After the mega-ton announcements and launch of the Conker’s Bad Fur Day Definitive Edition statue in last week’s milestone F4F Q&A #100, you might think Alex and Chockles won’t have much to think about this week. But you would be wrong! This week, the Black Spyro PVC appears, the production Varia Suit Samus EX is in the house, and we get the answers to exhilarating questions such as:

WHO would likely be the second character in the Yakuza line if Kiryu sells well?

WHAT Sonic Adventure character would Alex want to make a diorama of if there’s ever a Sonic Adventure remake?

WHEN did Alex make first contact regarding the Yu-Gi-Oh and My Hero Academia licenses?

WHERE might we see the premiere of the first F4F My Hero Academia statue and the opening of pre-orders?

HOW does the final production Varia Suit Samus statue look?

WHY is F4F putting a new and stronger emphasis on busts?

COULD we see a Life-Size Sparx and/or color variants of Sparx?

WILL the Mini Aku Aku Mask have the “Ooga-Booga” sound built in?

…And more!

Announcements and The Week in Review:

• Shout-out to the IT team of Andreas and Lorenzo, who are working hard behind the scenes to make Conker Validation during the stream a success!
• With regard to advertising for upcoming pre-orders: “Do not worry, have no fear! You are gonna get spammed on Facebook! Spammed on Google! We are gonna spam you everywhere!”
• Alex’s New Year’s Resolution for Victor Villgren: “Always expect to be disappointed, then you can be pleasantly surprised!”
• Alex has already had three Red Bulls before the stream to get him buzzing, buzzing, buzzing for the Q&A!
• “If you’re concerned that we might be scammers, be sure to hit up our CS team. It’s all good in the hood!” –Alex Davis
• Shovel Knight Player 2 pre-orders are staying open for now since less than 1000 units have been sold; will be open until production or until 1000 units are sold
• Mimic, Phoenix Wright, Guts, Psycho Mantis, Spyro PVC and Warp Star Kirby are also all still up for order
• Alex has written and posted his 2018 Year in Review on the F4F Blog; his third posted since the inception of the OCC
• Blue Eyes White Dragon is looking tight! [According to Alex]; Dark Magician is also in the works
• Chrono Trigger is on the list for a future TT poll
• Alex wants to do a Pyramid Head! “What do you guys think?”; “It would be nice to do something out of our comfort zone, and you can’t get much more out of our comfort zone than Pyramid Head”; “Konami wants us to do it, I want to do it–Can you guys let it do us please?”
• Resident Evil: Alex feels it’s more about the characters than the monsters, but the last time he looked, the RE characters weren’t up for grabs for statues
• OCC Club Growth: “Amazing; Staggering; Just Stunning–Thank you for the support!”
• Alex actively pings people to welcome them to the club to motivate new members to contribute to the club, which is why he’s been doing those posts so frequently lately
• Time for renovating and furnishing the new office; making a gaming room background for a gaming statue launch
• Bought cushions of 16-bit Mega Drive, Dreamcast, Dreamcast controller and Sega Saturn for the new office; need to get more plushies as well for the office “If we can’t find them, fuck it–we’ll just make them!”
