It was over a year ago that First 4 Figures put the first-ever resin Spyro the Dragon statue up for pre-order, and while we’re still waiting for Spyro to arrive this summer, it’s time for Spyro fans’ adventure to continue: the First 4 Figures Crystal Dragon Exclusive statue goes up for order today! And not only will all of the details regarding the Spyro Crystal Dragon EX be revealed in today’s show, but Alex and Chock will answer hundreds more collector questions, we’ll learn the latest edition sizes and more!

Announcements & The Week in Review:

• Reservations open for the Exclusive Crystal Dragon statue after the stream! The Exclusive Edition and more will be fully revealed–along with the price, weight, and dimensions–at the end of the show!
• Those who pre-ordered Spyro–stick around during the stream. There’s a potentially big update on Spyro to show during the stream! It was a lot of work!
• No “Who Dat Who Dat” this week–there will be double next week instead.
• Solaire SD Exclusive Pre-Orders are still available until July 2nd!
• Also, jump on the Wait List for Artorias SD Exclusive if you want one, as the chances of it converting are still very good at this point.
• Sonic Boom8 figures will also be available until July 9th for pre-order.
• Berserk Guts pre-orders are still ongoing.
• Alex is working on the Okami Shiranui numbers and Guts numbers right now.
• Currently 630 orders for Guts EX, although pre-orders are ongoing on him until he goes into production.
• Shiranui Exclusive Edition Size: 1700 Pieces! A big increase over the original Amaterasu EX!
• Alex is pretty surprised by the sales on Shiranui! Chibiterasu is also in the works, along with a new Amaterasu PVC and a new resin 1/4 Amaterasu using the design for the PVC.
• Will probably announced True Form Midna numbers next week.
• There’s so much that has to happen behind the scenes before a launch, which is why Chock has been super-busy and hasn’t been in the F4F OCC much lately.
• Ting joined the F4F team last Wednesday while Jeff was away.
• F4F is finally in the position where if everything goes smoothly, they know what’s going to be the next one month of pre-orders, whereas ordinarily it’s up in the air.
• With Ting joining, what used to take 14 days to do may only take 10 days now. That means those extra four days can be used to work toward the new pre-order. As a result, F4F has extra time to work on marketing materials and may finally be able to stick to a pre-order schedule of one new item every two weeks.
• GamesCom is August 21st 2018. The Friday before would be a Reservation Friday (August 17th).
• Scaring the shit out of Phil and Brenda (F4F CS): If things aren’t going smoothly with Validations before the August 17th pre-order, Phil and Brenda may have to get in front of the camera for the Validation Tuesday stream on August 21st!
• My Hero Academia Character Poll: Amazing results for under a week. Keep rallying–hopefully this poll ultimately does well. Looking for multiple characters besides All Might with 800+ votes. Looks like a four-character line right now, but it’s all speculation right now–especially until First4Figures (hopefully) gets the license.
• Eyes of Spyro have now been perfected. This was the final thing holding Spyro up, so now F4F is going full steam ahead of completing Spyro the Dragon production.
• Aiming for September for Mimic pre-order date.
• Sonic 25th going back into production to complete the edition size.
• Mugen box arrived in the office this week and Chock showed it off.
• Blue Warp Star Kirby teaser was posted this week, as were some pieces that go to the Amaterasu PVC.

Temptation Thursday TT Polls & King of the Ring:

• TT 106 Rocket Knight Adventures: 58 ‘Yes’, 213 ‘No’ — If you’re a Sparkster fan, do jump into the poll and rally the fans.
• TT 107 Sailor Moon: 215 ‘Yes’, 117 ‘No’ — Low number of votes. Is there apathy toward Sailor Moon, even though there are a lot more ‘Yes’s than ‘No’s?
• TT 108 Wipeout: Next Week!
• TT 109 Vampire Hunter D: In 2 Weeks!
• No King of the Ring matchup this week
• Next week’s hashtag is #F4FCD for a chance to win 500 Reward Points chosen at random

The Q&A:

