F4F Q&A #49 Recap LIVE: Shovel Knight Exclusive & More!

It’s sort of ironic that the week started out with me cussing the fact that the time has come to shovel snow and ice again for months, but the week is ending with a shovel putting a huge smile on my face! During this week’s F4F Q&A #49, the First4Figures Shovel Knight statue will go up for order on the website and the exclusive version will be revealed to the world! And like every week, a boatload of collector questions will be answered about Happy Mask Salesman, Soul Calibur, Dark Souls and more!

[The First4Figures Q&A #50 Recap is currently LIVE! I’ll be updating this post throughout the livestream with all the details from this week’s show. Remember to refresh this post regularly to see the latest details! And if you want to receive alerts whenever new recaps or news articles are posted, be sure to follow the Gamer Toy News Facebook Page!]

On Shovel Knight:

The F4F Shovel Knight statue exclusive will be revealed and go up for order on the website during the livestream
F4F has its fingers crossed for Shovel Knight to do well
Low numbers will be available for Shovel Knight, since he’s part of a new line–you can pre-order today but will have to Validate on Tuesday for a low number
Yacht Club Games had F4F hit up their agent to get the Shovel Knight license–the agent already knew who First 4 Figures was and it was easy and straight-forward to get the license
May 22 2016: Jeremy Bierson poll convinced Alex to go for the Shovel Knight license
Shovel Knight will fit on a detolf but not in a detolf–too big because of the horns
Enlarged Shovel Knight statue isn’t really, really big–it’s just bigger so that it’s not too small next to Spyro and Crash
Hopefully Shovel Knight is the first of many indy game statues by First 4 Figures
First4Figures was able to keep it cheap because license wasn’t as expensive in comparison to game licenses from larger companies and F4F is passing the savings along
Normal Blue Shovel Knight and Gold Shovel Knight will share a numbering scheme, so there may not be a specific number of one or the other when a Combo Pack isn’t ordered

The Shovel Knight Exclusive will come with an interchangeable switch-out fish head for Shovel Knight! (Surprise?!)

There will also be an Ornate Plate Armor Edition Shovel Knight statue! The one shown during the livestream has to have the colors tweaked a bit, which will be shown on the website and explained in the documentary.
There will be a combo edition including both the normal Shovel Knight statue and the Ornate Armor version of Shovel Knight
Prices — Regular Version of Shovel Knight: $299.99 (75 cents a day on a 12-month payment plan!)
Exclusive Version of Shovel Knight and Ornate Armor Edition: Also $299.99!
Combo Pack of Exclusive Shovel Knight and Ornate Armor Edition: $549.99!
Shipping is $35 in the US for a Shovel Knight statue, $40 in the EU, $45 in Canada, $65 in NZ, $35 in China and Hong Kong, $105 in the Middle East
Combo will come with two shipping boxes–too big for both statues to come in one large box
Ornate Armor Edition and Combo Pack will only be available for order for one week–orders close next week on 12/22/2017 for them and there will be no Last Chance Weekend for them

On Zelda:

F4F would like to have at least the initial shipments of Majora’s Mask completed and shipped out before Chinese New Year begins so shipments aren’t delayed past March
Happy Mask Salesman doesn’t need a TT because Alex knows he would do amazingly well, but Nintendo wants the focus on Zelda Breath of the Wild statues for now
F4F will see Nintendo in Las Vegas in May and can discuss Happy Mask Salesman then–nothing will happen until Alex can talk about HMS with Nintendo, and there’s tons of other stuff that’s already on the Zelda list before Happy Mask Salesman
F4F easily got the Zelda license through an agent, and is thankful for it every day
If Alex could save one thing from the Vault, it would be Zora Link
There probably wouldn’t be totally different BOTW Zelda statues released in different costumes at the same time–BOTW Zelda is not confirmed
Alex has considered making a Guardian from BOTW, but that’s a niche character compared to the heavy hitters like, say, Zelda
Other characters to go through before we would get a Princess Mipha
Wolf Link doesn’t count as a BOTW character despite being a companion in Breath of the Wild

On Temptation Thursdays (TT) Polls:

#SAVEF4FREALA: “TTs never die.”
Next week’s TT is for .hack//; and in two weeks it’s the Valkyria Chronicles TT poll; followed by a Puyo Puyo TT in three weeks
Puyo Puyo is also known as “Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine” to some
It’s possible to get very different results from a fan-made TT and an official TT, so there’s still hope even if a fan-made poll does very badly
This week’s hashtag is going to be #F4FShovel (not #F4FShuffle!) for a chance to win 500 reward points on next week’s livestream
Tomba Temptation Thursday is possible–added to the list
A Face-Off Between Smaller Niche Games like Bubble Bobble and Balloon Fight to earn an official TT is possible in the future

