Fortnite’s Supply Llama escapes the Island as EXG Pro expands its gaming collection

There are few video game objects instantly recognisable enough to survive outside the game that created them. Fortnite’s Supply Llama is one of them. Brightly coloured, faintly ridiculous and once worth chasing across the Island for whatever might be hiding inside, it has become almost as familiar as the characters themselves.

Now it is being given a more practical job.

EXG Pro has launched a Fortnite Supply Llama Cable Guy, transforming one of the game’s best known symbols into a £29.99 holder for gaming controllers and mobile phones. It joins an increasingly extensive collection of officially licensed Fortnite accessories as the franchise approaches another new season almost nine years after its original release.

The timing is deliberate. Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 is due to arrive on August 19, one week after the Supply Llama Cable Guy launches, with Sprites set to remain part of the game. Llama inspired variants have recently brought the familiar creature back into focus too.

That Fortnite can still generate this sort of merchandise nearly a decade after its arrival says something about the unusual cultural life the game has managed to build.

Released in 2017, Fortnite rapidly became one of gaming’s defining phenomena. By November 2023 it had accumulated a reported 650 million registered players worldwide, while its ability to attract more than a million concurrent players years after launch demonstrates a longevity few games achieve.

Part of that staying power has come from Fortnite's refusal to remain simply a battle royale game. Its characters, objects and visual language have gradually become entertainment properties in their own right. That has created a substantial world beyond the screen, from collaborations and collectibles to clothing and accessories.

EXG Pro's Cable Guys sit neatly within that world. They occupy the slightly peculiar territory between gaming accessory and collectible: recognisable characters sculpted into figures that can hold controllers, phones, tablets or smaller pieces of technology.

The new Supply Llama is designed for controllers and phones and retains the vivid colours and distinctive appearance familiar to Fortnite players. It joins a collection already populated by some of the game's most recognisable personalities.

There is Peely, the anthropomorphic banana that has somehow become one of Fortnite's enduring stars, available as a £29.99 Cable Guy. A larger XL Polar Peely, priced at £49.99, can accommodate tablets and handheld consoles.

Fishstick, another character whose peculiar appearance has helped make it a favourite among players, is available as a £29.99 controller and phone holder. At the smaller end of the collection, the £14.99 Cuddle Team Leader and Meowscles Mini Cable Guys are designed to hold earbuds and smaller devices.

The products are playful, but the market behind them is increasingly serious. Gaming merchandise has evolved considerably beyond branded T shirts and posters. For publishers and licensing companies, recognisable characters can now exist across an entire ecosystem of physical products, while for fans, desks and gaming setups have become places to display their attachment to particular games.

Fortnite is particularly well suited to that transition. Its deliberately exaggerated visual identity means a Peely or Supply Llama remains unmistakable even when removed completely from the game.

The Supply Llama may also be the most natural Cable Guy of the collection. In Fortnite it exists to carry loot. On a desk, it carries the controller.

Some jobs, apparently, survive the journey out of the Battle Bus.