Mattel finally revealed what’s going on with the Dark Knight Movie Masters line–and it’s a bit of a surprise. More after the jump.

I’ve got a hot update on Movie Mastersâ„¢ The Dark Knight products…

You already know that initially the plan was to offer one new figure per month at MattyCollector.com. Thanks to you, loyal Dark Knight fans, sales have been so good that we’re feeling confident enough to increase production and also bring the line to Toys “R” Us in the spring.

The good news is that you’ll be able to walk into your local Toys “R” Us and find The Dark Knight figures. The even better news? You’ll still be able to get them at MattyCollector.com and because of the increased production numbers, we’ll be reducing the price to just $15 each!

Here’s how it’ll go down: The Joker as Gotham City Thug figure started out here on MattyCollector.com, and will continue to be a MattyCollector.com exclusive as long as we’ve got stock. The remaining six figures in the line will be available here first, one each month for the new price of $15 each. Then this spring they’ll all be available at Toys “R” Us except for The Joker as Gotham City Thug. At press time, here’s how the line is slated for sale here at MattyCollector.com (subject to change, as always):

* ON SALE NOW: The Joker as Gotham City Thug — a MattyCollector.com exclusive!
* December 15: Survival Suit Bruce Wayne
* January 15: Harvey Dent
* February 15: The Joker with Missile Launcher
* March 15: Scarecrow
* April 15: Batman (Night Vision)
* May 17: Two-Face

You know I always try to tell you like it is. While this strategy won’t work for every Mattycollector.com line, when the second-highest grossing film of all time is behind a toy line, it gives us a unique opportunity to bump up production numbers and offer it at retail as well so even more fans can get the characters they want.

I’ll let you know as soon as we have expected on-shelf dates. We really appreciate everyone’s support for this great line!

So…wow. Maybe it’s just my local TRUs, but I’ve seen a lot of DKMM figures warming the pegs. So what happened here? I suppose this could be another part of TRU’s attempts to cater to the collector crowd. There’s little question that this announcement will hurt sales of DKMM on Mattycollector, but I completely understand why Mattel would go for the far larger orders of TRU over their own, much smaller production run.

The key question, of course, is whether this will affect the price of DKMM on Mattycollector.They can justify the $20 they’ve already charged for Bank Robber Joker by keeping it as a Mattycollector exclusive, but since they made that distinction, I’m wondering if this means they’ll knock the price of the remaining figures down to $15 or so. If not–if Mattycollector shoppers are still paying a minimum of $26 w/ shipping for a figure they’ll be able to get for almost half that in a few months–I’m sure Mattycollector will have seriously difficulty moving the remaining DKMM figures (and Bank Robber Joker ain’t doing that well as it is).

Question: was Survival Suit Bruce Wayne delayed while this deal was being worked out? If so, I think that points to a plan to lower the Mattycollector price point. If I’m wrong…then Mattycollector is going to have an awful lot of DKMM figures on sale for quite a while.

(Sorry folks. Was rushing to finish this post and obviously didn’t read the press release closely enough. Again, mea culpa.)