Okay, let’s start at the beginning. Back in October of last year, McFarlane released a schedule for Halo action figure release in 2008. Littlebigman transcribed the Spawn.com list, which is good, because it’s been edited since then. At that point, the plan for vehicles was a Series 2 release in June, consisting of a Scarab, Wraith, and Mongoose, and a series 3 release in August, consisting of a Banshee, Hornet, and Scorpion Tank. At some point in the next month or two, the Series 2 group was canceled – but then in February they were added to the Series 3 release. By April, the six vehicles slated for Series 3 was cut back to 3 – the three original Series 2 vehicles. And today, Subnova’s 3of9 got an email from Big Bad Toy Store:

McFarlane Toys has just informed us that these items has been cancelled and that will not be produced. We apologize for the inconvenience. We have cancelled all preorders and removed the item from our site.

From 6, to 3, to 0. Ack! Here’s hoping they get reannounced in an upcoming series. (Louis Wu 16:32:16 UTC)

UNSC Trooper let us know that the Fan Fic Pick of the Week for last Friday’s fiction release is now up on the HBOFF forum. Thanks to J.D. Ford for the work!(Louis Wu 16:31:24 UTC)

Dennis Powers let us know that you can grab Shipwrecked Episode 35 from his site.(Louis Wu 16:27:07 UTC)

Lordstemplar1 stopped in to point out Blackstone [Log 1] – a simple recon mission goes awry. Available in downloadable and streaming formats. Go watch!(Louis Wu 15:44:00 UTC)

Back in January, a European contest sponsored by Xbox.com started up – Halo 3 Recut was looking for short movies showing the off-screen antics of the Halo characters. Winners were just announced (thanks, Planet Halo, who found the announcement at TeamXbox) – congrats to Scott Robertson, whose “Master Chief’s Day Off” won Scott a four-week film-making trip to Los Angeles. HIs film is pretty funny!(Louis Wu 15:28:16 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy compiled thank-you notes from a huge number of community members in honor of Bungie Day – swing by and read the outpouring of Bungie Love. I wish I could say my thanks were included – but I forgot to send them to her. (On the bright side, I ate a LOT of barbecue this weekend.) Thanks, Hawty, for putting this together – and thanks, Bungie, for keeping this community excited all these years!(Louis Wu 15:13:12 UTC)

Obienator has released Little Red Adventures Episode 3 – there’s a YouTube link available on his website, or you can download a higher-res WMP9 version (63.3 mb) or QuickTime version (63.1 mb) from our servers. Great cinematography, a new character, and a scary cliffhanger! Go watch. (Louis Wu 15:07:40 UTC)

The Wallpaper queue is quite long, and contains stuff that is many, many months old – and for that, I apologize. We’re putting up a single entry today, though, because it’s Bungie Day – thanks to ZZoMBiE13 for whipping it up! It’s 1440×900, widescreen format. Enjoy!(Louis Wu 14:54:23 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue let us know that Reclaimer 62 is online – and an unknown entity is joining the action. If you can’t guess who it is, you’ll have to wait for an unveiling…(Louis Wu 14:44:04 UTC)

A bunch of our forumgoers immediately started playing with the Pan-Cam as soon as they got their hands on Cold Storage – go check out the panoramas (and the empty canvas map from pete_the_duck!) in this thread.(Louis Wu 14:42:09 UTC)

TheAdventuresOfRon stopped by to announce The Adventures of Ron, III – you can watch this promo clip on YouTube. I did… lots of movie references. I don’t think there was ever a first or second part.(Louis Wu 14:41:53 UTC)

ForgeHub’s Dragoncoals let us know about a Teaser Trailer for ‘Unleashed’, an upcoming machinima from DrawingToochFilms. Looks… funky.(Louis Wu 14:41:36 UTC)

A young Halo fan has recreated all the weapons in Halo 3 – out of cardboard and tape. This video shows him modeling each of them, using gestures and motions that are eerily similar to what your character does online. Amazing amount of work! Thanks, xxjuicesxx.(Louis Wu 14:41:12 UTC)

Jonathan Churchill has released a Halo-inspired original piece called ‘Looking Back’ – it’s a remembrance of the Halo trilogy. Swing by Rampancy.net to download it in MP3 format.(Louis Wu 14:40:42 UTC)

The Social has put up a bunch of Bungie Day news – they’re having a screenshot contest (with a 13-month live subscription as the top prize), they’ve announced a Halo 3 RPG, and they’ve redone their site layout. Go read all the details! Thanks, Scotty.(Louis Wu 14:40:10 UTC)

Mags89 SBG wrote to say he’d released ‘Fallen Falcon‘ – Han Solo’s Millenium Falcon, reproduced in Halo 3. Pretty cool! Go check out the screenshots in the B.net description, then download the map!(Louis Wu 14:39:40 UTC)

It’s July 7, Bungie Day – and Cold Storage is available for download right now. (One potential gotcha – it’s only available for Gold accounts at the moment. If you’ve got a Silver account, you either need to upgrade, or “check again in a few days” (according to the Marketplace blurb). I don’t know what “a few days” translates to. I guess this is really only a problem for folks planning to use extra Xboxes in a LAN party today…) The map really is gorgeous, and (mostly) true to its predecessor. (The small place to hide with the ball, under the walkway in the back room, is gone… but everything else I can remember is there.) Go grab a copy – the new Bungie Day playlist is up as well, so you can get in some FFA action on this puppy right away! Go to the Xbox Live Marketplace blade, select ‘New Arrivals’, then ‘Games’, then ‘Halo 3’. The Bungie Day Gamerpics, free Theme, and the ViDoc in HD are there, as well.(Louis Wu 13:50:20 UTC)