Microsoft’s avatars are great, right?  It’s like playing dress up, but it’s totally OK because you’re putting him in a Master Chief helmet.  Yeah.  Something like that.  If nothing else, they’re a good way to use up those random 40MSP you have in your account from time to time.

Apparently, Microsoft decided that a lot of people really, really like their avatars, so much so that they’re sad they live only as a bunch of zeros and ones.  If you’re one of those people, then you’re in luck, because if you’re willing to part with a bit of your hard-earned cash, you could bring your avatar home!

Right now you have three options: a giant fathead (how appropriate) to stick on your wall, a zune etched with your avatar, or a desktop figurine.

The etching is the “cheapest” of the options, since it’s free, and right now they’re offering a $70 coupon – but that’s of course assuming you want to drop $170 or more on a new zune in the first place.  Next are the figures, and you can customize your avatar’s pose before dropping $50 (plus shipping).  The fatheads will cost you between $80 and $150 each, depending on what size you get, and you have some pose choices as well.  But can you really put a price on a giant sticker of yourself giving the “I’m number one!” gesture? Oh, and of course, it takes some digging to discover these prices; not surprising, considering they’re fairly steep.

Personally, I’m surprised Microsoft didn’t do something like this sooner, and I could see people indulging in some of these purchases.  The biggest problem is that if you have a lot of licensed product bedecking your avatar, you may find you can’t unleash them after all.  I can understand the legal reasons for this, but isn’t the whole point of having your avatar in figure form, for instance, if you can have it decked out the way you want?

[Source: Unleash Your Avatar]