We thank all of you for your support and dedication on our Commander Shepard statue, we did well enough with the first one and were excited about our Saren release.

But, alas, it was not meant to be, Bioware has informed us that since there will be no new Mass Effect content until the sequel, to continue more Mass Effect products at this time would probably not find a place in the market, especially in the trying times we are heading into in 2009.

We had a blast working on what we did with Mass Effect and are proud of the Commander Shepard statue. The fact that Hyperchild was able to get out and be part of the franchise as well as interacting with all of you has been an incredible experience.

Before we turn off the lights on this production blog, we’ll post the final photos of the Saren sculpt in full view so you can have a look at the last work as well as the final tally on who would have been the third statue. The blog will go back into full gear when we are ready to announce our next big project for 2009, then we’ll bring the party back, hope you can join us as we gained so many new fans over the past year.

Happy Holidays to everyone - we’ll see you all in 2009!

PS: The above photo is of a variant “helmet-less” Shepard we were planning as well.

Avi Arad has optioned the movie rights to Bioware’s sci-fi action role playing game Mass Effect.

Avi Arad is best known as the producer of the Spider-Man films and Iron Man, but many forget that he was involved with some Marvel’s unspectacular film projects like Hulk, Elektra, Punisher, Fantastic Four, and Ghost Rider. Arad also produced the Bratz movie, Man-Thing, the upcoming Punisher: War Zone and a film based on the toy robot Robosapien. So I’m not convinced that the project is in the right hands with Arad. It all depends on which director is hired to bring the game to the big screen.

Bioware has said that the game is the first part of a trilogy, which gives a potential film adaptation franchise possibilities. I’ve never played the game as I have a strong affliction for role playing games, but the concept certainly sounds like it could be made into a fun sci-fi film.

We’re so excited about this one! Speculation on who will play the ‘default’ Shepard may begin now! We hope they still can cast actors like Seth Green, Marina Sirtis and Keith David in their original roles and then bring in the A-list to play Shepard like a Gerard Butler or a Mark Whalberg, but a great Shepard would be Jason Statham with an American accent. If Channing Tatum (see below) does an amazing job as Duke in the G.I. Joe movie he also has that space-marine look. Too bad Michael Biehn is getting on in the years or else he would be the one and only choice!

Stay tuned for more as we take better photos of the final clay sculpt.

Saren profile from MassEffect.com:

Saren Arterius is the longest serving turian member of the Spectres - the elite military operatives answering directly to the Citadel Council. For 24 years he has been an agent of the Council’s will, a zealous defender of galactic stability in the unsettled border region of the Skyllian Verge.

Official records of Spectres are sealed, but it is known that Saren followed turian tradition and entered the military at the age of 15. In 2155 he was promoted to active service after only a year of training, though it is unclear whether his unit was involved in any of the battles against human forces during the First Contact War of 2157.

In 2159 he became the youngest turian ever accepted into the Spectres. Intelligent, cunning and capable, Saren quickly developed a reputation for ruthless efficiency. Although there were a number of unsettling rumors about the brutality of his methods, there was no denying his results.

In recent years Saren has become an outspoken opponent of human expansion. Like many other non-humans, he believes the Alliance has become overly aggressive in its efforts to establish the people of Earth as a dominant species in Citadel space. As a Spectre it is generally believed he will continue to follow the will of the Council in this matter, but there are some - particularly among the Alliance - who fear Saren may soon decide to take matters into his own hands.

We found this fan-created music video on YouTube that is a collection of Saren movies and images set to Linkin Park’s In The End:

Watching this video reminds us just how great a game Mass Effect is and how lucky we are to be working with BioWare on these products and to be part of the game’s legacy in a small way.

Here is the final box and statue shot of the Commander Shepard statue for you all to check out.

We’ve been sending out all the HighDome.com pre-orders already, but there are alot so please be patient as we get them out as quickly as possible. Hope the images here can hold you over for a little while longer.

Now that Shepard is complete we’ll be concentrating on Saren who is already under development and we’ll be bringing you early sculpting images of the rogue Specter agent himself in August.

Below are a few versions of the Shepard video that we’ve uploaded to different sites: Veoh, Vimeo, Blip.tv and YouTube. We’d love for you to help us post it on your site or your favorite forums and help us spread the word. Let us know where you’ve done it in the comments - if you roll over the videos the “embed” codes should be easy to find.

