A month or two ago the good people over at Bulls I Toy agreed to send us a box of their Season 2 The Walking Dead dog tags to give away to our amazing zombie fans, friends and followers.

Bulls I Toy sent the dog tags over so quickly it caught us by surprise. (It can often take weeks for a company to follow through and get product sent out). As a result of their speed, and too much workload here at ZombieGift.com, the box of dog tags sat on a shelf in my office until the time was right to launch our next giveaway.

Being a Walking Dead collector myself, during that time my curiosity got the best of me.  I couldn’t help but wonder how many duplicates you typically find in a box.   I wondered if there were any costume tags in there.   How many custom holographic foil dog tags are in there?

Needless to say I just had to find out. I decided a full blown review before giving all of these dog tags away would be the only way to satisfy my curiosity. It might also help out some fans and collectors out there. So here we go.

The Walking Dead Season 2 dog tags are blind packaged. For those new to this style of packaging collectibles it basically means there is no real way to tell what you’re buying. All of the packages look the same, have the same bar code and contain no way to readily reveal their contents. Bulls I Toy sent us a  retail box you’d typically find at your local store such as Target, or Walmart. As you can see the display box itself is a work of art.  It contains  a walker right on the front area that tips out to allow access to the packs of dog tags inside. The display box also features an actual dog tag mounted behind a clear plastic cover to allow you to see the quality of the actual product before you buy.  Different boxes have a different dog tag showing. Ours featured Lori Grimes (tag #9). You probably won’t be buying a full retail box of 24 though, so enough about the box! It’s what’s inside that counts.

Each dog tag is blind packaged in a foil packet measuring about 5 -1/2″ tall by 3 -1/2″ wide.  Each pack contains 1 Walking Dead dog tag, 1 sticker, and 1 carabiner style D-ring clip per pack. They also include a keyring  and a ball chain necklace. This allows you to wear the dog tag as a necklace or collect them on a d-ring as a keychain. Each pack also includes a complete fold-out checklist showing photos of all the different tags available. Check out the contents of a pack we opened in the photos below.:

About the Dog Tags:

Each dog tag itself measures about 2″ by 1-3/16″. They’re made of a lightweight metal material and come already attached to their necklace. The dog tag on the metal chain is packaged in a small plastic baggie within the main package itself. I think it’s nice they hang the dog tag on the necklace for you, but in the end I’d prefer they didn’t. I noticed some of the dog tags have very light scratches and marks in the glossy surface covering them.  I’m assuming these scratches are left by the chains rubbing against the dog tag during shipment and handling. By no means are these serious scratches, nor are they very noticeable. However these very fine scratches might annoy collectors that demand their new purchase to be in absolute pristine condition.

Each dog tag contains a image from AMC’s hit TV show. The back of the tags feature AMC’s The Walking Dead logo along with the title of the tag and the tag number out of 24. Here’s a Daryl Dixon tag that demonstrates the look and quality of these tags.:

How Many are There?

According to the dog tag package there are 24 base dog tags and 24 foil versions of the same tags to collect. The fun doesn’t stop there however. There are also 10 randomly inserted authentic costume dog tags. These dog tags contain pieces from the costume actually worn by the actor! That sounds difficult enough right? Nope. There’s more. Many sources on the internet indicate there are actually 3 different series of the costume tags to collect. Target, Walmart and “hobby” stores each reportedly offer their own costume tags.

Target costume tags are reportedly numbered CT1-CT10. Walmart versions are said to be numbered CW1-CW10 and the hobby costume tags are numbered C1-C10.

According to Bulls I Toy there is no guarantee any box or package will contain a special insert.  They list the approximate odds of finding a random special insert as follows:

• Foil Tags   1:4
• Authentic Costume Tags   1:24

We opened an entire box of 24 tags and can verify our finds matched the odds predicted by Bulls I Toy perfectly. Details are provided below.  Here’s a photo of the 24 dog tags that were in the box we opened:

In the upper left corner are the 6 foil dog tags we received. These tags were:

• #7 Daryl
• #20 Walker
• #21 Woods Walker
• #22 Shane
• #23 Pet
• #24 Storming the Farm

Here’s a better picture of the foil dog tags:

The base tags we opened were as follows:

#1 Rick Grimes (qty 2)

#2 Shane Walsh

#3 Dale Horvath

#4 Andrea

#5 Carl Grimes

#6 T-Dog

#7 Daryl Dixon

#8 Glenn

#9 Lori Grimes

#10 Maggie Greene

#19 Inferno

#20 Walker

#21 Woods Walker

#22 Shane (zombie)

#23 Pet

#24 Storming the Farm

We were most excited to find 1 costume tag! We found CW4 of CW10 which is T-Dog!

The costume tags have substantial weight and are noticeably thicker than the other dog tags.  If you had the time, and found a store that was willing to let you feel up all of their merchandise, you just might be able to try to feel through the package for a costume tag.

