The First 4 Figures Q&A #112 has only just begun, but already CEO Alex Davis & King Chockles have got a treat for us: the much-demanded Boom8 Classic Amy & Super Sonic PVCs combo pack is now up for order! But of course, that’s not all this week, as the boys will be answering the usual dozens upon dozens of questions, including:

“WILL Warp Star Kirby be Vaulted?” gets a definitive answer!

WHAT are the Top 3 Things Alex Would Like New Collectors to Know About F4F?

IS a Fierce Deity Link 2.0 coming any time soon?

WOULD a Battle-Damaged All Might AF variant be possible?

HOW are the Cheat Code Color Spyro PVCs coming along?

WHEN will F4F be able to determine the difference in price between the Artorias Life Size and Grand Scale Busts?

WHICH previously Wait Listed EX is available again on the website now?

…and more!

Announcements and The Week in Review:

• Amaterasu PVC is looking good–about a month or so until the pre-order is up and running
• Working hard on the All Mights–only a matter of time until they go up for sale
• May try to use the Dark Souls busts in between SDs and resin Dark Souls statues to keep there from being such a long gap between releases of F4F Dark Souls products
• PAX East seems to be getting a lot more buzz than C2E2 in the gaming circle
• Nothing to report on Darksiders
• Much easier to go to licensors with molds and samples for My Hero Academia products and ask for the licensors to allow them to be released in their countries than to come to them with pictures and concepts and to ask for permission; planning to ask for worldwide license to distribute MHA products when the time is right
• Bowser is now in production; production video in the group this week; entering the painting stage
• Would love to revisit Phazon Suit Samus and Gravity Suit Samus in 1:4
• GNF Toyz Sonic Boom8 Classic Amy Rose & Super Sonic are up for order on the website now; will be brought to the places GNF can’t release it through First4Figures’ logistics and distribution network; expected release date is Q3 2019 (July-September 2019)
• Video trailer shown for Boom8 Vol. 5 and 6 (Amy and Super Sonic)
• Hopefully the next combo pack will go up for sale sometime in Q3 2019 as well
• Alex has been looking into Super Shadow resin because the poll keeps getting bumped
• Torch Torch Rings and T-Shirts are open for order until May 9th
• EXs still up for order at this time: Solid Snake SD, Meta Ridley, Mimic, Conker, Shovel Knight P2, Phoenix Wright, Spyro PVC, Warp Star Kirby, Psycho Mantis and Guts
• Factory has already made 20 pieces of Crystal Dragon for Alex to check out at the factory next week to make sure that they’re doing it the way he wants
• CS-related posts are no longer allowed in the F4F OCC Facebook Group this week, as CS doesn’t read the group and there’s nothing that the group can do to help anyone with a CS issue–the only way of helping someone is by them following the correct protocol and opening a ticket with CS via the website; there is zero reason for First4Figures to have the F4FCS posts in the group
• Alex doesn’t want the CS posts in the group anymore, as someone posted in the club and claimed that almost all F4F products arrive broken because he’d seen some of the handful of broken pieces that had been posted in the club–which is actually just a tiny percentage of the overall number of pieces released; this person pissed Alex off, as the actual breakages are almost always well within the tolerance level and people like that give a bad first impression to new collectors joining the club
• First 4 Figures expects around 4-5% of production will have breakages or defects before arriving–so an extra 4-5% are ordered now so that replacements can be quickly sent out when breakages do occur; if all the replacements aren’t used up, they’re sent out as samples for influencers and licensors
• If F4F actually had really shit QC, then not allowing CS posts would be considered “a dodgy motherfucking thing to do” and Alex would be considered to be scheming and hiding stuff–but that’s not the case
• Most cases of people saying they’re being ignored by CS is actually just people not logging in and checking their tickets
• Alex doesn’t like fighting with OCC members about banning CS posts, but he thinks that they’re giving an unfair bad impression to the company and they need to be eliminated; as the group grows, the rules sometimes need to change; if members find the new rules restrictive and they don’t like being in it anymore, the group just may not be for them anymore
• If CS comes back with a response that the collector doesn’t like, how can a collector escalate the issue now? Maybe a formal button to escalate the issue can be added to the ticketing system. This could help prevent Phil from getting the characterization of being like “Ho ho ho ho ho! I’m the King of CS! I can choose if you get replacements or not! Ho ho ho ho ho!”
• A Facebook CS group won’t be created–it’s not going to be checked and would serve no purpose
• Chock’s Snack Review: If you ever go to Taiwan, check out Sugar & Spice; their nougat is very, very good and they sell other things as well; chewy and sweet; Chocks gives it an 8!
• Do you want Sekiro statues? There’s a poll out there–vote on it.
• Figuring out how to do Nito’s hair in a way that doesn’t look bad is kicking Alex’s ass.
• Production videos posted in the club this week for Sonic vs. Chopper, Bowser, Amaterasu Life Size Bust, Life Size Aku Aku Masks and more
• Easter-Themed Photo Contest for 3000 Rewards Points is still ongoing in the club! There hasn’t been much traction on the contest, so it will remain open until April 15th.
• There will be a section on the website eventually linking to official First 4 Figures distributors such as BigBadToyStore [Dabid-approved! I’ve ordered 1000+ items from them over the last decade and a half and have zero complaints–no lie!]
• King of the Ring IV is now open for entries
• [The F4F Q&A livestream is live and in-progress now. This section will continue to be filled in live as it happens! Stay tuned!]

