F4F Q&A Recap #56 LIVE: Shipping Updates! Xenoblade! Sif! Friends!

Solid Snake still has one more week up for order waging war on our wallets, but as usual, First4Figures CEO Alex Davis & Lieutenant Chockles are back with a brand new Q&A! In F4F Q&A #56, the team will tackle questions about Xenoblade Chronicles, magnets, Escaflowne, Wait Lists, License Plates (no, seriously), Corgis, Samurai Jack, Shipping Before/After Chinese New Year, Sif shipping damage, and… the sitcom “Friends”?! Read on for the LIVE F4F Q&A #56 Recap!

On the Week in Review:

Majora’s Mask has been approved to go to packaging
Alex saw issues with the production of Tekken Jin and Mugen at the factory, and now that the issues have been identified, an action plan has been put into effect to deal with those issues–Alex will return and reassess the statues after Chinese New Year
Mugen is looking great, and is expected to be complete soon after Chinese New Year–F4F expects a lot more releases in 2018 than 2017
Katamari and Silver are already complete at the factory
BOTW Link and Crash Bandicoot PVC restocks have been ordered at the factory
F4F is moving up to being slightly bigger potatoes–“it’s nice to have more potatoes”
Finishing touches on Guts and Alucard prototypes are being down now for the upcoming pre-order
Gold paint on the Zero statue has been made a more yellow gold to be more authentic
Dark Souls 3 poll with DLC characters ran this week in response to collector request–not much change in the rankings from the original poll, but more data is always better
“Like a starry-eyed, innocent virgin”, Alex went straight up to the front row of the massive room where his “F4F” license plate was up for auction
The minimum is 5000 HKD for a custom license plate in Hong Kong, but someone (that means you, bidder #138!) decided to bid against Alex for the “F4F” plate, so Alex had to pay more
Hopefully Crystal Dragon will be approved by Activision before Chinese New Year
Banjo-Kazooie has now been approved paint-wise–just needs a few more changes before complete, final approval

On Sif/Paint Defects:

It breaks Alex’s heart that there are more than expected Dark Souls Sif statues that collectors have received with paint rubs on them from shipping–8-10% of Sif statues have been reported received with paint damage so far
Sif didn’t leave the factory with paint damage–Sif is too loose in the box, which led to paint rubs on the statue in some cases during transit
Standard drop tests and aging tests (baking the statue in the oven) didn’t give any indication that the paint would be damaged during shipping–because of Sif, F4F will now also do a “transportation test” that shakes the test package to see if the statue will be damaged by a simulation of transportation conditions
This is an expensive lesson that First 4 Figures has learned from Sif; it’s always the hardest when problems arise after the statues have already left the factory
F4F will produce replacements to make things right for those customers affected by the damaged Sif statues
Saitama arrived with some wetness because it left the factory during wet season in Hong Kong and the polystyrene absorbed the moisture and caused paint bubbling while on the boat
First4Figures is very transparent with the community so that collectors can learn along with F4F whenever issues arrive and are dealt with

On TTs (Temptation Thursdays):

230 ‘Yes’ Votes for Kenshin TT (Samurai X); some increase, positive comments and bumps since last week–has potential, but definitely needs more support
Ori and the Blind Forest TT: 170 Votes for ‘Yes’–Not bad for an independent game after one day
Dead Space TT is up to 319 ‘Yes’ Votes–“Not Bad”
TTs seemingly remind Alex of what sounds like two new licenses signed up this week (!?!)
Beyond Good and Evil TT Next Week
Ace Combat TT in two weeks (F4Planes!) — Alex thinks this TT will bomb
This week’s hashtag is #F4FJade for a chance to win 500 Reward Points next week

On the Shipping Schedule:

Canada, Europe and UK shipments of Majora’s Mask will probably ship before Chinese New Year only if Majora’s Mask passes the new transportation test
US, Australia and Asia shipments of Majora’s Mask will probably be shipped after Chinese New Year
Sonic 25th Anniversary and Tekken Jin statues have been removed from the shipping calendar while F4F works out a few things
You can now use the FedEX app/website to reschedule your statues for pickup or delivery if necessary
Boom8 Sonic figures are still in production by GNF and may not ship until after Chinese New Year; F4F is helping with the packaging–Sonic fans should be pleased with these, they’re looking great so far

The Q&A!:

If everything goes well, F4F may be able to show Dark Souls Mimic sooner than expected
Alex shows us a quick teaser video of the Majora’s Mask statue art box–Chock will post photos and measurements for the box when they get it into the office
Alex is very, very happy; has been through ups and downs in his life and is very happy with where he is right now (Chocks is very happy when Alex goes to China)
F4F CS will still be available during Chinese New Year–the office will only be closed for 2-3 days
Conker won’t be shown until after Banjo–want to concentrate on promoting Banjo-Kazooie for now
F4F already chose the characters they’d be doing statues of when they got the Dark Souls III license
No connection between Majora’s Mask production and when the next Zelda statue will be ready to go up for sale
Chock fills in the blanks: “Here at F4F we go beyond… good and evil!”
With Conker, F4F is likely to do more than one version of the character, since it’s a one-and-done license
Fans should run a poll to see if there’s interest in PVC Conker or Banjo-Kazooie
Alex didn’t expect to get retailer support for SD Artorias PVC–the stars just happened to align with retailer support because of Dark Souls Remastered coming out
If F4F could get about 5,000 orders directly through the website for PVCs, probably wouldn’t need retailer support
Kamina pose is looking really awesome right now–Alex thinks it’s now a great representation of the character; strong museum pose; haven’t heard back from the licensor yet–they’re very particular
“Pandas aren’t endangered anymore! They do not need saving. They have. Been. Saved!”
“Hit us up, WWF!” [No, not WWE.]
Crystal Dragon is looking really tight–still not finished though; would like to see Spyro released before pre-order
Possibility of Slave Knight Gael based off the latest poll? F4F has already chosen the characters from Dark Souls III they’ll be doing statues of for the next several years. Don’t worry about Slave Knight until further down the line.
Would there ever be statues of Deku/Goron/Zora Link? “Let’s just get Rider Link, Sheikah Slate, and Midna out for now.”
Meta-Ridley is still being duplicated
When can we see Bloody Guts? When he’s done.
If everything goes smoothly, both Spike and Jet will be on display at C3 in Hong Kong next week
No news on My Hero Academia–no character poll at this time; no conversation with licensor yet
Low-priced resin statues under $100 do not exist anymore
If Alex was going to do a new 1/6 Samus suit, it would probably be as a PVC or a diorama
No plans to coordinate Meta Ridley PO with Metroid Prime 4
Very unlikely that First4Figures would acquire Horizon Zero Dawn license at this time because of their relationship with Gaming Heads
Modern Amy Rose won’t be considered at 350 votes, even though that’s better than expected
Trying to get approval for Zero before Chinese New Year, but might not make it
Shadow Kirby might require a new head since he shouldn’t have a smiling face, but F4F could reuse the rest of the parts–or F4F could do Blue and Yellow Kirby variants in the Triple Pack instead
Plague Knight or Spector Knight would be next character in Shovel Knight line
No 40K reveal
Death isn’t in the physical stage yet–F4F is waiting to see how Alucard sells first
Doing assembly of True Form Midna now
F4F will have another conversation with The Pokemon Company in Las Vegas this spring
There likely won’t ever be a Luigi’s Mansion statue–it would be a regular Luigi statue
Yoshimitsu is the next Tekken character release
Torch Torch rings and Onion Bro pendant already available as far as jewelry goes. Ladies–let F4F know that you’d like to see!
Sonic and Tails helicopter scene is like a miniature diorama
4-6 PVC statues expected for this year: SD Artorias, SD Solaire, Amaterasu have been announced already
