FOUR HORSEMEN ANNOUNCE NEW YORK COMIC CON PLANS Scarabus has been chosen by action figure collectors to be the next limited production action figure associated with the Four Horsemen’s “FANtastic Exclusive 3” (http://www.FANtasticExclusive.com) project. Be sure to stop by booth #1544 to hang with the Horsemen and get a glimpse at evil personified! Another revelation at the Four Horsemens’ booth is an exclusive, never before seen, limited edition FANtastic Exclusive 2/Seventh Kingdom action figure! It’s still being kept a secret as to when and where this special, top secret item will be available, but if you remember the Mynothecean Royal Guardsman figure from the first FANtastic Exclusive, and how fast those disappeared, then you know that you’ll want to get in on the ground floor for this one! As mentioned in a previous press release, Ramathorr and his eight Anitherian buddies are making every effort to make an appearance at the big show. The Four Horsemens’ fan-favorite figures from FANtastic Exclusive 2 are currently docked and hanging out with U.S. customs officials, but there’s a slim chance that they could still make it in time to be sold at booth #1544. If not, the Four Horsemen plan to sell damaged Ramathorr figures (i.e. damaged packaging & loose joints) at a discounted price. The Four Horsemen will have production samples of the figures on display at their NYCC booth, and they will be taking orders for the finished production figures, which should be arriving at their warehouse sometime next week. The Four Horsemen will also be attending a few events for Mattel that might be of interest. On Saturday, April 19 th, Mattel and the Four Horsemen will be hosting a DC Universe panel from 11:00am to 12:00pm where they’ll reveal… well, that would be telling wouldn’t it? Just take our word for it… You won’t want to miss it! Immediately following Mattels’ DC Universe panel, the Four Horsemen will make an appearance at Mattels’ New York Comic Con booth (#949) from 12:15pm to 1:45pm for an action figure fans meet & greet / signing. Be sure to come by to chat to, complain at, take pictures with, and get your action figures signed by the Four Horsemen! Finally, before returning to their own area of the New York Comic Con, the Four Horsemen will be attending another panel with Mattel from 2:00pm to 3:00pm which will reveal future plans for all things Masters of the Universe related! If you thought He-Man and the gang were dead and gone, think again! It’s a new direction for Masters of the Universe, and you’ve got to be there to get the first insiders’ look! It’s going to be an exciting weekend at the New York Comic Con and the Four Horsemen are looking forward to seeing you there! Read about it here: http://fantasticexclusive.com/fforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1974 And Here: http://fantasticexclusive.com/fforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1981 |
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ANITHERIAN NINE/RAMATHORR STATUS UPDATEA representative from our factory just sent these photos over to us, and we couldn't be happier to see those 7th Kingdom boxes on that truck! She also included some photos of Ramathorr being assembled in the factory and shots of the packaged figures. Very cool stuff that we don't often get to see. We're going to as her if she can take more images of other areas and procedures in the factory so we can share them with you guys! Keep your fingers crossed.
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ANITHERIAN NINE/RAMATHORR STATUS UPDATE
'since beginning production on their latest wave of action figures, the Four Horsemen have encountered snag after snag with the first factory they were dealing with, ultimately resulting in the need for to hire a new factory altogether. Details on the long journey can be found here: http://www.FANtasticExclusive.com The remaining portion of the Ramathorr and Anitherian Nine action figures from the Four Horsemen's popular, fan chosen property - Seventh Kingdom are finally scheduled to be shipped out from the new Hong Kong factory on March 20th, 2008. The Horsemen are hopeful that this new ship date will get the figures into their warehouse just in time to display and sell many of them at the upcoming New York Comic Con (April 18th-20th, 2008). The Four Horsemen will be attending the 2008 New York Comic Con, and will once again be sharing a booth with the popular online toy and statue retailer Action Figure Xpress (http://www.ShopAFX.com). The Four Horsemen's Eric Treadaway spoke up on the subject. We're going to be cutting it extremely close getting the shipment of pachyderms through U.S. customs and into our warehouse in time. It usually takes about three weeks to get a shipment from Hong Kong to one of the New York ports. The Horsemen's Jim Preziosi added, Our shipping company assures us that we should just make it by the skin of our teeth. We're all definitely keeping our fingers crossed. Of course we'll begin taking care of all of our loyal customers and who've pre-ordered Ramathorr figures and Anitherian Nine sets, and vendors who've ordered exclusive variations of members of the Anitherian Nine first and foremost, said the Horsemen's Cornboy Mayse, but with some of the order cancellations we've had, there should be quite a few more singles and A9 sets up for grabs! We'll have more details on that and a few other special announcements soon. So grab your four leaf clovers, polish up your lucky horseshoes, and keep your fingers triple crossed. After everything this shipment's been through so far, the Four Horsemen will need all the support they can get. |
