(The Toybox is running late this week, but fear not, it should come out before I leave for vacation on Friday.)

As I mentioned, my replacement Ramathorr FANtastic Exclusive figure arrived last week. For those who don’t know the story, the FANtastic Exclusive is a project by the toy design team known as the Four Horsemen. On their FE website, the Horsemen present a number of ideas for action figures, and then fans vote on which action figure they want. Once a character is selected, the fans then get to vote on the figure’s size, articulation, accessories, and even packaging. The figure is then sold at conventions like the San Diego Comic Con and through the Horsemen’s online store.

The first FANtastic Exclusive in 2006 was Xetheus, a minotaur from the 4H’s “Seventh Kingdom” concept. In addition to the regular figure, the Horsemen made partnerships with several websites and retailers to offer numerous variants with different paints and ornamentation. I myself chose the Keeper of the Black Labyrinth, whose gray, red and black color scheme really appealed to me. The Horsemen also offered fans the opportunity to order an entire set of the variants.

Xetheus and his brethren were produced and sold without a hitch (there were some complaints about loose joints, but my Keeper has been fine). The figures came out beautifully, and it was great to get an action figure of an original concept. The experiment seemed to have gone well, and the Horsemen quickly began soliciting fans’ votes for the FE 2007. The result was Ramathorr, an enormous elephantine warrior from the same animal-hybrid kingdom as Xetheus. Again, there were a number of variants available at different vendors.

The design process went fine…the production process, not so much.

The first production run of Ramathorr and his variants featured poor quality control. Weak joints and poor construction made for elephants that flopped over constantly–or resolutely refused to stand. Legs and arms popped off at random. Displeased with the results, the Horsemen decided to find a new factory and do another production run. This led to a seemingly endless series of problems that eventually cost the Horsemen quite a bit of their own money, but finally, eight months after the first run was sold at SDCC, the second production of Ramathorr & company has arrived.

Since I had a first-run Rammy, I was able to compare him to the new one. In terms of sculpt and paint work, they’re very similar–and both are exemplary. Put simply, these figures feature specialty-market quality work with great articulation; the closest I’ve seen to this sort of thing is NECA’s more recent efforts such as the Ninja Turtles and Kratos from God of War. Best of all, even the trunk is articulated! This wasn’t the case with my first-run Ram, and I’ve heard that some of the second-run Rams don’t have movable trunks either–not sure what the deal is there. The second-run’s trunks could just be stuck from dried paint, but I’m pretty sure my first-run’s trunk was glued in place.

Ramathorr is in a six-inch scale (one inch=one foot), which means, as an elephant man, he stands nearly nine inches tall, towering over even the Keeper of the Black Labyrinth. The sculpt features an incredible amount of detail; Ramathorr’s head could easily be that of a real elephant. Ramathorr’s armor seems to bear a certain East Indian aesthetic, which makes sense given the animal’s significance in that culture.

Ramathorr’s color scheme matches up well with the Keeper (Xetheus’s “default” color was a frosty blue). But while the paint on the Keeper is perfect (except for some paint rub on the spikes of the spaulders), Ramathorr’s isn’t quite as neat. While the applications themselves are very well done, there’s some slop and paint rub in various places, particularly on the toes and spaulders. It’s not too noticeable, though, and given the incredible number of paint ops this figure must have gone through, the QC is actually fairly high here.

For the second production run, the Horsemen had the factory add notches to a number of the joints, allowing them to ratchet rather than slide smoothly. This has significantly cut down on Ramathorr’s tendency to fall over, though he’s still taken a couple of dives off my shelf because, despite the improved joints, he’s still just a bit too top-heavy. I wonder if in the future, the Horsemen could make the torso and/or arms of large figures like these in rotocast, similar to Mezco’s Kriegaffe #10? That would cut down on ol’ Rammy’s suicide attempts, methinks.

Another difference between the two production runs are the weapons. Ramathorr comes with two smaller swords and one gigantic buster sword, which features an intricately-carved tusk at the end (supposedly from one of Ram’s ancestors). The weapons in the first production were made from a very stiff plastic, whereas the second run’s weapons are bit more rubbery and, as such, more prone to bending (particularly the buster sword when held in a horizontal pose). While the buster sword hands handsomely from its holster on the back, the handles of the two smaller swords don’t fit very tightly in the clips on either side of the holster–because, I think, they were actually designed not for the handles of the swords but for the hafts of the axes that come with some of the other variants, such as the Gauntlet of Vaskkh.

One last thing–the figures still use relatively small pegs to secure the thighs to the torso, and so my Ram’s right leg pops off pretty easily. It will go right back on, but it’s a small annoyance.

However, almost all of my “complaints” in this article are minor nitpicks, and in fact, I was so pleased with Ramathorr I decided to go ahead and order one of the variants.

These are incredible figures, and I strongly urge everyone to buy at least one of them–chances are, one will appeal to you. But as amazing as the figures are, I also think it’s important to continue to support the Horsemen’s FANtastic Exclusive project and prove that there is indeed a market for original property, well-sculpted, highly articulated action figures. And best of all, you get to participate in the process! (To follow the progress of this year’s FANtastic Exclusive, Scarabus, and participate in future votes, visit the FE site.)

For those of you who are interested, here are your options:

Ramathorr – Available through the Horsemen’s own online store.

The Gauntlet of Vaskkh – This one has the head of a rhinoceros and is available through ActionFigureXpress. I was tempted by this one, but decided I wanted the default Ramathorr instead, and I didn’t want both due to their similarity in color and armor. Note: Before you order, contact AFX and confirm that you’ll be getting one of the second production run Gauntlets.

The Helm of Xaamn – The Helm is brown, with a warthog’s head. This is the one I went with; his color and armor are different enough that he’ll seem like a completely different character from Ramathorr. You can get this guy from BigBadToyStore.

The Shield of Draumm – Also brown, with a hippopotamus head. Available from Raving Toy Maniac.

The Mutant Ggruxx – A hideous green creature with a cyclopean eye and a furry loincloth. Available from ToyRocket.

The Mutant Ssejjhhorr (the 4H sure love double-consonants…) – Ggruxx’s red counterpart. Available from Figures.com.

There were two other variants from Fwoosh and October Toys, both with a different elephant head from Ramathorr’s, but they appear to have sold out. Previews also has/had a variant with the variant elephant head, but I’m not entirely sure how you can get your hands on one (does anyone know?).

The Horsemen will also be offering an exclusive Pink Elephant variant at Wizard World Philadelphia (and through their online store).

Phew! And after all that, there’s still the upcoming Seventh Kingdom Queen and Scarabus…but more on them later.