While we haven’t quite reached the threshold for the 35,000 members celebration and reveals, it’s never a dull week in the First 4 Figures Q&A livestream with F4F CEO Alex and Chockles! This week: Will 12-month plans be available for all statues from now on? Thoughts on a potential Attack on Titan statue series? Can you 3-D print Red Bull? Where does Alex see the company in 10 years? All this and more in the F4F Q&A #45 Recap!

On Flexipay:

• In-stock Flexipay is now available for up to 12 months
• I created a list of all In-Stock items organized by region that you can find here
• Despite the name, Flexipay was previously inflexible
• Moving forward, all pre-orders will have 12-month payment plans available
• If you choose a 12-month plan and the statue is ready to ship in 9 months, you still have to wait the remaining 3 months for yours to ship since it isn’t fully paid off yet
• Previously, payment plans were “baked into” Item SKUs and not individual orders, so they were inflexible
• A “Remove Payment Plan” option is being added to the site so you can end your plan and pay off the full remaining balance early
• The new ability to “bake” payment plans into individual orders allows for incredible flexibility
• F4F is going to work hard to convert Wait Lists much earlier in the future; buyers will eventually be able to specify a payment plan when joining the Wait List
• Alex didn’t expect In-Stock Flexipay to be as successful right away as it has been—expected to sell 20-30 statues in first 24 hours and sold 100+
• A lot of people have taken advantage of in-stock Flexipay already
• Collectors cannot retroactively add new Flexipay options to existing orders

On Pokémon, TMNT and TTs:

• First 4 Figures has been trying to get the Pokémon license for many, many years
• The highly successful TT poll gives F4F a story to bring to the Las Vegas Licensing Expo next year—can now tell The Pokémon Company that it’s the most-voted TT ever
• Pokémon TT is to give F4F ammunition to try to obtain the license
• There are no high-end licensed Pokémon statues out there—First 4 Figures wouldn’t just do upscales versions of small PVC Pokémon merchandise
• F4F Pokemon statues would be unlike anything else in the marketplace for the franchise
• Alex’s favorite Pokemon is the one that sells the most; Chockles won’t comment [I suspect it’s Jigglypuff]
• Current TT Hall of Fame: 1) Pokemon 2) Banjo-Kazooie 3) My Hero Academia
• TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) Arcade Game by Konami is next week’s TT poll
• This poll would only be for Statue of the Ninja Turtles in the early 90’s video game style
• Next week’s hashtag is #F4FTMNT
• Resident Evil is on the long list of figure TTs

On Anime:

• All Might/My Hero Academia have enough votes for consideration, and are getting harder and harder to ignore
• Possible plans for My Hero Academia; Alex and Chocks haven’t had a chance to watch it yet
• There’s no need for blind pre-orders for Guts or Alphonse now that 12-month payment plans will be available for all new pre-orders
• The changes to the Alphonse statue have been approved by the licensor now
• Skull Knight concept is getting better and better
• Waiting for licensor approval on Guts; probably up for pre-order in early 2018
• Guts will be available in two versions: bloody and non-bloody
• Cowboy Bebop Spike Statue coming along nicely—already in physical form
• Cowboy Bebop bases will be simplistic black bases with the logo like the regular Soul Calibur bases—intent is to keep the price low
• Want to have similar low pricing to Saitama for Cowboy Bebop line—really want the line to do well and for people to start collecting anime lines
• Anime lines can continue with less units sold than video game lines since F4F is just getting started with them and they need more TLC
• Kamina’s head is being test-printed over the weekend
• Attack on Titan human statues would make more sense to pursue than Titans
• Attack on Titan would require a successful TT and then a character poll; humans would be the initial focus
• Alex is concerned many companies are developing Attack on Titan statues already and F4F would constantly be playing catch-up

On Nintendo:

• Varia Suit Samus has been approved by Nintendo; Last Chance Weekend probably in around a month
• Will show off and discuss Varia Suit Samus after Last Chance Weekend
• Already started white castings for Varia Suit Samus Statue—takes a month and a half for pre-production
• No Metroid B-List characters as statues until all of the A-Listers have been done
• Collectors should get rid of all their non-F4Fs (or coffee tables) to make space for Bowser
• No—there will never be a Smash Bros.-branded item of any kind
• No more Sneak Peeks of Mario on Yoshi to show just yet
• Based on the current TT numbers, F4F would not do a regular Luigi Statue—would do a Luigi’s Mansion Luigi statue or nothing
• Donkey Kong statue would be after Mario on Yoshi if approved by Nintendo

On Zelda:

• Majora’s Mask Exclusive Version Edition Size is 2600; up from 2300 it was set at before Last Chance Weekend
• Only around 1000 regular Majora’s Mask will be made—Exclusives will sometimes have higher edition sizes than regular versions now
• True Form Midna will be submitted to Nintendo in a week or so
• Many future plans for Zelda—concentrating on Sheikah Slate and Rider Link after Midna
• Breath of the Wild Rider Link won’t be priced as low as Link on Epona was
• Twilight Princess Link 1/4 Statue is far down the list of future releases
• No new Zelda lines planned for next few years
• There’s no Happy Mask Salesman in the Vault—First 4 Figures has never made one before
• Alex is apathetic about making a resin Happy Mask Salesman—thinks it would sell well enough in PVC form
• Alex is torn on the size/material for Happy Mask Salesman, though, as many of the collectors who own the old Skull Kid and Fierce Deity Link aren’t in the club now
• Do collectors want Happy Mask Salesman in-scale with Skull Kid and Fierce Deity Link? Must be PVC if so.

