According to a recent post at Firefly Ship Works, they’re edging ever closer to revealing the secrets of the insanely detailed Serenity model they’ve been developing. What will it all look like, how will it be mounted, and, finally, what will it cost? But right now they’re trying to decide on the name, and they’re looking for input.

* Official – she’s being produced with the full support of the studio.
* Studio Scale – at 19 inches, she’s exactly the size a filming miniature would likely have been.
* Film Quality – making a film-worthy model is about more than size. We’re making sure our Serenity has all the details a Hollywood model maker would want on their filming miniature before it went in front of the camera.
* Artisan – each ship will be handcrafted by a professional special effects model maker right here in the U.S.
* SFX – she’ll come with a sophisticated lighting effects package and maybe another surprise or two.

Assuming you agree that naming her the “Official Film Quality Studio Scale Serenity Artisan Replica, SFX Edition” is a bit much, we’d love to hear your suggestions.

Head to fireflyshipworks.com and give them your suggestion. How often do you get to name a spaceship?

It’s never made a lot of sense that ebooks – which require no materials, no shipping, no storage, no stocking or maintenance manpower, and no destruction of unsold inventory – often cost as much or more than their print equivalents. eBook aficionados have spent the last 10 years shaking their heads and wondering when the publishing companies would get a clue… when the aficionados weren’t simply scanning in the books themselves and sharing them for free, of course.

OK, not all the publishing companies. Baen Books, as always, was ahead of the curve with a sensible and attractive pricing plan from the very beginning. But I almost have to throw them out when complaining about publishers; they keep throwing off the curve. Meanwhile the rest of the publishers priced their ebooks high and huddled together, hoping that it wouldn’t catch on.

Then Amazon shook things up with the $9.95 New York Times Bestseller ebook pricing. Suddenly that seemed to be a better deal – it certainly helped drive sales of their otherwise overpriced Kindle – and we saw a chink in the pricing wall.

Now it’s spreading, and I hope it continues. eReader.com, one of the oldest ebook retailers, has changed their pricing structure and they’re going Amazon one better. Now all new books start at $9.95 or less the first week of their release. After that the books revert to the publisher’s list price but will not exceed $12.95. Read that again: will not exceed $12.95. And you can still earn 15% Reader Rewards, rebates which can be applied to future purchases.

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In honor of their 25th anniversary and their new album “Back From the Dead,” just released last month, Spinal Tap is asking the fans to get involved.

David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls and Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap are inviting fans to create an original video to be posted on YouTube for one of the following songs off of their album BACK FROM THE DEAD — Hell Hole, Warmer Than Hell, Big Bottom, Stonehenge, Back From The Dead and/or Short & Sweet. Judging the contest, will be Colman Hickey, who created the classic video for Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight using characters made of Legos.

One lucky winner will receive an autographed, limited edition Spinal Tap prize pack!

No idea what the autographed prize pack consists of, but what the hell. More details available at YouTube and you can see a sample contest entry here.

Also they’ve produced an official Spinal Tap iPhone app. Listen to music, watch videos, get the latest Tap news, and see what other fans are writing on their wall. Free app, but it looks like you’ll need to be connected to get anything from it so put it on the phone or keep your iPod Touch near a wifi connection.

If you haven’t picked up the new CD “Back From the Dead,” you should. Amazon has it for just $10.99 and you get 19 original songs, a one-hour DVD, and a “unique pop-up diorama package that unveils three 12-inch action figures (courtesy of Sideshow Collectibles) of the band along with a proportionally sized Stonehenge.” What’s not to love?

Announcing BashinginMinds’ first giveaway: two Dollhouse Season One DVD sets!

Season one of Joss Whedon’s controversial series Dollhouse will be hitting the streets on July 28, but you can win one a week early. All you have to do is tell me this:

Why would you hire a doll?

Please keep comments under 50 words or so, and relatively PG-13. Otherwise, go wild.

Entries must be received by midnight EST on Friday, July 17, 2009, and there will be two ways to win. First, I’ll select the best 10 and put those up for a vote, winner gets a DVD set. And I’ll select a name at random from all the entries for the other set. Winners will be announced Tuesday, July 21, so folks going to Comic-Con will know if they should be trying to buy one or not…

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Good news! I can tell you about most of the upcoming Dollhouse DVD set!

Bad news: reviewers only get the first 3 discs with the aired episodes, but not the final disc with the extra goodies. So I can’t tell you about the unaired episode 13 “Epitaph One,” or the original unaired pilot, or the features, or the deleted scenes. FOX wants to keep those under wraps until the release date and I can understand that even as I secretly hoped their shipping department would mistakenly send me the wrong disc. But I did get to listen to the commentaries from creator Joss Whedon and star Eliza Dushku, and those were well worth it.

