Slipping into flip-flops

Since these two cosmetics are rather similar, I’ll be talking about them together. Today’s article will be about the Flip-Flops for the Scout and the Aqua Flops for the Heavy.

The Flip-Flops are a pair of bright yellow flip-flops for Scout, and is available for purchase during the Summer Camp Sale in 2011 along with another Scout exclusive the Lucky No. 42 and the all-class Summer Hat. The Aqua Flops made its debut a year later in the Mecha Update along with Carl and Hunger Force as a reference to the Adult Swim character Carl Brutananadilewski. The Aqua Flops are based off the appearance of his flip-flops in the show. Both cosmetics rolled up their trousers to reveal their ankles and part of their calves. If you don’t like their colors, you’ll be pleased to know that both are paintable.

While the Flip-Flops looks OK with the Scout just by itself, and has quite a few cosmetics to go with it like casual light shirts (Triad Trinket and maybe the Paisley Pro), caps, and summer-themed backpack cosmetics, The Aqua Flops can’t really claim the same. Most of Heavy’s shirts and hats do not go with it as they are, in general, either military-themed, formal, or winter-themed. And unless you really want to get frostbite and have your toes or feet chopped off, if you need to put on winter wear you probably shouldn’t be wearing slippers. In short, most of the time, wearing the Aqua Flops means the TF2 fashion police will be after you.

Both cosmetics have the same themes associated with it: casual summer funtime or total slob. While Scout has quite a few to go with the first theme as mentioned earlier, the Heavy doesn’t really have that many cosmetics to go with the first theme, because the last thing you’ll think of when you mention Russia is a nice warm sunny day on the beach. As for the second theme, beards, the Tyurtlenek, or the Trash Man should be able to give you the unkempt look. I suppose the problem with cosmetics that is based off a character outside of the TF2 franchise is that they have a tendency to only go with the set they’re released with and not much else. Some of these cosmetics are just the last pieces to complete the cosplay of the character the set is referencing, and on their own they just don’t fit with other cosmetics due to aesthetic and/ or thematic differences. Thank goodness for the addition of the Heavy Tourism during Scream Fortress last year, which gave Heavy a nice Hawaiian shirt to go with it.

There is one interesting little difference between the cosmetics. Despite being very similar cosmetics, they’re modeled and rigged differently.

The Aqua Flops is rigged such that the slippers themselves are essentially glued to Heavy’s feet (ouch) and flexes with it. The slippers on the Flip-Flops, however, are rigid. As the Scout’s feet flexes when he walks the Flip-Flops actually flip-flop about. It’s a shame that it doesn’t give custom footstep sounds to the Scout. Sure, it’ll be annoying, but compared to the Scout himself it really isn’t much.