As part of the "Little Damn Heroes" line of maquettes, QMx has produced the 10th crewmember, Serenity. And she's pretty!

OK, not as mind-blowingly cool as their massive, $2500 replica Serenity. But a very cool thing indeed. It's a hair under 8" long, 5" across, and comes with its own black stand, suitable for autographs if that's your thing and a Big Damn Hero with a pen happens to be nearby. (Some of the pics below can be embiggened by clicking)

First thing you notice, aside from how generally cool it is and that it comes with two tiny, loose shuttles you shouldn't lose, is that it's made from lots of little pieces, not cast as one statue. The panels, the cables, the various doodads that hang off our girl are stuck right on, giving it a much more realistic look and feel. It's made of polystone, whatever that is.

Next is the paint job. She's been hand-painted, and not perfectly. There's weathering on the prow, rusted areas by the engines. Different panels are different colors, possibly from different ships entirely. It looks lived in. Flown. Used. Knocked around a bit.

And it's got some heft to it. Where the ornament from Dark Horse (roughly 2/3 the size of this) feels light, this girl can be swooped in a thoroughly satisfying manner.

It's also as accurate as a model can be. Crafted in 1:400 scale, it was created from the actual CG files used to make the ship fly on the show (yes, this is the TV Serenity, not the movie one).

Even the underside has been painted with the same care. And the socket the stand slots into offers a secure and snug fit.

The shuttles come loose, one parked, one in flight. The parked one slides snugly into its bay, while the flying one rests on an included wire stand that sits on the engine arm.

Now the bad, or at least the not-as-good. Because it includes many bits that have been glued on, it must be handled like a display model and not a toy. One of the solar panels popped off mine while I was handling it for the photos, but it went back in with no problem and some glue will keep it there. The engines look like they can be adjusted; they can't. Nothing turns, so don't try. The loose shuttles also could be easy to misplace. I'm planning on some discreet tape or maybe a trace amount of poster putty to keep mine in place.

The price is a bit high for a casual buy — but not, in my opinion, for a Browncoat who wants this lady on her shelf. $99.95 plus shipping. However…

It's now available from QMx but, if you don't mind waiting and you order before January 25, you can get it for $79.95 from TFAW.com, plus shipping. (All TFAW's presale items are 20% off).

And that's it. The Little Damn Heroes Serenity is a nice addition to my Serenity collection, and I'm getting pickier about what I buy these days.

Check the link for lots more photos.

Pretty straightforward, really. QMx, the talented and obsessive artisans who somehow reach into my brain and make the things I want, made a great big Serenity. Which I want, don't get me wrong, but can't quite justify buying (and I've tried).

They also made an ittle one, which I own and hangs from my car mirror where people try to steal it constantly. And for awhile there was a Serenity ornament, which berths comfortably on my desk at work.

But I wanted a nice display model that fit in my budget, and lo, they have answered me. As part of their Serenity Little Damn Heroes Maquettes series, they've released a 1:400 scale version of our girl, priced at an affordable $99.95, due to ship in December.

Roughly 8" long, it's hand-painted, made of dozens of polystone pieces, with an insane attention to detail for this price point. You can remove it from its stand and zoom it around the room — and I will — and the shuttles are removable. One of them is in a flight position and can be fixed on a wire stand to appear to be launching off the wing (as shown). It doesn't light up (that's the bigger, pricier model) but the solar panels are chromed to provide a nice effect. And, like the larger model, it was made from the original CG files from the show, so it's as screen-accurate as can be. The black base is attractive and solid and would show off silver-penned autographs nicely, should someone happen to bring theirs to a convention, hint hint.

While the other LDH maquettes were released as limited editions, this one is not. However, I'd expect the first run of 2,000 to go fast and they take some time to make, so if you want one soon best get on the preorder list now.

Behind me, of course.

The latest in DC's new "We totally respect women, you bet" line of comics, "Helen Keller: Unleashed" is both inspirational and wicked hot!

Remember, a beautiful and confident woman shouldn't have to be ashamed of how she dresses, or chooses to splash about, or carries on all her conversations with Anne Sullivan while one or both of them is dressing or undressing. Don't be a prude or a hater. And don't miss the pivotal 12-page water pump scene!

Next month: "The Diary of Anne Frank."

Lust for Love is the story of an innocent guy (Fran Kranz) who wins the love of his childhood sweetheart (TBA), but since he’s been holding out for her his whole life, he's so embarrassing that he’s quickly dumped. Convinced he needs more experience with women to win her back, he convinces the sweetheart's girlfriend (Dichen Lachman) to teach him how to woo women.

