I just finished writing up and posting the Alphonse Making of Documentary Recap in the early hours of the morning, but there’s no rest for the weary, because First 4 Figures CEO Alex Davis and Marketing Guru Tsoek Cheung are back with another edition of the F4F Q&A livestream! This week, we’ll see the Fullmetal Alchemist Al validation scramble for low numbers and Day One Signature Edition bonuses, a smorgasbord of collector questions answered, perhaps the next pre-order teased and more!

Announcements and The Week in Review:

• Order for Al are being kept completely live during the stream without a pause–will be a seamless transition from reservations to validation
• No Q&A next week
• It’s no longer called Day One–it’s called Signature Edition now! #F4FThings
• GNF Sonic vs. Chopper statue pre-orders will close after the live stream; F4F is very excited for the future of this line
• Spyro PVC Pre-Orders open until at least November 2nd
• Guts, Spike, Warp Star Kirby and Psycho Mantis Exclusive statues are still up for order until production starts or 1000 units are ordered
• “Usually people think we’re scammers until they realize we’re actually not.” — Alex Davis
• Alex is trying to fix inefficiencies in the company, so he bought this ridiculous 49″, ultra-white Samsung monitor so he can see everything that’s going on
• Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Character Poll is posted now in the Facebook F4F Official Collector’s Club; currently Ed, Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, Alex Armstrong and Scar are at the top of the poll
• Gold Bars Update!: Alex was initially very disappointed in the early sales for Alphonse, especially considering the pricing that F4F had chosen to go with; but ultimately Alex feels vindicated about the length of the reservation period, as he thinks people needed that time to think about which of the 8 SKUs for Al they wanted
• Spyro PVC had one choice: Buy it or don’t buy it. In that scenario, there’s not really much of a reason to even have a reservation period. But with something like Al with eight different options, collectors need the time to process the information and choose which version they ultimately want.
• While Alex was initially very concerned about Al’s sales (as he can usually see how a statue’s sales will end up after just one day), Alphonse’s sales didn’t have the typical falling off of a cliff after the first 24 hours–fell less steeply and maintained a high level of sales activity
• First 4 Figures wants 10 gold bars representing 600 sales for any of their products–Al is now at 7.2 gold bars representing 420 sales after one week
• The Alphonse Elric Signature Edition Art Card design choices are shown–go vote in the club for the option that you prefer
• Alex sings a few lines of “Life is a Highway”
• #TeamGray vs. #TeamSilver: Silver was initially way up there over Gray in sales after the Al PO opened up, but now it’s neck-and-neck between the two and could go either way
• Alex was looking for a wig today so that Chockles could join the stream as Peggy, but couldn’t find one
• Validation has begun! From now and for the remainder of Saturday 10/20/18 HONG KONG TIME, those who orders Alphonse EX or DE will automatically get the Signature Edition
• You’ll find out the number for your statue once it ships out; Silver/Grey EX/DE all share numbers in one massive pool
• Alphonse Sub-250 Numbers: 3 Minutes 52 Seconds
• Sub-200: 3 Minutes 32 Seconds
• Sub-150: 3 Minutes 23.5 Seconds
• Sub-100: 3 Minutes 19 Seconds
• Sub-50: 3 Minutes 16.5 Seconds [“Shout-out to any Stone Cold Steve Austin fans!”]
• The hero of #F4FAnimeSquad, Jake Meyer, got Sub-50!
• On home stretch with getting Guts ready for production to begin
• Ornstein has been approved to move forward with the white castings, still needs a few tweaks later in production
• Alex can’t begin to tell us how slow the Varia Suit factory is–“If we stayed there [with Ornstein], holy shit–it’s a nightmare.”
• Mario on Yoshi is something special–“It’s absolutely huge.”; The base is big as well; going to go really well with Bowser; really exciting to do an OG Mario; Super-excited about what they’ve come up with, even if Mario can’t have a yellow cape; “We’re gonna need a bigger desk.”
• Alex did hope for more than 10 gold bars for Alphonse with the low price, but is happy with the good will bars that the value price has brought in
• I don’t think there’s been any point in time in F4F’s relationship with Nintendo for over 12 years when there have been as many products in development as there are right now in 3-D and physical stages
• Boom8 Sonic Combo 2 Arrived in the office this week; will be shipped in a nice little brown shipper box with foam inserts surrounding it and not a bubble mailer this time
• A lot of people are receiving their Sif replacements; are glad that most people are very happy with them
• Still working on replacements for Fighter Kirby–Not forgotten! Contact CS if you ever have a problem
• Alex signed off on the final PVC version of Spyro so that production can begin
• Spyro Reignited Resin Concept has been approved and it’s time to go to physical; completely different pose to the PVC
• The most-requested feature ever may be added to the site soon: the capability to see the names of items ordered from the main orders page and not just the order numbers
• Alex saw Skull Knight today–he’s “really beastly” and “massive”. Looks to be in the same pricing ballpark as Guts. Amount of details is “mental”; “very dynamic”; “looks excellent”
• F4F T-Shirts will be launched via RedBubble
• Hopefully a blog article will be posted every time there’s a Validation; “3 Reasons Why”; This week it’s “3 Reasons You Should Watch Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood”; “Sounds like a good idea like ‘Class is in Session’ articles did”
• Chocks’ Fried Squid Snacks Review: “I really shouldn’t be eating these, but the things I do for you guys.”; Crunchy Throughout; Each Piece is about 2″ Long; 6.5 out of 10; “Tastes like fish and chips scraps rather than squid”
• “There’s been a massive shit storm going on while we’ve been on this stream.”; Taki boobs photo posts will need to be cleaned up later; “not what we’re about”
• Alex needs someone following him around and taking notes for his future memoirs [Wait! Can I do that?! That might be what I was born for?!?]

