Almost from the first day that the First 4 Figures Official Collectors Club Facebook Group opened up, collectors have been begging for a statue of Midna in her “true form” from the ending of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It’s taken over two years since then, but the big day has finally come: the First 4 Figures True Form Midna Exclusive statue goes up for order today! And so, during today’s Q&A, not only will Alex & Chock answer a copious amount of questions once again, but we’ll also get the grandiose full reveal of the Exclusive Twilight Princess Midna statue that we’ve all been waiting for!

[Welcome to the LIVE Recap of the 70th edition of the First 4 Figures Q&A livestream with Alex Davis & Tsoek Cheung! I’ll be updating this post as the livestream occurs, so if the page hasn’t been updated with what you’re waiting for yet–hang in there and refresh every few minutes! And while you wait, feel free to check out the Silver the Hedgehog Statue Review I posted earlier today!]

Announcements & The Week in Review:

• [The section will be filled in during the course of the livestream. Refresh the page throughout the next few hours for this and all other sections to be updated as they happen.]
• F4F CEO Alex Davis is decked out in a Legend of Zelda “I Am Legend” T-Shirt. He bought it last year when he thought Midna would be up for order in Q2 2017, however, so it feels a little bit tight now…
• Today is Reservation Friday–True Form Midna will go up for order at the end of the Q&A!
• Okami Shiranui Exclusive Edition statue pre-order ends on May 29th (2018)–don’t forget and miss out
• Berserk Guts statue pre-order is still open and will remain open until 1000 units of the exclusive are sold or production begins
• True Form Midna Validation Tuesday will be this coming Tuesday, 5/15/2018
• With Midna launching today, a two-week period will begin where Legend of Zelda fans will be allowed to post anything about the Zelda franchise freely in the F4FOCC Facebook group!
• 284 people are watching the stream right now–among the highest numbers ever in the livestream!
• Alex is not here to judge–he’s here to provide “Get Out of Jail Free Cards”. “F4F CS: Enabling Lying to Your Significant Others!”
• Las Vegas Licensing Expo will be taking place in two weeks and Alex will be in attendance at the three-day conference and meeting with many F4F licensors; Alex is prepared to be “DEE-NIED!”
• There may be a few licensors that First 4 Figures is talking to at the show that fans don’t know that they’re talking to
• Princess Zelda went up for order four years ago on 4/1/2014 and people thought it was an April Fool’s Day joke–hard to believe it’s been over four years since a new statue from the Zelda Twilight Princess range (that wasn’t a variant)!
• First person that Alex ever hired in China to help out with QC was for the Princess Zelda statue over three years ago
• Should potential new Ocarina of Time statues be in the same scale as the old ones and made of PVC? Or should they be 1/4 resin statues?
• If F4F had to close tomorrow, Alex is secure in the fact that he’s got an outstanding offer of $300 for for his Wolf Link & Midna Exclusive Edition #001 statue
• There’s another batch in production of the Breath of the Wild Link PVC statue right now–several batches have been made throughout the last year
• Alex is embarrassed that it’s been over two years since pre-orders opened for the Varia Suit Samus statue, but she’s in production now
• Ultimately decided that the official name for the Midna statue would be “True Form Midna”, even though “The Twilight Princess Midna” placed well in an unofficial poll as well
• 300+ viewers watching the stream right now!
• Make sure to vote in the Okami polls in the OCC if you want Okami Ninetails, Oki Wolf Form, etc. as statues
• F4F has made some boo-boos lately with statue production, assuming more statues will be cancelled than actually get cancelled; some statues such as Fighter Kirby, Nightmare and Silver end up being under-produced and having to go back into production now to meet demand
• Those who’ve cancelled orders because of having a bad experience in the club: “It’s Chock’s fault!”
• Next poll regarding cancellations will be “What Can We Do About It?”
• Maybe in the future F4F can allow collectors to “pause” payments when they’re short on funds, rather than having to cancel their orders outright
• Silver underproduction is due to being too cautious regarding potential cancellations and trying not to have unsold stock sitting around in international warehouses; scope of business has increased from teeny-tiny potatoes and so now F4F is able to have extra stock in a warehouse in China where they don’t have to pay to have excess stock sitting around
• 318 viewers right now–this is the first time ever that there’s been this many people viewing at this stage before a pre-order
• Alex still needs to make a new Mini-Alex figurine to have adventures with
• The F4F OCC group–“the coolest community out there”–has grown from 42,500 to 45,000 members since Shiranui launched two weeks ago
• Classic Crash Bandicoot Exclusive Edition Size: 675 pieces
• Alex showed Ivve the True Form Midna statue when he visited the First 4 Figures office a few years ago

