Months and months of work are about to bear fruit, as First 4 Figures will be attending GamesCom 2018 in Germany next week with a grandiose showing of statues currently up for order and also a handful of all-new pieces. But before Alex and Chock head off to GamesCom, they’ve got one more new statue to fully reveal and put up for sale: the F4F Metal Gear Solid Psycho Mantis EXCLUSIVE Statue is now up for order–along with a clear variant!

Notices:

• The First 4 Figures Psycho Mantis Statue EXCLUSIVE will go up for order at the end of the Q&A
• Will go through the pricing details, documentaries, etc. regarding Psycho Mantis at the end of the stream
• Spike Exclusive statue is up for order until the 21st of August unless Spike fails to hit 1000 pieces, in which case he stays open until production starts
• Warp Star Kirby Exclusive open until September 9th unless Kirby fails to hit 1000 pieces, in which case he stays open until production starts
• The GamesCom Pre-Order Packs are complete! The F4F pins arrived in time, so they will be included in the 50 Euro Pre-Order packs along with a blue #F4FisLife wristband, a mini flier (with new product reveals!), and a card with a code worth $75 USD toward any items shown at GamesCom.
• It took First4Figures a long time to conceptualize these packs and get them right, but
• Cameo by Jeff–the true Hero of F4F! Jeff has been working hard on the Pre-Order Packs, the fruit of his handiwork.
• Alex doesn’t sleep (enough, at least)
• GamesCom preparation has been all-encompassing this week
• The missing shipment for GamesCom has arrived in London and will be making its way to Germany
• Those not attending GamesCom, don’t worry–you’ll be able to purchase wristbands through the First 4 Figures CORE range (eventually) via the website
• Card holders were shown off for the first time this week–options 2 and 3 will probably be made so that collectors have options for what would work well in their own displays; possibility of transparent options; no idea what the price will be yet–likely to create tools and molds to make it cheaper
• 4 PVC items will debut at Gamescom–two of them will be SD (Super Deformed), and two of them will be TF (True Form); Amaterasu TF PVC will be one of the reveals
• Made a bit of a boo-boo and forgot to paint the gloves on the Psycho Mantis teaser shown last week; the gloves will be properly painted now as they were sculpted on

Production Updates:

• Guts isn’t at the point where he can go into production yet; Alex was disappointed and let the factory know he doesn’t want to see it happen again
• Alex hates unnecessary delays–he doesn’t care that other companies may take longer, it’s on F4F; the problem is that F4F gave the factories too many products that are launched in sequence (ie Majora’s Mask; Spyro; Solaire) during the same short span of time
• Ornstein has been pulled from the factory he was going to be made at and taken to the factory that’s far in production on Snake now so that Ornstein won’t be backlogged in production for months and months
• Videos posted of Bowser, Snake and Varia Suit Samus statues from the factories in the F4F OCC this week
• Samus Production Update: Visor on Varia Suit Samus is too yellow and needs to be more green; assembly on the feet needs to be more straight; dots on back need to be aligned–revisions will be made before Alex will approve it to leave the factory
• Alex hasn’t been to the Spyro factory this week, so no updates on how production is going this week

Temptation Thursday TT Polls and the King of the Ring:

• FLCL TT 114: 240 Votes; 144 ‘Yes’; 96 ‘No’; Not much movement still
• Zero Escape TT 115: 134 Votes; 60 ‘Yes’; 74 ‘No’
• Super Meat Boy TT 116 Next! Indy love!
• TT 117 will be an Inu Yasha TT! Be ready to rally, #F4FAnimeSquad!
• TT 118 will be Perfect Dark! Would be pretty-straightforward to acquire if fans want it!
• This week’s hashtag is #F4FTIS for a chance to win 500 Rewards Points this week! Try to avoid adding an extra ‘T’!
• There will be no Who Dat Who Dat this week because it’s a Reservation Friday
• King of the Ring Finals (Skull Kid vs. Artorias) tied at 50%/50%! This is the equivalent of hitting a ‘0’ in Roulette–the House always wins! (“The first rule of the F4F Club is that Alex always wins!”)
• Who do you want to see in the next round of King of the Ring? Alex is expecting Nanase to educate people on how to place their bets and create their bracket predictions.
• Skull Kid and Artorias officially tie as the victors of the first King of the Ring. Congratulations to both!

