Last week, the newest line of First4Figures statues kicked off when the F4F Castlevania Symphony of the Night Alucard statue went up for order! First previewed at the end of 2014, Alucard is the third overall statue that First4Figures has done for Castlevania, with the first being Dracula from Legacy of Shadow, and the second Simon Belmont from the original NES game. With a development time of nearly half a decade, the F4F Making of Alucard documentary was another fascinating one! Don’t have time to watch the hour-plus video, but still want all the yummy details? I’ve got you covered…

“Why wasn’t Alucard chosen as the first overall release in the Castlevania series of statues?”

• Dracula was the first Castlevania statue that First 4 Figures produced because they had the rights to do pieces from Lords of Shadow first, then got the license for classic Castlevania later on
• Alucard has been in development for so long that Simon overtook him and went up for sale years ago, even though Alucard and Simon Belmont statues actually both went into development at the same time
• F4F wanted to release Alucard first, but it didn’t work out
• It made sense for Alucard to be the start of a new Castlevania Symphony of the Night line, since that video game is an all-time favorite of so many; characters like Trevor Belmont from other Castlevania games can still be released in the main Castlevania line
• Since Alucard is the first statue in the F4F SOTN line, low numbers will be up for grabs

“Did you decide against doing any of Alucard’s other forms and why?”

• In the video game, Alucard can turn into mist, a wolf or a bat
• First4Figures knew that they were going to be following the style of the original style–there was never any thought that Alucard would be in his wolf or bat representations because F4F was trying to focus on the artwork itself
• Depending on how sales of the Alucard statue go, perhaps there could be some companion pieces to this one such as a little wolf and/or bat on a base
• Would Castlevania collectors be up for companion piece add-ons to enhance their displays?

“How difficult was it choosing the equipment that the Alucard F4F statue would be armed with out of all of the items picked up throughout the game?”

• Ultimately, First 4 Figures chose to go for equipment that was true to the original Kojima artwork for Alucard
• F4F was also limited by the size of the base and the overall footprint of the piece when selecting what weapons Alucard would be wielding

“Would F4F consider doing statues of characters from the handheld titles?”

• First 4 Figures always wants to hear what collectors want both in the Facebook group and the Youtube comments
• F4F wants to go as deep as they can with Castlevania if the support is there to do so. If you want characters from the handheld titles, RTF (“Rally The Fans”)

“What factors made it difficult to bring to life a 2-D character as a 3-D sculpture?”

• The 2-D sprite work for Alucard doesn’t give very much fine detail that could be taken directly for the statue
• Kojima did some amazing artwork od Alucard, but with very limited angles available for reference
• Sometimes concept art doesn’t translate well to 3D form; the proportions don’t always line up exactly across the Kojima artwork
• F4F has to keep Alucard’s lovely hair spilling over the collar, but not as high up–it was really tough to get the balance right

“What was the most difficult part of staying true to the Kojima artwork while keeping the design appealing to a Western audience?”

• The original face seen on the 2014 Christmas sneak peek for Alucard was too masculine
• Konami said that the original face was way too butch and needed to be more feminine in the style of the original artwork by Kojima
• The reference material for Alucard’s face was more defined than what was available for Solid Snake
• The beauty of the F4F Official Collectors Club Facebook group is the ability to get feedback and votes from the fans throughout development, such as was the case with the evolution of Alucard’s face
• The face sculpt on Alucard is the club consensus circa 2016–the club was instrumental in bringing about the final face sculpt for this character
• Seeing Alucard’s face in person is a big difference of night and day from the New York Comic Con 2017 photos, which have camera distortion to Alucard’s face [My bad–sorry!]

“Can you talk about some of the aspects of the hyper-detailing on the First4Figures Alucard statue?”