On Temptation Thursdays (TT Polls):

• Captain Falcon TT: Currently 223 ‘Yes’, 162 ‘No’ votes
• Xenoblade Chronicles Shulk TT: Quite a lot of votes for a short period of time, and some people joining the club just to vote–275 ‘Yes’, 158 ‘No’ votes; TTs never die, it may take years to obtain a license; may come back and do the same series with different characters in future TTs
• Nier Automata is now the third top TT vote-getter, behind only Pokemon and My Hero Academia (All Might)
• Next Week’s TT: Animal Crossing
• Vagrant Story TT in 2 Weeks
• Next Week’s Hashtag: #F4FTFM for a chance to win 500 Rewards Points next week

The Q&A!:

• [The section will be filled in during the course of the livestream. Refresh the page throughout the next few hours for this and all other sections to be updated as they happen.]
• Kamina–will give an update next week
• Mimic pre-orders are a couple months away
• 2 Dark Souls SD PVCs are in-development past Ornstein right now
• Mario on Yoshi is now at the physical stage: “soon”
• Donkey Kong will be the next character looked at in the Mario series
• Alex doesn’t think it’s likely that True Form Midna will sell more units than Majora’s Mask did, since the mask is so iconic and on the front cover of that game–True Form Midna has less than 5 minutes of screen time
• [Stream choked for me for a second between now and the first of my own questions–will circle back and add whatever goes here later]
• Alex doesn’t expect to have a Soul Calibur pre-order ready for whenever the new game launches
• No plans for a Q&A in two weeks while Alex is at Las Vegas Licensing Expo; Chocks says “NO WAY” to a “Chocks & Jeff Show” episode
• Alex’s favorite Las Vegas games are Roulette and Blackjack
• The corporate suits at the Licensing Expo aren’t necessarily fans who will be easily impressed with geeky knowledge of the licensor’s franchises
• Probably will never attend a Canadian convention; didn’t have a good experience at NYCC and will be using what they learned from that event to improve what they can do at future shows (including Gamescom in Germany this summer); will use the two conventions F4F is doing this year to gauge if they should do more conventions
• F4F still finds it difficult to get the hype teaser, trailer and documentary ready for a statue launch in a two-week period, which is making it difficult to find time to make more boxing and production videos
• Regular versions of statues stay open for all the way up until production starts
• Won’t pursue Twisted Metal, since Gaming Heads has that license
• Should hear more about Boom8 Knuckles and Tails figures next week
• Waiting for feedback from SEGA on Sonic & Tails diorama
• A statue of Samus with her helmet off would be cool
• Nothing to report on Tekken
• Ganon’s Puppet Zelda will be the only statue used for the numbers to carry over to True Form Midna, the EX will go for the EX and the regular will go for the regular [Huh? Was there more than one version of Puppet Zelda?]
• F4F has made lots of Zelda Ocarina of Time statues: 3 versions of Link, Dark Link, Sheik, Darunia
• In-between tent-pole games like Breath of the Wild is when F4F can focus on older entries in the Zelda series
• Sheikah Slate will be submitted to Nintendo next week; no idea when it will be approved to go up for order, but the pre-order won’t be immediate even if the Big N approves it immediately–will try to place the pre-order for Sheikah Slate in the middle between True Form Midna and Rider Link time-wise
• Just got final bill payment from the factory for Majora’s Mask, so the last of the masks are almost ready to ship out now
• Shipping calendar will be updated as more confirmed information is received from the factory
• F4F has to already decide what Zelda characters they want to do when they renew their license with Nintendo
• Dante is coming along nicely
• Won’t do another official poll for Coco Bandicoot, because Alex has already done a character interest poll including her for Crash Bandicoot characters
• Phoenix Wright is pretty much finished and ready to submit
• Alex hasn’t seen Infinity War; Chock won’t say whether or not he enjoyed it since it would be a spoiler!
• Alex will go see Ready Player One before Infinity War now that the theater will be empty for it
• No news on Kiryu (Yakuza) to share
• Need to get some T-Shirt designs going
• Artorias SD will be in collectors’ hands in July
• No other Dark Souls news to share beyond Mimic and Nito coming up
• Sonic & Tails is officially part of the Diorama Series
