It’s not often you find a Companion on sale, but TFAW.com does like to be innovative…

Things From Another World is having a ginormous sale on thousands of items, and one of them is the “Inara Strikes” statue from Diamond Select (see my review here). Right now she’s 40% off, but here’s the thing: this is only week one.

They’re looking to clear some room, so every week of the sale the price will drop to 50% off, then 60%, and so on. The catch is, of course, that supplies are very limited so if you wait too long your item may not be available. So it’s possible Inara could be available, as it were, for as little as 20 bucks by the end of the month, but it’s just as possible that they’ll sell out by next Tuesday. Your call, but don’t wait too long.

We’ve seen the artist proofs of the Little Damn Heroes maquettes - pics were leaked, one was auctioned off for CSTS, and one is a prize in QMx’s current Big Haul contest - and some of us remember the original Little Damn Heroes cartoons by Adam Levermore-Rich that the maquettes are based on. I saw them back in December and was hard-pressed not to overpower my guard and take them. But I have to admit, I was starting to wonder if we’d ever see them on store shelves.

No problem, they’re on their way. QMx just announced the release of the Kaylee maquette, coming in September, limited to 1,500, first in a series of Little Damn Heroes maquettes.

The stylized statue is a delightful melding of Kaylee’s two seemingly contradictory aspects – engineer savant and girly girl. Smiling blissfully, the sculpted 4.75-inch maquette portrays Kaylee in her mechanic’s coveralls (complete with teddy bear patch), holding her trademark rainbow parasol and standing in her work boots on a black resin base.

$49.95, for sale starting Sept. 15 at QMx. And, even better, if you get the QMx Insider newsletter, you can find out about the special… well, you need to get the newsletter, don’t you?

I’ve mentioned a lot about the official giveaways and auctions for the Can’t Stop the Serenity events, but every one I’ve heard of is also holding raffles or other ways of getting cool, one-of-a-kind things. Some have props from The Prop Store of London. Some have QMx goodies, or collectible cards, or autographed pictures. And some, like the Arizona Browncoats, get cool stuff made, like this cute Kaylee plushie commissioned to go into a ‘verse gift basket for (I believe) the Phoenix screening on June 28.

Hmm.

UPDATED: Dark Horse hsa cancelled their proposed Serenity laser-etched lucite ornament. According to Dark Horse:

“The market didn’t show any significant support for the lucite ornament during the solicitation period, so we were forced to make the unfortunate decision to cancel production.”

TFAW has sent cancellations to early buyers and updated the product page.

Sorry folks, no paperweight yet.

Alex Kung spent two years crafting an extremely drool-worthy Serenity model. It has lights. It has movable engines. It’s a foot long (note Serenity ornament in foreground, for comparison). And it can be yours, if you win the auction. Alex built this one for the Toronto Can’t Stop the Serenity screening and all proceeds will go to Equality Now. You can see more pictures (and a video) here.

You want this. I want this. So when you bid, bid low, and don’t worry about hanging around the last few minutes of the auction. Really, it’ll be fine…

The folks behind Kids Need to Read have whomped up another fantastic auction to benefit children’s literacy. You’d think there was a Big Damn Hero behind this or something…

You have the opportunity to own a complete set of Browncoat reading material: Firefly: the Official Companion I and II, Finding Serenity: Anti-heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon’s Firefly, Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon’s Firefly Universe, Serenity – The Official Visual Companion, and Serenity: Those Left Behind (Hardcover). All of them signed by Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk! Woo!

The auction is on now and lasts till June 15th. It’s a fantastic offer for a great cause. Go! Bid!

Dark Horse Comics is really cool. They are unbelievably cool. They are, in fact, so unbelievably cool that they’ve joined forces with the California Browncoats to make a variant Serenity comic to sell at the San Diego Comic-Con, just to benefit Kids Need to Read.

Which is pretty cool, you gotta admit.

The California Browncoats will be selling the comics at SDCC. It will be a variant edition of “Serenity: Better Days #1″ with the Will Conrad wraparound cover art they used for their special DH 100 version, only this will display Will’s pencils instead. 32 pages, all the stuff from the first one, but with a cardstock cover for extra specialness. Only 5,000 will ever be available and they’ll be $10 each, a good portion of which goes to Kids Need to Read, the children’s literacy program founded by Nathan Fillion and author PJ Haarsma.

These will only be available at Comic-Con 2008, but even if you can’t go the California Browncoats are there for you. Specifically, on eBay, where on all five days of the con they’ll be selling copies of the DH-California Browncoats SDCC edition of Serenity. Again, all proceeds will go to Kids Need to Read. Bookmark their eBay page and be ready (I’ll give you a heads up when it gets close).

Major thanks to Dark Horse and to the Cali Browncoats sponsors Gabriel Stempinski, Margaret Weis Productions, Creation Entertainment, Poplollies.com, The Powers Team - Marsia and Eugene, Dwight Bragdon, Done The Impossible , SaveHiatus.com and Quantum Mechanix, who helped make this possible.

This is a great collectible and a great cause (funny how so many Whedon-based projects combine the two). Check out the California Browncoats site for more details.

Well, not here, precisely, but at a comics store near you. Or at TFAW.com, which has ‘em at 10% off. There’s two designs:

The Serenity lunchbox: “With the Serenity logo in brilliant litho-printed color on one side, and the ship herself on the other, bordered by the exotic intergalactic currency created for the film, this makes a striking lunch box for any Serenity fan to tote around.”

And the Fruity Oaty Bar lunchbox: “Serenity fans everywhere will be able to recognize each other when carrying the cute and colorful lunch box bearing the iconic images from the “Fruity Oaty Bar” commercial. If you know Fruity Oaty Bar, you know your Serenity! This attractive lunch box is an insider’s dream come true. Wow!”

These are also the perfect size for stashing your collector cards and spare Fruity Oaty bars. Stock up!

Over at Firefly Ship Works, the contests have begun!

At random intervals they’re going to post pictures of a specific part of the ship. All you have to do is… guess which part it is. First prize is a set of Zoe’s name tags, a cool collectible from QMx that isn’t easy to get.

Well, usually. Someone already guess the part. But they’ll be posting more, so keep watching.

Remember the Little Damn Heroes maquettes designed by Adam Levermore-Rich and made by QMx that we’ve been waiting for? QMx made three sets of prototypes, which have stayed firmly in the hands of Adam and QMx despite my best effo… um, they have them safe. But I have seen them up close, and they are exceptionally cool.

But now two of them are being auctioned off for Can’t Stop the Serenity, to benefit Equality Now. QMx will auction off one Mal maquette and one River maquette at the upcoming Can’t Stop the Serenity screenings in Los Angeles and Orange County, respectively. You’re getting the prototypes, so those versions won’t be the ones ultimately released (River’s axe is upside down, for one thing). This is an amazing chance to get something that literally no one else in the world has. Except for Adam. And QMx. Dammit.

More details and pics here.