be the simplest change Tiny Tina's Wonderlands developer Gearbox could muster, it could be in reference to the Dahlia flower (as opposed to Dahl’s more typical, anti-environmental actions), or a dark reference to the Black Dahlia murder which has always had some presence within dark fantasy. The easily memed Maliwan, on the other hand, is clear; Malefactor sounds more fantasy-ish, more like maleficent, and implies a criminal element to the manufacturer.
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What Each Wonderlands’ Manufacturer Name Change Implies - Tediore, COV, Hyperion, and Torgue
Tediore’s is arguably the most interesting change, at least with how it plays with language. The Borderlands manufacturer is known for producing cheap guns, so it’s better to just throw them and let them explode instead of reloading them. Tediore to Feriore only needs a couple of letter changes, but it’s also like that it’s meant to reference “inferiore” in Italian but drops the “in.” Exactly, in becoming more fantasy-like, Tediore’s name change implies it is inferior in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands.
Former bandit and COV weapons are being rebranded as Skuldugger, which sounds like more generic human enemies may adapt this name. It would be a cool way to keep Borderlands' bandits and psychos in the fantasy universe, while giving the manufacturer a more fantasy-fitting name in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. On top of that, it's almost certain that this brand is short for "Skulduggery," which ties in well with bandit/COV weapons as it means, "underhanded or unscrupulous behavior; trickery."
Hyperion could have become Hyperius simply because it takes on a more fantasy-like tone, but it also may be a reference to Borderlands 2 in a way. Hyperius the Invincible is the raid boss of Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty, and he was a regular Engineer before becoming mad with power. That description is befitting for Hyperion, at least while Jack ran the show.
And finally, Torgue doesn’t change. This may be because of some in-game, meta-breaking shenanigans with the manufacturer, or it could be that Tina has resorted to treating him like an outsider—like she initially did in Assault on Dragon Keep. No matter what though, by not changing at least one Manufacturer, it keeps Wonderlands tied to the Borderlands name, and it’ll likely lead to some in-game hilarity too.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands releases March 25, 2022, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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