• Final batch of Silver hasn’t started production yet, so it will be a while
• Problem with the 50K reveal would be announcing something too far in advance (a la Bayonetta)
• Hope to produce 1/4 Twilight Princess Link down the line–would be a shame if F4F couldn’t make it
• Will never make more of the original Link on Epona statue; just the new Rider Link from BOTW on a horse that’s not officially Epona
• Alex played Twilight Princess on the Wii with motion control; Chocks played it on the Gamecube
• Monster Hunter World could use the F4F treatment
• Wanted approval before showing and opening pre-orders for True Form Midna so there wasn’t another 2-year wait like there was with Varia Suit Samus and Majora’s Mask
• Non-licensed pieces are 100% illegal; it’s copyright infringement and you can get sued for illegally making money off of other peoples’ intellectual property; licensing gets 12-20% of the MSRP for a piece, so of course this has a big impact on the pricing for a piece
• More and more companies are producing statues without a license because it can be difficult to sue a company in another country, but unlicensed statue edition sizes are going higher and higher and prices are going up on those even today
• Bloodborne market is too crowded right now–F4F won’t pursue it at this time
• An F4F pin or patch would be easy to do–will see about having that done; “low-hanging fruit”
• Want to implement earlier Wait List conversions, but there’s difficult in doing so
• Hopefully the drought is over for Zelda pieces, but can’t say with 100% certainty
• Nothing to report on Morrigan
• Need to see how long Phoenix Wright takes for approval before scheduling him
• NiER 2B License: “It’s complicated.”
• Alex doesn’t know anything about individual CS cases–please go through CS for your specifics
• Distinct lack of support for Aika is the only internal discussion about her recently
• Will probably not finish full edition size production run of Amaterasu Life Size Bust
• Alphone still undergoing revisions
• Need to sit down and figure out what’s going on with the CORE line
• Tekken Law pre-orders will reopen when Bandai Namco gives approval
• Chances of Jin EX statue Wait Lists converting are good
• Already have multiple factories in rotation to try to keep delays down, but “it is what it is”–factories get backed up and delays happen sometimes; finding more factories in a manageable way
• Solaire has not finished production–Alex and Chock would be shouting throughout the club if so
• Alex doesn’t think Guts will reach 900+ pieces sold
• It’s cheaper to send a replacement statue/piece than to send a statue somewhere to have it repaired
• Alex doesn’t have any relatives with his statues. It makes him sad. [And that makes me sad!] =/
• A list could be made of trusted repair shops
• More updates being made to the Crystal Dragon–Alex still isn’t happy with it
• Nothing to report on Persona 5
• We’ll get a Sonic & Tails sneak peek to celebrate when the 3-D is approved
• Rare asked for the Banjo-Kazooie statue pre-order to be pushed back until the 20th Anniversary Celebration for the franchise
• Line between hype and spam: “An evolving question. As long as it’s not the same people making the same posts on different days, which would be spam.” Different people need to make posts on the same thing, not the same people.
• Probably Q4 2018/Q1 2019 for the Mario on Yoshi Pre-Order
• Not saying who’s next after Ornstein in the SD line
• Crystal Dragon pre-order won’t be until First 4 Figures is internally happy with it
• Can talk about doing another Aika poll in case fans were confused by all the options
• Working on Amy Rose
• New batch of Fighter Kirby being made now and potential broken pegs are being taken into consideration
• Images of all the changes to Guts will eventually be posted
• Alphonse will very likely be the most expensive F4F pre-order ever: much bigger and thicker than Guts
• Will run a poll to see if people want a Berserk prop line
• Classic Neo-Cortex pre-order: “maybe at the back end” of 2018
• Would never tell us at this stage if any more anime licenses have been acquired
• Maybe a few weeks or months until a Skull Knight sneak peek
• Deniz Kip needs to stop feeding Renske’s dog pancakes–“naughty!”
• “Making of and Chill” on Youtube? Would be cool.
• Zero is pretty much done; wanted to give HMO a chance to do theirs; will wait 3-4 months before launching the F4F Zero pre-orders
• Double “Who Dat Who Dat” next week; none this week
• Alex is going out for a poo-poo before the True Form Midna reveal

