This Is How You Make A Lara Croft Action Figure

There have been plenty of action figures based off of Tomb Raider starlet Lara Croft over the years, but nothing quite like this baby right here. Standing at a whopping 17 inches tall, this Tonner Doll Company creation skirts the fine line between action figure and tiny actual woman, a skirting I doubt many fans will mind much at all. Lara features rooted hair, a variety of outfits, and 14 points of articulation, along with grenades and her signature dual automatic pistols in case her new owners get fresh.

The first 100 Tomb Raider: Legend inspired figures are going on sale today at the Wizard World Chicago show, with the remainder now available for preorder via Tonner Direct at the relatively reasonable price of $124.95, shipping in the third week of July. As an action figure junkie, I am currently surveying my apartment for things to sell. Anyone need a couple cats?

Lara Croft Figure Preorder [Tonner Direct]

Eidos yesterday launched an official Tomb Raider: Underworld Web site and sent out a couple more screenshots, including the one above. More importantly, it confirmed the game is due out in November for the 360, PS2, PS3, DS, Wii and PC. Screenshots and other discussion follow the jump.

Former Lara Croft, Fitness Guru

Nell McAndrew is apparently launching her own "lifestyle companion" mobile fitness application in the UK, used to create workout routines from a database and develop a meal plan. Who's Nell McAndrew? 1998's model for Lara Croft, of course.

McAndrew seems to have left her Lara days behind her, though, as the announcement makes no mention of her role as one of the first Tomb Raider models. Shame, because I'd love someone to promise me I can look like Lara Croft. I mean, Nell McAndrew is pretty and all, but come on! Lara Croft!

Anyway, for those who might've been wondering what McAndrew has been up to lately, full announce after the jump.

12" Lara Croft Figure Is Surprisingly Tasteful

Get Your Hands on Lara Croft For (Almost) Free

Lara Croft is ten years old today (doesn't that make you feel dirty?), and to celebrate, Eidos is letting you play Tomb Raider Anniversary for free.

Of course, nothing in life is truly free, is it? You can access the game through TrialPay, an alternative payment service, but only after you sign up to try or buy an offer from one of their blue-chip advertisers. To sign up for your free subscription to Tomb Raider Anniversary, go to the TrialPay sign-up page.

See? Lara's a classy broad. She wouldn't be givin' it away for nothin'! Her momma raised her better than that!

The work of Becky Schaefer has recently resurfaced on the blogosphere (hate that word, btw) so now seemed like as good as a time as any to introduce you to her art if you hadn't encountered it previously. These Lara Croft cross-stitchings (Schaefer's 2003 graduate arts degree project) subvert the traditional by introducing a modern, digital (female) icon into a classic (traditionally female) analog activity. The result? It's a bit jarring and induces introspection. What do you think of it?

Game Heroine Invades Bucolic Needlepoint Landscapes; Wreaks Aesthetic Havoc [via shinyshiny]

Tomb Raider Underworld Coming Next?

Have you seen the movie Underworld? OK, great. Now take that movie and relate it in absolutely no way to Tomb Raider Underworld, the rumored next TR sequel since the trademark was discovered. Said to revolve around the Mayan calendar, or more specifically, the five unnamed days at the end of the year known only as "Wayeb'." During this time, the realm of the living and dead was said to blur, leading us to only one, inevitable plotline in the game: giant ghost/zombie jubblies.

Tomb Raider Underworld [via gamelife]

Mobile's Lara Croft?

Big Differences Between Uncharted and Tomb Raider

I completely understand them, just because this is a genre which is not that widely used in videogames for whatever reason — people tend to focus more on science fiction. This more realistic, treasure hunting, pulp action adventure genre really hasn't been tried by that many. So I think just by the very fact that both Nathan Drake and Lara Croft are treasure hunters, there will be comparisons. But beyond that, they diverge pretty rapidly. From a character standpoint, Nathan Drake is an everyman who struggles to get by, who you can see on his face that he's stressed out as he's flinching from bullets ricocheting off the cover he's hiding behind, while Lara is the more stone-faced acrobat, perfect landing every time. And then the game play, obviously we were very focused on third person cover-based play, while theirs is more auto-aiming and a little more heavy on the puzzle-solving.

After a somewhat confusing reveal of Eidos' plans for Tomb Raider Anniversary on the Xbox 360, it appears that the remake of Lara Croft's original adventure has been nailed down. What was originally scheduled first as an Xbox Live Arcade release, one that requires ownership of Tomb Raider Legend, will come first as a standard retail release. Eidos will release Tomb Raider Anniversary for the 360 next week, October 23 in the U.S. and October 26th in Europe.

A pair of downloadable releases, still with the same Tomb Raider Legend requirement, will follow in November. Got it?

At Games Convention's press-only day, I got some hands-on impressions with Eidos' latest Lara Croft, Karima Adebibe, the eighth proper sequel in the Lara Croft franchise. In short, she smells like a coconut, might be a little too tanned and ultimately melanoma-ridden before she turns 25, and is doubly intimidating dual-wielding an English accent and model good-looks. The only downside to being in proximity of the current-gen Lara is how the DNA-driven bad art on the left just don't hold up in a side-by-side comparison.

Final score: A-

Writer Simone Talks Pre-Teen Raider

I'm sorta digging GameTap's Re\Visioned series. The idea is that they choose a iconic video game and hand the character over to ten teams of artists and writers to reimagine different elements of the icon. The ten-part Tomb Raider Re\Visioned animated series includes a number of interesting takes on the most famous video game heroine, including a humorous story of her untold young adulthood and more serious takes on her adventures, but by far the most interesting is Gail Simone's "Pre-Teen Raider" a look at Lara Croft as a young boisterous and sticky-fingered private school student.

The look of the young Croft and the short's script are both the product of Gaile Simone, who worked with Six Point Harness to put the six minute video together.

Simone, perhaps most known for her work on Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman, said she was approached by the GameTap folks because they were looking for someone with comic book experience. It was an added bonus that Simone also happens to be a big fan of the Tomb Raider video games.

Lara Croft Raids Women's Only Beach With Sexy Results

Circuit City Sale

Tomb Raider Anniversary (PS2)

Tomb Raider vs. Tomb Raider: Anniversary