We’ve been spoiled by a new First 4 Figures pre-orders every two weeks for much of 2018, but that streak came to an end because of the company’s attendance at GamesCom 2018 last month. But even though it’s a week later than usual, the latest pre-order has now arrived–and it’s something pretty special: The first-ever official F4F Partnerships resin statue goes up for order today: Sonic vs. Chopper! Plus: hundreds of collector questions will be answered, we’ll get updates on statues in production, and more!

Announcements & The Week in Review:

• If there’s one thing First 4 Figures knows, it’s resin–and F4F will be going to the factory to inspect and give their stamp of approval to the GNF Toyz Sonic vs. Chopper resin statue.
• “We’re not gonna bring shit to you guys.” — Chockles
• There is no EX (Exclusive) Sonic vs. Chopper statue, since it’s not an F4F product.
• Spike Spiegel EX, Warp Star Kirby EX and Psycho Mantis EX are all still up for order, as all four are under 1000 pieces ordered
• The finished Crash Bandicoot resin statue is in the house–made of a very sturdy, thick cardboard
• The background is intentionally a little blurry, as the foreground is focused on just like in the original files for Crash Bandicoot
• The completed Dark Souls SD Solaire EX box is also present on the stream and looking lovely
• Artorias SD EX, Taki and Mugen are hitting the marketplace right now in several regions
• Alex was at the factory today and saw the first 20 pieces of Solaire SD, and requested the factory make some changes based on those
• Don’t forget to redeem the 500 extra Rewards Points that come with Artorias SD
• Spyro PVC is looking good at the factory
• Alex “went fucking batshit crazy” when he saw flaws in Spyro PVC Test Shot #3 that were present since Test Shot #1. The engineer wasn’t experienced enough for F4F’s type of products, and so that engineer won’t be working on F4F’s products anymore; “He’s okay for the little Hello Kitty bullshit, but there ain’t no fucking Hello Kitty over here”
• “You have to be super-anal about PVC at this stage” because the factory can make over 2000 pieces in a day once they start pumping out PVC statues
• “It doesn’t take long for the smallest problem to become the biggest one when you’re making 2000 pieces a day–that’s why it’s so important to get it right from the beginning” –Alex Davis
• “Don’t fuck about with First 4 Figures products, because we’re not taking any prisoners.”
• Hopefully Spyro Exclusive PVC will be ready for pre-order by the end of the month (September 2018)
• Spyro PVC EX pre-order will be a little different than usual POs–more on this when he goes up for order
• “I think there’s been more swearing on this stream than all the others put together.” — Alex Davis
• Alucard is deep in production and coming along nicely
• Guts’ head now has hair separations and the size of the tip of his sword hilt has been reduced
• Looking forward to attending GamesCom again next year–hoping that stays true in 2019

Temptation Thursdays:

• Super Meat Boy TT #116: 296 Votes; 257 ‘No’, 39 ‘Yes’ — Doesn’t seem to be moving at all
• Inuyasha TT #117: 191 ‘No’, 214 ‘Yes’ — Not bad for an anime TT
• The ‘No’ votes just give F4F an understanding of how many people are engaged in the community, and also give an idea of what people like–the ‘Yes’ votes are compared to other TTs on the “leader board” when contemplating where future resources should be devoted
• Perfect Dark TT next week! Alex would be surprised to see this do well–“low-hanging fruit” to acquire, but not convinced people will vote for it as only 66 people voted for it in 2016
• This week’s hashtag is #F4FSANIC to win 500 Rewards Points next week

The Q&A:

