REMINDERS

• Artorias the Abysswalker SD (Exclusive) pre-orders are still open until 2 March 2018 and will return for its Last Chance Weekend from 16-19 March 2018.
• Don’t forget that the Last Chance Weekend for Solid Snake will go live after this stream and will end on 27 February 2018, 1:00 AM HKT.

WEEK IN REVIEW

• It’s still relatively a quiet week in F4F Land due to Chinese New Year. They anticipate for things to begin picking up speed around the first week of March 2018.
• There won’t be any updates with regards to production until after Chinese New Year.
• Artorias the Abysswalker SD sales are going nicely.
• The validation process for Artorias the Abysswalker SD (Exclusive) was relatively smooth. F4F’s IT team is looking into why certain IP addresses were blocked during the validation. The IT team is quite certain, however, that it doesn’t have anything to do with F4F’s system. Additional information will follow when available.
• Because of the downtime on the production side of things, Alex was able to focus and work on concepts and designs for their secret projects. There will hopefully be more sneaks in the near future because of this.
• Alex and Chocks had a breakthrough today with the F4F cardholders that could potentially make these unique to F4F.

FIRST 4 FIGURES' TEMPTATION THURSDAYS (TT) POLL

• Last week’s general range of aircraft from the Ace Combat series TT Poll #89 Results: 33 YES votes / 294 NO votes.
• This week’s Senua from the Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice series TT Poll #90 Results: 95 YES votes / 158 NO votes.

• The four winners of last week’s #F4FHELLB are MATTHEW NAGEL, JUSTIN SLICE, DEVON WENNSTROM, and KARL KNOWLES.
• Next TT polls will be (in this order): TOMBA ➔ NIER: AUTOMATA ➔ KILLER INSTINCT'S FULGORE
• This week’s hashtag is #F4FGL.
• Temptation Thursdays exist for Alex and Chockles to understand what the F4F community is into in general.
• And, on that note, Alex and Chockles just demonstrated how well they know their customer base by listing which lines each member (present during the live stream) is interested in, and they were on point.
• A To the Moon TT poll is possible, although Alex thinks it isn’t going to do too well.
• Starfox is on the list of TT polls.

VARIOUS CHARACTER & PRODUCT LINE UPDATES

• Authenticity card for Artorias the Abysswalker SD will contain the F4F SD logo.
• It is still a work in progress but Alex is leaning towards naming their “normal” PVC line (i.e. Crash Bandicoot PVC, Breath of the Wild Link PVC, etc.) True Form (TF).
• Alex hinted at potential plans for F4F’s PVC line, hence the need to name their PVC lines.
• Alex really wants the SD line to work because it could be distinctive to First 4 Figures.
• They’ll need to pump out more SD figures first before talking to Nintendo about a Legend of Zelda SD line because they will need the data to back up their proposal.
• F4F will attempt to launch 2-3 more SD PVC lines and 1-2 more “normal” PVC lines this year.
• Mugen Editions Size: 300 pieces for the Exclusive version; 275 pieces for the Regular version
• MUGEN UPDATE: His sword and sheath have been corrected for better accuracy.

• JIN (SAMURAI CHAMPLOO) UPDATE: With the expectation that it won’t sell as much as Mugen, they will need to come up with other options to increase sales so that making Jin will be worth their while. Alex is thinking of either a Combo Pack or a second torso for the Exclusive version. What do you guys think? Let him know in the comments section below.
• It’s a bit more difficult to think of a Combo Pack for Fuu (Samurai Champloo).
• NEO CORTEX UPDATE: Alex just finished working on the shape, proportions, pose, etc., and it’s looking tight.
• AMATERASU PVC UPDATE: Coming late this year
• SONIC BOOM8 SERIES 2 UPDATE: More news to come after Chinese New Year
• ALUCARD UPDATE: CONFIRMED – If everything goes smoothly, Alucard will go live for pre-orders next Friday!
• Would you guys like to see Alex’s very first #F4Funday suggestion become a reality? Let him know in the comments section below.

• SHOVEL KNIGHT UPDATE: There will be a Player 2 Green variant and a Red variant for pre-order in the future.
• FAYE VALENTINE UPDATE: The community has spoken and it seems like option E is the clear winner. Alex will refine and come up with more variations of option E and see where things lead from there.