On the Zelda True Form Midna Statue:

• [The section will be filled in during the course of the livestream. Refresh the page throughout the next few hours for this and all other sections to be updated as they happen.]
• 1 Hour 37 Minute Documentary will be posted later today! Get some popcorn! A full-feature movie!
• Puppet Zelda numbers will carry over to the EX of True Form Midna
• Alex gives his best sigh of relief now that True Form Midna is done
• True Form Midna pre-orders will be opening up at the end of the stream
• This reveal will be a long one because Alex and Chock will go through different versions and pricing and such
• Back when Alex’s wife Kanako was running F4F CS, she would occasionally receive E-Mail requests for True Form Midna but Alex thought she was too minor in the game
• Midna is in the 1:4 scale and is absolutely in-scale to Zant and Ganondorf

The size chart above was used when determining the scale for the Twilight Princess series of statues.

• The first True Form Midna statue F4F made is from the Vault because it was based off of artwork from Hyrule Warriors and not Twilight Princess
• Wanted to keep True Form Midna from being in “the Uncanny Valley”; has to be in a pose where she’s just standing there, but still looks natural. If Midna looked too stiff, people would be able to tell since they’re so familiar seeing people in that pose.
• Midna has turned her head and isn’t looking straight-on; her eyes are looking to the sides and not forward
• This pose for Midna was actually more difficult than the sexy pinup Hyrule Warriors pose would have been
• True Form Midna is obviously sculpted and not in cloth–you couldn’t really get the details and shape perfect if the cloak was soft goods and not sculpted
• Weathering and details added to the crown–not just silver; weathering effects goes throughout all of Midna’s silver accents

A dotted effect was added to Midna’s cape and face to add depth to the piece.

• F4F struggled with applying the patterns to the Midna True Form statue’s clothes

Midna’s cape had to be a very dark black in order to show off all the lining and details. Had to go through this many times to get it right.

• Midna has a slimness to her body, but is not muscular; Nintendo requested a subtle line be added down her midsection to separate it
• Some glow-in-the-dark ink used on Midna so that parts of her can glow in the dark; Zant and Imp Midna had glow-in-the-dark details on them as well; really made to be appreciated in the dark
• Will go through all the processes and engineering of producing this Midna statue in the Making of Documentary that will go live along with pre-orders
• Midna’s left leg will be made black in order to be even more accurate

The base for Midna will be the Twilight Mirror.

• The Triforce is right in the middle of the Twilight Mirror. Absolutely matches the style of Zant, Wolf Link and Midna, etc. Made sense to have the Twilight Mirror represented with this version of Midna.