• Black Spyro sample came into the office today! Not official and not approved yet, but will make a great backdrop for the new office even if it never gets produced.
• First 4 Figures didn’t want to just dunk the purple Spyro PVC in a tub of black paint and call it Black Spyro–so they didn’t; Black Spyro actually has a lot of details; F4F knows this isn’t for everyone, but wants it to be available (if possible) for those who love variants
• Hopefully news on future Sonic Boom8 series PVCs soon
• First Alucard statues have started arriving in Asia/AUS; will ship to the rest of the world in February
• Spyro Life-Size Bust and Grand Scale Bust are in the works
• Polls are up in the OCC for Conker statue Day One cards for Exclusive Edition and Definitive Edition
• Alex thinks at least more than North America is likely for F4F My Hero Academia statues distribution… eventually
• Do First 4 Figures collectors want My Hero Academia (or any anime) busts (life size and grand-scale)?
• It’s not an either/or proposition–busts aren’t for everyone, and MHA full statues and dioramas would be done as well (of course); don’t expect to sell millions, but F4F wants to do fan service for collectors out there who do like and collect busts
• “We’re all about that fan service–to our detriment some times!”
• Alex Sings: “I haven’t checked how Phoenix doin’…. and I don’t want to!”; Phoenix does need the love; Hopefully when the new Phoenix Wright trilogy comes out the sales for the statue will pick up
• The MHA line can go deep–all it needs is a smashing start
• “Lorenzo, if you’re still on the stream: G-G-G-Gift cards, please!”
• “If only we made All Might curtains or bed sheets. F4Homeware.” –Chockles
• First4Figures is aware of the demand for larger distribution than North America for My Hero Academia products and is working as fast as they can, but a lot of companies are still on holiday vacation so it’s taking time
• Banjo-Kazooie stars and feathers sneak peek posted this week in the OCC; will be a Last Chance Week (or Weeks) for BK once the improved version is ready to show
• BOOM!! Varia Suit Samus EX production version statue is in the house and looking amazing! This is the exact sample that will be sent to IGN for review. Should begin shipping to AUS/Asia in the next two weeks, and to the rest of the world in late February!
• On Varia Suit Samus: “This is one of the most challenging pieces we’ve ever made. A lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into making this piece, and we hope that people like it and think it’s cool.”
• Varia Suit Samus is 3 pieces: body; cannon; base
• F4F will be exhibiting at International Toy Fair; will have Bowser/Varia Suit Samus/Snake/Conker there, as well as some PVCs we’ve seen before like Amaterasu PVC, Snake SD–and perhaps even some stuff that no one has been allowed to see just yet!
• Alex gets a call from his partner, John, during the stream! John thanks the viewers for their support throughout the past year. Alex also says John says Alex is doing a great job and is getting a raise!
• “Coca-Cola, hit me up!” –Chocks; “Hit me up too!” –Alex