• It never crossed Alex’s mind, but he thinks Pokemon would have a large customer base. [Just kidding–it’s been a dream license of F4F for years but First 4 Figures has never been able to catch it.]
• Kamina has had some complications, which is the reason why things haven’t gone smoothly–but First 4 Figures is hopeful; things are going to have to take a little bit more time than expected; hopefully more news on this in a few months
• Warp Star Kirby PO: Likely within 2 months!
• Too far out to comment on Mimic’s price, as factory quotes are often only good for 1 month. No point in getting a quote now when the factory price would likely change before the pre-order.
• Let’s see how Mega Man Zero sells, and then Bass might not be Vaulted anymore
• The next pre-order is most definitely Crystal Dragon [Ha.]
• Alex is impressed with the My Hero Academia Character Poll
• Probably more news on Torch Torch Dark Souls rings later in the summer.
• Nothing extra will be added for now to Day One bonuses besides extra card, sticker and bonus reward points
• Will not remove the regular editions from the website now that Definitive Editions exist, since the regular editions come into play once Exclusives and Definitive Editions are Wait Listed
• Super Shadow isn’t doing bad–468 ‘Yes’ votes now in Alex’s poll
• F4F will definitely consider full refunds for statues that arrive damaged when no replacements are left
• If Sonic & Tails diorama makes it into 2018 as far as pre-orders go, it’ll be near the end of the year
• No more replica weapons in the pipeline right now beyond Bayonetta’s guns–want to see how they do and if there are any problems with customs
• Alex is kind of losing interest in a Sparx statue–still needs to be convinced whether or not this should be done
• Past release that Alex would most like to revisit: Wolf Link & Midna to make the edition size 10,000! At least, from a greed perspective. Alex is actually embarrassed about Fierce Deity Link as far as the production quality went. Also Zero Suit Samus because of her actual design and not the production of the piece.
• No hints on next Mario or Tekken statues (beyond Mario on Yoshi) right now
• The only thing Alex would do for Katamari Damacy at this point would be variants on Prince and Dipp if people were really asking for them
• Phoenix Wright is almost ready to be submitted for final approval
• Dante is undergoing tweaks and looks better than he did before
• Sparx and the Dragon Egg: F4F isn’t sure if people actually want this
• Morrigan going through development now
• F4F’s biggest concern with making the same statues in both 1/4 and 1/6 is that one line might not sell well and would have to be scrapped mid-line
• Crystal Dragon: Alex really needs to see 600-700 pieces sold if Spyro fans want to see more supporting cast characters like Ripto, etc.
• Alex needs to see a demand for Spyro characters outside of Spyro himself
• Psycho Mantis will probably go up for pre-order in the next 3 months
• Cowboy Bebop Spike statue pre-order scheduled for July 2018
• It’s not about the licensing cost of making indy license characters–it’s about the opportunity cost. If something is made that sells 300 pieces, F4F shouldn’t have devoted time and resources to developing it–should have worked on something that would sell 700+ pieces instead so that every month the company expenses are being covered. If F4F does two launches in a month that do low numbers, it would be difficult to pay peoples’ salaries for a month.
• At some point payment plans will hopefully be able to allow customers to postpone a payment, but not in the near future–needs to be worked on by IT
• First 4 Figures would love to find someone to work upstairs in the IT department to work on the website
• Next in Spyro line? Is, of course, Crystal Dragon. Followed by Spyro PVC. [Is this the first official confirmation of Spyro the Dragon PVC??]
• Yakuza hasn’t been started just yet.
• Phoenix Wright is part of a juggling of 5 items in the air. Hasn’t landed in a pre-order slot just yet.