• Alucard’s hair doesn’t all stop at once–there are layers of hair that end in difference places, creating more of a layering effect
• F4F spent tons of time messing around with the fringe of Alucard’s hair during development to get it just right
• The way that Alucard’s hair is, it flows backwards, so you can’t hide his hairline
• The hairline on Alucard is actually sculpted as part of the head–a lot of time and effort went into making sure that the skin on Alucard’s hair transitioned into the root of his hair properly; this is much harder than just sticking the hair on top, which would give Alucard “helmet hair”
• This hair design was an engineering nightmare, but F4F wanted to be true to the character’s appearance
• The scarf on Alucard has a silky, pearlescent color to it and isn’t just a plain white in order to be as true to the original artwork as possible
• In remaining authentic to the style of footwear in Symphony of the Night’s time, Alucard’s boots go a bit longer than where his feet would end–the style of shoes at the time
• Alucard has “detail for days”–it’s not just about one color or texture but many, many details
• There isn’t just one silver or gold color on Alucard’s jacket–the colors are all covered in weathering
• The NYCC 2017 prototype of Alucard was a nightmare to assemble because it broke into many pieces–this is why Chock forgot to attach Alucard’s left hand at the show
• In the revised version of the statue, the left hand is permanently affixed and gripping the cloak, so this won’t happen

“What’s with the Twilight Edition with the Red Cloak?”

• The Alucard Twilight Version statue is wearing the Twilight Cloak from the start of SOTN, from before Alucard’s powers are taken away
• This Alucard Twilight Edition statue is going to look so good next to the F4F Dracula Symphony of the Night statue, which is already far along in development and at the physical stage
• The Twilight Edition Alucard is the same as the Exclusive Version and comes with all of the same stuff–just with a different color cloak and an art print with the red cloak
• There’s no “regular edition” of Twilight Alucard–all of them will comes with the extra die-cast sword, art print and shield
• The art print will come in a cover sleeve and will match the number on the statue’s base
• The base for the SOTN Dracula statue is the same size as Alucard’s, so the two statues will fit nicely next to each other and look great together
• If you buy the Alucard Combo Pack with both the Exclusive and Twilight Editions, you can have Dracula as the Daddy in the middle with one son on each side!

“How many paint hits are there on Alucard?”

• A “paint hit” is every time that you have to get a brush or spray gun to do a motion–more paints hits are a factor in increasing the cost on a statue
• Alex hasn’t actually counted the number of paint hits on Alucard, but the answer is “a lot”
• Paint hits aren’t the primary reason that the First4Figures Alucard figure is so expensive, however–the engineering and assembly on Alucard are far more complicated than on most statues F4F produces
• The “scrappage rate” is really, really high on a statue like Alucard because of the level of difficulty of the engineering–the factory might need to make 3-4 statues in order to have one that meets quality standards, while the rest must be scrapped (discarded) without being sold
• It’s not just paint hits influencing the high price-tag–that’s the handmade nature of these products

“Why was such a plain base chosen for Alucard instead of something more dynamic?”

• When determining what kind of base to give a statue, several factors are considered, including what kind of price the market can handle and whether or not to focus more on the figure itself rather than the base
• Once Alex knew the price that this statue was going to come in at because of the complexity of Alucard’s engineering, he decided to focus on making the figure itself as beautiful as possible
• The base has a small footprint, but F4F wanted to make it count as much as it can with limited space by making it as detailed as possible without massively increasing the overall price
• The base could have been bigger–but that would have come with an even higher price-tag
• The patterns going around the base come from the official artwork and add additional gothic elements to the piece while nodding back to the art
• Alucard’s base was designed based upon market factors of three years ago–there may be more of an appetite for expensive statues with large bases now than there was when this piece was being developed
• F4F ultimately chose to focus on this beautiful, larger-than-life character of Alucard rather than his base

The Castlevania SOTN Alucard Exclusive and Twilight Version statues are now available for order, with both non-regular editions going to Wait List on March 16, 2018. The Exclusive versions come with a lot more goodies for the same price as the regular version, so if you’re thinking about snagging an Alucard, you’re going to want to lock one in before the pre-order window closes.

…And that’s a wrap! I may have missed a few minor details here or there, so if you’ve got the time to do so, I highly recommend just watching the whole video on the product pages and spending a nice hour listening to the melodic voices of Alex Davis and Chockles walking us through some of the intricacies of Alucard’s development!