F4F Q&A #63 Recap: Resin Crash Bandicoot Statue Revealed & More!

It’s been 3 weeks since the last Reservation Friday, but the time has come once again! In addition to Alex and Chockles answering bushel-baskets full of collectors questions about anything and everything (and I mean everything), the Classic Crash Bandicoot resin statue Exclusive will be revealed and then go up for order! But enough boring chatter from me–let’s get on with the recap…

[The F4F Recap LIVE is now in-progress and will be updated as the live-stream happens! Be sure to refresh this page through the end of the show, as the recap won’t update on its own!]

The Week in Review:

Alucard Last Chance Weekend will start on March 30th and run until April 2nd
Artorias SD Last Chance Weekend has now been completed
Alex shows off the the Artorias SD Exclusive box, which is looking gorgeous.
Silver, Prince and Majora’s Masks statues started arriving at some places in the world this week
Many people were surprised by the large size of Prince’s ball
Silver almost killed the Modern Sonic statues line, but those who have received him so far have been very happy
Spoiler Alert: No Zelda news this week
A F4F First: A game of “Who Dat Who Dat” in the middle of the show
Alex doesn’t feel like there was a lot of hype for the Samurai Champloo Jin teaser, so he remains a “wait and see”–maybe there will be more demand for him after Mugen is released and more anime fans come in
12 years ago today was the day F4F announced that they had the Legend of Zelda license! This was a true milestone in the history of First 4 Figures and a key moment in Alex Davis’ life
Based on feedback in the club, Alex thinks that anime statues should be left open for sale until either A) 1000 pieces are ordered or B) for the normal two-week period and Last Chance Weekend if orders exceed 1000 pieces in the first two weeks
It doesn’t seem like anyone is interested in Fortnite statue based on Alex’s poll

On the Resin Classic Crash Bandicoot Statue:

The Exclusive Resin Classic Crash Bandicoot statue will be revealed and go up for order at the end of the livestream. Stay tuned–I’ll update with photos and details on the pre-order once Alex & Chock start talking about it.
Alucard’s hype video wasn’t ready when he launched for pre-orders, forcing F4F to go through the reveal of Alucard in a much more slow and deliberate way–Alex prefers that, so he’ll show the flashy trailer for resin Crash Bandicoot after they unveil and talk about Crash
Collectors were split between wanting normal eyes and crazy eyes for Crash, so First 4 Figures made the eyes interchangeable to create both looks
Alex likes a bit of tongue–but if you don’t want to have tongue, you don’t have to have tongue
Classic Crash’s tongue is held on by a magnet and is removable–magnets will not be visible on the final statue but you can slightly see them on the prototype
Crash’s pose (the end of his crazy dance) was chosen by the Facebook club–the most crowd-designed statue that F4F has ever made
Pre-club, Alex would have made this statue in this pose with crazy eyes and tongue–the club had a large influence on the piece
There is a little bit of fur texture on the classic Crash statue–subtle, not a lot; you can see the subtle textures up-close but not far away
The eyes are made of resin with magnets, not PVC

On Crash Bandicoot Exclusive Version:

Crash EXclusive Version includes two differently-sculpted Wumpa Fruit pieces in addition to the interchangeable eyes and removable tongue
“That’s the exclusive: special fruits. Fruits are good for you.”
An exclusive jungle backdrop is also included–it’s the same size as the one that comes with Spyro, although Crash is quite a bit bigger than Spyro so the backdrop doesn’t look as large
But wait–there’s more!
The resin Crash EX will come with one more extra: an Extra Life Add-On piece (with its own base) that serves as an enhancement piece to the statue! Can be placed wherever you want in your display to enhance your Crash collection.
If this does well, all of the different boxes could be released in this style with acrylic stands
Crash is much larger than Spyro, even though he is bent over
Day One exclusive will come with an extra 375 reward points, a holographic Day One sticker, and an additional signed Alex Davis art card

On Classic Crash Bandicoot Pricing and Dimensions:

Sculpted Fully 3-D Crates are something that F4F could look at in the future, but to keep this piece at the price First 4 Figures wants, they’re not possible as add-ons with this release
As usual, 12-month Flexipay plans will be available
Regular edition of Classic Crash resin statue: $374.99
Exclusive edition of Classic Crash resin statue: $374.99
3-D Crates would have greatly increased the cost of this statue to $600+ if they had been included here–First4Figures wants to give the best value possible for this statue
The Exclusive Classic Crash Bandicoot statue will be available for order on the website following the livestream
Scheduled for release in Q1 2019

On Temptation Thursdays (TT) Polls:

Fulgore (Killer Instinct) TT: 41.7% Yes, 58.3% No; not many votes–jump in and vote if you’re interested
Robotech VF-1 Fighter Mode TT: 31 Yes Votes (17.2), 82.8% No Votes; Robotech didn’t really fare any better than the previous Ace Combat TT did–licensing doesn’t seem to make much difference as far as demand for vehicles goes; very interesting results for Alex
Golden Sun TT Next Week
Splatoon TT in 2 Weeks
This week’s hashtag to use for a chance to win 500 Reward Points next week is #F4FCrashing

The Q&A!:

Alex’s favorite Berserk character? They’re all his favorites.
Alex is super-pumped for both the Skull Knight and Berserker statues–both look hardcore
Order of Guts’ Squad: “Let’s see how orders for Guts go and then we’ll start going through the squad members.”
All Might: “It’s complicated.”
Nothing to say about Darkstalkers right now
Top 3 Licenses F4F Didn’t Get: Studio Ghibli, Akira, and Final Fantasy VII
Suggest other possible point challenges for the live-stream if you’d like them
Chockles isn’t getting his muscles ready for the Bowser drop test–Alex is doing it
True Form Midna is coming along A-OK
Vegetarian restaurant was the first dinner Alex and Chock ever went to together
Alex’s favorite Crash Bandicoot game? N-Sane Trilogy
Sonic 25th Statue Targeted toward end of April
Banjo-Kazooie more likely for May PO than April
Mario on Yoshi feedback has come back from Nintendo numerous times
Card holders coming along slowly
Spyro will ship before Solaire for sure
We’ll probably see Neo-Cortex toward the end of the year; won’t see Uka Uka until next year
We may see Phoenix Wright in Q2/Q3
Want to see the next two weeks be very Crash-focused in the club
There would have to be serious support for SD statues of Alex and Chock
See you next week for preview for Guts
Paint rub damages to Sif during shipping was due to the movement, not the paper–Sif would have been damaged even with silk wrapping [new transportation test should prevent this in the future]
Nothing to report on new OOT/Majora’s Mask statues
No updates on Yakuza at this time; Alex needs to look into it
No plans for any more Katamari Damacy
Will look into Snake Life-Size Bust
Ornstein Lightning: Will work on making it a bit more white, shape will remain
Chock mentions Ornstein SD statue! Reveal!? “Smooooth.”
Wolf’s Rain TT? “Interesting–thank you for putting it on my radar.”
Mimic pre-order before Nito
Taki production videos soon
Don’t know how many months until True Form Midna pre-order
Still time to grab food before the Crash reveal–at least another 45 minutes
Both Bowser boxes will be full art boxes
Alex isn’t saying anything about what’s first in the Dark Souls II/III lines
Reworking Kamina and Genos almost ready to be submitted
Banjo-Kazooie statue prototype is done–both F4F and Rare are happy with it; still coming along soonish, pushing for early-to-mid Q2 2018 Pre-order
Biggest Challenge of making Crash resin? All this information and more will be in the documentary!
Rally the fans during the next two weeks if you want Crunch and Coco
Aika was once “never ever in a snowflake’s hell” chance, now she’s a “hmmm”
Is a zebra white with black stripes or black with white tripes? A Zebra is “white with black stripes” according to Alex; Chock: “Both.”
Not too many secret licenses up F4F’s sleeves right now
If the Cowboy Bebop line does well, F4F will make as many characters as collectors support
If there’s support, F4F will look into life-size props like TNT crates
Still working through Soul Calibur line; not sure what’s next
F4F app isn’t high on list of things to do
Banjo plush? “Let’s hold off plush talk until we get a little bit better at it.”
Let’s see how Banjo resin statue sales go–resins have to come first
Persona 5: “Nothing to report.”
What Crash characters besides Crash and Neo-Cortex have chances of getting chances? “You tell me.”
Chock is looking forward to Avengers Infinity War; Alex hasn’t seen too many of the Marvel movies for the past year–saw Guardians of the Galaxy 1 & 2, hasn’t seen Thor or Black Panther and fell asleep during Doctor Strange
Can’t pay shipping cost before your item is ready to ship because then it’s like your order is completed
Crystal Dragon pre-order not that soon; still working on that–had to make some changes
What about a diorama with Knuckles? He’d probably need to be with someone, as Knuckles didn’t sell great by himself
Legend of Spyro statues–not for ages
Will interchangeable parts be the new common thing for EXs? “Sometimes.”
If Facebook blows up, F4F will go back to the old forums
Alex hopes the Sheikah Slate will be a successful piece
Legend of Zelda Spiritual Stones: “Conversations we can have [with Nintendo] in Vegas.”
Even valid feedback can be considered nitpicky, and collectors can vote with their wallets–but Alex doesn’t have to make changes if he feels that they’re nitpicky since he has his own opinions; if members are worried about being ridiculed for their feedback, they can PM Alex at any time
No issues from F4F customers are insignificant or unimportant
Alex’s spiritual animal: “Chicken” (His Zodiac sign) — He’ll let us know in a few hours time if he’s a fucking bandicoot
Chockles’ spiritual animal: He hasn’t really thought about it. Not sure.
Official #SAVEF4FJin poll can be started once Mugen ships
Chocks has had silver streaks in his hair and also had it bright browny-yellow (ginger); Alex’s hair used to be blonde–nothing in the company handbook that says you can’t dye your hair maniac colors [I’m sorry for making Alex feel sad that he doesn’t have any hair anymore!]
No chance of making statues with preset edition sizes of around 100 like Lucky Cat Mario; F4F learned their lesson from that
No difference between resin and PVC statues at the 3-D stage
Could the new pre-order system for anime statues be carried over for niche characters like Aika? “That’s a great question.”
Claymore TT shout-out!

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