Click To Play

We’re happy to announce that the Commander Shepard statue is completed and is now on route by sea to our various distributors around the world and you should be getting it in the mail or in stores in the next few weeks. Its been a long journey for us and for some of you who have been very supportive of us and have stood up to the plate and pre-ordered from us and we appreciate that more than you can realize. We will definitely be “giving back” to those that came in early on Shepard with our second release Saren, so expect some details in your inbox when we open Saren for pre-ordering.

An army of Commander Shepard’s get ready to be added to your collection:

Delicate hand-painting of the Shepard head:

Speaking of Saren, production has begun and we have already submitted some Phase 1 sculpts to BioWare, and we’re refining the rogue Spectre agent together, when he’s at a better stage we’ll be bringing him out to showcase here hopefully before the end of July.

And finally, the big San Diego Comic-Con International is coming up July 24-27th and if you drop by the Diamond Comics booth you’ll be able to see the Commander Shepard statue there if you want to check it out and you’ll be able to find out from them a list of U.S. retailers carrying the Shepard statue.

If you were waiting for it to be completed, you can order now at HighDome.com.

And in case your didn’t know (because you are a Mac person) Mass Effect is now available on PC. Click here for more info.

And oh yeah, we just saw this today on the Marvel site. Thanks for noticing us, Frank Castle. Who says The Punisher doesn’t read our blog:

Thanks to all who voted on the next statue in our Mass Effect line. We really appreciate your involvement and your comments. So really no surprise here: Saren, the rogue Spectre agent, will be the second Mass Effect statue.

We hope to reveal a head sculpt in the next few weeks. And we’ll open pre-orders at that time. Bioware has really gone all out with this one, and has supplied us with some phenomenal control art of Saren so that we can bring you the most accurate representation possible.

Other updates: Commander Shepard is in final production right now so he should be done by end of May and shipping shortly after. We’ve had a pretty good response so far, so if you haven’t ordered yours yet please do so at the HighDome site. Or feel free to contact one of our international resellers.

While we are working on Saren, we also want to continue with the voting and see who you want to see next - so we’ve taken out Saren and put in Ashley, Liara and a Geth into the line-up this time. So click here to go and vote on the 6 contestants who are up for a shot at being the third Mass Effect character statue.

We have a few more surprises in line that we can hopefully announce soon. And stay tuned to the Bioware site for new announcements as they run up to their May 28th release date of Mass Effect on PC and for the rest of 2008.

As you all know, Monday was the release date of the first new downloadable content for Mass Effect called Bring Down the Sky. A very exciting side-mission that you can download now from XBLA, that has you and your crew go to an asteroid in the Asgard system and try and stop a group of evil Batarians from crashing an asteroid into the nearby planet Terra Nova, and thus wiping out its civilization.

We just downloaded and played the fusion torch mission and even for the first time helping someone in the game just because we wanted to drive the Mako around knowing this would be the last time until we get the PC version in June that we’ll be in the Mass Effect world.

Checking our last saved game at a Galaxy Map check-post we haven’t been on the Normandy since early January and the feel of playing and being inside the world again was actually the fun part, and its nice to see that after playing other Xbox 360 games like Gears of War, Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock - that we still feel that Mass Effect was the most immersive game that we’ve played and wished there was monthly offerings of Mass Effect DLC to go back into.

So our take is, get it if you have the game, its definitely a must have piece for your total Mass Effect experience, The Batarians aren’t quite as bad-ass as they look but they are still a fun opponent for Shepard and Co. especially those crazy dog-things.

Learn more about the Batarians.

Read the Casey Hudson interview about Bring Down the Sky at IGN.

GameCritics.com review

GameAlmighty.com review

TeamXbox.com impressions with video and trailers.

PS: BioWare just sent us the schematic renderings of the Normandy!

You’ll now be able to give squad commands to characters individually rather than just as a group. Furthermore, if you’re playing with a mouse and keyboard, you can map up to eight psionic commands to the number keys 1 through 8, which lets you use them much more quickly and without having to access any menus. Mass Effect’s inventory system has also benefited from a major overhaul; whereas the Xbox 360 game forced you to scroll through a list of practically every item in your possession anytime you wanted something, the PC game lets you sort your items by type and automatically moves better-quality items to the top.

Read the rest here.