• Amaterasu PVC is still in the prototoype stage; a scaled-up resin 1/4 Amaterasu will be put up for sale months later after the PVC
• Alex’s spur of the moment freestyle rap on Chock: “I know if I put him into a submission hold, he’ll be a-fuckin’ tap.”
• Shirts are on the list of things for Alex to look into
• No Yakuza updates to report just yet
• Alex doesn’t drink beer
• No plans for MCM London in October, but maybe some representation at Animegami’s booth if they’re coming
• No point in talking about Zelda statues too far in the future beyond Rider Link and Sheikah Slate
• Can collectors handle 1:1 scale statues?
• PVC will become much more an integral part of the First 4 Figures lineup in future years. This is significant to expanding the F4F user base and bringing in new collectors to know the company and purchase resin statues. Currently at least 5-6 PVCs are in development at different stages right now including Spyro and Amaterasu.
• Alex is absolutely convinced that more and more PVCs need to be made to get the word out about First4Figures. Two of last year’s launches were PVC, 5-6 of this year’s will be, and even more in 2019. PVCs are very important to First 4 Figures’ future.
• Zora Link would be a hit by default because it’s a Zelda piece–but the characters chosen for Zelda statues need to be “top-tier”. Alex hasn’t talked to Nintendo about Zora Link for probably 10 years.
• Spyro has one base coat of purple, some shading, and some individual scales getting more paint to add depth.
• Spyro range’s expansion to characters like Hunter and Ripto depends on Crystal Dragon sales, as Crystal Dragon was on top of the list of supporting characters.
• Safe to assume Berserker Armor Guts will be gorier than the first Guts statue
• Siegfried might be too similar to Nightmare to get a statue
• If F4F gets the My Hero Academia license, the poll will be integral to deciding what characters to produce and in what order
• Probably not a Shadow Kirby Warp Star variant, since Shadow Kirby shouldn’t have a smiley face–more likely to be a Fighter Shadow Kirby
• Willing to make busts for licenses besides Okami
• Next two weeks are all about the Spyro license and hyping
• Will run sales on the F4F website on older statues once the website is able to facilitate that
• Sailor Moon TT needs at least 800 ‘Yes’ votes to be considered
• Hit Alex up if you know any Hong Kong-based IT guys that want to join the team
• By default, 25th Anniversary Sonic statue edition being finished
• Would collectors buy a quadruple pack of Pac-Man Ghosts? Possible if collectors would buy a quadruple pack.
• Green Shovel Knight and Crystal Cloak Alucard POs probably after the other versions are released
• 500+ Votes for Blaze the Cat in just two months is pretty good
• Definitely two anime pre-orders in the second half of 2018; possibly three (Spike, Alphonse and possibly Jet)
• Dante progressing nicely
• Slayers TT poll possible
• Alex knows what the next Soul Calibur statue is
• Amaterasu PVC pre-order will be toward the end of the year
• Very happy with how the Amy Rose statue is coming along
• Chock’s favorite Arnold quote: “Who’s your daddy?”
• Alex wants 800 on each version of Ryuko–not 1000 votes combined across all versions, since they’d all have to be different statues. Where are the Kill La Kill fans? They need to vote in the Kill La Kill poll to get the numbers up. Is this a one-and-done?
• It’s realistic that a recent Sif Wait List order could still convert since the edition size is being completed.
• Guts has sold more than twice as many EXs as Mugen, and was also much more expensive than Mugen
• TTs are done within the club in order to encourage people to join the club
• No plans to release unpainted versions of statues (such as Crystal Dragon)
• Spyro PVC is in development–probably a pre-order by the time Reignited releases in September
• Bowser and Shovel Knight will probably be moved to Q4 2018 on the shipping calendar
• Banjo-Kazooie pre-order will not be next week
• There are a lot of people on the Spyro EX Wait List–Alex isn’t sure if everyone on the Wait Lists will be converted because there are so many people on them

