The fabled day that Metroid fans have been waiting for has arrived at long last! Not only did the first collector receive their Varia Suit Samus 1/4 statue in-hand today–32 months a week-plus after pre-orders originally opened–but the next piece in the First4Figures Metroid Series is finally up for order today: Meta-Ridley! All of the details regarding the Metroid Meta Ridley statue will be revealed during F4F Q&A #103!
Announcements and the Week in Review:
- Meta Ridley pre-orders will open at the end of the stream–stay tuned for more information and the full reveal of Ridley!
- Alex sings joyfully after discovering using a tape measure that Meta Ridley is taller than the whole frame of the stream and the table will have to be pushed further back : “Hooooleeeeeee shit! It’s still not long enough!”
- Alex used to live in Cairo back in the day–he went to BISC (the British International School)
- F4F wants to increase the company’s presence in China–something Alex is looking toward in 2019
Will be doing China Joy in early August 2019 - Spyro PVC EX, Shovel Knight, Guts, Psycho Mantis, Phoenix Wright, Alphonse, Tekken Law and Mimic are all still up for order on the F4F Website
- Varia Suit Samus has begun to reach collectors’ hands in Australia: “Every time a new piece goes out, you Aussies do not understand that you hold our gonads in our fingers!”
- I did a write-up of the first in-hand photos and impressions of Varia Suit Samus EX earlier today right here
- Alex forgot to do his trademark “Good morning” bit at the beginning of today’s Q&A
- Alex went to the factory today to sign thousands of Day One/Signature Edition cards for Spyro PVC EX & Solaire SD EX: “Let us know in the comments if you’ll be getting one, because MY GOD, did I sign a lot of them today!”
- “Meta Ridley is purple too, so if you squint hard enough it can be Meta Spyro!”
- Blue Spyro PVC Cheat Code Variant is in the house on the Q&A! F4F still isn’t sure what they’re doing with this–it may just become part of the internal collection [Please no]
- “Will we ever get a Streets of Rage line? That depends on you guys.”
- Something “ALL-MIGHTy” was teased in the club this week; Today is the first day that the PVC All Might is officially announced as coming to First 4 Figures!
- All Might PVC will be shown at Emerald City Comic Con 2019 in Seattle this March if all goes well!
- First 4 Figures wanted to do something that they thought was best for them first, which was to attract a customer base that would learn about F4F through an accessibly-priced PVC statue; these new customers would then know about F4F and be more readily convinced to purchase the My Hero Academia resin statues went they start to go up for order later in the year
- The All Might resin statue is in a different pose, but is also behind some other MHA characters in development right now; going amazingly!
- Would like to make the molds for All Might PVC very quickly after everyone comes back from Chinese New Year
- My Hero Academia resin statues will be 1:4 scale
- That’s not to say that the resin All Might won’t have a “Mini Me” PVC–the other MHA resins all do–it’s just that the first PVC All Might won’t have a resin counterpart in the same pose
- “We’re known for resin, but in time we’ll be known for PVCs as well–we’ll be known for both”
- Can confirm two-year payment plans are available for Meta-Ridley! Will talk about these further later on in the show.
- Alex was pleased that no one was worried about F4F going out of business before a two-year payment plan would finish and Meta-Ridley would ship out [No, F4F isn’t going out of business]
- Fighter Kirby EX End of Edition and Replacements is now in the home stretch of production–it has been a while, but it is coming; Alex apologizes for those who have been waiting patiently
- “With your support, we will endeavor to keep on pushing and improving as we can.”
- Gravelord Nito teaser photo shown in the club this week: “An absolute MONSTER! I can’t see anything more expensive that that–which means he’s going to be more than Meta-Ridley and significantly more than Ornstein.”
- Physically and size-wise, Nito is much much larger than Ornstein: “You can’t believe how big this thing is! Trust!”
- Alex looks at the Mega Man Zero statue as being from a different era of F4F, which is why he wants to Vault the Zero prototype and completely rework it and release a Zero statues that’s better and bigger
- Jet Pack Crash Bandicoot is now in the stage when it’s ready to go to physical; sneak peek shown this week; Neo-Cortex is next up in that line
- Yu-Gi-Oh Blue Eyes White Dragon teaser shown in the club this week! Alex loves the love this was getting–he follows how many likes and reactions every single sneak peek posted in the club gets.