  On SEGA:

• F4F has a meeting with SEGA scheduled for January; Persona 5 is on the agenda
• No thoughts about whether Persona 5 line would be 1:4 or 1:6 scale yet
• Helicopter Tails & Sonic diorama is in development
• The Sonic Boom8 Combo Pack isn’t limited—the closing date this week was just for the first batch; F4F will continue to take orders while there is demand—orders will reopen in a few weeks or months
• Would not consider doing Nights again in another pose—the sales of the original didn’t set the world on fire

On Crash Bandicoot:

• After resin Crash Bandicoot, the next statues will be Neo-Cortex and then Crash in a different pose; not a large amount of people seem interested in other characters
• Resin Crash Bandicoot is way bigger than Spyro and will not be close in price
• Aku Aku Mask replica will be priced similarly to Majora’s Mask; will light up but not spin
• Working on concepts for classic Neo-Cortex now
• Vote for Uka Uka Mask if you want one—votes are far too low right now (only about 200 “Yes” votes)

On Various Topics:

• Taki Exclusive Edition Size is 325
• Tekken Jin is in production—working through backlog
• Castlevania Alucard Statue pre-order likely in Early Q1 2018
• Soul Calibur line will definitely continue past Taki
• “Inception” is not Alex’s favorite movie
• Regular editions will be produced far less than EXs going forward—wholesale business is decimated
• Exclusive means “Exclusive to the First4Figures website for two-week window”, not lower numbers
• Want edition sizes to reflect actual demands
• Neon Green Snake will probably be ready to show off in about a month
• Psycho Mantis will be up for order in Q2 2018
• Jeff working super hard on 35K Reveal video
• More Katamari Damacy production videos coming soon
• Keep voting if you want to see an Earthworm Jim statue
• Alex was unhappy with the most recent photos of Shiranui from the painters—looked too clean and needed more shading
• Chibiterasu Statue will be next after Shiranui
• Showed original 3D print of Dante this week in the CC
• Chockles won Rock-Paper-Scissors this week again and improves his record against Alex to 2-0
• Darksiders has been looking into; but not at the point of submitting approvals
• No Last Chance Weekend for Solaire; LCW only for new pre-orders (Varia Suit Samus and Majora’s Mask are the only exceptions)
• Fighter Kirby and Nightmare art boxes in the office now—look good
• Mega Man Zero will probably be next pre-order after Aku Aku Mask
• Those who purchased Mega Man X and authenticated twill be entitled to keep their numbers for Zero
• Alex regrets adding the ring to Sif, as it’s caused him to be delayed much longer than he would have been otherwise
• It would make sense for the Phoenix Wright statue to launch alongside the Switch games next year
• Would be nice if Phoenix Wright sold around 500 pieces
• First 4 Figures isn’t an apparel company, but will offer fan-designed T-Shirts through online fulfillment services
• $22-$24 is the likely cost of print-on-demand shirts
• The beauty of using fulfillment companies is limitless options—it would be hard for F4F to offer tons of different sizes and colors
• Maybe some shirts could be limited editions (250-500 pieces); potential for exclusive versions, con exclusices, etc.
• F4F hats, mugs, buttons will all be looked into in addition to shirts
• The first two-week order window was for Simon Belmont Exclusive [Is this correct? I thought it was Lan-Di, but can’t find any hard historical data on this.]
• The Shovel Knight Exclusive is really nice
• Plague or Spector would be obvious choices for the next statue in the Shovel Knight series after Shovel Knight
• 5-7 Days of F4F Sneak Peeks coming between Christmas and New Year’s
• Spyro currently in production—arms are separate pieces that have to be attached
• Crystal Dragon will be translucent green and will have slowed-down shimmering  lights
• Alex wants First 4 Figures to still be around as a brand and a community and an experience in 10 years—the rise of 3-D printers is the greatest threat to the company
• Maybe Mini-Chockles in 10 Years?
• In 5 years, Alex wants F4F to still be growing responsibly—medium potatoes
• F4F bought themselves a 3-D Printer this week—now Chocks can print his own Red Bull

…And that’s all for another week! If you enjoy these posts, be sure to follow the Gamer Toy News Facebook or Twitter Page to get alerts when the latest articles are posted.

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