 Conker Statue Validation!:

• Conker and Banjo-Kazooie are separate lines, so all new numbers are up for grabs
• Sub-200 Numbers: Validated 55.95 seconds or less after Validation began
• Sub-150 Numbers: Validated 48.5 seconds or less after Validation began
• Sub-100 Numbers: Validated 45.65 seconds or less after Validation began
• Sub-50 Numbers: Validated 42.95 seconds or less after Validation began

TT Polls (Temptation Thursdays):

• TT 133 Jo-Jo’s Bizarre Adventure: 464 Votes; 260 ‘Yes’; 204 ‘No’; Keep on voting and rallying if you want to see Jo-Jo products
• TT 134 Middle Earth Shadow of War: 212 Votes; 60 ‘Yes’; 152 ‘No’; “That’s quite a lot of ‘No’s, but total votes are quite high considering it was just posted yesterday.”
• Dead Cells TT next week!
• Bubblegum Crisis TT in 2 weeks!
• This week’s hashtag is #F4FCONK

The Q&A!:

• Congrats to Jake Meyer–An exemplary example of someone rallying right!
• Alex is so glad that F4F gets to work on My Hero Academia: “a blessing”
• Alex watched MHA with the knowledge that this was a series F4F was very likely to get, which put an interesting perspective on which character was his favorite; skewed by the fact that Alex has seen the ranked order of popularity of the characters based on the TT
• If everything goes smoothly, Alex would like to see the debut of something at Emerald City Comic Con with pre-orders opening up at that show for attendees at ECCC and general public pre-order in April; not 100% sure but something Alex is thinking about
• MHA Villains: Rally for the villains! Push them up in the poll!
• Alex is really excited about Sonic & Tails diorama and the TF PVC, but thinks it’s time to start developing a new core character for the modern line
• Egyptian Monster Tablets for Yu-Gi-Oh? “Nice ideas.”
• Rumor going around about a remake of Sonic Adventure; Alex would want to make a diorama with Chaos the water monster if that happens
• What’s the next pre-order? “I don’t have that information for you just yet.”
• Don’t have the estimated dimensions for True Form Midna DE’s display case yet
• Big fans of One Piece, but don’t see F4F One Piece happening any time soon
• No information on Mario on Yoshi pre-order date yet; probably no other Mario PO this year besides that
• Alex got a Fitbit for Christmas and realized just how little he sleeps
• Don’t know how many sold but unused GamesCom codes are out there
• New pose for Faye Valentine not finalized yet
• First 4 Figures wouldn’t release a favorite series of theirs that they expect to sell poorly just out of pure personal favoritism; if that was the case, F4F would be launching Blaze and Axel and Adam from Streets of Rage for Chocks
• Ornstein color tweaking has been completed and submitted for approval to licensor; hopefully they approve
• With Alucard wrapping up at the factory, Psycho Mantis will now become that factory’s focus
• Will look at the website data later on to determine the adjustments to the Banjo-Kazooie validation order for low numbers; not at the point yet where that needs to be looked at
• Skull Knight is really deep in the paint stage right now
• Alex doesn’t know what the next PO is yet himself
• Yakuza Kiryu needs to be submitted for approval and then he can go up for order; will be a normal pre-order and not Kickstarter-based
• Goro Majima would be the second figure in the Yakuza line if Kiryu sells well
• Alex hasn’t really given any thought to the children from Okamiden as companion pieces or otherwise
• No point in talking about the pose for Morrigan just yet
• Something to do with pizza as a companion piece for Dante? “Perhaps.”
• If there was a Castlevania SD PVC line, Alucard PVC would be first
• If Alex has anything to say about, plush “fo’sures” this year
• Jet Black pre-order will be sooner rather than later since Spike is deep in production
• Not decided if Faye or Ed & Ein will be the third piece in the Cowboy Bebop series
• My Hero Academia? “More information given closer to Emerald City Comic Con.”
• No mockup for Ed & Ein just yet
• Interchangeable head with hacker goggles for Ed? “It would be silly to not do that.”
• Improved Banjo-Kazooie with revisions will be shown when it’s ready
• Alex doesn’t necessarily think busts will be a big success for F4F; Amaterasu Life Size Bust’s numbers weren’t huge, but F4F understands that life-size busts take up a lot of space, which is why smaller versions will be offered to cater to both markets while still looking imposing and great
• Busts are their own line, but also a sort of DLC for a series–not like “filler”, but something that won’t require a lot of time and effort to make between main pieces in a line to keep interest going and to best maximize the use of a license
• Alex knows busts aren’t for everybody, but it’s about having something to offer for those who do want to have it; not as difficult to offer as developing full new character statues, and good to offer between new character statue releases
• Busts are very easy and straightforward to do since you don’t have to figure out poses and all that sort of stuff; still complicated once you get to the painting stage, but conceptually-wise the effort is pretty straight-forward
• Don’t expect to see Life-Size Sparx incorporated in any way with Life-Size Spyro Bust
• Color variants for Sparx with the Reignited Spyro resin? “Stop being rubbish and then you won’t have to worry about Sparx’s color!”
