People who got a chance to play Spore and design their own creatures, at this year's "last E3 as we know it", were also lucky enough to receive a surprising gift recently. As it turns out, Electronic Arts sent them (or at least some of them) real-life Spore figurines, replicating the actual creatures they designed at E3! And what's more, serveral reports are already hinting that this could be turned into a full-fledged service after the game's release, and that players will be able to have their Spore creatures made into a three-dimensional reality... for a fee, of course.

As ingenious as it may sound, it's really no wonder that EA would seek to squeeze their customers' every last penny, by any means possible. In the past (present, and certainly future), that meant releasing dozens upon dozens of Sims packs. And ironically enough, both The Sims and Spore are Will Wright's creation. I wonder where EA would be today without his genius, and their unscrupulous money-making practices...

But I'll leave that thought for another time. Right now, you can check out plenty of pictures showing two such Spore figurines - one over here, and the other one here.

If only you could design your own anime lolies and have them turned into cute figurines.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)