I’m getting packed up for Star Wars Celebration in Chicago (which I am somehow now going to although I literally hadn’t planned a thing at this time last week), but I couldn’t leave with a clear conscience if I hadn’t first recapped the latest episode of the First 4 Figures Q&A with King Chockles and Fun Daddy Alex! In this week’s episode, you’ll learn the answers to such universe-changing questions as:
WILL we see sneak peeks of the resin Deku statue before My Hero Academia Season 4 premieres?
WHO are the April Fools Day F4F Chinese overlords, the Chens, actually?
WHEN will we be seeing official Starfox and Assassination Classroom TT polls?
CAN we have an official King Dedede poll?
HOW does Alex feel about the state of F4F Anime thus far?
WAS there a massive wave of cancellations after this year’s April Fools Day prank?
IS the Crash Team Racing statue on track for a pre-order during the launch window for the remake of the video game?
…and more!
Announcements and The Week in Review:
- Chocks has never had any broken bones before–he doesn’t think; his finger was really purple for a while and he just let it heal
- Alex went to see Shazam! and had a conversation with his son Harvey afterwards about the Seven Deadly Sins in the movie such as Lust; Harvey was really scared of the movie though–there were some scenes sort of similar in tone to hearts being ripped out and Harvey went batshit crazy; Harvey likes things like big robots and Godzilla
- Chocks is looking forward to Avengers Endgame
- Jake Meyer says “Spider-Man 2 with Tobey Maguire is the best Spider-Man movie… fight me”
- Mario on Yoshi EX and DE pre-orders will close on April 19th–get those orders in if you haven’t yet!
- Torch Torch Ring and T-Shirts up for PO until May 9th
- No new F4F T-Shirts this week
- Snake SD, Meta-Ridley, Mimic, Shovel Knight Player 2, Alphonse, Warp Star Kirby, Guts, Phoenix Wright are all still up for PO; Guts will be closing very soon and Spyro PVC EX is on Wait List
- Sonic Mania art print giveaway is over now
- Despite the fact that some of the very first comments on Alex’s April Fools Day post about the company being sold say “Haha April Fools”, many many people fell for the prank; the OCC is not closing and Alex is not becoming a consultant because the company has not been sold
- No spike in cancellations showing up for April Fools Day; nothing abnormal
- Alex was quite surprised how many people responded passionately to the notion of him selling and leaving the company; thinks most people buy into a line and not into a company, so thought it was very interesting to see how many people said they’d leave the company if he left
- Alex’s Dad was totally, totally convinced that Alex was actually selling the company; Phil in CS only knew about the prank because the F4F production manager thought the prank was legit as well and asked him about it
- “I’m sure everyone has one of those group chats with their coworkers behind the scenes but their boss isn’t in there.” — Chockles
- “What happens in company group chat stays in group chat!”
- Chocks’ prank was that the new Chinese overlords, the Chens, would give everyone free shipping
- Has being in the club changed any members as a person? Have you become a better or worse person? Has collecting become an addiction? Have you become more picky?
- Showed a sneak peek of Big Daddy Vamps Dracula’s clothes in the OCC last week
- “No one talks about us in other groups, so go over into those other statue collecting groups and talk about us there!”