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NEW FANTASTIC EXCLUSIVE 2008 ROUND! Scarabus, the fan-voted winning character from the Four Horsemen’s Gothitropolis property is going to be a six inch scaled figure (meaning that he’ll actually be roughly 7 inches or so at the top of his head – he’s a big fella’), again, as voted for by action figure fandom. The new round of voting has just begun and now the Four Horsemen need fans to decide just how much articulation Scarabus should have, and whether his cape should be plastic or cloth. This is a simplified, two-part voting round which will only last about a week or so, so be sure to get in there and place your votes while you can. Also, be sure to visit the FANtastic Forums message boards and let your voice be heard. Cast Your Vote!FANtastic Exclusive 2008. 7 inches of pure evil. |
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FOUR HORSEMEN RELEASE RAMATHORR PRODUCTION UPDATE
In our last update on the production progress of the Ramathorr (and all of the exclusive variants) action figure, we mentioned that we were going the have our steel molds shipped to a new factory to begin production anew. The new factory was finally able to take possession of the molds recently and inspect them in preparation for production. During their inspection they’ve noticed that some of the molds have a small amount of surface rust (pictured in the “Ramathorr Molds 1” image) because the previous factory had left them sitting, un-oiled and uncovered for an extended period of time. This surface rust is not enough that it will weaken the quality of the detail in the figures, but it is enough that all of the molds will need to be thoroughly cleaned and greased before they can begin running the new batch of figures. This means that workers will need to attend to the molds with mild solvents, bead blasters, steel wool, and a little elbow grease to get the molds cleaned up enough to be usable. This also means another unexpected a delay in production. Not much of a delay – probably only about a week or so more, but enough that we’re not going to be able to get our product shipped out to us before the factory takes its’ annual Chinese New Year break (which – if we’re not mistaken – is the first two weeks in February), as we’d originally hoped. It now looks as if we may be able to have the product in our warehouse and be able to begin shipping everything out in mid to late March. That is if nothing else rears its’ ugly head. Please keep your fingers crossed, bear with us, and we’ll update you as often as possible with any further developments. Now for some good news, we know for sure now that the previous factory made the necessary adjustments to the figural articulation in order to add overall stability to the figures. If you look closely at the second mold image (“Ramathorr Mold 2”) you’ll notice that they’ve welded small detents in all of the leg joints in order to give the figures a sturdy, clicking movement. These detents have also been added to joints in the arms. We received samples of these joints a few months ago from the original factory, but at the time we weren’t sure if it was only done in the samples we received for our approvals, or if they had actually added these to the steel molds themselves. Since we now know they’ve been added to the steel molds, production of the new, sturdier figures should go smoothly once the new production starts. For any further updates, please check back here periodically, and keep watching the FANtastic Forums message boards at http://www.FANtasticExclusive.com |
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ANITHERIAN NINE/RAMATHORR STATUS UPDATE
First, we want to apologize about the delayed delivery of the remaining figures, and the delay in information about the status of the figures. We've been running into problem after problem with the factory producing these figures for us, and we were awaiting official word from them before we sent out more information that might end up not being true. As previously stated, we ran into production problems with Ramathorr and the variants early on, and the Hong Kong factory that we were using for production promised that they would make good on their mistake by going back and remaking a portion of the initial production run free of charge. We were happy that they were willing to work with us on this and even though we expected a small delay because of this, we had no idea what was truly in store for us… Roughly a month after promising to make good on their errors, the factory finally responded to one of our e-mails regarding the production status of our figures by telling us that our production schedule was going to have to be pushed back once again because larger companies were pressuring them to get their work done before they finished ours. Obviously we were pretty upset by this, but being a small group of toy designers and not a large corporation with all of the needed money and muscle, there was really not much we could do about it. We later found out this excuse for a delay was nothing more than a lie just to buy the factory more