- Zelda and Okami are examples of universally-loved franchises of both men and women
- Stream is up to 150+ viewers now
- Excited to see how Mario on Yoshi will sell, since Tanooki Mario and Cat Mario sales weren’t nearly as strong as recent Zelda and Metroid pieces
- Bayonetta gun replicas will be first, followed by the Bayonetta statue of her herself in the distant future
- Cowboy Bebop Ed sneak peek this week; looking cute; pose is looking great; face and nose are being worked on; will come with Ein the dog (of course)
Temptation Thursdays (TT) Polls and the King of the Ring III:
- Dead Cells TT: 145 ‘No’, 56 ‘Yes’; Chock still believes there aren’t many indy gamers in the club
- Bubblegum Crisis TT: 158 Votes; 17 ‘Yes’, 141 ‘No’; A new entrant in the competition for lowest ‘Yes’ votes ever
- Alex wants a TT for PS4 Spider-Man or Batman Arkham Knight; going with Batman first
- Batman Arham Series TT Next Week! For a TF PVC, not a resin.
- Gungrave TT in 2 Weeks!
- Sword Art Online TT in 3 Weeks!
- King of the Ring III is now underway, with 113 entrants–almost double the number of entrants from the previous tournament; 13 people have the same predictions; “there should be a winner” this week
- KOTR III Match #1: Shiranui vs. Arwing; 98.15% of the valid entries predict Shiranui will win this match; a win for Shiranui would eliminate 2 entrants
- Artorias SD vs. Mugen next week; Alex puts his money on Artorias SD next week since there are thousands of those PVCs out there and Dark Souls has an entrenched camp in the group
The Q&A!:
- Gave out new product cards at Macau and Hong Kong Toy Fair, think a few people walked over and picked them up; a nice thing to carry, like collecting cards
- True Form Midna: No updates until she starts production after Chinese New Year
- Anime version of the card to come with Blue Eyes White Dragon statue would be cheaper and easier to do than an actual Yu-Gi-Oh card since it wouldn’t be licensed merch
- Too early to say dimensions of Blue Eyes White Dragon [Alex makes some wild hand gestures with his hands to describe the PVC and resin versions of it]
- If enough people want it, a Revolver Ocelot Metal Gear Solid statue can be done
- Forget about scales for the Grand Scale Bust line; Artorias will be 14″-15″ off the top of Alex’s head
- Artorias LSB looks like it’s going to be HUMONGOUS based off of the tape measurement Alex shows–looks to be a head taller than Artorias when he’s sitting at the Q&A table!
- Alex’s favorite part of the upcoming Amaterasu PVC is the pose; price will be exactly the same as Spyro PVC
- Jet Pack Crash sneak peek was of the 3-D render; not physical yet
- Can offer free shipping for Artorias LSB if he adds the cost of the shipping to the base price for the bust
- Really want to increase PVC anime offerings; All Might PVC is the start of that; Alex could see Fullmetal Alchemist TF PVCs; while there are FMA PVCs out there, there aren’t any done by F4F
- Chelsea Harris gets the birthday song sung to her by Alex and Chocks–Happy Birthday!
- Doing put your statues in the sun
- Dante concept has been reworked but needs to be worked on more
- Yakuza updates next week; being revisited because Alex wants to completely change it
- Solaire SDs have been approved for shipping as of today
- There would have to be a lot of rallying love for a King of the Cosmos to happen as a statue or bus
- Aika? “Whenever I want to do a poll on that, no one wants to support it. Is it worth doing the Kickstarter thing and then having to refund everybody?”
- Alex’s hand won’t be used for the next week after signing all those cards today
- Will be looking at acquiring licenses at Las Vegas Licensing Expo this summer; reality is that locking up licenses takes time
- Are there any unannounced licenses? “I’ll let you know in the admin chat.”
- Dark Souls SD line is going strong; “We are committed.”
- Ornstein production doesn’t have to start from scratch; white casting is already done and bases are painted; will be completed very soon after From Software approves the gold color
- Nito will be significantly more expensive than Ornstein eyeballing it; probably three times as much resin as used on Ornstein; “You have no idea just how big that is and how expensive it’s going to be.”
- Chibiterasu is taking a back seat to Oki in development
- Would like to see Puzzle Fighter SDs
- Death size will be reduced a little bit; Alex looked at it on paper today
- Smaller versions of MGS enemies like Metal Gear REX hasn’t crossed Alex’s mind, honestly
- Tails in Walker Mech would look really mental as a statue
- Alex on Inuyasha TT Votes: “Impressed.”
