The past week has been an eventful one for First 4 Figures, with the long-awaited Exclusive Banjo-Kazooie statue going up for order at long last… followed by possible revisions being made to the statue following fan outcry to make Banjo as good as he could be! But it’s on to another week and another livestream, as F4F Q&A #78 has now arrived! This week, the much-anticipated teaser trailer for the first Cowboy Bebop statue debuts, along with Alex & Chock answering questions about such topics as the future of F4F Shovel Knight, Jinjos, the Metroid Prime 3 Gunship, Anime, Princess Zelda and more!

[I got a late start today, so I didn’t have time to recap the entire First 4 Figures Q&A #78 livestream as it happened. I’ve now gone back and recapped the entirety of the TT/KOTR and Q&A sections, which I’ve posted up now. I’ll go back over the weekend and add in the Week in Review and Announcements section as well.]

[The Cowboy Bebop Spike Teaser Trailer has now been posted, and you can watch the Spike hype trailer read about it on the Official F4F Website Blog right here!]

On Temptation Thursdays (TT Polls) and the King of the Ring:

• TT 109 Vampire Hunter D: 287 Votes; 169 Yes and 118 No; Not much movement; If you’re an anime fan, Rally the Fans
• TT 110 Hollow Knight: 142 Yes, 66 No; 68% Yes rate; Impressive out-of-the-gate numbers for an independent game, but needs a lot more support
• TT 111 Divinity Original Sin: Next Week!
• TT 112 Code Geass: In 2 Weeks!
• This week’s hashtag is #F4FSpike for a chance to win 500 F4F Reward Points at random next week!
• King of the Ring Match #6: Tails defeated Eight And a Half Tails
• KOTR Match #7: Skull Kid destroyed Kirby by about 600 votes
• Next week’s match will be Item 2 Mega Man vs. Twilight Princess Link!
• No one is going to get any points from this first King of the Ring tournament, because no one is going to win–all entrants have been eliminated!
• Mega Man vs TP Link can be posted tomorrow, and then run for a week. That’ll complete the first round, and then the quarter-finals can begin–all at the same time. Those can run for a week, followed by the semi-final matches at once and then the finals. So it’ll take about a month to complete this first round, which has been expedited because all of the club members entrants have been eliminated already.

The Q&A!:

• Statue numbers aren’t on the authenticity card so that the statue number and authentication code aren’t in one place and people can’t steal your number
• In contact with My Hero Academia licensor, not as complicated as it used to be
• Phoenix Wright PO will be before Yakuza Kiryu
• Amaterasu PVC PO possibly before the end of 2018
• Rally the fans for Tomba (539 Votes–416 ‘No’, 123 ‘Yes’)
• Rally the official Oddworld TT, as the unofficial Abe’s Odyssey poll has been deleted
• There will be more Banjo items coming, Alex could see mini honeycombs or feathers
• Alex has never even though about doing logos like Playstation; would be interested if there’s demand for that
• No possibility of Ratchet & Clank because of F4F’s good relationship with Gaming Heads
• No plans to improve the printing quality on the underside of PVC bases
• F4F needs to put Law back up for sale and really have a look at the number of orders for him; Law definitely won’t be shipping in the next 3 years and payments shouldn’t be coming
• Alex has not thought about attachable speech bubbles for the Conker statue
• “1.) What do you think about bringing more villains into the legend of zelda series would love to see a bongo bongo?” — Rally the fans.
• “2.) you’ve said in the past that 3 resin statues a year is what we can handle for the legend of zelda but what about pvcs is this somthing that you have thought of for the future we know the legend of zelda series can sell but will you start making more pvcs since it would be easier for people to buy ?” — It’s not about F4F. It’s about what the licensor can handle.
  
• “3.) Can we expect alot of pvcs for the legend of zelda next year?”  Not a lot, but at least one.
  
• “4.) How many legend of zelda pvcs are in the works as we speak?” At least one Alex can tell us about.
  
• “5.) Alex what do I have to do to become an admin i got the perfect name picked out for my box and maybe if I’m an admin you can start answering my legend of zelda questions in a private message” Rally the admins! Put your name in the bag to be considered.
  
• “6.) Alex do you have a authentication card for my puppet zelda you know my situation and I dont really need a number for it I would just like it to feel complete any thoughts?” Alex doesn’t know. PM him to find out.
  
• “7.) Will you guys be doing anything special for the legend of zelda orcarina of time 20th anniversary this year?” Nope.
  
• “8.) Is there a legend of zelda pvc in the works?” One.
  
• “9.) Are you going to put designs on tfm def edition and what other ideas do you have in store to just amaze us with her?” Nothing.
• “10.) Can we expect to see any sneak peeks of rider link anytime soon dont think I’ve seen one in months pretty please lol” Coming along at the duplication stage–almost time to start painting.
  
