F4F Q&A #104 Recap: Meta-Ridley Validation! Fullmetal Alchemist Giveaway!

Posted on by January 25, 2019

It’s good news/bad news for Metroid fans today! The bad news is that all development made to-date on Metroid Prime 4 has been scrapped by Nintendo and work will begin anew (ouch!). The good news is that First 4 Figures is still going full steam ahead with work on future Metroid pieces, and today is Validation Day for the Exclusive Meta-Ridley statue that went up for order last week! How many fans will turn up to fight for low numbers, and what great secrets and information will be revealed in the F4F Q&A #104? Read on…

F4F Fullmetal Alchemist Blu Ray Giveaway QA 104Announcements and the Week in Review:

  • Meta-Ridley EX went up for order last week and is still up for order now–today is Validation Day, so orders placed or Validated during the 24 hours from 10AM EST will get the Signature Edition with Bonus Rewards Points, holographic sticker and bonus signed Alex Davis art card
  • Metroid Prime 4 was officially delayed by Nintendo today–all previous development is being scrapped and the game will be redone from scratch by Retro Studios; F4F will look forward to distracting us with upcoming Metroid pieces while we all wait for Metroid Prime 4
  • Shovel Knight Player 2, Conker, Mimic, Spyro PVC EX, Guts, Phoenix Wright, Warp Star Kirby and Psycho Mantis are also all still up for order
  • If another small-scale Samus was done to pair with Meta-Ridley, it would be done at the PVC size to be more accessible to collectors
  • Fullmetal Alchemist box sets being given away both on the steam and on the main Facebook page–read all about the FMA Blu Ray box set giveaways on the official blog
  • Chinese New Year starts tomorrow, but First 4 Figures will still be at work and working hard
  • Alex was at the Spike factory yesterday and things are going fine–Spike production should wrap up at the factory well ahead of schedule right after Chinese New Year
  • Meta Ridley managed to get out of the F4F Vault after being trapped in the Vault for 3 or 4 years
  • If you buy Ridley after 11AM EST this morning, you don’t have to Validate your Meta-Ridley–it will Validate automatically for the next 24 hours
  • Spyro PVC Regular (Standard Edition) has been sighted in Australia/Asia; the Exclusive version will complete production and ship out right after Chinese New Year (“just missed it!”)
  • Solaire SD EX Samples arrived in the office this week–will also be shipping out right after Chinese New Year
  • 400+ cancellations in January isn’t as bad as it sounds; 25% of those cancellations were driven by F4F cancelling 100+ Wait Lists for sold-out items such as Spyro Resin EX and Majora’s Mask EX; the sky is not falling; F4F always assumes up to 30% of orders will be cancelled
  • New front-end for F4F website has been approved and will be up in the next month or so!
  • Ornstein white casts are done and all the bases are painted–just have to paint the now-approved gold color on Ornstein after Chinese New Year; should still ship Q2 2019
  • Alex was satisfied with the response to the Oki sneak peek
  • Quite a few people in Australia/Asia receiving Varia Suit Samus EX this week and posting in the Facebook group; response has been great so far
  • Finally posted the video of the Varia Suit drop tests this week in the OCC
  • Nito is a beast–he is ginormous; brainstormed on how to do the hair; there is something called a hair replacement system for men such as Alex–going to test this out and see if it can be done on Gravelord Nito (just speculation right now, not for sure)
  • Banjo-Kazooie revisions are pretty much done, and Banjo-Kazooie Last Chance 2 Weeks will occur sometime in the next couple of weeks
  • Mario on Yoshi sample arrived in office; will probably be brought to Emerald City Comic Con in March 2019 in Seattle to show off; Mario on Yoshi is one of F4F’s best pieces ever according to Alex; this is something that’s going to blow Bowser out the window
  • Anime Expo and Anime NYC are certainly things Alex and Chocks are thinking of doing

Meta Ridley Validation Day Low Numbers F4F Q&A 104Meta-Ridley EX Validation:

F4F Q&A 104 Alex Davis Thumbs UpTemptation Thursdays (TT Polls):