• Chocks’ The Snack in Review: Some sort of corn snack you eat with a spoon; Alex won’t eat it because of all the carbohydrates
• Alex is looking forward to Who Dat Who Dat–The crushing of peoples’ dreams hasn’t happened as much as Alex would like lately
• Mini Aku Aku Mask is far more complicated than the Mario Leaf and Bell statues
• Those who buy the Mini Aku Akus won’t earn the right to future Crash Bandicoot resin statues like Neo-Cortex; it doesn’t count in the numbering scheme, even though those who bought resin Crash can retain their same number for the mini Aku Aku Masks
• Alex is pretty sure Varia Suit Samus can fit in an IKEA Besta cube
• The #F4FPVCNation will allow for more releases for F4F–F4F will always make resin statues as long as people want new resins; the PVCs don’t take away from the resins; the expansion of the Hong Kong and China teams will allow First 4 Figures in a more managed and controlled way
• Chocks’ favorite Zelda is Link to the Past; Alex likes Breath of the Wild, Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask
• Alex would do statues from Final Fantasy and NiER Automata if he could do statues from any game; Chock would want Streets of Rage and Initial D statues (the ‘D’ in ‘Initial D’ stands for “Dream”–who knew!)
• Best place to eat in Hong Kong: Blessed by the number of choices available to eat in Hong Kong; restaurants are usually packed because peoples’ apartments are quite small, which helps keep the prices down; Chock doesn’t have any favorite place to eat in Hong Kong
• No news on Genos; “What to do with Genos? What to do? What to do…?” –Alex Davis
• Wondering whether or not it’s worth it to go ahead with One Punch Man statues if the support isn’t there for them; might need to run another poll to gauge interest
• Hiring a graphic artist to help Sandy and to take control of the CORE range of products such as shirts and mugs with the First 4 Figures logo
• Sonic and Tails diorama will be up for order in 2019 some time
• Amy Rose would be one of the first Kickstarter-styled pre-orders if possible
• Haven’t had a chance to think about re-opening pre-orders for Tekken Law yet
• Shenhua TT was so low that it didn’t even warrant starting development on a 3-D render for the character–need to have more interest to even consider a Kickstarter-style pre-order
• No news on Kickstarter system yet–Alex needs to discuss this with his partner, John
• Spyro PVC EX pre-order will hopefully be toward the end of this month
• Shenmue series isn’t dead, but could really use a lot more support and fans
• Would fans be interested in a game-related Spider-Man PS4 statue?
• Alex thinks the F4F OCC is great
• “It’s Alex’s warm and fuzzy management style that motivates Alex every day.”
• Working on the Yakuza DE Gate, and then it’s Kickstarter time!
• Will most likely need help if F4F attends GamesCom again next year
• Anime Expo is probably a bridge too far next year, unless… (If not 2019, then very, very likely 2020)
• Yes, you can plug in your resin statues with a USB cable and light them up without having the battery inside
• Companion pieces will follow standard ordering procedures (4 week pre-order window and longer if 1000 pieces aren’t ordered)
• Have definitely been looking at the idea of Berserk SD PVCs
• Haven’t gotten back into the rhythm of a new resin Dark Souls statue every 4-5 months; a bunch of resins are in development, but taking longer than expected; the Dark Souls SD line is there to tide fans over while waiting for more resins
• Have not considered selling unpainted versions of statues
• Chocks believes Sonic Boom8 Knuckles and Tails PVC figures will ship around the end of September/October
• Cowboy Bebop Spike sales have plateaued around 700 pieces, which is fantastic–has exceeded the number necessary to hit to break even by 100 pieces
• If you know F4F’s official colors, you have a better idea of what color Yoshi variants will be released
• “These Friday Q&As can go in any direction at any given moment!” –Alex Davis
• Ancient Magus Bride: Alex doesn’t know anything about it; Rally for it on Funday so Chock can TT it
• Will consider whatever fans want from Fullmetal Alchemist (Homunculi, etc.)
• Phoenix Wright was rejected by Capcom–needs to be darker
• Making Crystal Dragon minifigures into metal now and will make into different colors from there
• Amaterasu PVC and Snake SD PVCs are both still at the resin stage and won’t have POs until they’re at the PVC stage, so POs likely in early 2019
• Translucent/Ghost Aku Aku Mask? Alex needs to see a screenshot.
• Don’t know numbers for Crystal Dragon off-hand
• My Hero Academia license: these things take time; F4F isn’t out of the running yet
• Will keep Crystal Dragon PVC in mind
• Would only consider Ape Escape if there was significant rallying for it
• Chances of Metroid PVCs: All things are being looked into and explored, but nothing to confirm at this stage
• Asked to concentrate on Reignited Spyro statues for now
• Probably between 3-5 Zelda pre-orders next year
• Can start looking at next Mario statue (Donkey Kong?) now that Mario on Yoshi is almost ready
• Tekken Law will be DOA if there aren’t enough orders–won’t be a Last Chance Weekend, will just be opened up
• Nothing anyone says about Jin and Fuu will make Alex change his mind; the only thing that will convince Alex to do these would be a Kickstarter-styled PO; but with sub-200 Mugen statues produced, Alex is extremely concerned for Jin and Fuu’s potential
• Jump on the Wait List for Mugen if you really, really want him!
• Teaser of the Black Shovel Knight shown!
• Conker pre-order will definitely be toward the end of 2018
• Alex would be Slytherin through-and-through to represent his warm and fuzzy management style; all the houses are good in their own way
• No hope for Pikmin until the TT gets more support
• Companion pieces are more about smallness–won’t get niche characters as Companions unless they’re small pieces
• If another company gets a license that F4F is running a poll for, it doesn’t necessarily void the poll (though it does “spoil the party”)
• Using silk-type material for pricing would absolutely cost more, will look into it
• Mario on Yoshi pre-order likely for end of 2018/start of 2019
• Starfox crew to match with the Arwing–would fans want them scaled to the Arwing as mini-statues?
• Probably around 3-5 Zelda pre-orders in 2019
• Sif SD looks really good
• Zelda PVCs next year? We shall see.
• Varia Suit and/or Bowser could possibly ship by the end of 2018.
• Authenticate your Artorias SD now to secure your number in the Dark Souls SD line
• Dark Souls SD line isn’t interfering with the resin line–the resin Dark Souls statues just take a super-long time to develop, need a lot of time and effort to be perfected
• Mini Aku Aku Mask was developed before resin Crash statue went up for order; some concern that they may not hit 600+ orders since Crash EX only had a 675 ES
• Would not revisit Transformers statues of any kind
• F4F didn’t make Mini-Chocks–it was made for Chocks in color
• No other life-size Okami statues in the works right now; sales didn’t set the world on fire
• Kickstarter-style Shantae not impossible in the future
• Aware statue giveaways need to be caught up on
• Don’t have the ES on the Solaire SD combo
• Why the loss of confidence in Neo-Cortex? “I didn’t say that. Dabid did!” [I’m sorry!!]; looking at everything in the polls with a grain of salt now
• Will there be a Mini-Alex?
• Sparx with Dragon Egg could be a Companion Series statue in the future
• Would love to do a Master Sword or Hyrule Sword replica–know they would do really, really well
• No chance for PVC lines for series like Gurren Lagann or Kill La Kill–could never risk the expensive tooling for PVC statues for brands with low interest
• All Might would likely by dynamically-posed if done
• Aika poll is looking very sad and lonely
• Strangest place Alex has ever seen an F4F advertised: saw an “F4F is Love/Life” bracelet at the airport and saw an F4F bag at ACGHK; see advertisements online all over the place
• It would be a shame not to use the Dark Souls II and III licenses to make boss statues
• Spyro PVC will ship in very very late 2018 or early 2019
• Probably won’t be able to use points for Kickstarter-styled Pre-Orders; sounds like a hassle to refund if the Kickstarter-styled PO fails
• No idea if Sega will allow Kickster-styled PO for Amy Rose; she’s pretty much done in 3-D now
• Would only do Kickster-styled POs for pieces that already have a finalized 3-D model
• 300 minimum is likely the definitive number of sales necessary to move forward with Kickstarter-styled POs
• Not sure when next Boom8 PVCs will be ready for order
• Inuyasha TT poll needs 800+ votes
• Hardest statue F4F has done: Bayonetta
• Nothing to report on Persona 5
• Takes 1-2 years to announce if a license has been acquired
• As reported last week, the GamesCom orders for Spyro EX will come from the same allotment as the Wait List; won’t be a problem next year, as pre-orders will be closed at 1000 pieces or after 4 weeks and won’t come to GamesCom
• Need resources to increase the number of pre-order slots per month to accommodate for PVCs and not cut back on resins released each year–have to cut back on streams and combine Validation Day with the Q&As
• France is definitely on the list of places F4F has been looking at visiting for conventions
• True Form Monster Hunter PVCs is something Alex would be interested in
• Can look into having the fade-out feature of LED lights brought back
• If everything goes smoothly, Alphonse PO in October
• Work started on Roy Mustang statue
• Bonfire-themed resin would be a perfect, perfect example of a Companion Series statue

