It’s been a huge week for First 4 Figures, with orders pouring in for the Okami Shiranui Exclusive statue that went up for order last week and thousands of new members joining the F4F Official Collectors Club on Facebook. But if you think Fun Daddy Alex and Lieutenant Chockles are taking a break, think again! Not only will they be recapping the week in First 4 Figures and answering (approximately) 732.5 collector questions, but word on the street from Papa Davis himself is that True Form Midna will be sneak peeked! (And oh yeah–I’m also giving away a Samurai Champloo Blu Ray set. Read on…)

[Welcome to the LIVE Recap of the 69th edition of the First 4 Figures Q&A livestream with Alex Davis & Tsoek Cheung! I’ll be updating this post as the livestream occurs, so if the page hasn’t been updated with what you’re waiting for yet–hang in there and refresh every few minutes!]

On The Week in Review:

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• Papa Davis is in the house! He’s been much more active in the company lately, and sculpted a Playdoh True Form Midna with all his heart and soul that we should throw our money at. (Alas, the True Form Midna that will be sneak peeked later on in the show is not Papa Davis’ version.)
• Shiranui pre-orders
• Guts EXCLUSIVE version edition pre-order size is currently at 600. Alex doesn’t think that Guts will hit 1000 orders before production, so he’ll likely remain open for order until production begins (although if he does hit 1000 orders, orders will close immediately).
• The Sonic Boom8 Vol. 3 and Vol. 4 Knuckles and Tails figures are currently on display overseas. Hopefully some product samples will be in the office to show in a few weeks. F4F will take F4F Partnerships orders for these Knuckles and Tails figures. Be sure to leave any feedback on these in the club and F4F can pass on the information to GNF Toyz (the manufacturer).
• The club has grown from ~42.5K members to 45K members in just a week thanks to the strength of the Okami Shiranui launch! Alex is amazed, but thinks the growth of the club will continue to accelerate with more PVCs and the company’s improved marketing.
• Due to the rapid growth of the club exceeding expectations (and True Form Midna’s upcoming launch likely to bring in many more fans), the 50K reveal may be pushed back. Alex regrets announcing Bayonetta so early, and doesn’t want to announce something new so far in the future from when the first product in a line will be available. Alex doesn’t want to announce a license announcement way too early just because the F4F OCC hits a milestone like 50K–that puts a lot of unnecessary pressure onto F4F.
• There’s no license that F4F could announce at 50K if it happens by the end of May and also have a product ready to pre-order for in 4 months–there needs to be at least a year of development.
• The 50K reveal could also be made a product announcement instead of a license announcement.
• Chocks’ New Year’s Resolution was 100K members by the end of 2018–he’s almost on target to succeed!
• Alex will look into potentially changing facial markings on Shiranui and also whether or not any more colors can be added to the Shiranui base (in the grooves of the base), and will propose it to Capcom. Don’t expect this to happen, though–place your order based on the expectation of how the prototype looks now.
• F4F Instagram has 11.8K followers on Instagram right now–show Alex more love and First 4 Figures will post more photos on Instagram!
• Would fans be up for wolf or human form Oki from Okami? Alex put out a poll about this a week ago, and is already up to 500+ votes for wolf form.
• Would you want Oki to be the same size as Shiranui and Amaterasu, even though it’s quite a bit bigger in the game? Or would you prefer a much bigger, more expensive Oki?
• There could be a F4F Reward Points giveaway at 50K.
• Let’s get the First 4 Figures YouTube channel to 10,000+ subscribers!
• Do collectors want to see the resin version of the Amaterasu PVC statue in 1:3 scale or 1:4 statue? Alex will run a poll later about this. Won’t be 1:6 scale–that would be too close in size to the PVC. Will definitely have a black base, since the whole Okami range has black bases.
• Guts is undergoing revisions now and F4F will update accordingly. Changes to Guts’ face and two holes added to the sword in-progress right now.
• Alex will be checking the progress on Taki production next week at the factory. Should be around halfway done now.
• Dark Souls Ornstein SD PVC figure revealed in the pamphlet that comes with Artorias SD (by Sav Kantus, care of Chen Michael)! He should be going up for order around the end of 2018. You can start to see the collection taking shape now!
• With Mario on Yoshi at the physical stage, Alex has started seriously looking toward the next piece in the Mario line. Donkey Kong won the poll posted in the F4F OCC, and his potential size/scale is being considered now.

