The Countdown to triple-digits is on, as there’s less than a month until the milestone 100th episode of the First 4 Figures Q&A with Chockles and Alex! But while we wait for that historic event to transpire, that doesn’t mean there’s not worthwhile news and fun to be had in the First4Figures Q&A #96 livestream! This week’s questions include the following and more:

WHO is the next statue going up for pre-order?
WHAT statue is responsible for creating the concept of Definitive Editions?
WHEN is the Metroid Ridley pre-order likely to be if all goes well?
WHERE is the Donkey Kong hype?
WHY Oki?
WHICH factories are producing recent POs such as Banjo-Kazooie, Warp Star Kirby, and Psycho Mantis?
HOW many points did Kei win in the latest Who Dat Who Dat?

Announcements and The Week in Review:

• Spyro Resin Statue Notifications are going out for final payments: “Pay-up time, guys!”
• Spyro Reignited Trilogy giveaway ended yesterday; the 10 winners will be contacted by F4F for their shipping addresses and the option to have their copies signed by F4F
• Next pre-order will be Green Player 2 Shovel Knight “Companion Piece”
• Pre-orders for Phoenix Wright will be open until at least December 28th; may remain open past that date if less than 1000 total orders have been placed
• Tekken Law is back up for order! He was previously on-track to be Vaulted, but is being given
• Spyro PVC EX with Sparx, Alphonse, Psycho Mantis, Warp Star Kirby, Spike Spiegel and Guts EX are all currently available for pre-order; POs will close when 1000 orders are reached or when production begins
• Okami Hat (Black Version) has been cancelled, as there were not enough pre-orders to go into production; the white version with the Amaterasu Life-Size Bust will still be produced; maybe when the Okami PVC is released the black cap could be reopened for pre-orders to see if the minimum order quantity can be met
• The First4Figures Official Collectors Club Facebook Group has finally reached 55,000 members!
• Peggy is real if you choose to believe: “You have to choose if you’re Team Believe or Team Not-Believe”
• Solaire resin is out in Australia/Asia now, and will be shipped out to the rest of the world later this month–should arrive in most parts of the world after Christmas
• Due to a miscommunication, the sword-in-sheathe part that was intended to be packed with Solaire EX and Praise the Sun Solaire was left out of the initial shipment that went to AUS/Asia, but the part will be correctly packed-in for the rest of the world and will be shipped out separately to customers in AUS/Asia
• This issue with Solaire is a good example of how sending out a small sample shipment to the Asia warehouse first can ensure that the shipments to the rest of the world aren’t affected by potential, avoidable issues
• Very fortunate that space could be found in the actual packaging to add the sheathed sword to the packages
• Estimated shipping calendar on the website is always in-motion; any changes to the schedule will be recorded on the website
• Lots of activity of samples coming into the office: “These boxes are big and heavy! Poor Peggy!”
• Solaire, Crash and Solid Snake samples all came into the office last week; back-drop and swappable eyes work terrific on Crash Bandicoot resin; “Thank you so much to Crash because you basically created the Definitive Editions for us! Crash started it all.”
• The backlash over the acrylic crates that came with Crash from collectors who were disappointed the crates weren’t made of resin was a primary motivating factor for creating Definitive Editions and Companion Pieces for future statues
• Alex is much more happy with not having to be restricted to keep Exclusives affordable by having Definitive Editions to add extras to for those who want them
• Classic Crash resin would have likely been $500 or more if the crates had been made resin and packed with the Exclusive Edition
• Won’t be forced to buy the Mini Aku Aku Mask Companion Pieces to retain your number from Crash resin for the next non-Companion entry in the line: Neo-Cortex
• Sav Kantus and the Dark Souls Dangalangs group have been promised the first ass-cheek crack sneak peek of the upcoming Gravelord Nito statue
• Neo-Cortex’s head is significantly larger than Crash’s and his body is significantly smaller; getting ready to go ahead to the duplication stage
• Alex visited the Alucard factory and posted a long production diary video on Facebook; Alucard is looking great right now
• Chances of getting Varia Suit Samus Exclusive are pretty good if you joined the Wait List in the last few weeks
• Alex is looking forward to launching Mario on Yoshi; posted the “Possessed Mario” sneak peek in the OCC
• Alex likes to be really uber-picky and put new factories through hell; the Alucard factory had done some things that Alex didn’t like on a previous visit and the factory was very accommodating and eager to please in making the requested changes
• Meta-Ridley has had some feedback from Nintendo and made some tweaks; Alex believes it’s going to be approved for pre-orders very soon
• Conker isn’t going to quite make it up for PO by the end of this month/2018
• Rainbow Spyro Cheat Code Colors PVCs are all in the works; will be combination of multiples shades of color and not just one solid color all-around; these won’t be for everyone but will be for some
• Rainbow Spyros will definitely be cheaper than the regular colors since there’s less paint deco involved and it’s a repaint of existing tooling; will be released one at a time rather than going up for sale all at once (subject to Activision approval)
• Emerald City Comic Con 2019 deposit has been paid, so there’s no turning back now! F4F returns to the United States for ECCC 2019 in Seattle in March 2019! Hopefully will be able to bring lots of PVCs to the show.