There’s an updated Gem Box for the Spyro Exclusive Statue to come with. It took ages to get this box the right shape, but F4F invested the time and resources into making it because of the high number of orders for the Spyro the Dragon statue.

The revised Spyro gem box has a beautifully spongy material inside to hold the gems in place! This box is hand-made, and even has a magnet to hold the box shut when you turn it upside-down!

The Crystal Dragon!:

• Exclusive Crystal Dragon Statue Pre-Orders opening at the end of the stream
• This is the first time that Alex has been woefully wrong on how expensive a product he was developing would end up being
• Alex has never made a polygonal piece in his life before, and probably wouldn’t again now that he has
• 95% cannot offer the Crystal Dragon out at retail for regular editions, because the factory price is so high that F4F would lose money selling this statue to wholesalers
• You can use the silica molds a lot more times for non-polygonal statues (100-150), whereas they can only use each silica mold for about 10 Crystal Dragons because of the sharpness necessary for the polygonal design
• Not just the casting is a problem–the paint is also much more complicated than anticipated
• Alex wants to be honest with us up-front: this is unexpectedly expensive; the quotes from the factory are pretty mind-boggling
• The unit cost to F4F is more than double what it cost for Spyro, but of course they can’t double the price from Spyro for us. However, First 4 Figures can’t afford to sell this to retailers at wholesale.
• Low poly in PVC would have been easy-peasy, but it’s incredibly difficult and costly in resin.
• Crystal Dragon is not really made of crystal–it’s made of resin.
• Not scaled to Spyro–Thank God, because the price for a Crystal Dragon fully-scaled to Spyro would be exorbitantly expensive.
• Paint is one of the most expensive aspects of producing a statue, but this is the first experience where Alex has had where casting is as large of a factor as painting
• This is going to be super, super difficult for the factory to produce
• Wings on Crystal Dragon are super-heavy–need to work out a way in production to keep it stable (such as a very strong magnet)
• Lots of beautiful differences in the paint work–this is not an easy paint job even in the slightest!!
• Chock just can’t stop touching the Crystal Dragons statue–it’s so smooth! Like a stone effect–feels really good!
• First4Figures knew from day one what this was supposed to look like–not like a super-secret license that they’ve been talking about for three weeks now

Crystal Dragon Base comes straight out of the game. Is super-wide and beautiful! Base has a gradient all over. Alex thought this was gonna be hella-easy, but was totally wrong. This has gone through many different revisions in order to make it look good. Trying to paint it in one color did not look good at all.

While not necessarily to-scale with Spyro, the Crystal Dragon statue is still really large!

The EX Crystal Dragon comes with a Mini Golden Dragon figure. Not sure what material this will be made out of just yet. This is based off the Golden Dragons you can try to collect all 80 of in the game. They look really cute next to each other.

There’s also a Crystallized Edition Crystal Dragon with a beautiful frosted, semi-translucent look to it! You can shine a light through this one in your setup if you want to! Even the horns on this variant have some translucence!

F4F tried putting some LED lights inside of the Crystal Dragon, but it didn’t look very good.  Ultimately it just didn’t look good enough, even after trying over and over. However, the base for the Crystallized Edition and the Exclusive Version can light up with both pulsing and always-on modes! The Mini Golden Dragon is also included with both versions.

Will have a removable rechargeable battery and LED indicator. Light does go through the statue, but not all the way to the top since the light source is in the base. It’s a little bit hard to see in the studio lighting, but we can see it better in the hype video and official photos shortly. Both versions also Glow in the Dark!

Crystal Dragon Dimensions: 22″ Tall, 17″ Wide, 22″ Deep
Mini Golden Dragon Dimensions: 4″ Tall, 1.5″ Wide, 4″ Deep

Two combo packs be available: one pack with two of the Exclusive Versions, and one pack with two of the Crystallized Editions. This is the first time combo packs will contain two of the exact same statue. The statues will come with two authenticity cards with the same edition number and the same authentication code on them.

There’s no combo pack with one of each–F4F doesn’t think we want that if we really think about it! They look better as matched pairs. Will poll over the weekend to see if people really want combo packs with one of each. A combo pack could be added before Validation Tuesday if people really want a pack with one of each version.

Price: $474.99 for the Regular, Exclusive, or Crystallized Editions ($35 monthly on 12-month payment plans)
Combo Pack Prices: $899.99 for the Combo Packs ($67 monthly on 12-month payment plans)

Alex apologizes for the prices on these–really wishes that these could have been priced much lower, but it isn’t possible due to the difficulty of producing this piece at the factory. 12-month Flexipay payment plans are available.

…And that’s it for this week! Learn anything exciting this week, #F4Family? Will you be securing a Crystal Dragon Exclusive or Crystallized Edition statue of your very own this weekend?