The four series of Mass Effect 3 figurines being offered by Big Fish games Toys (announced back in December) are certainly nice enough collector's items. They will also come with a card (one per figure) promising "access to downloadable in-game content." One figurine is $17.99; a set of four is $67.99. All four series, then, would cost $271.96, or about 32,000 Microsoft points. Ouch.
Just two of the series (and their constituent figurines) are listed for sale as of now. That would be Tali, Thane, Grunt and Shepard in series one (currently backordered) and Miranda, Mordin, Legion and Garrus in series two.
What the hell kind of DLC do you get for this? Who knows. "Each figure contains different in-game content, exclusive to North American released product," says Big Fish, so you're SOL, Europe. "Collect all 8 for the full experience!"
Since when did Mass Effect decide it was cool to go all Skylanders on us?
[Update] Commenter Chronicles points us to this listing on the BioWare Store site, which says the DLC "is slightly randomized during the registration and could include powerful new weapons and new characters." The DLC is only available for use on PC and Xbox 360 versions. Thanks, Adam!
EA and Bioware plant DLC into figurines for Mass Effect 3 [NeoGAF]