On Temptation Thursdays (TT Polls):

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  • Attack on Titan TT #99: 387 Votes — 196 ‘Yes’, 191 ‘No’; Alex is really surprised and thought the TT poll results would be much stronger; “TTs never die”
  • Captain Falcon TT #100: 279 Votes — 154 ‘Yes’, 125 ‘No’; Alex is surprised and expected a bigger blowout of ‘Yes’ votes; Captain Falcon didn’t get a lot of attention and traction early on like Nier Automata did; surprised to see so few votes for a Nintendo property
  • Xenoblade Chronicles TT Next Week
  • Vagrant Story TT in 2 Weeks — BEING RESCHEDULED
  • EARTHBOUND TT IN 2 WEEKS! (Cancelled in favor of Animal Crossing TT in 2 Weeks)
    
  • Persona 5 Joker TT has hit 1K ‘Yes’ Votes!
  • F4F wants to make statues that get the word out about the company and have mass appeal, not super-limited very niche statues
  • This week’s hashtag for a chance to win Rewards Points next week is #F4FBidna

The Samurai Champloo Blu Ray Giveaway:

• I’ve got a brand new and sealed copy of Samurai Champloo The Complete Series on Blu Ray, and I want to give it away to one of you to help hype the F4F Samurai Champloo statues line!
• I wrote up a whole blurb about it yesterday, but here’s the short form: go leave a reaction (Like/Smiley/Whatever) and a comment on Alex Davis’s Samurai Champloo Jin Sneak Peek post from March, and you’re automatically entered to win. Easy. Peasy. Go! Win!! Show your interest and help First4Figures to #FinishTheLine!
• You can check out the complete writeup for the Samurai Champloo Blu Ray Giveaway here.

The Q&A!:

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• Likely to be a combo for Kiryu, but no news on that right now
• There is no hard wall number of votes for a Crash Racing statue–too many things competing for attention; needs “a lot more votes”
• Nothing to report on All Might; complicated; requires conversations at Las Vegas Licensing Expo this month
• F4F is always working on things behind the scenes–there will be more PVCs coming in the future, but can’t say from what lines
• Alex gets more and more disillusioned with Darksiders all the time; its TT results were impressive back in the day, but aren’t up to snuff against the current highest-voted TTs; didn’t get any response from the Darksiders licensors, and not going to keep pushing it
• F4F is releasing pre-orders faster than they’re releasing product right now, which can lead to problems
• There’s an opportunity cost for every statue that goes up for order and every license that’s acquired; even doing a pre-order every 2-3 weeks (which is a lot for a company of F4F’s size) it’s difficult to service every license that F4F currently has; Alex looks at the balance every day to make sure that First 4 Figures isn’t overstretching
• Kingdom Hearts and other Disney properties would be such a gargantuan project–in order to handle it, F4F would have to forget about My Hero Academia, Dead Space, and many other lines; Kingdom Hearts/Disney would be a massive beast and incredibly resource-intensive; F4F doesn’t have the bandwidth to deal with infinite licenses all at once
• There’s a lot more to do now for every single F4F statue launch–collectors expect hype videos, Q&As, documentaries, production videos, etc.; each launch is a lot more work than it used to be
• F4F has expanded from 3 people five years ago to a much, much larger team now; has a great output per head compared to other similarly-sized companies
• Alex wants to show us what’s going on behind the curtain to have transparency and give collectors understanding–but sometimes collectors may not like the words that they hear
• TTs are evolving and are primarily to gauge interest; no guarantees any license will be picked up regardless of results
• F4F has over 45 licenses now and has a commitment to the licensors and the fanbases of the licenses; in a perfect world First 4 Figures could take on everything, but there’s only so much that Alex and Chocks can do
• Can always do another Attack on Titan TT and revisit with humans instead of Titans as the topic; Chock does what he thinks is best for the TT using his best judgment
• Maybe the TT writeup included each week could be modified to manage expectations
• Artorias SD uses three button batteries; you can’t fit a rechargeable battery into the base for this statue the same as the resin statues
• The next pre-order is looking like Midna
• Alex hopes Skull Knight can be up for order this year–still waiting for approval to go to physical stage
• No comment on any plans for Dark Souls
• Alex thinks the pose for the resin Ornstein looks great; the SD Ornstein has a different pose because there were more choices available; Solaire and Ornstein have really specific poses because that’s what they’re known for
• Rally the fans for Earthbound to see if it’s even worth mentioning to Nintendo during their meeting
• Snake is still on track for a Q3 2018 release
• Xenoblade Chronicles TT next week
• Yes, some smaller statues are in development with an emphasis on creative bases, etc.
• Persona 5 — No News
• Phoenix Wright is coming along okay, there is activity happening on that
• 25th Sonic production video has already been made; Jeff has just been busy and hasn’t had a chance to complete editing and post it yet; maybe next week
• The second 25K announcement placeholder on the calendar is and always has been Psycho Mantis–it was never going to be Bayonetta in that slot; Psycho Mantis is coming along very nicely; Bayonetta is far in the future and was never planned for that spot on the calendar
• Alex has talked to the team about Disney; it would be a game-changer, but Alex isn’t convinced F4F has the resources to tackle this right now; wants to see how things pan out at the Las Vegas Licensing Expo this month;
• Alex admits that Silver’s box is too big and it’s overkill; F4F “took a hit in the shipping cost in the ass”; got mashed in the shipping fee because of the oversized box; Alex should have been more specific about the size of the double-boxing
• Don’t have the resources to have pre-orders a week apart right now; wouldn’t be able to do documentaries and hype videos; Alex isn’t convinced F4F or collectors could handle that pace
• Majora’s Mask will be hitting the US in two batches: one batch is on the way now and will arrive at the end of May, and the other batch will leave China at the end of May and arrive at the end of June
• Shiranui has done very, very well thus far–won’t give numbers until the end of the month
• Resin Classic Crash numbers — will have to look these up
• Production for the Artorias SD Regular Edition is already complete
• Probably not any more Metal Gear Solid pre-orders in 2018 besides Psycho Mantis
• Kamina Pre-Order–hard to say if it will be in 2018 because the licensor goes at their own pace
• Chances for Spyro hitting UK customs before August: Good for “in August”; “Let’s see”; Spyro production starts ramping up toward the end of this month
• Silver Wait Lists will likely be contacted much faster than Majora’s Mask Wait Lists since Silver has been fully shipped and produced already
• Sometimes licensors want to keep the focus around certain titles; licensors don’t have to tell F4F why they reject First 4 Figures doing certain products/licenses
• First4Figures would absolutely consider doing Zelda statues from earlier games; A Link to the Past is Chocks’ favorite
• Do Minish Cap/Four Swords/Spirit Tracks need their own statues, or are they already covered by Link on the King of Red Lions?
• No plans for Orochi after Chibiterasu, RTF (“Rally the Fans”) if you want this; Alex can also run a poll for it
• Looking into making the foot peg on Ishaku stronger
• No news on F4F T-Shirts
• Unlikely for Genos to launch for pre-order this year; still at 3-D stage; many things at 3-D stage right now
• Hopefully Amaterasu PVC can be ready for PO by the end of the year
• Variant colors for Shovel Knight really helped; doing him on his own without variants would have been a problem; Spector Knight or Plague Knight would need to have statue variants in order to be done — not possible with single colors
• “Will Gravelord Nito be holding a Lord Soul?” — Nito news will remain quiet until we get closer to the time of his reveal
• No thought on Ed & Ein still
• Classic Crash Resin sales aren’t low, but are average
• Alex doesn’t remember saying in the Q&A last month that he wanted 550 votes for Blaze the Cat [It’s at the -2:14:30 mark in Q&A #65, FYI, about 1:39 into the video — see screencap above this section of the post 😉 ]
• Wanted to have pre-orders every two weeks because of a lull when Alex goes to Vegas later this month; pre-orders will be in spurts of 2-3 weeks for now; the plan is eventually for a pre-order every two weeks
• The Exclusive for Modern Amy Rose is going to be very cool
• Pikmin will not be part of the conversation with Nintendo in Las Vegas unless they bring it up
• No chance for Mario on Yoshi PO in Q3 2018; couple potential variant colors
• Banjo-Kazooie PO will still be end of June/early July 2018
• SD Solaire pre-order has been artificially been brought forward to launch in conjunction with Dark Souls Remastered; SD Ornstein will likely be more than 3-4 months later
• Alex doesn’t recall mentioning a stone statue version of Amaterasu
• The Amaterasu PVC is 100% going to come out; F4F is 100% committed to this; hopefully by the end of this year
• Alex would really love to commit to Samurai Champloo Jin; wants to see how Mugen fares in the marketplace once he’s released
• Hopefully Cowboy Bebop Spike pre-order this quarter if he’s done in time
• No chance of Animal Crossing TT before Las Vegas Licensing Expo
• Earthbound TT Rescheduled in Favor of Animal Crossing in 2 Weeks — More Relevant
• Bayonetta likely to be priced close to Ornstein–she’s a really, really tough project
• Alphonse PO still about 5 months away, maybe even earlier; working on changes right now
• Artorias SD Exclusive expected to ship from the factory in late May
• Edward Elric will also have to go through approval since he’s a different statue; although approval may be faster since F4F will have some idea of what the licensor is looking for after Alphonse gets approved
• Alphonse hasn’t been approved yet
• Should expect Guts-like pricing for Alphonse, as he’s huge
• Will conceptualize a pose for Donkey Kong and run it past Nintendo
• Will never hear Earthbound story teased in an early stream
• Aika and Reala still need support to be made; the hundred or so votes split across all of Aika’s base options from Alex’s Aika poll won’t work–needs more interest and unique voters
• No progress on card holders
• Meta-Ridley should be ready for pre-order this year, not next year
• True Form Midna Pre-Orders Begin on Friday May 11th 2018 during the F4F Q&A #70!
• First Zelda pre-order since January 2017 (Majora’s Mask); decided to wait until there was final approval from Nintendo on True Form Midna before posting the pre-order

…And that’s it for this week! Please come back next week for the full reveal of the True Form Midna statue pre-order that Zelda fans have been waiting years for! And also, if you haven’t already done so–please be sure to enter the Samurai Champloo Blu Ray giveaway!