  • TT 136 Bubblegum Crisis: 23 Yes, 151 No — Not much traction; Rally the fans if you’re a Bubblegum Crisis fan
  • TT 137 Batman Arkham Series: 395 Votes; 244 No, 151 Yes; Alex is “Amazing”, “Stunned”, “Super Surprised” by this voting
  • TT 138 Gungrave Next Week!
  • TT 139 Sword Art Online in 2 Weeks!
  • “Are there any Claymore fans out there? …I guess it’s not popular anymore.”
  • This week’s hashtag is #F4FBrotherhood
  • King of the Ring III: Shiranui destroyed Arwing in Match 1; 2 entrants eliminated with 105 remaining; Artorias SD has a slight lead over Mugen in Match 2 right now; Alex is super-super surprised by how close Mugen is

F4F My Hero Academia Poster from Jake Meyer Q&A 104The Q&A!:

  • Alex would be all-up for a My Hero Academia SD line
  • A new video will be posted soon of Solaire SD Praise the Sun Edition showing off the lights from the factory
  • Kill la Kill still needs 800+ votes for three characters for consideration
  • Ornstein armor and spear are the same color (“Shouldn’t they be?”)
  • Snakes are all in the process of shipping to warehouses/collectors worldwide
  • Castlevania SOTN Death looks really, really great; “Dracula… I need to get on that”
  • Lots of MGS in development; will have to see what makes it up for order this year
  • Definitely have been thinking about a Bowser PVC
  • Would do a modern Knuckles statue before revisiting classic Knuckles the Echidna
  • Medievil needs more votes–600 votes is not 800 votes
  • Skull Knight is based off of the latest anime (which is what the license is for) and some screenshots from Musou; open to changes and revisions still
  • Ivy is moving along nicely–almost at the end
  • No idea when we’ll hear about the next Zelda piece
  • Sonic TF will be done as both a resin and a PVC, but there will be a little something extra for the resins
  • Modern Amy Rose paused a little bit because of the TF Sonic PVC and Sonic & Tails diorama in development; will post something about Modern Amy Rose to see if there’s tumbleweeds or hype–will be more motivated if there’s a lot of interest and hype when we see something of Amy Rose
  • Boom8 Classic Amy Rose has nothing to do with the Modern Amy Rose resin being paused, although it will be interesting to see how she sells
  • Have absolutely considered making a Bebop ship statue after completing the Cowboy Bebop crew
  • Still have the licenses for Dark Souls 2 and 3; no plans for the Bloodborne license right now
  • Nothing to report on Persona 5
  • Jet Black PO coming sooner rather than later; things are going well with Ed & Ein; almost time to move Faye to the next stage as well
  • Black Shovel Knight variant probably up for order in about 4 months
  • Spyro Reignited Resin will be bigger than OG Spyro because the base is bigger and more intricate
  • Sniper Wolf could most likely not have a PSG1 for licensing reasons; would visually have to be something that looks similar from a distance
  • Do Star Fox fans want more than the Arwing?
  • Card Holders? “Good point. Will look at that this week.”
  • Rally for franchises you want on F4Funday and hopefully Chock will choose them for a future TT
  • Gift cards sooner rather than later; have to change payment system to get this to work
  • Metroid Prime Hunters Trace was cancelled because of lack of love from distributers back in the day — “a damn shame because they looked fantastic in both full form and bust form… it is what it is”; Baroness & Ravage suffered the same fate
  • F4F did its own sneak peeks event for episode 100, won’t do more news and sneak peeks when everyone else is so that they get drowned out
  • Don’t know how difficult it would be to get an exclusive Yu-Gi-Oh card included with the statues
  • Most painful lesson Alex has had to learn at First 4 Figures: “Fucking. Do. Transit tests!”; Shipping tests; Transit tests; aging tests
  • Perfect time to push Samurai Jack TT again since the Las Vegas Licensing Expo is coming up this summer; 600+ votes right now–“push it up to 900 and we’re talking”
  • Gravelord Nito will absolutely not have a reduced/subsidized price because there’s lots of competition (the customer pool is too small) and the last piece (Mimic) didn’t do as well as F4F wanted–can’t count on the strategy of lower pricing but selling a higher quantity
  • Banjo-Kazooie could quite possibly go up for PO next week; not sure yet
  • Green Shovel Knight isn’t closing for POs any time soon
  • Alex is doing alright today; Chocks has a bit of a cough
  • Have to make more F4F pins before they can be put up on the website
