Now that Batman: Arkham Asylum is here, many of us have been tempted to pick up the Collector's Edition for the PS3. It makes sense: aside from getting the Joker challenge maps (exclusive to the PS3 build), and exclusive challenge maps to the collector's edition there's also the behind-the-scenes DVD, art book, and, of course, a full-sized batarang.

For me, the idea of a 14-inch batarang sitting on top of my bookshelf as a conversation piece was too much, so I ambled down to GameStop between classes this afternoon and picked up the ridiculously oversized box of comic fan goodness. When I opened up the box, I found—much to my dismay—that the batarang was actually made from cheap black plastic that was scratched to hell.

Originally, I thought I'd gotten box with a defective unit, but five minutes with Google revealed that every Collector's Edition had scratched-up batarangs. It turns out that Eidos designed the batarangs to look "used", something which sounds fine based on the promotional images Eidos used. The photo from Eidos makes the batarang look like it's constructed of metal and is has a relatively smooth texture. This is clearly far from the truth.

The real deal is far less impressive. The included batarang is made from shiny black plastic; meanwhile, long scratches cover the entire thing, with particular wear on the edges, revealing white plastic underneath. The kicker, of course, is that an unwary consumer who bought the Collector's Edition for this particular souvenir and is dissatisfied with it can't return the game to retailers like GameStop. When I tried, I was told (even though there's no plastic wrap to cut through, only some plastic folds to unhook) that because the package had been opened, they wouldn't take it back.

While we didn't really expect to get a real batarang of sharpened metal, I'm pretty sure that none of us thought we'd receive a cheap statue that looked like it had been dragged across a cement floor. The Collector's Edition certainly has a haul of fun stuff, but it's a shame to see that its primary selling point is so underwhelming.

Ben's thoughts

I know many of you knew about the plastic construction of the batarang already, but I'm seeing enough stories like this in the forums that I thought we'd spread the news. Heck, if Mike didn't know the batarang was going to be both plastic and beaten up, I'm sure it will be news to some other people.