• “11.)where does true form midna fall in the production line ex.like after spyro theres another statue that will take place at that factory. So who is true form midna behind?” Still making choice on this, very likely to go to a factory that’s not backed up.
  
• “12.)I know you guys shoot for 9 months from the preorder to our homes but can you take us threw that process like how many months does it take from preorder to actually start production? How long does it take to make all of the statues? And after you give the ok on the first 10 or 20 statues from that piece does the factory give you an approximate date of when the final piece will be done?” F4F shoots for 9 months, but 10-12 is more likely now. After Alex checks the samples to see if there are any pre-production issues, and then Alex checks again for a final inspection to make sure that all issues have been corrected.
  
• “13.)is rider link still on schedule for first preorder of 2019?” Nope.
  
• “14.) Alex why you trying to kill a man’s dream of a pvc legend of zelda oot 20th anniversary statue lol” As cold as ice.
  
• Warp Star Kirby — Submitted to Nintendo
• Kamina — Slightly more complicated but First 4 Figures is working toward that
• Luigi — TT is impressive, but Alex is concerned people won’t buy a non-Mansion Luigi
• There will be one never-before-shown item at GamesCom: a new SD PVC (not from Dark Souls!)
• Yakuza Kiryu is coming along; there’s been a bit of movement on that
• Chock’s biscuit snacks are very nice, but fattening and with lots of crispy flour; supposed to be shaped like a butterfly but look “like a Zelda heart” instead
• Looking forward to seeing what Torch Torch has coming up at WonderFest; there are Wait Lists for Dark Souls rings that are sold out right now in case they’re reprinted by Torch Torch
• Supposedly the F4F OCC admins know the answers to some of the Zelda questions Troy Blair has been asking. [I promise–I don’t know nothin’!]
• Phoenix Wright Definitive Edition gives F4F the confidence to release a niche character by charging a higher price than the usual Exclusive and giving extra incentives with the statue; these Definitive Editions can help niche characters like Skies of Arcadia Aika and Yakuza Kiryu to be released as well
• Still working on final changes to the Guts statue
• Would have liked to have gotten Berserk Guts to the market sooner before other companies’ versions
• F4F doesn’t expedite their own development process to try to beat other companies to the punch; release at their own speed and the speed that they think their collectors can handle
• Might slow down a little bit on licenses like Berserk when the marketplace is especially crowded
• Yooka-Laylee Statue? Rally the fans: “That would be awesome if we could do that, but the TT leaves a lot to be desired.”
• No news on Fierce Deity Link 2.0
• Aika…? “How about… yeah.”; One of those things that Alex was thinking about whether or not it makes sense to do for niche lines
• Polls for other Banjo-Kazooie characters besides Mumbo-Jumbo will be done
• The next PO will be Spike
• The pre-order calendar will be updated sometimes soon
• Gruntilda poll after Mumbo-Jumbo poll is successful? “Hey… why not?”
• Those on the Silver EX Wait Lists will probably have their orders convert to real orders, but it’s going to take a while for the factories to get back and finish the production runs
• Top 20 Wait List for Mugen EX should also convert
• Mob Psycho 100 needs a lot more support to be considered, as does Darling in the Franxx
• Little bases for Mini Crystal Dragons and the EX Jiggy/Music Notes being considered
• “Nerfed Edition” Conker on a cushion or a stool instead of the full throne as an option to keep the price down for those who don’t want the full throne Conker? Alex hasn’t really thought about it until now–what do people want? Alex is leaning towards no, but can always think about
• Green Shovel Knight and Black Shovel Knights will be offered up at the same time; will be the same pose as the original gold and blue Shovel Knights; want to do another two after that–if there’s enough support for the 6 Shovel Knights (at least 100 of each of the variants sold), it’ll let F4F have enough confidence to try Plague Knight and/or Specter Knight, something that F4F would like to do if there’s enough support
• “When you do a number 2, are you taking your time or is it get out ASAP? Lol” If it’s during a livestream, Alex tries to get it out as fast as he can. Chocks doesn’t have time to take his time–but he’s clean. He’s super-clean.
• The PVCs coming out in November for Darksiders from another company don’t nullify the chances of First4Figures getting the license–those are PVCs, whereas F4F would be making larger resins
• Crystal Cloak Alucard is definitely coming
• F4F would have to set up a whole company and accounts in Australia–they can’t just open a third-party warehouse there and have Australia as the importers of record
• Conker pre-order likely to be in November/December 2018
• Amaterasu PVC should be up for order around the end of the year
• Morrigan is not likely to be put up for PO this year
• First4Figures was thinking of having booster/expansion packs of Pikmin to add to the Pikmin diorama if it was ever made; like “Build Your Own Pikmin Diorama”
