The Femme Fatales PVC statue line by Diamond Select Toys has really taken off, and many of the earliest releases (Alice, Dawn, Tarot) have long sold out. But one of the sold-out ladies — Jim Balent’s comic-book creation Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose — is about to get company. Her sister, Raven Hex, has just been offered though Diamond Comics Distributor’s Previews catalog, and it features a great sculpt by veteran toy and statue sculptor Steve Kiwus!

The original plan was to depict Raven as if she were casting a spell, but partway in to the process DST went back to the drawing board and came up with the more intimidating pose seen here. Now, the 9-inch PVC statue is on track for an early 2012 release date, and we checked in with Kiwus to talk about what sorcery goes into creating such a sinister-yet-sultry piece of sculpture.

DST: Is this piece intended to be a companion piece to the Tarot statue, or is it meant to be a stand-alone piece on its own merits?
Kiwus: It’s a stand-alone. I had seen the Tarot figure, but didn’t really take it into consideration. It’s been my experience that unless the bases interlock, statues don’t really interact with each other.

DST: Raven Hex doesn’t have a lot of material in her costume. Does the amount of clothing affect the amount of time it takes to sculpt a figure?
Kiwus: It ends up being about the same amount of time — surface details can hide a lot of sins. Yes, I end up saving time by not having to add them, but I spend a lot more time on the underlying form of the body.

DST: Balent’s women are famously full-figured. Is it difficult to find a balanced pose for a character who is naturally, er, top-heavy?
Kiwus: The large endowments really only shift the center of gravity up a little. It’s not nearly as difficult as balancing a figure with a large gun — which is usually pointed forward — because that makes the figure really want to tip forward.

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October has been a big month for Diamond Select Toys, from the Munsters to the Universal Monsters to X-Men: Curse of the Mutants. Well, we’ve got one more specialty-market ship date left in October, and it’s a doozy! Not only will comic book shops and online retailers get the first box set of Femme Fatales Minimates (with Dawn, Darkchylde, Tarot and Lady Death), they’ll also get the long-awaited specialty assortment of Minimate Vehicles Series 2!

The blue MAX Tech Stealth Jet with Pilot, the glow-in-the-dark Pirate Raiders Ship with Cartographer and the Back to the Future II Hover-Mode TIme Machine (phasing version) with Jennifer will all arrive at stores this Wednesday, so hit up you LCS or your favorite online retailer for your set. Check out the pictures below, and check out the glowing ship’s debut in the first episode of “Calico Jack’s Pirate Raiders”!

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They may look tiny and adorable, but make no mistake, these Femme Fatales Minimates pack all of the attitude of their 9-inch statue counterparts into a compact 2-inch package! You may want to keep them inside their snazzy blister card, seen below, just to keep the rest of your Minimates collection safe. You could release them from their protective shell, but Diamond Select Toys will not be responsible for the Minimate bloodshed and/or heartbreak that follows. Set 1 hits comic and specialty shops in October, followed by Set 2 in November!

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Tarot (Set 1, September)

Since we had all eight ladies of Femme Fatales Minimates Sets 1 and 2 all in one place, we decided to take them on a field trip! Here’s a look at the women of both 2-inch mini-figure sets in their natural habitat, and be sure to pick up your own sets this fall!

Femme Fatales Minimates Series 1

We here at Diamond Select Toys believe in equality among toys. So when we realized that most of our Minimates lines were overwhelmingly male, we decided to make up for it by giving the women their own assortment! Springing out of our Femme Fatales line of statues, two four-figure box sets are planned so far, with the first set hitting stores in September. Set 1 features comic book luminaries Lady Death, Darkchylde, Tarot and Dawn, while Set 2 showcases some of DST’s own character designs: Anne Bonny, Medusa, Alice and Little Red. All stand 2 inches tall with 14 points of articulation, and all are compatible with existing Minimates lines like MAX and Pirate Raiders — so you can have Anne Bonny join Calico Jack’s pirate crew! Check out the photos below, then check back tomorrow to see our photo shoot!

Two different Tarot Statues!

Not only do we have Tarot the Witch of the Black Rose,
but we have a special Tarot in White as a 2010 SDCC exclusive!

See it first here and get it only in San Diego!

We’ve just begun taking pre-orders for our upcoming Femme Fatales Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose PVC Statue and it looks like we have a new potential spokesman in the form of The Tonight Show’s Conan O’Brien! Eagle-eyed viewers might also catch our Hobgoblin Prankster bust.  Check out the video clip from last night’s show after the jump! (more…)