- Mimic is at a new factory; Conker is at the Spike factory; Phoenix Wright at the Snake factory; Law at the Spike factory as well
- Are sales sufficient to save Phoenix Wright and Tekken Law from the Vault? “TBC”; Alex needs to discuss this with John
- PVC is possible and 90% likely for BEWD; will most likely be the first F4F Yu-Gi-Oh product
- Unless Alex’s Japanese skills failed him, he doesn’t think Warp Star mentioned asking for Blue Kirby to come out of the Vault
- Artist Proofs will never happen
- Super Shadow is much more likely than a classic Amy Rose
- Sonic TF PVC will hopefully be ready for pre-order around Sonic’s birthday in late June
- Hit up CS and go through hoops to redeem more than 2 codes for any PVC
- BEWD pre-order hopefully before the end of 2019
- No discount for ordering multiple cheat code colors of Spyro
- Nothing to report on Yakuza or True Form Midna
- Not sure when we can expect Crystal Dragon Mini Figures pre-order
- Jet Pack Crash is based on the OG games and is resin
- Alex doesn’t know if we’ll see Nintendo PVC+resin statues or not (where the same statue is made in both resin and a smaller PVC)
- No update on Mumbo Jumbo
- No plans to do multiple scales of the same statue in resin
- Reala is sitting there painted, just sitting there because no one seems to want it
- Amaterasu PVC will go up before the resin version; counter sample is already done; PO maybe 2-3 months after the PVC; Chocks doesn’t think the resin should launch at the same time as the PVC
- Can’t say if GNFToyz will do more Sonic dioramas
- The hair on statue is something F4F isn’t sure of; out of their comfort zone
- Nito will be even bigger than Meta-Ridley
- Blue Eyes White Dragon is coming along OK
- All Might PVC will definitely launch before a resin All Might
- Haven’t looked at Alphonse sales and won’t until it’s time for production
- Hard to say how many My Hero Academia statues will be revealed this year
- Progress made on Roy Mustang; “coming along very well”
- Will do BEWD in both PVC and resin if Alex gets his way
Meta-Ridley Exclusive Statue Reveal!:
- Full details regarding the Metroid Meta-Ridley statue will be revealed at 11AM EST. Stay tuned!
- Meta Ridley Exclusive pre-orders open up online at the conclusion of the livestream
- Detailed cogs and rivets on the metallic portions of Ridley’s head
- Painted gold in the piston on Meta-Ridley: “Details for days”
- Sculpted ball-joint on neck and piping gives the feeling that the head can move all around
- Alex on putting together Meta-Ridley: “I feel like I’m running a Build-A-Bear station.”
- Wings are too thin to put LEDs into; even if you could, you couldn’t give an even glow inside the wings
- Wings will still have a beautiful transparency, though, that matches the same effect as in the actual game; still engineering wings and will be adding a larger peg for stability to make it more secure at the production stage
- Meta-Ridley is too big for the screen! The wings go off-screen when assembled on the table!
- Posed clashing really hard with his right hand; curve of the tail gives the counter-balance for the movement going left
- You can’t have this statue be closed-wing, since he’s in flight/in motion; you could have him just sitting on a perch, but he wouldn’t have that sense of action and motion and that would require an even bigger base and a higher price (“a three year payment plan, hahaha”), whereas the character itself is the main event of this statue
- The base footprint itself is actually pretty small, and you can put things next to each other that you might not expect to be able to
1:4 Varia Suit Samus fits nicely underneath Ridley’s wing!
Meta-Ridley Specs/Price/Ordering Details:
- Both regular and exclusive versions come with Glow in the Dark Wings
- The exclusive version’s eyes and chest plate both light up; static lights, not animated
- Alex didn’t have enough Coke cans for the documentary–First 4 Figures needs to invest in more cans!
- The first in the series of Metroid villains
- 37″ Tall! 33″ Wide! 22″ Deep!
- Estimated release date is Q1 2020; but this is a rough estimate and First4Figures will let us know if there are any changes
- For a 1-Year Payment Plan, the monthly payments are a very manageable $45/month!
- The non-refundable deposit taken at checkout is $60
- The total price for Meta Ridley EX is $599! There is no two-year payment plan, because F4F has kept the price cheap once again!
- This price is much cheaper than it should be!
- Making this price really low because First4Figures wants huge sales! Because the price has been made so low, F4F is expecting huge sales so that the factory can charge less per piece. F4F’s stratagem is always to price a piece as low as possible so as many fans as possible can purchase them!
- This piece is being heavily subsidized; the factory cost on this is way out of whack, and First4Figures thinks that they can sell the most units and make the most of Ridley by drastically reducing the price to capture as many sales as possible based off the hype in the club
- “I want my gold bars!” — Alex Davis
- First4Figures isn’t about creating things that are low in quantity–F4F is banking that the Metroid fans are going to show up and play ball; if this strategy doesn’t work, then the company will have to reassess future statue pricing
- Should be able to fit in one box for shipping
- $55 USD shipping to the US; $55 USD to EU/Switzerland; $155 USD Guam/Turkey/Cuba/etc.; Canada/Norway $85 USD; Paraguay $155 USD; other shipping costs on the website
- “We hope that you guys come to support Ridley because… because please.” — Alex Davis