  • Alex got a kitten last Saturday! Currently named “Mew” because it can say its own name. Was going to get two kittens rather than condemn one to not being adopted and doomed, but the kittens were sold before Alex could buy them and little Harvey started crying. Went to a steak restaurant but then stormed out when the restaurant didn’t have any vegetables (Alex is on a Keto diet). Went to another pet store and found a different kitten to adopt–a beautiful golden short-hair with blue eyes; learning how to stop him from crapping all over the place; Pet store sold Alex “This cat is the Shiba of cats.”; Alex understands the collector concerns about cats knocking things over now
  • If people want a King Boo, First 4 Figures will provide
  • “Really disappointed” in the slow results for the Kingdom Hearts character poll; “Absolutely” need more votes than a usual poll since it’s Disney
  • Oki up for PO this year? “Maybe.”; Amaterasu PVC and resin will both be up for sale this year
  • Haven’t checked Phoenix Wright sales; not sure of the possibility of Miles Edgeworth
  • Alex has definitely thought about charging a higher price for niche characters and then refunding part of the price if a certain quantity threshold is reached
  • Dracula should be finalizing head revisions; Death going to the physical stage; more characters planned
  • Yakuza Kiryu Kazuma pre-order will be delayed, but F4F did some really cool brainstorming this week to completely change the piece [Alex and Chock talk for a good minute with the sound off]
  • Contact CS to pay in full when placing a pre-order
  • No art prints included with products moving forward; could be done separately if people want them as some people use them and some don’t: “a complete waste of time”/”what’s the point in making something if only half of people use it?”
  • First4Figures is convinced on Yakuza–not going to bother with “Rally the Fans” or anything like that; the original Kiryu design is “boring, boring, boring now–we could do so much better now, so let’s”
  • Alex is pretty confident in the marketing for Phoenix Wright and the advertising is still running
  • No Monster Hunter character poll until it hits 1,200 votes
  • No color variants for Mario on Yoshi, unfortunately; “it wasn’t that they were against blue”
  • Mario on Yoshi isn’t taller than Ridley
  • Haven’t revisited Crystal Cloak Alucard yet
  • Can discuss showing NRD when placing an order instead of only displaying the full price at checkout
  • Alex has no idea if Reward Points are automatically refunded if someone uses them on a Wait Listed product and the Wait List never converts
  • Can Alex dress in his fully-profesh clothes for the Q&A some week? “Will I have to act Fully-Profesh as well?”
  • Are there any stories Chock can share regarding Alex’s warm and fuzzy management style? “Let’s not go there.” — Chockles
  • This is the only job Alex has ever had, and the only management style he’s ever had to check out is from the show “The Office”; “It’s clearly effective, though, isn’t it?”
  • Mario on Yoshi PO most likely in March; not sure if Sonic TF PVC or Tails carrying Sonic diorama will go up for sale first
  • Need feedback on Crash Team Racing statue; not sure about when it will be up for sale yet
  • Troy Blair Questions: “Nope!” to all questions
  • Amaterasu LSB coming along nicely
  • Production on Al starting right after Chinese New Year
  • Spike is deep in production already
  • F4F is now at the stage where they can handle action figures, but only ‘just’; molds are expensive; wasn’t something possible in the early days of F4F
  • Future Okami pieces will follow the standard of figure and base; scenery takes a back seat to the figure so as not to take away from it
  • Base for Soul Calibur Ivy looks great and you will definitely know what it is when you see it
  • Still need to look at plush more
  • Slayers is on the list for a future TT
  • Modern Amy isn’t Vaulted, just “paused”
  • Super Sonic and Classic Amy Boom8 PVCs definitely coming this year
  • Special Delivery from the #1 Hero, Jake Meyer: A beautiful framed My Hero Academia poster for the First 4 Figures office wall! “Lovely–thank you so much!”
  • To do a Metroid TF PVC, it would make sense to do something from the Metroid Prime series
  • Haven’t talked with the team about any kind of silk wrap/cloth packaging
  • Alex has a funny look in his eyes looking at the Phoenix Wright sales numbers [see screenshot below]; Chocks: “Ay-yi-yi.”

Alex Looks at Phoenix Wright Sales Numbers…And that is a wrap for 104th episode of the First 4 Figures Q&A with Warm and Fuzzy Alex Davis and Lieutenant Chockles! Did you learn anything that got your pulse pounding this week, F4Fans?

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