• If Alex could do a figure from any form of animation, it would be from Princess Mononoke
• PVCs will be essential for F4F’s expansion; always looking for more licenses to do PVCs from; probably no licenses that would be exclusively done as PVCs though–why not both PVC and resin?
• Alex’s tips for taking care of your F4F statues: regular dusting; keep behind glass; no direct sunlight; nice room temperature; and every night just before you go to bed–sing it a lullaby
• Guts, Alphonse and/or Spike could possibly be sent over for display at an anime company’s booth (Aniplex, Crunchyroll, Funimation) at New York Comic Con 2018
• F4F Anime is going less smoothly than Alex had hoped thus far
• You can’t just lump anime together–licenses are licenses, but overall there’s no doubt in Alex’s mind that anime has not been as accessible as he had hoped in terms of “built it and collectors will come”; Alex thinks overall F4F has improved in marketing anime though
• Alex is grateful that fans are allowing F4F to have open pre-orders for anime exclusives until production stars
• #FinishTheLine breaks Alex’s heart–he wants to, but he’s a little bit gunshy; Berserk’s success doesn’t necessarily make F4F feel more comfortable with more Samurai Champloo statues; fingers crossed for every anime launch
• Anime is definitely something that F4F is still committed to; it’s still early days and F4F has to keep trying
• It’s kind of easy to forget that First4Figures has been doing video game statues for 14 years–F4F has been around for a while in video game space, but just doesn’t have that history with anime; it’s still surprising when newer companies launch out of nowhere with anime pieces and getting a greater response, however
• In a perfect world, the number of anime POs in a year would be proportional to the number of anime licenses that F4F holds; 2016-2017 was mainly development with 1 PO per year, while we’ve had 3-4 POs in 2018
• Alex doesn’t know if Dark Horse would distribute F4F Berserk resin statues in the U.S. or not to increase the potential audience–Dark Horse didn’t used to distribute resins; there’s no reason First 4 Figures can’t have that conversation with them
• If the Banjo TT had been an overwhelming “no”, F4F would have still launched the Banjo-Kazooie statue anyway–just with more anxiety!
• You can’t talk about the cost of licenses because it’s confidential; part of the contract
• There has been contact with Atlus about Persona 5
• Alex has an absolutely amazing poker face
• Is the Cowboy Bebop Swordfish spaceship something that fans want to see? Not many people bought the Samus Metroid Gunships (Chocks: “But maybe they weren’t marketed well back then?”)
• If F4F did a Sonic Mania line in the style from that game, Sonic the Hedgehog himself would be first and it would be the start of a new line; the new line would be the same size and scale very likely as the Classic line, but not part of that line
• Don’t have information on size/price of Bayonetta Scarborough Fair gun replicas just yet–also realizing there are four versions of those guns, which is something that has to be considered as well
• Alex hasn’t reached out to WWE and doesn’t really want to make WWE statues right now
• If everything goes smoothly, F4F will be bringing the GNF Toyz Sonic diorama statue shown a while back to GamesCom
• F4F loves to receive fan care packages
• We could see more Darkstalkers characters like Lillith or Felicia if Morrigan does well
• Next Tekken character to get a statue would likely be Yoshimitsu
• Snake production is coming along very nicely–Alex will share some new videos in the club
• Didn’t do fixed lights for Silver’s base, but should make sure that there are “always on’ switches in the future for all bases
• Rally the fans for the Banjo-Kazooie unobtainable Ice Key
• How soon will Jet follow Spike? Likely 3-5 months; whatever collectors can handle
• Alex would have done some statues very differently if First 4 Figures didn’t need approvals
• Offering both 1/4 and 1/6 versions of statues at once could be a problem because one of those scales might sell very badly–what if collectors invest in one scale and the sales for that scale are so poor that the line is discontinued in that size but not the other one? Alex doesn’t want to commit to producing whole lines in multiple scales in case one of the scales sells poorly. What if only 20 people order 1/4 statues and 300 order 1/6? Then what? It’d be a waste of time and effort and money and resources–the scales can’t subsidize each other? It’s a high risk, and First 4 Figures can’t always take so many of those risks–then it’d be “First No Figures”.
• Sometimes Alex comes to Chock with an idea and Chocks comes back with something so customer-focused that Alex doesn’t talk to Chock for a week until it’s time for the Q&A
• If money grew any trees, First4Figures would do every scale for every statue all at once–but it doesn’t
• Alex really likes the “mini-game” of Validation and wants to get it working perfectly on their side
• The new non-Dark Souls SD PVC will be up for pre-order at GamesCom 2018 next month
• F4F won’t take the final payment for any statue until it’s in the warehouse
• Got some feedback on Phoenix Wright this morning–need to make some changes