About the Chains:

The chain themselves have a wearable length of approximately 13-1/4″ and are made of a very lightweight material. My son actually thought they were plastic at first because they feel so light. I myself think they’re metal, or at least coated in a metal material, because they do stick to a magnet. While the chains don’t feel too sturdy I don’t think durability is a problem. I’ve purchased quite a number of these tags for my son and they don’t seem to break. In the end a very strong chain hanging around your neck isn’t all that smart at times anyway. It’s better to have something light enough to break away if you would somehow end up hanging from you necklace. Ask me how I know this from my childhood ;).

About the Keyrings:

They’re metal rings that hold keys and other stuff. Nothing interesting here!

About the D-Rings/Carabiners:

The d-rings appear to be anodized aluminum. They have a spring loaded snap clip to fasten them.  They’re very light and there is no doubt they aren’t intended for anything beyond clipping your pretty dog tags to things. Even so they still feature a warning that clearly states “NOT FOR CLIMBING”.

Each D-Ring features a black The Walking Dead logo which is a really nice touch. They could have taken the easy route and included plain colored rings with no logo.  The Walking Dead logo really adds a nice collectible touch.  According to the back of the package there are 8 different color carabiners to collect. It appears our box had 7 different colors of D-rings. Here is a break down of what we colors we found and how many of each were in our box:

• Red  (7 of them)
• Orange/Copper (7 of them)
• Yellow/Bronze color (4 of them)
• Blue (3 of them)
• Green (1 of them)
• Gold (1 of them)
• Silver (1 of them)

I’m not sure what the 8th color is since there were only 7 different colors in our box.  Here’s a photo of the some of the different color d-rings we found in all of the packs we opened in our box:

About the Stickers:

Each dog tag pack contains 1 sticker.  Each sticker measures about 2″ by 1-3/4″. These stickers remind me a lot of the stickers I used to collect in albums as a child. Do you remember those magazine style sticker albums? The ones that would have a numbered blank space outline where you peel and stick your stickers? The look, size and feel of these stickers remind me of those.

Each sticker contains an image from season 2 of the TV show. The backing sheet of each sticker contains the same black and white image along with the sticker number. For example, “S1 of S24”.  The dog tag package claims there are 24 different stickers to collect but that’s not really true. Like the dog tags, there are 24 normal base stickers and 24 foil versions of those same stickers. That means there are at least 48 different stickers in all to collect.

Here’s a photo of a sticker front and back:

From our single box we opened, it seems you are much more likely to find duplicates of stickers in a box than you are to find duplicate dog tags. The stickers seem to be random and don’t match up with the dog tag they accompany. In the 24 dog tag packages we opened, we found the following normal stickers:

• S 1   (qty 2)
• S5
• S6
• S7
• S8   (qty 3)
• S11  (qty 2)
• S21 (qty 2)
• S22 (qty 3)
• S23 (qty 3)

We also found 6 total foil stickers:

• S2
• S4
• S5
• S6  (qty 2)
• S8

Where to Buy:

These dog tags are available in the trading card/sports card section of retailers such as Target, Walmart and local comic and hobby stores. They’re typically priced around $2.99 to $3.99 for each dog tag package. That’s if you’re lucky enough to even find them in the stores locally to begin with.  When you find them we suggest buying what you can afford because they tend to disappear very quickly. You can also buy them through online retailers such as ebay or Amazon:

 The Final Verdict: We love them!

We give these dog tags a 4 out of a possible 5.  Details on why we give that rating are provided below.

What We Love:

The Walking Dead season 2 dog tags from Bulls I Toy are a great collectible. For the price you really do get quite a bit in each package. A dog tag, sticker, d-ring, keyring and a checklist isn’t bad at all for the money!

The dog tags themselves are high quality and feature cool images from the show. The packaging is attractive and very high quality.  The different colored D-rings with the black The Walking Dead logo are a very nice touch.

The idea of rare foil tags and random costume dog tag inserts is very cool and we’re a big fan of both concepts.

What’s Not So Great:

The stickers and chains that come with the dog tags aren’t the greatest quality but we honestly don’t hold that against them.

Finding a way to affordably, effectively and safely display these is a bit of a challenge. Hanging them all on D-rings works but means a lot of handling and scratching can occur when you or someone else wants to view them.

Our biggest complaints about these dog tags are availability and the sheer difficulty in building a complete collection. Seriously these things are just hard to find in stores!  If you do find them you’ll have to buy the box up every time in order to complete your collection via store purchases.  Unless you find someone to trade with building a complete collection of even the base dog tags is going to take a bit of time and effort and a great deal of money. We’re not sure it’s any cheaper, but the “easier” method is probably turning to online sites such as ebay to fill the gaps in your collection.

If you’re planning on a COMPLETE collection of all base and foil dog tags and stickers AND all 3 different costume tag series you definitely have a long and expensive road ahead of you…but oh what fun it will be  along the way!