• More on Sparx variant colors: “But also… that’s quite interesting.”
• There’s always a plan in place for where statues will be produced, but it’s not always the same as what actually happens
• Adding F4F Legacy WWE and Magic the Gathering statues to the website for historical purposes: “It’s so at the top of the list right now I’m going to do it right now! …Oh wait!”; The time to look at this will be once the redesigned website is ready
• Will the Rainbow Spyro Cheat Code Variant PVCs get licensor approval? “We shall see.”; Need to get more samples from the factory once the holidays are over to see if licensor will approve
• Mini Chocks has been resurrected
• Can Aika go to pre-order without a Kickstarter-style reservation, in the manner that Yakuza Kiryu is going to? “Ahhhhhhh… ummmm… hmmmmmm… need to… yaaaaaahhhhh.” — Alex Davis
• Four documentary Q&A psots have been bumped up in the club–be sure to add your questions to those if you have questions you’d like answered in one of the documentaries
• Genos is posed kind of like he’s charging up; would have LEDs; would not have a Definitive Edition if he’s produced
• Alex agrees that Berserk SD would be a great gateway to anime SDs–“but probably also MHA, although this is all speculation”; would like to see Anime SDs
• Haven’t looked at Mimic sales in the last few weeks; could definitely sell better, but also understood based on peoples’ reactions to have realistic expectations
• F4F will do what they can to distribute My Hero Academia statues to as many countries as possible: “Trust–We will do what we can. Keep your faith.”
• License for Metal Sonic had expired for North America, but got it done and distributed in the end; it’s not uncommon to be in these sorts of situations–can still push and try
• Nito is more than a few months out, so not giving any information on further Dark Souls characters yet
• Haven’t given any thought to Dark Souls Life-Size or Grand Scale Helmets
• F4F wishes Animegami all the best with their own new collectibles; maybe we could see F4F Partnerships with Animegami when the time comes; Alex would like to see a lot more partnerships
• Had a meeting about the F4F Core line today for F4F Logo items such as wallets and lanyards; Alex wants that primed and working and proper ASAP
• An F4F Logo piece might be something nice to release; “Watch–someone will start using LEGO bricks to build an F4F Logo now.”
• Kiryu will probably go up for order in about six months time; the Red Gate will only go up for order if there’s enough Kiryus sold for it to have a Companion Piece statue to accompany it at all
• Neo-Cortex will be up for order after Chinese New Year
• Alex sees 2-3 Crash figures going up for order in 2019
• Probably no giant combo pack for the Rainbow Spyro PVCs if allowed to do them in the first place
• No sound in the Mini Aku Aku Mask, but it does light up
• Production sample of Varia Suit Samus received in the office this week–that’s why it’s being shown on the stream
• If 2019 conventions go well, who knows where F4F will go in 2020 or how many shows?
• Chocks thanks Jessica Castick for the Christmas card; only one card arrived so far while two were mailed
• When the time comes, Peggy will put out an APB for volunteers to help at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle
• Gift cards will be available sooner than later
• Will we be able to pay for existing orders using gift cards? “I highly doubt it.”
• Morrigan ETA? “It’s gonna be a while.”
• Chockles makes the 10 Shout Outs Screen Grab LIVE! A milestone worthy of episode #101!
• When will we get some Zelda news? “When the time is right.”
• Alex doubts we’ll get 5 Zelda items this year
• No life-size statues currently in the works
• 1,300 new members to the OCC
• Revised Banjo will be shown sooner rather than later!
• Haven’t given any more thought to a pack of Companion Pieces for Conker–need to see if there are enough Conkers sold to have something to accompany first
• Dark Souls dragons? “Dark Souls has some fantastic-looking characters.”
• Warframe? “I strongly recommend you go and vote on that character poll.”
• October 2017 is when F4F had its first contact regarding the Yu-Gi-Oh license, and only announced it last week–that’s how long it can take to go from interest to announcing a new license
• Initial discussions regarding MHA in February 2018 and further discussions in Las Vegas in summer 2018–these things happen slowly and rarely, with an entire year between the most recent sets of licenses announced
• Don’t know how many gold bars Alphonse has sold
• Quite a few My Hero Academia statues in the works; first one may be in April 2019
• Six months between MHA pre-orders? “You wait till you see what we’ve got coming up. You might be a little bit surprised.”
• Dabid was a big influence on putting My Hero Academia on the radar for a TT in the admin chat [Those many months of harassment finally paid off!]
• Rally for Monster Hunter in Alex’s Monster Hunter poll if you want to see Monster Hunter statues
• “Will Meta Ridley be up for order in January?” [Alex has the hiccups suddenly and can’t answer.]
• Tried getting the license for Nier but were denied
• F4F wants a new website because the front-end looks rubbish and they want to work on that–in development now

…And that’s a wrap for this week! Learn anything this week that gets you psyched up, #F4Fam?