After watching, be sure to read beyond the jump for the lengthy show notes!

DISCLAIMER: There has been no official confirmation of what symbols represent what kingdom. I determined them through careful observation and careful speculation, but I’m pretty confident that they are as I presented them.
[Update – Crazy: The Four Horsemen have confirmed these symbol representations are indeed correct!]

DISCLAIMER 2: The FANtastic Exclusives have nothing to do with He-man or the Masters of the Universe. The only link is that the Four Horsemen happened to also work on that property for Mattel.

Seventh Kingdom Backstory (from back of packaging):

In the infancy of time the world was made of one great continent. As civilizations prospered and grew, the world’s people separated into six enormous kingdoms. As some kingdoms expanded so did their hunger for power. Bloody battles raged for centuries resulting in nothing but death and frustration. When the devastating effects of these wars finally became too unbearable, a plan was devided to end the bloodshed once and for all. The kingdoms would combine their power to shatter the very land they fought for into six equal parts. However, when plan was indeed realized a grave miscalculation was made. Six equal continents were created, but central to all of them was a seventh continent bigger than the rest. It was a land that breathed an incomprehensible new power. Because of the new unpredictability of this power, the kingdoms vowed this terrain was never to be stepped foor upon. Until now… Growing doubts about the creation and evolution of the seven separate realms have infected some with a renewed thirst for power. Quests for power have turned once again into battles, and those battles have transformed into wars. In these troubled times one thing is for certain – the wars will not end until a legendary power is unleashed. The power of the … SEVENTH KINGDOM

Xetheus (from back of packaging):
The mighty minotaur known as Xetheus was once called Memmnonn. Memmnonn’s dedication to bringing peace to the kingdoms was so great that he freely gave up his life during the splitting of the lands. The sun lord Xemnoss, the most powerful of the elementals, was so moved by the selfless act that he granted Memmnonn immortality and renamed him Xetheus – son of Xemnoss. Xetheus is now a champion whose power is unrivaled by even the greatest heroes of myth and legend. He founded the captial city of Mynothecea in the center of his native kingdom of Animynthus. Xetheus and his mighty Mynothecean minotaur warriors have dedicated themselves to overseeing and defending the land that he has been spared to protect.

Variant Listing

Quality Control
The Four Horsemen responded to another quality control issue on their forum with the following statement:

We also want to take a moment to let you guys know that we do have replacements for just such an occasion. There are always going to be problems here and there with quality control, even with a run this small, so we made a few extra of each figure to be used as “correction samples”.

We’ve tried to catch as many as we can before they go out our door (and we’re happy to report that there haven’t really been that many), but some do slip past every once in a while.

In order to replace a damaged or incorrect figure, we’ll need you to first contact us to make sure that we consider your request valid and replaceable (this case would definately have been) and then mail the original, damaged or incorrect figure back to us before we replace it.

We don’t have a ton of “correction sample” figures, so we just want to be sure that people don’t try to abuse that.

The Four Horsemen have shown us a glimpse of their potential with this line and I look forward to next year, when I can once again share with you the FANtastic Exclusive for 2007, the Elephant Swordsman and hopefully all of his variants.