It's also got fellow Dollhouse alum Enver Gjokaj, plus Maurissa Tancharoen, Caitlin Stasey, and (because she is federally required to be in all indie-Whedony-webby productions) Felicia Day. It's written and will be directed by Anton King, the guy who did the amazing music video for Tancharoen and Jed Whedon's "Remains." So yeah, I want to see this.

And I will; it's already funded. But a basic budget, while cool, isn't enough. I'd like to see higher production values, better distribution, maybe even (gasp) a few bucks for the people involved. There's still 6 days left to contribute and be a part, and you can get lots of great stuff by doing so. Copies of the movie, access to the behind-the-scenes stuff, posters, even private screenings if you've got the bank for it.

Indulge your lust for "Lust for Love."

It's been making the rounds so you've probably seen it, but just in case… the cast and crew's goodbye to David Tennant. Watch closely and you can tell who knew the words already and who didn't!

He defied conventional reasoning and made the unconventional commonplace and obvious.

He proved that technology could be beautiful.

He demanded that technology be easy to use and as foolproof as possible.

He had a simple, unbelievably complicated goal: "“I want to put a ding in the universe.” And he did just that.

As I write this with my finger on the glass of a small, elegant, handheld device that holds every song I like plus my favorite shows and movies and the entire fricking Internet in my pocket, I thank you Steve, for your crazy geniusness.

I'm not going into the mechanics of the thing, there are far better places for that than here. Short version: It's Facebook without the games, apps, or privacy concerns.

It'll be good, I think, once more people are in there and the iOS app gets approved and they get a few bugs out. (The bugs that bugs me the most so far: if I share something with someone in a circle, that someone can choose to share it elsewhere [after a warning pops up]. I thought the point of circles was so you could disseminate things like drunken party photos without your boss seeing them? What good do circles do you if you send it to a coworker and that coworker broadcasts it? I think there needs to be a setting where if someone wants to share what you've posted, you can request that you be notified first so you can deny it. Just saying.)

But my main problem right now is, how do I integrate these things? I'm in Google+, I'm on Twitter, I'm in Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, DeviantArt. There are even old LiveJournal and Tumblr accounts of mine floating around somewhere, and my MySpace page is still there if anyone is still wandering those empty halls. And I really don't want to log into all of them to post stuff. So what goes where?

Right now my blog posts here are automatically posted to Twitter, and all tweets are then automatically posted to Facebook. Fairly often I'll post directly to Twitter if it's a twittery thought, and occasionally I'll post directly to Facebook, but Google+ won't crosspost to or accept posts from any of them. I can use Tweetdeck to post to multiple social network accounts but they haven't added Google+ yet (they have Google Buzz, but items posted to that don't show up in G+ that I've seen yet). I don't want to spend my day posting everywhere. Do I pick one or two and stick with them? Do I keep them all separate and use each one for different things? I'm pretty sure I don't have that much to say.

Is there a logical breakdown of what audience is where? Twitter tweets fit nicely in my Facebook status but not the other way around, and would make silly blog posts here, especially since posts made here get posted to Twitter. And where does Tumblr fit in? Should I move my Flickr and Facebook photos to Picasa before Google+ takes off? Or post casual pics to Facebook/Google+ and reserve Flickr for my good, portfolio-type shots? Gah!

At some point soon I think I'll be taking a look at all the places I have a presence (i.e. most of them) and start downsizing and consolidating where I can't connect 'em up. How do you guys handle your accounts?

Browncoats rejoiced when fan-favorite collectible card company Inkworks got the license to make Serenity cards and they sold very well, but nothing sold out faster than the binder for them.

Commemorating Joss Whedon's movie "Serenity," the big-screen continuation of his popular-but-canceled show "Firefly," Inkworks produced a gorgeous set of 72 cards depicting scenes (and behind-the-scenes) from the movie. The binder is sturdy, 11 1/2" by 10" by 1 3/4" and contains the basic 72-card set, plus the following promo cards:

SP-i
SP-1
SP-NSUSD
SP-SD 2005 (Comics Con exclusive)
SP-UK (from a British collecting magazine, I think)
SP-CEE
SP-WW
DST-1 (advertising the action figures)
DS S1, DS S2, DS S3, DS S4, DS S5 (came with the action figures)

This is as complete a set of the promo cards as I've seen, and some of them are very hard to find.

The binder is in excellent condition, having sat snugly on my shelf since I bought it. The Serenity movie poster is on the front, and on the back is the cast and our girl Serenity flying in the black (or, rather, the blue). Slight wear on the top and bottom of the spine but it could easily be new out of the box, and it's even signed on the inside back cover by Inkworks president Allan Caplan. I'll even toss in the promo sheet advertising the card set, and the display box (folded) the cards came in. The cards are all in excellent condition (pics show some spots but they're from my crappy scanner).

Don't miss your chance to own this rare and hard-to-find Serenity collectible.