On Anime:

Mugen’s swords look and are sharp and are in production at the factory; have lovely weight to them
Mugen will have a quick turnaround time, as he’s starting production right after Prince and Dipp
Samurai Champloo Jin Pre-Order probably will be in the back-end of 2018
No news on Kamina–Alex has to check the status on it
The video game for My Hero Academia being developed by Bandai Namco doesn’t help F4F to acquire the My Hero Academia license, because Bandai Namco isn’t the licensor for MHA
There will be a lot more anime statues up for order in 2018
Guts isn’t being delayed intentionally–F4F only got approval from the licensor last week
The exclusive version of Berserk Guts was kicking Alex’s ass because of the lighting effects, but F4F can get to work getting the pre-order set up now for early 2018
Steven Universe, Samurai Jack and Avatar the Last Airbender are all western “anime” that were considered–Nickelodeon gave Alex the cold shoulder about Avatar

On Sonic the Hedgehog:

F4F has finally got a strong concept that works for the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Sonic & Tails helicopter diorama statue
Do we want texture on the Sonic & Tails figures in the diorama statue, even though none of the other Sonic statues have it?
Silver Day One Art Card (above) is shown off on the stream

On Dark Souls:

The 3-D Sculpt for the next Dark Souls statue after Ornstein and Mimic has been done for a while, but Alex hasn’t gotten any feedback back yet
Ornstein pre-order will be in Q1 2018
No chance of a reveal of the next Dark Souls statue after Mimic anytime soon
F4F would like to have a resin Dark Souls statue pre-order every four months, not including the SD PVCs and the Plush figures

On Various Topics:

Everything shuts down in Mid-February for Chinese New Year, which is why nothing will ship in March 2018
Alex can be Alex Davis and not First4Figures when he’s in the Facebook Group–if you want corporate stuff, check out the main F4F Facebook Page instead
Members can campaign for any characters in the F4FCC Facebook Group for 24 hours on Sundays (Hong Kong Time) starting this Sunday
Alex feels that studios producing unlicensed statues are pretty low–he thinks it’s totally wrong on many, many levels and isn’t good for license holders or lawful statue producers (but is jealous of the freedom to produce anything illegally without licenses)
About 40% of all F4F statues conceived go into the Vault
Chockles is rude (self-professed)
Alex does have to pee during the Q&As and goes to pee strategically during the stream
No news plans for the Shenmue license; talked about Ryo 1:4 but that idea didn’t get any traction
F4F knew about Soul Calibur VI in May 2017
1/6 statues for 200 bucks aren’t going to happen anymore–but larger and more complex 1/6 statues such as Link on the King of Red Lions are still possible
2017 went very, very well for First4Figures and 2018 will be better (although it won’t 2017 out of the water the way 2017 blew 2016 out of the water)
There will be more and more PVCs released to bring attention to the resin statues
Alex is very excited for Soul Calibur VI–it’s always nice when licenses are renewed with freshness
Absolutely will have multiple Soul Calibur VI pre-orders in 2018 to capitalize on hype
Nintendo plush have been locked down by multiple other licensors, and F4F doesn’t want to compete with established players that have the same licenses and already have wholesaler support–no Korok in the works consequently
The NYCC Winners will get the exclusive version of statues, with numbers outside of the usual numbered edition
We should see the revised Varia Suit Samus statue on the livestream next Friday–12/22/2017
No documentary for Varia Suit Samus Last Chance Weekend–there will just be a side-by-side comparison
Chockles: “Red Bull Red Bull Red Bull Red Bull”
F4F gets charged more money for using Paypal, which is why there’s a surcharge for collectors using it
Unfortunately, Celine will never get the Vaulted ship she wants because “it never crash-landed” (whatever that means)
Mitsurugi will be the next Soul Calibur statue up for pre-order, followed by Ivy
Closer to their pre-order date, F4F will certainly do a size comparison of Crash, Spyro, Conker and Banjo
First4Figures is working on cheaper shipping for the Middle East
There are franchises that F4F won’t release more statues for because of low sales
“Who Dat Who Dat” character this week is Ralph Wiggum… wearing a Patrick Star costume (plot twist!!)