The Q&A!:

• Chock would choose Batman to protect him from the other 8 characters above trying to kill him because Batman does his research before facing his enemies; “he almost killed Superman if it wasn’t for that Martha shit”
• Alex would choose the Terminator to protect him
• Validation for Psycho Mantis will be on Tuesday August 28th since F4F will be away at GamesCom on Tuesday
• Can’t answer whether Varia Suit Samus will ship before Rider Link PO
• Next Friday is the second to last day of GamesCom, so Alex and Chock won’t be back at HQ for the Q&A next week
• There’s no mechanism for CS to manually convert pending Rewards Points early
• Alex says 100% Roman Reigns will finally defeat Brock Lesnar this weekend because Brock Lesnar has re-signed with the UFC; “I’ll bet you a Pre-Order Pack.”
• Solaire will be en route if not already in collectors’ hands when Mimic goes up for PO
• There’s at least one variant for Mario on Yoshi coming
• Solid Snake Essential Edition is in the triple digits ordered
• Rider Link  price–Alex needs to do more research; thinks it will probably be around or about the price of Ornstein [Alex clarified on Facebook that there is no Rider Link DE]
• Alex believes there is a distinct lack of interest for Kamina/Gurren Lagann; development not continuing right now
• Snake will probably be getting ready for shipping in about a month; still waiting on packaging/boxes to be ready
• Definite thoughts on having a Sniper Wolf variant: “sounds perfect”
• Revolver Ocelot and Liquid Snake? “Absolutely makes sense”
• You can ONLY use the GamesCom Pre-Order Packs to pre-order items displayed at GamesCom–not items that go up for order later this year like Conker that aren’t displayed at GamesCom!
• GamesCom codes can’t be converted into Rewards Points; nothing planned for people who buy the GamesCom packs and then don’t redeem their codes
• Yakuza will be considered only as a 3D sculpt Kickstarter
• Tekken Law doesn’t have enough pre-orders right now to go into production; will be Vaulted unless he somehow gets more orders. The alternative is to wait for Jin to enter the marketplace and then launch Law pre-orders for two more weeks to see if hopefully enough people order to put Law into production.
• Snake will be at GamesCom
• Alex would like to celebrate Ocarina of Time every day–“Trust me on that.”
• We won’t be seeing a new Legends of Zelda PVC in the near future
• Grayfox is far away, but there may be some interesting variants going on with him
• Waiting on feedback from Capcom on Phoenix Wright
• Only update on Yakuza is that Alex would like Sega’s approval to “Kickstarter” the 3-D sculpt; this is directly because of the extremely low Warp Star Kirby sales despite the 500+ votes saying that people would actually buy Warp Star Kirby if he was made; Alex wants people to put their money where their mouth is
• Haven’t had a chance to work on mini-figure packs because GamesCom prep has been so all-encompassing
• No updates on Snake LSB–still only conceptual; might run a TT to gauge interest on this
• American branch of F4F not likely–will probably just stay in Hong Kong as teeny-tiny potatoes
• Alex might get interested to do a 3-D of Richter Belmont at 500+ votes and then Kickstarter that
• Might do a Xenoblade Character poll with the TT nearing 800+ votes
• Gravelord Nito will be the same height as Ornstein–that’s the plan
• Crystal Cloak Alucard will probably come with the shield as well as the sword
• F4F will have their own autographing pens with them at GamesCom
• A Solid Snake LSD would be 1:1 scale and Alex would also like to do a mini-bust version to launch at the same time; makes busts more viable; would be its own line and not part of the 1:4 MGS series
• If F4F ever gets to making Donkey Kong, can have a conversation about making him part of a Donkey Kong Country series instead of a part of the Mario series
• Not sure if both Meta-Ridley and Rider Link will go up for order this year
• If Alex and Chocks were characters in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Alex would be Gollum; Chock hasn’t seen the movies [!?!?!]
• Modern Amy Rose is almost finished in 3-D–planning for a Kickstarter PO
• Ideally, all products need to sell at least 600 pieces now
• Alex would only ask for collectors to pay an NRD for Kickstarted-ed POs; would never ask for the full amount upfront
• Will still be putting Spyro PVC up for pre-order at the time F4F originally planned; video game being delayed doesn’t affect the PO date
• Cowboy Bebop Jet Black pre-order should be around the end of 2018
• Pretty much everything that’s not been delivered yet but put up for order will be at GamesCom
• No anime license acquisitions at GamesCom–doesn’t make sense to announce an anime at a gaming convention
• Tekken Nina Williams sseems unlikely; First 4 Figures doesn’t believe the support is there for Tekken right now
• Alex doesn’t know how many cans taller than Bowser Alphonse will be
• Ornstein is one of the 2 SDs being revealed at GamesCom
• F4F will send out a newsletter and let collectors know if a statue has sold 1000+ pieces after the PO period ends, so that collectors know when orders will be closing and have a final opportunity to get their orders in; thoughts to be had on what to do if orders hit 1000 pieces right at the end of the one-month period
• We could see Amy or Yakuza as a potential “Kickstarter” PO before the end of the year
• No point in making a One Punch Man poll right now–can make one right around the start of the new season when Genos launches and hype is high
• Varia Suit Samus will be available at Gamescom; Mugen won’t since he’s finished
• Because of what happened with Warp Star Kirby, Alex is concerned that people who voted for Modern Amy might not actually buy her–Alex wants to try “Kickstarter”-ing her to see if people are actually willing to buy her, rather than using a PO slot if there won’t be support
• Would like to see at least 300 Pre-Orders for the 3D sculpt and 300 Pre-Orders for the completed physical sculpt for “Kickstarter” pre-orders
• Solaire SD Combo Packs will be available at GamesCom