F4F Partnerships Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Chopper Statue Pre-Order Details:

• Sonic vs. Chopper Statue will be up for order at the conclusion of this week’s stream
• A rare appearance on the livestream by Jeffrey Lee!
• Inspired by the Sonic Generations intro where Modern Sonic is jumping over the Chopper in the Green Hill Zone
• Developed by GNF Toyz and distributed by First4Figures through F4F Partnerships
• A dynamic, wonderful piece for any SEGA or Sonic fan
• Each piece will be individually numbered on the bottom of the base
• About 2.5 cans tall or 28 cm tall
• $384.99 MSRP
• Should fit in any display cabinet with its compact dimensions (11″ tall; 8.5″ wide; 8″ deep)
• Expect more from GNF Toyz in the future
• Statue is larger than the usual Boom8 PVCs; very bright and beautiful
• The size of a piece is not as big of a factor in the pricing of a statue as the painting is, and this statue is super-detailed paint-wise
• F4F doesn’t set the pricing for F4F Partnerships statues–GNF Toyz priced this item themselves and it’s their first resin statue ever
• This is a very good example of how making a piece somewhat smaller doesn’t necessarily correlate to a much smaller price
• Likely to be very limited; could end up being difficult to acquire and expensive through the aftermarket
• Will have a 3-, 6- and 9-Month Flexipay payment plans available
• Q1 2019 Estimated Release Date
• NRD will be 20% on this piece, so around $80 USD
• Pre-Order Deadline will be October 19th
• There will be no validation needed for this statue
• Numbering will be first come, first serve number-wise based on F4F’s sales (those who order first will get the lowest numbers from F4F’s allotment), but First 4 Figures won’t necessarily get the lowest numbers from GNF Toyz
• No Day One bonuses for this; there have been ongoing discussions about maybe including some sort of cards with this

…And that’s all for this week! What did you think of this week’s stream, F4Fans? Are you interested in ordering the new Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Chopper statue, or is this a skip for you?