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!’

 

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

 

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.

The Four Horsemen have posted the fifth round of their FANtastic Exclusive polls to determine this year’s action figure. This round focuses on weapons. The Elephant Swordsman will feature two large swords as seen in his concept art, but this poll will determine a third bladed weapon. You can check out the next round at the FANtastic Exclusive site.

Some of you may remember a little video I made on the 2006 exclusive.

ActionFigureeXpress comes through with yet another hot exclusive. This time in the form of a King Randor staction. Masters of the Universe officianados may remember that King Randor was an SDCC exclusive for 2005 from the Four Horsemen. You can see a review of this convention exclusive Randor here. This time around Randor is sporting a new head sculpt, cape and shield. The shield replaces the staff accessory that came with the convention exclusive and if you look closely sports some memorable acid burns. His color scheme also matches that of the original Randor figure from the 80’s line.

(Classic Randor picture from He-man.org)

   

Now that I have all the minotaurs from the 7th Kingdom series from the Four Horsemen, I took the opportunity to put together a photo gallery. Its far from professional, but it gives you a good look at the figures, their posability, and their accessories. I tried to have a little fun with it and give each minotaur a little personality by differing up their poses and weapons. The accessories give credit to a wide range of options with some mixing and matching of the halberd, spear and flag.

You can see the gallery by clicking here:
FANtastic Exclusive 2006 Minotaurs

For more information on the FANtastic Exclusives for 2006, check out this edition of PowetToys.

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

[Read the rest of this entry…]