• PHOENIX WRIGHT UPDATE: They will be reworking him on 3 March 2018.
• DARK SOULS SD UPDATE: CONFIRMED – If you purchased an Artorias the Abysswalker SD figure, you will find out who the third Dark Souls SD figure will be because it is revealed on the leaflet.
• Majora’s Mask behind-the-scenes production video will be available in the next couple weeks.
• META RIDLEY UPDATE: Looking very tight; could possibly go up for pre-order this year
• Dragon Slayer Ornstein (Exclusive) Edition Size: 1,300 pieces – Thank you so much for your continued support, F4Fam!
• DARK SOULS UPDATE: It sounded like the next resin statue up for pre-order will be Mimic. Alex wants to do all the Dark Souls characters if there’s enough support but doesn’t want to talk about any plans too far into the future.
• SOLAIRE OF ASTORA SD UPDATE: Pre-orders could possibly go live around the same time Dark Souls: Remastered launches as well.
• SOLAIRE OF ASTORA UPDATE: Could possibly ship out the same time as Artorias the Abysswalker SD, which is around the end of May 2018.
• F4F just recently renewed their contract with the Dark Souls licensors.
• F4F is currently developing their plush lines.
• CRASH BANDICOOT (RESIN) UPDATE: If everything goes smoothly, this will go up for pre-order sooner rather than later.
• KAMINA UPDATE: Just a few more changes to be made, but he’s almost done and is looking tighter than ever. Alex will submit him to the licensor next week.
• COWBOY BEBOP UPDATE: They will confirm with Sunrise Inc. when they can have Jet Black and Spike Spiegel up for pre-order.
• Alex is still figuring out the best price-to-sales ratio for their anime lines because F4F’s anime releases so far have been underwhelming.
• There won’t always be LED effects for the Exclusive versions, regardless of resin or PVC. It will always depend on the character they’re working on.
• GUTS UPDATE: They won’t be adding anything anymore to the Guts statue because it’s already expensive as it is. The sword will contain a metal rod inside to support the weight and they’re still not sure if the statue will be packaged in two separate boxes or not.
• No plans just yet for a Puck (from Berserk) statue
• GENOS UPDATE: Hasn’t been submitted to the licensor
• TRUE FORM MIDNA UPDATE: Has been submitted to the licensor and awaiting feedback. If you purchased AND authenticated Ganon’s Puppet Zelda from their Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess line, you will be able to secure your statue number for True Form Midna, regardless of which version you decide to purchase.
• ALPHONSE UPDATE: Alex will still have to weigh him but the Alphonse statue could potentially outweigh their Bowser statue. The plume on his head will be a separate piece because it is very thin.
• YAKUZA UPDATE: Alex hasn’t talked to Sega about this.
• METAL GEAR SOLID UPDATE: Alex is leaning towards just the old school content of the franchise.
• BANJO & KAZOOIE UPDATE: The Exclusive version is a solid, well-rounded package.
• CONFIRMED – The next new license announcement will be during the 50k Reveal.
• There will be a drop test video for Bowser.
• SHEIKAH SLATE UPDATE: With Alex to be painted again
• RIDER LINK UPDATE: 3-D renders need tweaking but almost done
• SHIRANUI UPDATE: To be submitted to the licensor
• The fourth Legend of Zelda statue currently in the works has been tweaked and resubmitted to the licensor.
• The Lazy Susan for the Amaterasu Life-Size Bust is built into the statue.
• BAYONETTA UPDATE: Fingers crossed that pre-orders will hopefully open this year. She’s a very tough one to perfect, but they’ve received the go signal to redo the physical stage. This is going to be a long journey.
• PYSCHO MANTIS UPDATE: Pre-orders should go live in about 3-4 months’ time.