The Exclusive Version of True Form Midna features beautiful light-up hair.

• The Exclusive Version of Imp Midna also had light-up hair.
• Orange Paint on Mirror is UV reflective to have a special glow under blacklights on both regular and exclusive versions; Green Glow in the dark paint on some parts of both versions as well; it’s like the glow-in-the-dark bands you get on your hands when you go clubbing [according to Chock–I have no idea what he’s talking about, but it’s probably something real]
• Make sure you shine a blacklight on your Midna base when you get it home to see it light up

Photo showing the correct scaling between the Zant, True Form Midna and Wolf Link & Midna statues.

• F4F made sure the scale would be spot-on between the various statues in the Zelda Twilight Princess series.
• Five warehouses around the world so no customs fees or taxes in most countries; 12 month payment plans available
• Validation Day for Day One Edition is Tuesday May 15th–come back on Tuesday to hit the Validate button after placing your order today/this weekend; only 10% deposit is due today
• Pre-orders will close on June 12th 2018
• Ask anyone in the club if you have questions at any time; FAQ will also be posted following the stream
• Regular Version Cost: $484.99; $48 Deposit when pre-ordering
• Exclusive Version Cost: $484.99; $48 Deposit when pre-ordering
• $36 per month on a 12-month payment plan; edition size will be announced a week or two after orders close in June 2018

BOOM!! True Form Midna Definitive Edition with Premium Display Case, Remote Controllable Turning Base and Eight Individual UV Lights!

• Let’s talk about this Definitive Edition!

First4Furniture!

• You don’t need this case for Midna, but it enhances her! Wanted to try something different with her because she was the perfect statue to try this with because of the various special features
• Remote control can turn on Midna’s light-up hair in the Definitive Edition and also activate the spotlights and the turning base!
• Wanted to make it possible for collectors to see the full statue and appreciate it even if placed against a wall, which is why the turning base was implemented
• This case has been custom-made for Midna and is really, really expensive because of how complicated it is
• There may be some changes made to the Definitive Edition, as this is the first time First 4 Figures is doing something like this
• Definitive Edition has a different base that’s much thicker and has a motor inside so that the base can turn
• Definitive Edition will have to be shipped in two boxes because of the display case
• Over 500 viewers were watching the stream during Midna’s reveal–a new record?
• The display case will be glass instead of acrylic is the current belief–but things can change, as this is something totally new to F4F; more information will be posted in the club; this display case can only get better
• True Form Midna Definitive Edition Price: $784.99; $78 Non-Refundable Deposit; $60/month on 12-month plan
  
• F4F has subsidized the price of the Definitive Edition to make it more affordable as much as possible; very expensive in terms of cost to First4Figures
• Display cases could become part of the CORE range
• This is a piece where F4F will have to do an assembly video to show exactly how everything goes together
• You do NOT have to get the Definitive Version to keep your number. The Exclusive and Definitive Versions will be pooled together for the next piece in the Twilight Princess series. There will never be any obligation to buy the Definitive Edition.
• If Aika ever got made, there would be both Exclusive and Definitive Versions to make more enhanced versions as choices for the customer. This could be a good way to get statues from niche lines made.
• Shipping Costs (Regular/Exclusive): $45 to United States; EU $45 USD; Canada $55 USD; Australia/New Zealand $75; India/Jordan/Egypt $85; All prices will be in the FAQ after the stream
• Shopping Costs (Definitive Edition): $115 to US/EU; $245 to Australia; $145 to Canada; $195 to Japan; Israel/Cyprus/Ecuardor $245 USD
• If you have Ganon’s Puppet Zelda authenticated, you have the rights to that number for whatever version of True Form Midna you purchase

…And that’s a wrap! What do you think of the grandiose reveal of the True Form Midna statue, #F4Fans? Who’s placing an order for Midna, and which version(s?)?