Temptation Thursdays (TT Polls) and The King of the Ring:

• Owl Boy TT: 164 ‘No’; 16 ‘Yes’ Votes — A top contender for the worst-faring TT ever
• This week’s hashtag is #F4FIsFake for a Chance to win Rewards Points next week
• You can enter your predictions for the next King of the Ring Tournament Now–Only 31 Comments right now; “Like 10 weeks of this shit for only 31 people? It’s not hardly worth it!”

The Q&A!:

• Xenoblade Character Poll: “You’ve got it.”
• Phoenix Wright painting has started; he’s out of customs
• Need to do 650 PVC Sales at MCM London to make it not worth doing
• Hong Kong and China aren’t the same to Alex
• Crystal Dragon–haven’t looked up the numbers, but it’s like 400-something
• Don’t know Psycho Mantis numbers
• Chocks’ Favorite Thing to Go Out and Do: Laser Tag! ; “You do not like hiking.” — Alex
• Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 could possibly have separate lines (a la F4F Zelda)
• Alex hopes Grayfox is more popular than Psycho Mantis
• Thinks the Flexipay updates will be incorporated soon
• Dark Souls 2 and 3 statues are being worked on right now
• 618 Yes votes for Sailor Moon isn’t bad as far as TTs go
• No reproductions of Legacy statues ever
• Won’t allow 12 month plans on Wait List conversions
• Bayonetta Guns pre-order–not sure when; still need licensor approval
• There’s going to be a few Zelda POs in 2019 for sure
• TF Sonic PVC is being worked on right now and is at the physical stage right now
• Sonic and Tails diorama isn’t at physical stage yet
• Alex doesn’t know when Kickstarters for Amy Rose and Metal Sonic might be
• Not sure if Flexipay options will be updated before next pre-order
• Shipments may be being loaded onto the boats for resin Spyro now
• Conker is looking really tight and will be up for order before the end of the year; will do an official Conker poll when he goes up for order for possible next piece in the line
• Alex would like to see orders for Edward Elric in 6 months time
• Alex’s favorite Homunculus: “Gluttony, Pride, Lust… they’re all really interesting.”
• Possibility of Kamina Kickstarter: “Would you get Kamina if you knew you wouldn’t get any others [from Gurren Lagann]? Would you want Kamina only?”
• Don’t have the bandwidth for Kingdom Hearts right now–Disney would want F4F to have a lot of other licenses; would need to have the capacity to take on 4-5 Disney licenses
• Genos has been submitted for feedback
• Bayonetta for next year? “Fingers crossed.”; Could be the most ambitious F4F statue
• My Hero Academia: “Nothing to report.”
• Jet Black very likely to go to pre-orders by the end of the year; Faye is still in 3-D
• Boom8 Tails and Knuckles PVCs should be loaded onto the boats soon
• Alex likes the versatility of pies, as there are both sweet and savory options
• Nights would never be reprinted–statues aren’t reproduced
• Reala is in limbo Hell right now–at physcial stage, but seemingly no support
• Chibiterasu is in development
• Chocks’ prefers the biggest size of Red Bull can available; original flavor
• Chocks’ immediate family right now is the 54,000 members of the F4F OCC
• Alex just has to make a decision on what factory will do the metal mini figures
• Crystal Dragon sales didn’t set the world on fire
• Will look into making Al’s loincloth a little brigher
• Grave of the Fireflies made Alex cry; his wife refuses to watch it
• No Q&A next week–next Q&A in two weeks time
• If there’s enough support, there could be a large Homunculus diorama