The show

The Dollhouse is an illegal underground company spoken of in whispers, where you can hire an attractive young person for literally any purpose you can imagine. These people, known as “actives,” have had their memories completely removed so that they can have new memories and new personalities imprinted in them to order. Actives can temporarily become perfect lovers, thieves, assassins, companions, detectives, whatever the very well-heeled clients want, and afterward their new identities are stripped away again so they’re ready for the next engagement. Only, one of them is starting to remember…

Dollhouse stars Eliza Dushku as Caroline/Echo; Harry Lennix as Boyd Langton, Echo’s handler; Fran Kranz as Topher Brink, the amoral genius behind the Dollhouse tech; Olivia Williams as Adelle DeWitt, the boss of the place;  Reed Diamond as her creepy chief of security Laurence Dominic; Enver Gjokaj as Victor; Dichen Lachman as Sierra; and Tahmoh Penikett as FBI agent Paul Ballard. Regular guest stars included Amy Acker as staff physician Dr. Claire Saunders and Miracle Laurie as Mellie. The series had an uneven start, with the first episodes being mostly standalones that simply showcased what actives from the Dollhouse are hired to do with only a passing nod to any ongoing story arcs or show mythology.

The commentaries

Now, there are three types of DVD commentaries. There’s the one where the people talking get caught up in the show and forgot to comment on anything, but I’ve rarely seen that on a Whedonverse DVD. Talkative bunch, they are. Then there’s the type where the commentators are just having a blast, reminiscing and cracking each other up and offering funny little behind the scenes moments. That’s what Joss and Eliza do in their commentary on the aired pilot episode, “Ghost.”

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In ABC’s “Castle,” Nathan Fillion plays a best-selling mystery novelist. So when they need a cute tie-in to drum up interest in the show’s second season what better way than to publish one of his books?

Starting Aug. 10 ABC will publish chapters of Richard Castle’s “Heat Wave” as they air reruns of the show, leading up to the season premiere in late September. The book will reportedly include elements from the shows — which makes sense, given the premise, that he’s following the cops to get story ideas. The book itself will be published September 29 by Hyperion.

There’s one problem with stuff like this: what if the book by this fictional bestselling writer sucks? No one’s saying who the real author is. Personally, I hope it’s Nathan. Look for these to show up on Fillion’s autograph lines real soon.

Dollhouse Season One will be available on DVD and Blu-Ray on July 28, but if you’re going to the San Diego ComicCon you can get one the week before. Even better, it’ll be a limited edition, numbered, with different packaging (see above) and a note from creator Joss Whedon. Only 5,000 will be produced. Sweet!

If you’re going to the con, stop by the Fox Store on Monday, July 6, starting at 10 am PST. You’ll need to take your order confirmation, plus a photo ID to the Fox booth (#4129) starting Wednesday at 6 pm. If you’re not going to the con but you have a friend willing to pick it up for you, you’ll need to provide your friend’s name and e-mail address when you place your order. Only one per customer.

They’re not cheap, mind you. $49.95 for the regular set, $69.95 for Blu-Ray.

Click here for more details!

If that’s too rich, or if you don’t have a way to pick up a ComicCon one, you can order the regular edition from Amazon for just $31.99 (or $48.99 for Blu-Ray).

And check back here, within the next few days I’ll be posting a mini-review and telling how you how you can win a free Dollhouse Season 1 DVD.

Inkworks, the company that brought us great trading cards for Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Serenity, went under last March, a victim of the lessening economy. Which is  a damn shame. They made some great products, and president Allan Caplan really enjoyed his work.

If you’re still looking for those last few cards to fill in your collection, apparently their remaining stock was purchased by Factory Entertainment, a company that has been selling cards through eBay for a few years now. They’ve created a site to list their inventory at inkworksarchive.com, but everything there (plus lots more) gets sold through their eBay store. No Firefly cards, not a lot of Serenity, but plenty of others from their biggest franchises.

For a look back, check out my interview with Inkworks’ Allan Caplan from 2006.

OK, I really need to stop browsing the Prop Store of London, because I keep finding things I have no chance of affording but desperately need nonetheless even though I didn’t know it was possible to buy them seconds previously. Like this.

Freakin’ Tank Girl’s costume.

This is Tank Girl’s Costume from the 1995 movie Tank Girl which was Based on the British cult comic-strip. Tank Girl (Lori Petty)our heroine fights a mega-corporation, which controls the world’s water supply and this costume is featured in the final battle scenes. The outfit is comprised of two sock elbow pads, chaps, custom vest, bulls-eye t-shirt, choker, and red shorts. All of the items are tailored to fit the petite 5′8″(173cm) actress. The pieces are all in good condition.

Huge fan of this comic, the movie, and Lori Petty. The only thing better would be a costume with two big missle-head bra cones on it, but one must be prepared to settle for what’s available.

Which is freakin’ Tank Girl’s costume. Tank (presumably) not included.

And, while I was tootling around the Prop Store of London, I found another cool little item for the foyer. Remember the Buffy episode where they went to see the Incan mummy princess only the Incan mummy princess grabbed this kid and mummified the dude so that people saw him later and said, whoa, this mummy has braces, and the Incan mummy princess pretended to be an exchange student with guy clothes and fell in love with Xander and had a little problem with sucking the lives out of his schoolmates but couldn’t suck his life cuz she loved him, and all? This is the mummy with the braces.

The Mummy with braces was featured on the hit Joss Whedon tv show, Buffy: the vampire slayer. In episode 4 of the second season entitled “Inca Mummy Girl,” a male student tampers with the mummy’s plate and awakens her. In turn she mummifies him and leaves him in her sarcophagus. Measuring approximately 5ft 5 inches tall,(165cm) the foam over plastic mummy is outfitted with a brown and green burlap wrap, Necklace, braces and a full head of hair. What every modern day teenager would look like had they been mummified. The mummy is in fairly good condition.