The Dark Knight Rises...

The Dark Knight Rises is the third and final installment in Christopher Nolan's Batman film series and stars Christian Bale as Batman, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle and Tom Hardy as Bane.

And like most super hero films nowadays the associated merchandise would require a bank account similar to that of Bruce Wayne to be able to afford half the stuff!

The variety of weird and wonderful goodies range from Funko's cute plush toys to Hot Toys 1/6th scale figurines as well as the obligatory action figures, t-shirts, mugs, glasses... the list goes on!

So lets have a look at some of the items that will be appearing in store over the next few months:

Funko specialise in what can only be described as the novelty end of the market. Their products include Wacky Wobblers (Bane below left), Pop! Vinyl figures (Catwoman below centre) and Plush (Batman below right).

The Plush toys are hugely popular, the Pop! Vinyl range is a recent addition to their toyline and combines the vinyl Japanese Kawaii style design with the bobble head feature.

NECA also have a range of bobble head figures coming out in the summer associated with The Dark Knight Rises film but as of yet there are no images available.

Mattel own the licence to produce Batman action figures. As with last years Green Lantern film, Mattel will be producing a more kid-orientated line of 4" action figures (Bane below left) and a Movie Masters series of 6" figures. There are 6 Movie Master action figures confirmed - Bane, Catwoman (below centre), Batman (below right) as well as Alfred, John Blake and a secret character from the film.

Each figure comes with multiple points of articulation and a Batsignal piece. When you collect all the pieces you can build your very own Batsignal that even projects on to the wall!

A clever piece of marketing on Mattel's behalf to encourage customers to buy all six as opposed to one or two from the line. I mean who would buy an Alfred figure otherwise?

Mattel Hot Wheels are renowned for their scaled die cast vehicles and have in the past produced 1:18th, 1:43rd and 1:50th scale vehicles from the Batman films and television series.

The Elite 1/18th scale Batpod will set you back around £150.00 and we can't wait to see the finished product which is expected around October.

But here at Order66ToyStore we are more excited about their range of r/c vehicles as pictured on the left.

There are four in total to collect including the Batpod, Tumbler, Batwing and Bane's Tumbler.

DC Direct, the collectibles division of DC Comics, are producing highly detailed resin busts and statues based on characters from TDKR. There are three different types the 7" busts (Bane below left), the cold-cast porcelain 1/12th scale diorama pieces (Catwoman below centre) and 1/6th scale resin statues which will set you back around £120.00 (Batman below right). All of which are beautifully detailed.

Kotobukiya have been around for 50 odd years and they specialise in "soft vinyl statues and active styling figures, known as ArtFX statues."

Their contribution to the mass of collectibles associated with The Dark Knight Rises is this fantastically detailed 1/6th scale statue which stands around 15" tall.

Like all the other ArtFX statues, this comes with interchangeable parts enabling you to display The Dark Knight with either his grappling gun or EMP rifle (as pictured left).

The base also lights-up to display the Bat Symbol. The expected release is November priced £99.99.

If you have taken the time to read our blog in the past you will be aware our favourite line of collectibles is Sideshow Collectibles/Hot Toys. And not to disappoint Hot Toys are releasing their very own versions of the three main protagonists from the film.

Typically they have only released a teaser image of Bane to whet our appetite for what is in store...

You can expect the finest craftsmanship from the Hot Toys team as they give Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway and Christian Bale the 1/6th scale treatment.

And finally, we thought we would sign off with our favourite piece of The Dark Knight Rises merchandise...

The Mr. Potato Head Dark Spud! How could you resist Mr. Potato Head as The Dark Knight?