- Updates Alex posted in the OCC last week: Spyro PVC Ripto’s Rage sneak peek with no-nonsense facial expression; Shovel Knight production diary & Aku Aku Masks production diary; Bowser shell-painting; Ornstein and Spike at the factory; Shiranui painting; Guts production; Neo-Cortex sneak peek that everyone thought was Homer Simpson
- Alex really wanted Jet to go on pre-order once Spike was in peoples’ hands, but his pre-order will be sooner since Faye and Ed & Ein are both going well in development
- Alex doesn’t have photo evidence yet of the casting on Banjo-Kazooie being started at the factory despite what the shipping calendar says, but he shall request it
- “Lychee is smooth as a baby’s ass!” — Alex Davis
- Alex would love to hear if people would be up for a Shiranui PVC
- Would love to revisit pieces like the original Phazon Suit Samus and Fierce Deity Link in different sizes and poses
- “Are we caffeine addicts? You have to have a certain amount of energy for these shows, so on Friday we are caffeined up and juiced to the gills!” — Alex Davis
- Chocks doesn’t think about whether First 4 Figures are still teeny tiny potatoes or not–just concentrates on being better yesterday and making each product as good as possible
- There has to be an element of trust and belief in a company for collectors to be willing to put a deposit down on a pre-order
- F4F doesn’t like people paying in full because then there’s a sense of entitlement involved when people pay up-front and delays happen
- Alex is about to become a permanent resident of Hong Kong as he’s about to have been in the country for 7 years in October; as part of the test to become a permanent resident, Alex had to become as good a martial artist as Bruce Lee [no, not really]
- Temptation Thursdays:
- TT 144 Journey: 360 Votes, 185 Yes, 175 No; Neck-and-neck
- TT 145 Overlord Anime: 294 Votes, 127 Votes, 167 No; Keep on voting
- TT 146 Starfox this week! (Character for the poll won’t be Krystal!)
- TT 147 Transistor next week!
- TT 148 Assassination Classroom in 2 weeks!
- This week’s hashtag for a chance to win 500 Rewards Points is #F4F1FOOL
- [Alex and Chocks hum the Halo theme and it’s awesome]
- No snack review this week because Chocks doesn’t have any snacks
- Dabid didn’t like Streets of Rage 4 when he played it at PAX East [It felt sluggish and had no Kangaroo!]
The Q&A!:
- Alex and Chock check out the new website on their monitors (we can’t see it); will be ready “sooner rather than later”
- Alex has mixed feelings on collectors being able to pay extra through the website without having to contact CS; “maybe; I guess so”
- Now have the ability to tailor-make plans to accommodate using points; could use this new functionality to possibly reduce the deposit charged when joining a Wait List (although this has the potential downside of people joining Wait Lists lackadaisically)
- True Form Midna has not started the casting stage yet
- No idea how Mario on Yoshi sales are going
- “I feel like they want us out so they can get that Midna on Wolf Link on the cheap and get that free shipping!”
- Would love to do Fierce Deity Bust and Mask if possible
- Will continue engraving images on the styrofoam for resin pieces
- Next pre-order? “Your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea.”
- Alex is working on something that is game-changing for the company; will have far-reaching effects on the company that will permeate through the club
- The Chen overlords’ names are actually Alex’s name and his son Harvey’s name (although Harvey would be a terrible COO)
- Alex still feels that no one knows who First 4 Figures is, but it’s always nice to hear people found out about the company through partners like RKG and Prepare to Try
- Will look at GamesCom Snake SD validation numbers before production starts
- Troy Blair Questions:
- 1.)How come there hasnt been any updates/sneak peeks of the legend of zelda in awhile? “Because”
- 2.)Any updates on midna yet? “Nope”
- 3.)Will you start doing old statues but in different poses ex.(fdl2) “Sure, why not”
- 4.)Will there be more than 1 legend of zelda preorder this year? “Maybe”
- 5.)Is it because of Nintendo that the legend of zelda statues are so slow to make it to just the preorder stages? “Things are going at the exact pace they should be going at”
- 6.) Will it really be still 5 months until we hear anything about a legend of zelda preorder? “Possibly”
- 7.) Can you give us any update on anything legend of zelda? “Nope”
- 8.)do you have a idea of when true form midna will be releasing? “Isn’t that the same question as 2?”
- How are things going with the Yu-Gi-Oh sculpts? “Cracked it!! It was absolutely kicking my ass… cracked Blue Eyes White Dragon today! Dark Magician: also cracked that.” Changed what was initially approved because it was super weak; new designs are much better
- Would still like to do backdrops for other characters; “The question is: what would the cost be?”
- Will definitely get Tee-Hees for Deku before Season 4 of My Hero Academia in October
- Sure, we can have an official King Dedede poll
- Working on a game-changer that might have an effect on getting Aika and Jin out without having to make them Definitive Edition; doesn’t want to talk about it too much
- How’s the New Year’s Resolution regarding plush development going? “Ehhhh. It’s only month 4…?”
