Blaze's THEC64 and ZX Spectrum handhelds slip to April 2027

Bad news for 8-bit computer fans: Blaze Entertainment has announced that its two clamshell handhelds, the THEC64 Handheld and The Spectrum Handheld, will not ship on October 15, 2026 as planned, but on April 22, 2027. The delay covers both the standard and Collector's Edition units.

Blaze blames quality: "during production, we identified areas where the product construction was not meeting our high standards". The company says it could have fixed some of the issues quickly and shipped in 2026, but prefers to take six more months rather than release a compromised product.

What stays the same

Both devices, unveiled on April 30, 2026 in partnership with Retro Games Ltd, are still priced at £109.99 / $129.99 / €129.99 (£129.99 / $149.99 / €149.99 for the Collector's Editions, limited to 2,000 units each and bundled with a hard shell case and a Zzap!64 or Crash magazine). They pack 25 preloaded games, a 4.3-inch 840×480 IPS screen, a USB-A port for an external keyboard and a battery rated at more than 3 hours, with extra games loadable from microSD. There is good news for Blaze fans too: the Evercade Nexus is unaffected and remains scheduled for October 30, 2026.

Source: Time Extension

Image credit : "Commodore 64 Computer (illustration : Commodore 64 d'origine)" by Evan-Amos, license public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.