time, and the worst news was yet to come… Another month had gone by and after multiple e-mails to the factory with no responses, we found out from some of our friends over at NECA that because of ‘misuse of funds’ caused by the one person at the factory that we were directly dealing with, the factory that was doing the work for us – SmartLife Productions - decided to shut all production down...permanently. Although they’d sent us a few pre-production samples of the newly revised figures (which were fantastic), no real production run had ever been started up on our figures again. We thought the news couldn’t get any worse. We were wrong… That’s when we found out that there was a pretty good chance that we would lose all of the steel molds that we’d already paid for in advance. Tens of thousands of dollars worth of our steel molds could possibly disappear from the factory floor and get shoved into the back of some warehouse somewhere in Hong Kong with no record whatsoever. Good times. We were waiting to release any new information about the production status of the figures until we found out if we were going to be able to get our molds back from the factory - which was looking unlikely for a short period. Luckily, a friend of ours that we use to work with at McFarlane Toys, and the guys over at NECA stepped in for us. Apparently, some of their molds were also still being held by this factory and, in a move we’ll never be able to fully thank them for, NECA stepped in and forced the factory to include any of our steel molds with their own and have them delivered to a new factory. We have no idea how they were able to accomplish this feat, but we are extremely grateful to them for it and we encourage everyone reading this to not only give NECA all of the business you possibly can, but to also give them a tip of the hat for being such great guys in an industry filled with greed and competition. We're not sure what we would have done if the guys over at NECA hadn't stepped in on our behalf. We definitely would have been completely screwed. Thanks Joel, Randy and Tony! We just got final confirmation on Tuesday morning that all of our molds are now safe and sound at the new factory, and they're going schedule us to begin new production ASAP. Unfortunately, we've lost a lot of the money that we put into the production so far, and we'll have to cough up more money out of our own pockets to finish out the new production, but we guess we should be thankful that we were able to get our molds back at all. In any case, obviously we're not going to meet the deadline that we'd originally hoped for now, and we sincerely apologize to all of you for that, and any other inconveniences this delay may have caused. But if everything goes as well as we're being told now, it looks like we're going to be able to get all of our production finished through this new factory before the beginning of the new year, and we hope to have all of the stuff in our warehouses so we can ship all of it out to our vendors well before the factories overseas shut down for Chinese New Year. Rest assured that the figures are still in production, and they will be delivered. It’s just taking MUCH longer than we’d originally anticipated, and we want to make sure that we deliver the best possible product to everyone who’s paid out their hard-earned money for these figures. We will continue to update you as soon as we have new information on the progress from the factory. Also, be sure to continually check the message boards at FANtasticExclusive.com ( http://www.FANtasticExclusive.com) for any other developments. Once again, we apologize for the extreme lateness of these figures. We’re doing everything we can to expedite the production and delivery of these figures, and we’d like to thank you in advance for your continued patience and support. Thanks for sticking with us through all of the crap we're going through. We’ve learned from the experience, and we’ll do everything we can to make sure that things go much more smoothly with future installments of 7 th Kingdom and FANtastic Exclusive. Take care. -FOUR HORSEMEN- |
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EXCLUSIVE CHARACTER FOR FANTASTIC EXCLUSIVE 2008 CHOSEN / ROUND 3 VOTING BEGINSOnce again, action figure fans have made their voices heard in the Four Horsemen’s on going FANtastic Exclusive (http://www.FANtasticExclusive.com) project, and the winning character of round 2 voting came barreling through with a landslide win over his competitors. You FANtastic FANatics certainly have a dark side… The evil overlord, Scarabus, from the Four Horsemen’s property “Gothitropolis” won out in voting at nearly a two to one margin over his next competitor. Scarabus started out strong and just kept pulling farther and farther ahead in the voting until there was no doubt who the winner would be. Now that action figure fans have decided which character will be the FANtastic Exclusive figure for 2008, it’s time for you to tell the Four Horsemen the size of this dark demon from the depths. The newest round of voting will be for the scale of Scarabus. In the past, the 6” scale has been greatly favored for characters such as Xetheus and Ramathorr (both from the Four Horsemen’s property, “ Seventh Kingdom”), but this time, voters will have six different scales from which to choose. The different scales action figure fans