- Alex keeps forgetting about doing packs of Jiggies/Notes; Jinjos would be really easy
- Haven’t revisited Cynder for ages; “Would you guys be up for that?”
- Yakuza Kiryu is being completely reworked
- Want to see 800 votes for Gruntilda
- Really thinking about Banjo-Kazooie & Conker PVCs to go with the resins
- Expect a PO for Reignited Spyro resin earlier rather than later; deep in development
- Jet POs sooner rather than later
- Nothing to report on Persona 5
- Shiranui giveaway winner will be announced at the end of production
- Big Daddy Vamps is doing alright (Dracula)
- Sonic & Tails diorama should be wrapping up in terms of painting
- Alex is disappointed in how the company isn’t getting the anime statues out fast enough–feels like they should have done more by now; Spike sold really well; Alphonse is a really expensive piece with nowhere near the sales of Spike; things have been slow, but are beginning to get a bit of momentum; looking forward to trying to do Anime Expo in 2020 once there’s more of an anime range; no real challenges in advertising for anime statues vs game statues
- Looking forward to seeing how My Hero Academia PVCs do
- Could drop like 10 Zelda pre-orders in December 2019 and it would be a Zelda year
- New Metal Sonic is absolutely something being considered
- Crash Team Racing Kart still hasn’t gotten out of the gate; Neo-Cortex pre-order will be first
- Think the Amaterasu PVC pre-order will probably be in mid-May
- No idea what the box will look like for Amaterasu PVC
- Dracula PO likely around June; head is still in 3-D and being wrapped up
- Really hard to say what the hardest part of making a statue is since every one is different; “Painting?”; Assembly was the hardest for Varia Suit Samus
- Production from start to finish usually takes about 4 months for a resin statue once begun
- Alex thinks the Crystal Dragon edition sizes were announced [I haven’t heard them myself]
- Will discuss Pikmin with Nintendo in Las Vegas if the TT can get over 1000 ‘Yes’ votes by them; Alex would absolutely love to do a diorama
- Licenses take close to a year to acquire because of all the steps like the deal memo, the legalese, the negotiations back and forth, considerations regarding different licensees, etc.
- Actually had the license for Ninja Gaiden around 2006-2007; made a prototype that’s been shown before, but unfortunately as a result of a split between Alex and his original partner, the partner released the Ninja Gaiden statue with some modifications through One-To-One Collectibles; was modified in a way that Alex doesn’t have anything nice to say about it
- Crash Team Racing is not on track for a pre-order during the release window of the game; got sidetracked
- Doesn’t think there would necessarily need to be a poll to gauge interest in True Form PVCs for Classic Super Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Shadow, Modern Sonic
- “One of these days I won’t ask for people for shout-outs before the stream; I’ll do it during the stream!” — Chock
- Definitely will look to do Ivory-colored Sonic PVC if allowed by the licensor
- Resin version of TF Sonic PVC will have some differences that haven’t been completely finalized yet; price-point will obviously be really different and size/material will also be different; not sure all the details regarding the resin will be available before the PVC goes live for pre-order
- Replacement statues are unnumbered and aren’t to be sold
- No news on plush pillar
- Alucard SD would be the front-runner for a Castlevania SD line
- Check out the poll if you want Kamina
- Alex will let us know how interested he is in Assassination Classroom in 3 weeks
- Would like to have Sonic PVC up for order around Sonic’s birthday
- Way too soon to talk about another Metroid pre-order after Meta-Ridley
- No free shipping–that was part of an April Fool’s Joke
- Haven’t done anything for True Form Midna DE Case yet; will be looked at once the casting is going on
- Alex knows what has to be done for Kiryu but it hasn’t been done yet
- Can’t pay to have replacement pieces made for old statues; the old silicon molds can’t be reused years later and it’s too expensive to remake the molds for one replacement
- Hunter x Hunter is on the TT list
- No massive spike in cancellations because of the April Fool’s Day joke
- 480 people entered the Sonic Mania art print giveaway
- Alex wants to install a dancing floor in the new studio so he can get a proper “DEE-NIED!” moon-walk going on
- Guts has just started at the casting stage of production
