Planet Lara | Tomb Raider Underworld Best and worst of the Tomb Raider Merchandise

BEST AND WORST OF... THE TOMB RAIDER MERCHANDISE

You are what you wear!', so says the slogan behind Lara's own clothing range... The late 90's, a time when Tomb Raider Merchandise was at an all time high. Digging through our archives recently, we stumbled across an advert for the Lara C Clothing collection. One we believe never to have been aired before. We'll host it for the world to see! But wait, wouldn't that be incredibly boring just to host the ad on its own? Well, that's possible, so we got to thinking...

And we developed this awesome idea! We look back at some of the best, and the worst, Tomb Raider merchandise ever to make it into the public retail domain, then culminate with an advertisement for Lara C. Wicked cool! We'll kick off with this monstrosity:



	'What? Karima won't model for the new Legend action figure? Psh, who can we get now?' - Not our words, but the words of the brains behind this astonishing piece of merchandise. Eidos have at their disposal the very best Lara Croft look-a-likes, which is why it came as a surprise when they revealed they'd used 80's pop star Pete Burns as the inspiration behind their new action figure.
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A fine addition to anyone's ~~'The Beatles'~~ Tomb Raider collection. Not much is known about this rare item, although it is believed to be official. We've never actually spotted this hand-crafted marionette puppet of ~~Ringo Starr~~ Lara Croft on eBay, so its also believed to be incredibly rare. Why does it FAIL? Well, although it does look incredibly well made, we can't remember a time when Lara was caught sporting an attractive bowl haircut and funky blacked-out glasses.
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	In a time when care was taken and attention to detail given when making official Tomb Raider statuettes the guys at oxmox were the very best. This statuette came in several variations. Each version of this statuette is incredibly rare, thought to have only ever been released in Germany. One version features Lara in the same pose with an Atlantean creature lunging toward her face, the life size version of this sees a decomposed mummy. sigh good times.
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This was not only the last of the popular 'big box' editions it was the one to raise the bar for all future special edition Tomb Raider releases. Only 7,600 copies of this version of the Angel of Darkness exist and it was an exclusive for Germany. The game was accompanied by a copy of the official soundtrack, 'making of' DVD, poster, notepad, stickers, postcards and even a mini maglite Lara Croft torch!
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	The job of creating the first ever Lara Croft action figure was given to ToyBiz in late 1997, the type of job (you'd think) a company would take great care and pride over. Apparently ToyBiz saw things a little differently. This figure was actually produced using the body of an X-Men figure with a ~~poorly~~ newly sculpted head. Laughter in the Core Design office died down when they came to the sudden realisation that there was no time to re-commission another figure. Thank god for avid collectors.
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Not only is this the most comprehensive of the Tomb Raider books, its also one of the rarest and the most well-made. Only ever released in Japan (and not very well publicised). The book features all of the unseen imagery and artwork from the Angel of Darkness as well as renders from the past and extremely rare merchandise. If you ever see this on ebay we advise you to splash out and bid! But be warned, it won't come cheaply.
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	This is probably the rarest statuette out there. Those of you who played Tomb Raider II Gold (The Golden Mask) will recognise this as the artefact from the game. *Take note Eidos* This was actually created for a special one-off competition to promote the release of the second instalment to Tomb Raider II. So rare in fact we believe this to be the only existing statuette. These are the kinds of competitions we need!
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This is probably what we love most about the classic merchandise... The fact that it was always so varied, original and in some cases incredibly tacky (but it worked!). Today's merch is very limited. You'll be lucky to find a badge and maybe a sticker or two, talk about pushing the boat out... This piece is a replica (with the exception of Lara pictured on the reverse of the jacket) of the bomber jacket sported by Lara in Tomb Raider 2 winter levels. Only ever released in France.
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	And to show its not just recent statuettes and figures that go horribly wrong, we end with possibly the worst fail in Tomb Raider statue history. Not much at all is known about this statuette, however we do know that it is an official piece of merchandise. It is believed to have been one of the (if not the) first statuette ever to have been produced. Although the pose is reasonably uninspired, the thing that really lets this figure down is its hideous bug-eyed appearance, that and the fact it looks as though its just been happy-slapped.
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If you liked the look of any of the merchandise we featured in this article, your best bet of finding any of them would be to take a quick trip to eBay. If this article has re-awakened your Tomb Raider merchandise interest, why not head on over to our Official Merchandise Guide for a look at some of the coolest merchandise around!

With the release of Tomb Raider Underworld steadily creeping towards us, we can only hope that Eidos have some interesting and original ideas for merchandise as not much can be said about the merchandise released for both Legend and Anniversary. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, the Official Lara C clothing range advert awaits.

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