Last year, Joss Whedon’s follow-up to brilliant-but-cancelled Firefly was given a special global re-release to support the charity Equality Now. They raised over $65,000, and they had such a good time, they’re doing it again.

Starting June 23rd, 50 cities will hold special screenings of Serenity with the aim of raising $100,000! Tickets are already on sale, and a screening last night in Dublin has already pulled in over $4300. Check here for cities and to buy tickets.

Dirty secret: Though I’m a fan of Firefly, I’ve never seen this movie. But its playing this Saturday and for a good cause, so I have to go!

Full Press Release follows [Read the rest of this entry…]

To celebrate the arrival of the exclusives from China to the Botcon warehouse, Botcon.com has posted the box art to the exclusive box set (thats already sold out!).

While we’ve known about the SDCC exclusive for about a month now and we had a teaser of Jitsu, we finally get our first peek at the next wave of mini-statues for the Masters of the Universe line. Sculpted by the Four Horsemen and produced by NECA, this wave features Battle-Armor He-man, Mosquitor, and Jitsu. This keeps with the theme of doing one character from 3 of the 4 factions in each wave. (The Masters, Skeletor’s Council of Evil, Hordak’s Horde, and the Snakemen)

The representative from the Maters is a surprisingly good looking He-man mini-statue featuring the battle-armor based on one of the more popular gimmicked he-man figures.

 

Representing Skeletor’s Council of Evil is Jitsu. This master of the martial arts features an over-sized mechanical hand making him the perfect foil to Fisto.

 

Mosquitor represents the Horde. The original figure was a lot of fun and this really captures that.

 

As for the SDCC exclusive from the Four Horsemen and NECA this year for the MOTU property, we will be seeing a classics colors He-man, apparently using the same base mold that the Battle Armor He-man staction is made from. I’m actually far more interested in the Battle Armor He-man, but this makes a nice addition to the line considering there wasn’t a He-man figure until this wave (which is a good thing!). You’ll also note that he is holding the classic version of the power sword.

  

The variant exclusives for the FANtastic Exclusives continue to be revealed this week. Two new variants were announced as exclusives to online vendors. As last week, each feature a different head that actually change the species of the characters. This series of variants continues to impress with only one more week left to show the final two.

You can see the previous reveals here:
Ramathorr
Part 1
Part 2

Tuesday brought us a welcome surprise in the form of the Gauntlet of Vassk. He features a head modeled after a rhinoceros. The Gauntlet will be an exclusive to Action Figure eXpress. He comes with two battle axes.

Charging into battle against all who oppose the realm of Animynthus comes – ‘ The Gauntlet of Vaskkh!’

  

Today we were pleasantly surprised with the reveal of the Helm of Xaanm. Featuring the head of a boar, the Helm will come with a long handled battle axe and a mini halberd and will be an exclusive to BigBadToyStore.

With a snort and a piercing battle cry that shakes the very foundations of Animynthus, in charges Ramathorr’s master of fighting dirty – ‘ The Helm of Xaanm!’

 

I just want to note that the rhino, hippo, and boar were all suggested on the FANtastic Forums by fans and its clear that the Four Horsemen were listening.

Also of note was the following statement on the FANtastic Exclusive site:

Coming Tuesday: The BIG finale! The final two characters making up the extremely limited Anitherian Nine set will be revealed TOGETHER! Evil finally rears two of its’ extremely ugly heads in the 7 th Kingdom!! The debut of Ggruxx and Ssejjhhor!

Two new variants for the FANtastic Exclusive 2007 have been announced!

Tuesday brought us The Club of Thraugnn, “the crimson combatant sworn to do Ramathorr’s bidding.” The Club will be an exclusive through Fwooshnet.com. He will come with a removeable helmet, long handled battle blade, and a war hammer.

 

Today brought us the Shield of Draumm, the heroic hippopotamus. The head sculpt on this, as described, is not only different from Ramathorr, but is an entirely different animal! The Shield will be an exclusive through Raving Toy Maniac. His hippo-ness will come with a spear/halberd of the type that come with the FE2006 figures, and another war hammer.

 

See here for Part 1, The Hammer of Gholl and the Mace of Broggah!

The FANtastic Exclusive 2006, Xetheus, Champion of Mynothecea, received a resculpted variant painted in six different flavors, each a different exclusive to a different online e-tailer (can you have an offline e-tailer?). For more information on that (with video!) you can check here and for more on the FANtastic Exclusives in general you can read some of these posts.

This year, for the FANtastic Exclusive 2007, we finally have news on the variants for the Elephant Swordsman. Not only that, but he now has a name! Ramathorr: Captain of the Anitherian Guard. Ramathorr will have 8 variants collectively known as The Anitherian Nine (A9). Each revealed on Tuesday and Friday for 4 weeks, starting this week. To keep the front page a little cleaner, I’m going to update once a week (thats two variants per post, for the non-math majors).

So without further ado, here are the first two variants:

The Hammer of Gholl, Ramathorr’s most trusted enforcer.
Previews Exclusive

 

The Mace of Broggah, the dark disciplinarian.
October Toys Toy Break Exclusive

 

As you no doubt know, Spider-man returns to theaters this weekend in a big way. In honor of his return, this week’s extended Lost Classics and $20 GOTW will take a look at some of the best games featuring the web slinger. So click below for some interactive web slinging action.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

The Four Horsemen revealed this year’s FANtastic Exclusive figure on figures.com today.The character has yet to be named, but will be available for purchase at the San Diego Comic Con, in addition to their online store at StoreHorsemen.com for a paltry USD$25.00.

The ever observant Baena of the FANtastic Forums noted that the two hand swords, when placed side by side, form the shape of the very large buster sword, which you see mounted on the figure’s back.

  

The FANtastic Exclusives are voted on by fans at many different steps in its development. This year’s polls included determining the series the figure would come from, the character itself, the figure’s size, articulation and finally, weapons. Last year’s exclusive was Xetheus the Minotaur, Champion of Mynothecea. You can see a full gallery I put together for that figure here and an edition of PowetToys featuring Xetheus and his limited variants here.