• No interchangeable eyes for Banjo-Kazooie
• No update on potential impact of possibly US tariffs
• Working on Mini Crystal Dragon, Jiggies and Musical Notes
• Not discussing what potential revisions for Banjo-Kazooie were in the proposal sent to Rare
• Don’t have the numbers yet for SD Solaire, but Alex thinks he outsold SD Artorias because of the combo packs (as expected based on the resin sales of Solaire and Praise the Sun Solaire)
• Sonic & Tails Helicopter pose will be the next diorama after Sonic 25th Anniversary
• Will absolutely do characters beyond Alphonse and Edward Elric in the Fullmetal Alchemist line if the support is there
• Solaire SD and PTS Solaire SD will be finished at different factories because of the complexity of finishing PTS Solaire
• Factory finishing 25th Anniversary Sonic is super-slow and Alex does apologize–their relationship with F4F isn’t long for this world; Alex believes they’re on the home stretch with completing 25th
• Potential changes to Banjo-Kazooie have already been done and submitted to Rare–it’s a Rare and F4F thing at this point and not something that will be run past the F4F OCC
• F4F never allows for transfer of pre-orders and are trying to verify customers’ addresses to prevent buyers from trying to sell their pre-orders and have them shipped to other people; address verification is also for fraud prevention
• There are some companies where you’d be instantly blacklisted if you tried to change your address after placing your order–F4F doesn’t want to do that, which is why they’re verifying address changes now
• New Aika poll? Alex: “#WouldYouDoItFor700?”
• Hunter x Hunter has had a lot of requests–would need a TT to gauge interest
• 30th Anniversary Sonic statue? Future F4F’s problem. “We should probably start working on that now!”
• “Any updates on the Spyro PVC, and Spyro the Dragon shipping date? And will mini Crystal Dragon be a separate order if we want it?” — Nothing to report, Nothing to report and Nothing to report
• Bowser is finally starting to get moving forward in production
• Chances of a Super Smash Bros. version Princess Zelda statue? “Unlikely, because that’s not a license F4F holds.”
• If F4F were making a new Zelda right now, it would most likely be from BOTW. If they could do a Zelda from any game, it would be from Ocarina of Time.
• Have definitely thought about making art prints and limited edition versions in future, but that would require more staff and expansion
• What is a diorama per se? Will continue making Sonic dioramas.
• If you post your card numbers online, people could steal your number and authenticate it–censor the numbers before posting photos
• Nothing to report just yet in terms of Zelda projects
• Castlevania Lord of Shadows Gabriel Belmont would be 1/6
• GamesCom is to test whether or not it would be worth it to do more conventions
• 48:30
• All F4F statues are Alex’s babies–he doesn’t prefer seeing photos of any in peoples’ collections over others
• Flexipay is totally inflexible (for now) and can’t be customized to a single customer
• Not all Exclusives come with LEDs
• Statues are totally randomly numbered and not necessarily numbered in the order they come off the production line
• Color-changing LED for a Space Pirate beam? Wouldn’t be a problem–Alex has experience with color-changing LEDs!
• Do people want a Metroid Prime 3 Gunship? Maybe Alex needs to run an official poll for that to get people to rally.
• Sure, it would have been easier to start the Fullmetal Alchemist series with a smaller/cheaper piece than Alphonse, but that’s not how things worked out
• Alex’s poker face does not ever break
• Would we want a pack of differently-colored Jinjos in metal or PVC? Alex will write a poll on that. Mini transformations would be cool as well.
• The way to make a perfect steak it is to use a blow-torch with a spread-out flame, but Alex had to order the perfect one from Amazon US and is worried that he’ll need propane that’s not available in Hong Kong to use it [And a bunch of other talk about cooking and steaks…]
• F4F doesn’t want to get a reputation for opening pre-orders and then canceling the items if there aren’t enough orders; don’t want to have collectors being two or three pieces into a specific scale and then having that scale not continue whereas another does
• If Dead Space Isaac Clarke were to be looked into, it would be in April/May 2019
• There need to be at least 50-70 pieces on the Wait List in order for F4F to produce more pieces to complete an edition size–if there’s only like 15 orders, they wouldn’t go to the expense of going back into production
• F4F will be at ACG Hong Kong on July 27th, so hit them up if you’re there later on this month–one of two conventions that F4F is doing this year (with GamesCom being the other one)
• There will be a blog post put up over the course of the next few days regarding GamesCom and pre-orders that will be opened up there

…And that’s it for this week! Next week: Cowboy Bebop Spike Spiegel Statue Exclusive Revealed and Pre-Order! It your time to shine, Space Cowboys! It’s been a long time coming, but it’ll be all about anime next week, followed by two weeks of Cowboy Bebop hype after Spike’s pre-order opens up! Who’s looking forward to spotlight at long last shining upon Cowboy Bebop? =D