Sonic 25th will not ship before Chinese New Year–will likely get on the boat in March
Chances of True Form Midna pre-order before the end of Q2? “Quite high.”
Aiming for Q3 for Psycho Mantis PO
Those with authenticated numbers for their regular version statues get priority on that number over retail orders
Dragon Ball Z Shenron statue very unlikely
Likely around 4-6 PVC and 17 resin statues up for order this year
No plans for Samurai Jack right now
500+ ‘Yes’ votes is a bare minimum now for TTs
No plans for anime PVCs right now–there are a lot of anime PVCs already, and F4F chooses PVCs based off the strength of their resin sales
Xenoblade TT before F4F goes to Las Vegas
Will reveal Ornstein orders after Last Chance Weekend
It has never crossed Alex’s mind to make statues of characters from the sitcom “Friends”–Alex would make Joey if he was going to make one statue from the show, and it would be SD and not realistic
Escaflowne needs 700 or more votes for consideration; initial poll results not good
Alucard pre-order is still coming up soon
Zero pre-order will be after Chinese New Year
Link on Motorcycle is not a possible variant for Rider Link–that would be a totally different statue
Wait List orders always ship after original confirmed orders
Banjo-Kazooie sneak peeks are locked down tight right now
Chocks won’t let Alex tell us about the two new stuffs that F4F is working on
F4F is taking it slowly with plush–concentrating on PVC this year, doing small phases of plush this year and increasing slowly but surely
18650 is the size battery used for Varia Suit, Fighter Kirby, Majora’s Mask, King of Red Lions, etc. (Chocks knows that number off the top of his head!)
Green Shovel Knight–no further thoughts yet on how this will be offered
Yu-Gi-Oh license: nothing to announce just yet
Dead Space needs 700+ votes before it can’t be ignored for license acquisition consideration
3D work on Tekken Nina Williams is pretty much complete
Jeff guest-hosting the livestream (Alex thinks that’s a great idea!)
Will possibly also go back and complete the edition size for Sif when producing the replacement pieces for damaged ones
No development work has been done yet for Cowboy Bebop Ed & Ein–“ask again in early March” [I will!]
Can someone donate F4F a corgi for research purposes?
“For Chock: You’re forced to marry a character that F4F has already created a statue of or that we know is in development. Who do you choose?” — Chock would probably deny True Form Midna [Not sure Chock gave a clear answer for this one–alas]
F4F avoids comic book statues since the market is very saturated with them right now
Alex looks at demand for a product over his own personal feelings when examining license suggestions now
Not sure if Kamina will be up for order before 2019–lots of back-and-forth during the development of this statue
Normally the Wait List orders are covered by the cancellations of confirmed orders, but Fighter Kirby and Nightmare [and possibly Sif] will probably be going back into production to complete the full edition size
Alex only does the DDT drop test for the EX versions
F4F only has a few potatoes and they are very small and in the garden of F4F and trying to grow from minuscule potatoes. There aren’t enough to make any chips or fries at this time.
FMA licensor said that the painted Alphonse looks great; will be much taller than Bowser; definitely not a Q1 pre-order
Warp Star Kirby PO in early/mid-2018 if all goes well
Can be very hard to acquire a license or very easy–there are always bumps in the road, and every single license is unique; lots of different variables for every license
Would absolutely consider doing 1:3 or 1:2 scale statues of most possible characters (ie Link)
Haven’t really thought about PVC Zelda statue yet–too far down the road and too many other things to focus on right now
F4F can only fulfill the Wait Listers that fit within the 200 edition size for Fighter Kirby EX, even when going back into production
Artorias is representing F4F in the Best Paint and Best Statue categories in this year’s 2018 Poppies Awards–please vote and support First4Figures’ growing number of awards if you haven’t yet!

…And that’s a wrap! What’s your favorite thing that you learned this week, #F4Family? And remember, if you want to receive updates and alerts whenever new F4F Q&A Recaps and articles are posted, be sure to follow the Gamer Toy News Facebook and/or Twitter Pages!