Psycho Mantis Statue Reveal!

• “It… is… time for the Mantis that is the most Psycho of them all!”
• The head was really fun to work on for this statue; originally had the lenses painted over, but went back and added a translucent effect and made the eyes visible so as to not do a disservice to the fans and the character
• Cool “Frankenstein effect” with the stitching going all the way around Psycho Mantis’s head
• Going to discuss Psycho Mantis in parts and then run the video trailer of the whole package to give the true effect
• Psycho Mantis prototype head is slightly undersized–maybe 8% too small–will tweak and increase the size of the head so that the scale is proper between Snake and Mantis
• Forgot to paint the gloves on the prototype shown last week–has been corrected since and the gloves will of course be on the production version of the statue as well
• Glossy straps with texture and stitch marks on the arms and mask; amazing detail on fingernails
• Length of the sleeves are based on the Twin Snakes version
• Strap work on the body is really 3-D
• The thinness of Psycho Mantis really comes through when you compare him to Solid Snake
• About 18″ standing straight up since he’s 1:4 scale
• Psycho Mantis has one foot attached to column and another floating in the air to give a sense of depth
• Base represents the fact that you fight Psycho Mantis in a certain area (a study room/library)
• Beautiful marble effect on the base
• All the books on the base are specific books with titles!
• Screwed up text inside of book represents Psycho Mantis messing with your mind
• The base really brings everything together and explains how and why Psycho Mantis is in the pose he is and how he’s using his powers
• Psycho Mantis figure is actually looking down a bit, since he’s so elevated and can actually look downward at Snake this way

The F4F EXCLUSIVE Psycho Mantis Statue:

• Unmasked Psycho Mantis head! [He’s… not exactly a model!]
• This is the face that stares at you at the end of Metal Gear Solid after you unmask him
• Aiming to get this released in Q3 2019 (July-September 2019)
• Will come back on August 28th for Validation
• Pricing: $524.99 for the Exclusive or Regular Version; $52 deposit and less than $40/month for a 12-month plan
• Weight around 7.2 kg
• As always, F4F accepts credit cards and Paypal payments
• Shipping Cost: Same for both versions; $55 USD to the US; $55 USD to the EU (and no import duties since there’s an EU warehouse); $135 USD to AUS; $125 USD to Mexico/Egypt; see all other shipping costs on the website
• But wait–there’s more! There’s also a translucent Optic Camouflage Psycho Mantis statue, which isn’t just clear–there’s also shading on it!
• Optic Camouflage version will cost the same $524.99, and will also be available in a Combo Pack with the EX Psycho Mantis for $949.99 ($100 off the top!)
• Combo Packs will have a shared edition size with the non-Combo Pack Psycho Mantis figures

First4Figures Metal Gear Solid Psycho Mantis is now up for order! Both the Optic Camouflage and EX versions are up for sale individually and as a combo pack, and the regular version is also for sale as well (although I’m not sure why anyone would want that in this case, as it costs the same as Exclusive and just comes with less).

There will be no Q&A next week, as Alex and Chockles will be at GamesCom, where they’ll be successfully selling hundreds and hundreds of Pre-Order packs! If you’re going to be at GamesCom, make sure to drop by and hang out with the crew!