TTs and The Week in Review:

• [The F4F Q&A livestream is live and in-progress now. This section will be filled in live as it happens! Stay tuned!]
• Spider-Man TT: 268 Yes, 191 No; Not much movement since last week
• Journey TT: 322 Votes, 156 ‘Yes’, 166 ‘No’; Neck and Neck
• Next Week’s TT is Overlord anime!
• This week’s hashtag for a chance to win F4F Rewards Points next week is #F4FDRAMA

The Q&A:

• Price difference between LSB and GSB: Will be dependent on the pricing from the factories; waiting for quotes and timelines from a variety of factories to make sure they’re made for the best combination of price and capacity-to-make
• Alex and Chocks haven’t had a chance to see the My Hero Academia movie (Two Heroes) yet; “Ain’t got time for that!”
• Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask: Always comes up in conversations with Big N, but nothing for now
• Alex assumes the Spyro PVC EX orders for the EU and UK are being rolled together
• Psycho Mantis and Crystal Dragon haven’t started production yet but will soon
• Aika Kickstarter? “Got some things cooking.”
• New website homepage? “Soon.”
• Alex wants 600 sales to get a Samurai Champloo Jin
• Borderlands added to potential TT list
• Doing early work on a new Mega Man Zero statue
• Banjo-Kazooie now awaiting production
• F4F doesn’t have access to Disney characters, so no Aliens statues; although Alex did make something called Judge Dredd vs. Aliens about a decade ago that’s in the Vault
• Ivy Valentine PO probably later this year
• No Fierce Deity Link 2.0 any time soon
• Europe conventions this year: GamesCom and maybe MCM
• Horizon Zero Dawn TT on Chocks’ list
• Pretty high chance of peoples’ Shiranui EX Wait List orders converting if placed now
• Sonic Mania Art giveaway starting Monday; will be a week-long contest
• Mario and Yoshi statue held to the base by heads
• Cheat code Spyros being submitted to Activision
• Player 2 Shovel Knight is being worked on at the factory alongside the blue and gold ones now
• Alex thinks there’s already an Alex-posted King Dedede poll
• Spyro PVC EX shouldn’t have gone straight to Wait List without a Last Chance Weekend
• Blue Shovel Knight production video will be posted soon
• Mini Crystal Dragons being worked on right now; probably different colors from the EX ones
• Will look into Dead Space at Las Vegas Licensing Expo
• Haven’t said anything official about Pride mouth(s) being added to Alphonse’s base; will look into it; no guarantees
• No updates on how Oki is doing; still in 3-D stage
• Chibiterasu still being worked on in 3-D
• Transistor TT is on Chocks’ list
• Tiamat from D&D is “mental”; “I do like dragons–no plans”
• Will fix Validation times for Banjo-Kazooie before numbers are assigned
• Robotnik and Metal Sonic likely the next Boom8 Sonic PVC figures combo
• When it comes to Phoenix Wright going into production or not, Alex is happy to see about 10 new orders for Phoenix Wright this past month
• “Warp Star Kirby is not going to be Vaulted”
• PVC Nation Update: Mega Man will be finished for printing very, very soon; Banjo-Kazooie and Spyro Ripto’s Rage still in development; Spyro deep in the painting stage; All Mights, Sonic, Amaterasu, Ornstein SD were shown at ECCC
• If F4F ever opened a flagship store, it would be in Akihabara
• Alex would bet on the next Zelda piece being up for PO after E3 2019 and not before
• Sonic & Tails diorama pre-order about 6 months after Sonic TF PVC pre-order
• Alex still hasn’t decided how soon after the Sonic TF PVC the resin of that piece should be released–almost thinking that the resin version should go up for order after the PVC is in the marketplace (about 12 months after PO for the PVC)
• Will look to offer an ivory variant of the Sonic TF PVC
• Ivy is next in the works for Soul Calibur
• Alex doesn’t like going head-to-head with other companies, but as a result of the overcrowded market, it’s unavoidable now and Alex doesn’t mind going into crowded markets–just chooses to do things F4F Style
• Would absolutely consider a PVC statue line for the Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse movie
• Just got approval on the new head for Dracula; just have a few more tweaks to make before PO
• Death PO may be towards the end of 2019
• Would try to make a lot of extra stock during production for MHA statues to be sold to other countries in the event that F4F gets the license for more countries after pre-orders go live
• How’s Alex’s week going? “Pretty badly! Thanks for asking!”
• Mario on Yoshi DE base is not modular–it’s all one piece that must be displayed as one big piece
• Would like to see how a Borderlands TT does
• Battle-Damaged All Might would require a new sculpt and not just a repaint–it’s not like a bloody version; could be something that’s possible anyway based on the sales
• Hunt Down Dabs if you want F4F Pins [*gulp*]
• Ornstein is at the painting stage now
• Wouldn’t take Ornstein to GamesCom again this year since his pre-order was over a year ago and pre-orders are closed now
• Top 3 things Alex wants new collectors to know about F4F: 1) F4F is far more transparent than most others in the statue industry and showing lots of behind-the-scenes regarding decision-making and production–believes this is unique to First 4 Figures and not the norm; 2) Is Peggy real or not? Alex doesn’t even know!; and 3) There are loads of warehouses around the world  [5] which is not normal for a statue company–meant to be pro-consumer and help collectors as much as possible, but many people don’t realize they have local warehouses so they don’t get hit with import fees
• No updates to report on Crash Team Racing statue
• First 4 Figures has been approached before to make Collector’s Edition statues for games
• Nothing extra will come with the Alphonse combo packs; it just so happened that some extra came with the resin Snake combos
• For those who still need it, the Dark Souls SD Artorias Exclusive Edition PVC is available for orders again on the website now!
• God of War license is still with Gaming Heads; F4F wouldn’t try to do statues for God of War while GH is still doing the license