Book your return to Pandora with this amazing Avatar merchandise

We gear up for the Oscars with cool gear from the James Cameron smash.

After the months of speculation, tomorrow is the big night when Hollywood decides which it prefers – Kathryn Bigelow’s critically adored war drama, The Hurt Locker or James Cameron’s epic sci-fi spectacular, Avatar. Jim triumphed at the Golden Globes but ex-missus, Kathryn came good at the BAFTAs making it one of the most hotly contested Oscars in recent years. Here at Boxwish, we don’t like to play favourites and wish them both the best of luck, yet when it comes to collecting some cool merch from these two, one’s head and shoulders above the other (well, those Na’vi are bloody tall).

And there’s so much Avatar stuff out there. The film wrapped up loads of licensing agreements with everyone from Coke Zero to McDonalds, and in terms of merch they’ve partnered with such big brands as Mattel for the action figures and toys, Ubisoft for the video game and HarperCollins for the books. This all added up to a promotional push which, prior to the movie’s absolute demolition job on the box office, had some in the industry questioning its chances of success.

Howard Roffman, the head of Lucasfilm, the production company behind Star Wars, itself the most famous and lauded of movie merchandisers, expressed surprise that an unfamiliar film was unleashing so much merch during these tough economic times, admitting that he would be “very nervous” to be launching such a campaign. “The economy is not good,” he continues, “retailers are challenged, licensee companies are challenged, so my hat’s off to people who rise to that and get a program out there.”

And while Howard might not have backed the worldwide push on all things Pandora, the deals went through and pulled in big bucks. As we all know on its December release Avatar become an unstoppable juggernaut of a cinematic success. It beat Titanic’s worldwide box office record, championed 3D technology encouraging everyone else to follow suit (and we mean everyone) and had us all depressed that we can’t actually hang with Jake and Neytiri in their blue world.

This unbelievable success has meant that all the brands that first signed tie-in deals with Avatar have done really well (Christmas bonus, anyone?) leaving others desperately clamouring to churn out their own Avatar-inspired goodies. This means that there are still tons of upcoming Avatar products announced to hit store shelves over the next few months, with everything from fancy dress costumes to limited edition maquettes preparing to launch.

But we can’t wait that long! We want our Avatar merch fix now and so have rounded up some of the coolest clothing, collectibles and more to help cheer on Big Jim come tomorrow night.