Phoenix Wright Validations:

• First (and currently only) piece  in the Phoenix Wright series of statues, so low numbers are available for those validating
• Those who Validate or order Phoenix Wright EX and/or DE in the 24 hours following Validation opening get the “Signature Edition” with bonus Signature card signed by Alex Davis, extra Rewards Points and holographic sticker
• Validation goes very smoothly with no hiccups; here’s the run-down for how fast you had to validate to obtain a number in each range…

• Sub-150: 18 Minutes or less after Validation opened
• Sub-100: 41 Seconds or less after Validation opened
• Sub-50: 31 Seconds or less after Validation opened

Temptation Thursdays and the King of the Ring:

• TT 128 Drakengard: 208 Votes; 138 No, 70 Yes
• TT129 Guacamelee: 155 Votes; 135 No, 20 ‘Si’
• Fairy Tail TT Next Week!
• #F4FPHOENIX for a chance to win 500 Rewards Points Next Week!
• King of the Ring II: The last remaining entrant, Rose Pesiri, has been DEE-NIED (but has already received her consolation reward points)
• KOTR II lasted only 4 weeks before all entrants were eliminated–unpredictable as always!
• Kei’s recommendations for KOTR III: 1) Increase the prize to attract more entries; 2) Make the poll questions clearer–currently they’re too complicated/convoluted [Alex: “No. No! I’m not making it easier for people!”]; 3) Don’t put the matches into a random order when it’s time to vote on them

Chock’s Snack Review:

• No snack today!?!
• Chock hasn’t had a chance to go out and find something special, so no snack review this week!
• Why are pistachios so expensive in Hong Kong? And everywhere?
• Phoenix Wright’s bench isn’t made out of wood–it’s made out of resin that looks like wood
• Chock has some carb-rich pistachios; they’re a bit plain

The Q&A!:

• The Rock, Ric Flair, Jake the Snake Roberts and more F4F WWE statues were cancelled back in the day
• Alex doesn’t think any of the Hulk Hogan or Jake the Snake Roberts busts were actually produced
• Next PO will be Shovel Knight Companion Piece Player 2 Green
• Use your rewards points as you see fit–don’t worry about First 4 Figures turning a profit
• Alex puts more emphasis on the financial end of things by wanting to show off/release PVCs before resins, rather than aiming to “wow” consumers by showing off the grand resin version first
• Why Oki? “Why not? The Okami line has been great for us, so why not test that out?”
• Shiranui PVC and a different weapon for Amaterasu have definitely gone through Alex’s mind: “We’ll see.”
• True Form Midna production starting in early 2019
• Alex says F4F will never do Galaga statues: “Too many painful memories!”
• No plans for the Doom movie line being rebooted; the BFG was released, but Reaper’s Gun is in the Vault; a 1/6 figure of The Rock was also made
• Yakuza Pre-Order: “…Let’s just say we’re gonna… yeahhhh…”
• When F4F makes a 1/4 Link, it would have to be from Twilight Princess
• Alex’s favorite Xenoblade game is Chronicles, and his favorite character from it is Shulk
• Alex thinks it was a travesty that the Transformers vs. GI Joe line sold poorly and was cancelled; this line was so hip and next-level before everybody else–ahead of its time
• Haven’t checked how many bars Alphonse is at recently
• Classic Trilogy Phoenix Wright statues not based on Dual Destinies aren’t impossible if this statue ends up selling okay
• Want another speech bubble for Phoenix Wright? “10 gold bars and it’ll be there!”
• Sailor Moon TT is doing all right!
• Starcraft? Alex tried for this many moons ago and it didn’t pan out; Blizzard does their own stuff
• Crash Factory also making Spike (in production now), with Kirby and Crystal Dragon lined up there as well
• Midna at Solaire/Aku Aku Mask/Shovel Knight Factory
• Shiranui at Ornstein factory/Guts factory which just finished Snake
• “Dabid’s going to be the fountain of all knowledge.”
• Green Shovel Knight P2 is up next; pre-order will be casual since this is the first Variant Companion Piece
• Nothing on Crystal Cloak Alucard for now
• No teaser details about Sheikah Slate any time soon
• Alex and Chockles would both have survived Thanos’ snap
• Gray Fox is in the duplication stage right now, although the next MGS pre-order will be Solid Snake SD
• Fighter Kirby replacements are in production right now
• No updates on Phoenix Wright’s badge right now–something to worry about fixing when he goes into production
• Haven’t done anything about Modern Amy Rose yet
• Alex can absolutely tie a tie; always, always ties a Windsor knot with perfect symmetry
• Banjo-Kazooie changes will be done pretty soon, and production will begin right after that
• Working towards making payments plan work the way that customers want it to work
• Alex would definitely make Princess Mononoke on Doggo if he could make a Princess Mononoke statue
• Dracula and Conker won’t make 2018 for pre-orders
• Sonic TF PVC is being painted now; Sonic and Tails diorama is a bit more complicated
• Amaterasu PVC has been approved to go into production
• Still making a few changes to Dante
• Indy poll TTs (Hollow Knight, Shantae, etc.) need to be much higher for consideration for PVCs–if the support isn’t there for resins, PVCs are an even larger risk
• Dizzy is a nostalgia-filled game Alex would like to make statues from, but won’t due to lack of interest
• “A few” pre-orders left for the year
• F4F improved with the number of pre-orders opened in 2018
• Would probably take a break from Metal Gear Solid 1 line after Grayfox; could return to it later (a la Zelda lines)
• Roy Mustang and Edward Elric: “Work’s been done.”
• Alex is pretty sure the cancellation fee has already been reduced for payment plans, but would have to check with the boys
• Cannot cancel one of the two statues in a combo pack you’ve ordered
• Nothing new to share on the Midna display case right now
• No movement on Kickstarter-style pre-orders yet
• Not sure when Guts will be ready to be shipped in 2019; maybe summer?
• Really don’t know when Meta-Ridley pre-order will be, but likely within 3 months
• There’s one TT poll Alex would really like to see do better for a lot of reasons, but it was not to be
• Phoenix Wright word bubbles on poles were always
• Psycho Mantis is at Alucard’s factory and can be going into production sooner rather than later
• Banjo at all-new factory
• Haven’t had approval yet on Dracula
• Mario on Yoshi is coming along very, very nicely
• Conker is actually done, the timing just doesn’t quite line up for the end of 2018–will be start of 2019
• Nito is an engineering nightmare
• Castlevania Death: “Not yet. Soon.”; Still at 3-D Stage; 2019
• Mega Man PVC is looking tight
• Ivy is looking tight
• Is Phoenix Wright safe from the Vault? “Let’s not end on a downer.”
• Alex is very interested to see how the Fairy Tail TT does next week
• “Where is the Donkey Kong hype?”
• There are more Metal Gear Solid SD PVCs in development
• Super Shadow poll is actually doing pretty well
• F4F Q&A #100 will be the last Friday of the year–lines up amazingly between the holidays! Perhaps major announcements and or big Christmas teasers…?
• Kei Meara is DEE-NIED during Who Dat Who Dat and goes home with zero points!

And that is a wrap for the F4F Q&A #96? Learn anything that excites or disappoints you, #F4Family?