will have to choose from will be 3-3/4”, 5”, 6”, 8”, 12”, and added this year as a choice, the massive 18” scale. Scarabus is a big fella’, so even if a certain scale is chosen, he will likely be larger in stature than that actual scale. For instance, even though a character like Darth Vader is considered at roughly a 6 foot scale in comparison to other humans, he's approximately a 7 foot tall guy. Images are provided for the voting round for reference, but keep in mind that even those images are approximate. Also, a lot of people have been awaiting news about the status of Ramathorr and all of his variant warriors. Although we’ve recently been through the proverbial mill with our factories, it appears as if things have finally been ironed out. We’d planned to release information today on the subject, but with these new developments, it’s going to take us at least a couple of days to get a good handle on what the actual schedule’s going to be. We’re going to attempt to have an update on the progress by this weekend, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for further updates. FANtastic Exclusive 2008: Leonardo Da Vinci said, “ He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done.” The FANatics’ will is our command. >> VOTE IN ROUND THREE <<FANtastic Exclusive - Do You Measure Up? |
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FANtastic Exclusive ROUND TWO!!!!!!!!!Round two of the Four Horsemens’ FANtastic Exclusive 2008 is up and running, and it’s like nothing they’ve done before. The FANtastic FANatics have been asking for a shake up in the voting system and now they are going to get it. As an experiment the Four Horsemen are holding back the results of round one, and going straight to round 2! This time it’s going to be an all out character vs. character brawl! Fans will be given the chance to choose their favorites out of 28 different characters from all four of the current FANtastic Exclusive properties on display – Gothitropolis, MagmaC.O.R.P.S., Zodiac Pack and Symbiotech. At the conclusion of round two the Four Horsemen will reveal the results of both rounds one and two. At that point, if the results of the rounds contradict each other, they will set up a final, deciding round of voting. This new approach to voting is going to give fans an unprecedented amount of influence on next years’ exclusive. At this point anything can happen! If you haven’t before, now is definitely the time to stop by the FANtastic Forums and give your opinion, hype your favorite character, or even just take a look at what the other FANatics have to say. >> VOTE IN ROUND TWO <<FANtastic Exclusive - Now it’s anybody’s game!
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FANtastic Exclusive 3The time has come once again to let your voice be heard and help to choose and create an all new exclusive action figure for the Four Horsemen’s FANtastic Exclusive 3 project! If you’ve ever wanted your chance to work in the action figure industry, here’s your chance to get a taste of it, and be our bosses. In this third installment of FANtastic Exclusive, the Four Horsemen have promised many changes in store for action figure fans. The first, most noticeable change will be that some properties have been removed from the running, while others have stepped in to take their place. As some may have already heard, the winning property of both FAN-Ex ‘06, and FAN-Ex ‘07 – Seventh Kingdom has been removed from voting. The reason for this is that the overwhelming popularity of this property has enabled it to become it’s own separate action figure line, and will allow Seventh Kingdom to continue apart from, yet still side-by-side with the other FANtastic Exclusive properties. And don’t fret if you’re a fan of the other two properties that have been removed from voting in FANtastic Exclusive 3. You’ve neither seen nor heard the last of either Chrysalis or the Aliens line. There’s a good chance they could reappear, possibly slightly revamped, in later versions of FANtastic Exclusive. The newest addition to FANtastic Exclusive is actually an old friend! Way back in 2005, when the Four Horsemen first started doing summer convention exclusives of their own, their very first release was Commander Argus of the Four Horsemen property, Magma C.O.R.P.S. Well, Magma C.O.R.P.S. is back, and this time Commander Argus brought some buddies along with him! Be sure to check out FANtastic Exclusive 3 (http://www.FANtasticExclusive.com) online right now to get a look at all of the properties and characters you’re going to have to choose from as soon as voting goes live later this week! Also, many new characters have been added to the properties you’re already familiar with, so be sure to stop into the FANtastic FANatics message boards to voice your opinions about your favorites and not-so favorites. The first round of voting is only going to be around for about two weeks, so be sure to get in there and place your vote early! CAST YOUR VOTE!FANtastic Exclusive 3. |
The Four Horsemen are kicking off their first New York Comic Con appearance (April 18 th – 20 th) by revealing their fully painted 2-up prototype of their fan-chosen “Gothitropolis” character, SCARABUS! 
A new year brings a new round of voting in the Four Horsemen’s ongoing action figure fan based project: FANtastic Exclusive 2008 (
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