OTHER TOPICS

• According to Alex, Chockles doesn’t remove his statues from the box.
• First 4 Figures has submitted the necessary forms for their attendance in Gamescom 2018. Whether or not they will be allotted space during the event is still to be confirmed, however.
• First 4 Figures’ attendance for Ani-Com 2018 in Hong Kong is pretty much set in stone. In the words of Chockles, “There’s no turning back.”
• F4F’s attendance in NYCC 2017 has left them crippled with the number of sneaks they can share because they revealed too much during the event. They won’t commit the same mistake twice for future Cons, and once Alex has enough ammo, he can continue doing his daily impossible hints again.
• Alex is still trying to figure out the best way to lower prices (Customs, shipping, etc.) for the South American region. It’s a tough one to crack.
• Alex hasn’t received a reply from the My Hero Academia licensor.
• Both Chocks and Kanako have watched and given My Hero Academia the thumbs up; Alex hasn’t watched it yet but is a conduit to what the Club wants. If they were able to secure the license, Chocks already knows which character to do a “normal” PVC of.
• The F4F warehouse in Slovakia is taking longer than expected to set up.
• F4F will eventually sell the Regular version of their PVC lines on their website.
• If it doesn’t affect F4F’s costs too much, Alex could consider adding “FRAGILE” stickers on the shipping box.
• On selling F4F display cases: “Never say never.” – ALEX DAVIS
• Alex thinks that some statue companies overprice their merchandise.
• Bowser validation snafu reward points compensation will be added to your accounts once you’ve completed your payments.
• When sending their very first e-mail to a potential licensor, they include a PDF presentation that basically explains who First 4 Figures is and what they’ve achieved so far, and which license they’d hope to acquire and for how much. This will then lead to a back and forth exchange from here on out. Recently, however, they’ve been fortunate enough to receive recommendations from their trusted clients.
• F4F will eventually work on giving away reward points during their members’ birthday.
• If there is a franchise with countless character options, Alex normally runs a poll in the Official Collectors Club to decide which ones to go for first.
• No one has really been rallying for scenery statues so Alex hasn’t considered making any.
• Chocks thinks that Alex has a great memory. (I personally second this. Every time I watch their Friday Q&A, Alex always has his moments and it just makes me wonder how on earth did he remember such a thing from way back when.)
• Alex’s top 3 Legend of Zelda video games are Twilight Princess, The Wind Waker, and Breath of the Wild; Chocks’ can only give two – A Link to the Past and The Wind Waker – for now because he hasn’t played Breath of the Wild yet because he hasn’t unboxed his Nintendo Switch, which he purchased last March 2017.
• “Any news on Persona? What’s that?” – ALEX DAVIS; no updates to confirm but it is becoming more and more interesting
• If they had the Persona 5 license, they could add an additional bruised face head sculpt for Joker in his high school uniform.
• The Day and Night Combo Pack idea for the Persona 5 license will be a great way to deal with the license if they were fortunate enough to secure it.
• During Alex’s last trip to Las Vegas, he brought back a blue journal for Chocks. Chocks doesn’t want to use it because it’s too nice to use.
• Alex doesn’t write the statue numbers at the bottom of the base, someone else does.
• When filming the “Making of” documentary, Alex chooses and arranges the questions submitted in the Club beforehand but answers them all on the spot.
• They could potentially do more dioramas in the future once they’ve released more 1/6-scale lines that have more diorama feelings to them.
• Alex will have the Aku Aku statues lined up facing each other and will run across to set them all off.
• Alex doesn’t like that Chocks dissed his SD concept today; Chocks doesn’t like everything about Alex.
• If F4F were to create an SD PVC statue of Alex and Chocks, the Exclusive version would have switch-out parts of their more iconic poses.
• The only thing stopping Alex from pursuing the Darksiders license is the fact that the consensus is split. The TT poll did well but if only half made a purchase because the other half didn’t get what they wanted, then that would be a problem.
• F4F does not benefit more from the Exclusive version purchases over the Regular version purchases – they’re the same.
• Harvey (Alex’s son) has been improving his video game skills because of the Kirby game for the Wii U.
• Alex apparently schooled Chocks in Doom. Chocks thinks it doesn’t count because it was his first time playing that version of Doom, while Alex has already spent hours playing it.
• There’s normally a 5-10% increase in sales during Last Chance Weekends.
• The sales for Amaterasu exceeded Alex’s expectations.
• F4F’s new IT member, Man, is still trying to understand the company and the industry as a whole.
• F4F employees receive discounts when buying F4F statues. They only have to pay for production costs.
• Nothing to report for now on the Yu-Gi-Oh! line
• They made a super sweet art print for Majora’s Mask, but it was denied by the licensor; it’s now in the Vault.
• Alex will talk to Nintendo about Luigi (i.e. Luigi’s Mansion) during the Las Vegas Licensing Expo in May 2018.
• If they had the Attack on Titan license, Alex would be more inclined to do 1/4^th scales of the human characters rather than 1/6^th.
• F4F is still very committed to the resin lines because this is their bread and butter, but they need to have more than one pillar.
• If you’re able to guess the character name for Who Dat Who Dat even before Alex shows the picture, it will still count.
• Alex is contemplating on adding another level above the 8,000-reward points level as the highest prize for their Who Dat Who Dat game. One coin, eight “hands”, for a chance to win a trip to Hong Kong so that you can visit First 4 Figures’ office and meet Alex and Chockles and the rest of the F4F team in person.
• WHO DAT WHO DAT: The answer was TRAVIS TOUCHDOWN. The winners are MICHAËL PILOTE (lost) and JOSH MIZRAHI (1,000 reward points). 

To view everyone's questions from the Q&A portion of this episode, please click HERE.

If you want to have your questions answered by our very own Chocks and Alex, simply search "Chocks and A" in the F4F Official Collectors Club Facebook group and leave your questions in the comments section of the most recent thread prior the upcoming live stream. This thread is posted every Thursday of the week.

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