• Dracula head has to be tweaked–not sure how long the pre-order will be delayed
• No chance for reissuing Saitama for any reason
• Banjo Kazooie Last Chance Weekend will be sooner than later
• Nothing new to report on Dante
• “Would you like to see landmark statues?”
• Q&A #100 could be a Christmas Week Special!
• Working on Dracula right now
• Hollow Knight TT didn’t get enough interest; only 276 ‘Yes’ votes: “Where’s all the indy fans?”
• Bayonetta Guns will be a separate series from Bayonetta herself
• Spyro Reignited Resin could be up for order in 4-5 months
• Majora’s Mask Replica granted F4F around 40 Gold Bars
• Talked initially with Sega about a Kiryu Kickstarter–need to do a followup
• The regular Solaire SDs should be shipping shortly
• Want to do anime statues that haven’t been done before, so haven’t looked at Naruto/One Piece/Bleach yet–maybe in a future phase
• Last Chance Week for Banjo-Kazooie soon
• Need to finalize Soul Calibur Ivy statue
• True Form Midna production starts in a few months
• Edward Elric is 100% being done. “Winry? Rally the fans.”
• Ed will go up for order when he’s ready
• Dracula is more likely to miss a 2018 pre-order than Mini Aku Aku Mask, Mimic, Jet Black or Conker
• No “Oooga Booga” sound effect for Mini Aku Aku Masks
• Sunglasses for Spyro? “Companion Piece?”
• Possible to divide up the numbers of colored Jinjos to sell the quantity necessary to produce a True Form Jinjo PVC
• Ed’s colors are different to Al’s, so his automail will be between the two colors of the Al variants–silver and gray variants of Edward won’t happen
• Alex would sacrifice an ear to bring back Chocks’ soul if it was stuck in God’s domain (a la Ed giving up his arm to save Al)
• Chock would sacrifice his hair to save Alex
• Would people want a regular Luigi if Luigi’s Mansion isn’t possible?
• Xenoblade Character Poll soon
• It would be a while before any kind of Mumbo Jumbo Kickstarter–not even started in 3-D
• Will talk about the changes to Banjo-Kazooie when they’re done
• Jet pre-order should be this year; Faye will come with a gun
• Won’t see more sneaks of Mario on Yoshi for a while
• Banjo-Tooie PVC is looking good
• Troy Blair Answers: 1) Not telling you; 2) Nope; 3) Never; 4) Skull Kid PVC Prototype; 5) Slate; 6) Can’t Say; 7) Nope; 8) Can’t tell you that; 9) Twilight Princess, maybe; 10) The generic songs, Wind Waker boat song, going through the woods in TP; 11) Nothing to report; 12) No Alex didn’t; 13) Why would there be?; 14) Alex Updated it
• Biggest surprise regarding Alphonse’s launch: The word of mouth outside the club
• Spike Day One Card vote is on list of things to do
• Alex would like to do something like How To Train Your Dragon
• We’ll see Guts’ changes soon
• Girl giggling in the background during the Q&A is Sandy, who’s still there
• Plans for gift cards? “Shit, better get on that.”
• Alex won’t be at MCM London, Chocks’ just wants people to visit the booth and make sure the PVCs are all sold out. Bring new fans!
• Rider Link and Mario on Yoshi pre-orders will get done when they’re done
• Have to talk more to Sega about Kickstarter-like pre-orders
• Chocks will be out of the office from next Wednesday onwards because of MCM London next week

…And that’s it for this week’s F4F Q&A Recap! There’s no stream next week as Chocks will be in the UK and Alex will be welcoming his F4Fourth Child into the world, so look forward to seeing Alex and Chock again in two weeks on November 2nd, 2018!