REMINDERS

• Guts: The Black Swordsman is still open for pre-orders until either 20 April 2018 or longer if the 1,000 Exclusive pieces sold threshold isn't met by then.
• Crash Bandicoot™ (Resin) pre-orders will re-open for Last Chance Weekend from 20-23 April 2018.
• F4F x TORCH TORCH Partnership will be launching the LIFE RING right after this live stream. For more information, kindly check out our blog post.

WEEK IN REVIEW

• Alex visited a couple of their factories this week to inspect some of their statues currently in production.
• Alex also just had a super secret meeting this week, and the ball is now in their court.
  
• The team has been discussing behind the scenes which of their statues will they be featuring in Gamescom 2018. As previously mentioned, it will only be of statues they've already shown but never been seen.
• CONFIRMED – No pre-order next week due to circumstances out of their control.
• Alex had a meeting with Animegami (a UK-based collectibles online retailer), which involved something super secret and will be revealed in MGM London.
• A lot of folks in the Club have been receiving their Majora's Mask and Silver the Hedgehog statues, with a few Katamari Damacy and Sonic the Hedgehog Boom8 Series pieces popping up here and there. Overall, the majority are satisfied with what they've received.
• Alex has also been scheduling his licensor meetings for the Las Vegas Licensing Expo this May 2018. He broke down his schedule with Chocks during the stream but left out the juicy details.
• Shoutout to Alanah Pearce from IGN for unboxing First 4 Figures' Majora's Mask statue.

• Congratulations to CANDICE BAPTISTA-PICKETT for winning the Collector-Verse Award Giveaway!

PRODUCTION VIDEO EXCLUSIVES

(NOTE: You need to be a member of the Official Collectors Club to view these videos.)

• SONIC 25TH ANNIVERSARY – money shot, DDT stomping
• AMATERASU LIFE-SIZE BUST – LED improvement

FIRST 4 FIGURES' TEMPTATION THURSDAYS (TT) POLL

• Last week’s Inklings from the Splatoon series TT Poll #96 Results: 174 YES votes / 141 NO votes
• This week’s Rintarō Okabe from the Steins;Gate series TT Poll #97 Results: 68 YES votes / 58 NO votes

• Next TT polls will be (in this order): SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI ➔ ATTACK ON TITAN
• The five winners of last week’s #F4FCLANG are DAVID SAVAGE, KERRY DIABETIC, RAPHAËL SALAS, CALEB ZEUS ZIERSE and RYÛ DAN.
• This week's hashtag is #F4FSMT for a chance to win 500 reward points.
• There will be a TT poll for either Star Fox or Captain Falcon before Alex's trip to Las Vegas.

VARIOUS CHARACTER & PRODUCT LINE UPDATES

• ARTORIAS THE ABYSSWALKER SD UPDATE: Not quite where Alex wants it to be in terms of production; Alex to re-visit the factory next Tuesday
• SONIC 25TH ANNIVERSARY UPDATE: Alex has now given the thumbs up to go into the packaging stage soon.
• AMATERASU LIFE-SIZE BUST UPDATE: The LED effects of the statue has now been improved.
• BOWSER UPDATE: Flame tweaked to face slightly downwards as to not block Bowser's face; design of arms and legs is intentional to add fluidity to the pose

• ALUCARD UPDATE: Inner jacket lining added; edition size to be announced next week

• MODERN AMY ROSE UPDATE: They already have a good idea as to what the Exclusive version design will be.
• SONIC BOOM8 SERIES UPDATE: Hopefully some good news available by the end of this month
• MARIO ON YOSHI UPDATE: Pretty much approved in 3-D, which will allow them to move on to the next stage sooner rather than later; possible to go up for pre-order during Gamescom 2018 in September
• The Exclusive Bloody and Non-Bloody variants of Guts: The Black Swordsman will share the same Edition Size pool; the same goes for the Regular Bloody and Non-Bloody variants.
• As mentioned in the FAQs, the 1,000 pieces sold should be of the combined total of the Exclusive Bloody and Non-Bloody variants.
• Alex is not convinced that he should continue the Katamari Damacy line.
• CONKER UPDATE: Available for pre-order roughly four months after the Banjo & Kazooie launch
• More masks from the Legend of Zelda Life-Size Replica line is on the agenda for discussion
• GUTS THE BLACK SWORDSMAN UPDATE: Sales are meeting their expectations in that it would sell better in comparison to their other anime lines, but it could do better.
• SAMUS VARIA SUIT UPDATE: Factory moved location but is pretty much done; production isn't full steam ahead since then but is getting there
• COWBOY BEBOP UPDATE: Spike pre-order first before Jet due to the revisions for Jet's head
• Alex hasn't gone through the thread containing the Guts revisions requested by the Club, but he will. For the meantime, please do check out the confirmed revisions to be made on Guts: The Black Swordsman.

• Still no information on the secret Berserk statue currently in development
• KAMINA UPDATE: Submitted to Mrs. Kanako Davis for inspection before actual submission to the licensor
• MIMIC UPDATE: Estimated to go live for pre-order somewhere between June and July 2018
• DRACULA UPDATE: Head still needs to be finalized; they have great things planned but still needs to be conceptualized
• F4F's Pre-Order Calendar is completely wrong and will be updated accordingly.
• JIN KAZAMA UPDATE: Production is wrapping up.
• MUGEN UPDATE: Estimated to be shipped in 3-4 weeks' time
• SOLID SNAKE UPDATE: Production will begin once Mugen starts wrapping up
• TRUE FORM MIDNA UPDATE: If everything goes according to plan, estimated to go live for pre-order Q2 2018. Currently, there are just some minor revisions that need to be done.
• CHIBITERASU UPDATE: Alex has considered a group piece with the children from Ōkamiden; still needs to be revisited.
• MORRIGAN AENSLAND UPDATE: Will be 1/4^th scale
• PHOENIX WRIGHT UPDATE: Already supposed to be done; will be followed up on
• RIDER LINK UPDATE: To be 3-D printed next week; the horse will be bigger and more detailed than the horse on their Link on Epona statue, but the Link characters on both statues will be the same size; estimated to be around USD 600-700 at the top of Alex's head and should go live for pre-order in 2018
• LEGEND OF ZELDA UPDATE: Looking like True Form Midna pre-orders first before Sheikah Slate; too early to be discussing what the next statue will be after Rider Link or what the future of the line entails
• They have been working on other SD figures apart from Solaire of Astora SD.
• Crystal Dragon and Banjo & Kazooie pre-orders are pretty close to one another but not back-to-back.
• AIKA UPDATE: Alex will see if there's anything he can do with his plans this week.
• MODERN METAL SONIC UPDATE: First concept scrapped
• Other characters from Berserk are possible in the future, and it isn't a guarantee that all Regular versions of this line will have a black base.
• BAYONETTA UPDATE: Alex doesn't know if this will go up for pre-order this year. It's going to be tough.
• SHADOW FIGHTER KIRBY UPDATE: Alex has an idea in his mind and see how that goes.
• BANJO & KAZOOIE UPDATE: No plans of adding sound to the statue
• ALPHONSE UPDATE: Prototype to be sent to the licensor next week for approval; size is significantly bigger than Bowser and Majora's Mask, and so is the base; more information to come when available
• META RIDLEY UPDATE: In the painting stage
• ZERO UPDATE: Will let "other things" die down first

OTHER TOPICS

• It takes about 1-2 months after all pre-orders have been shipped before waitlists start converting.
• Chocks watched Ready Player One over the weekend and ate a beef burger in a seafood restaurant.
• It isn't likely that F4F would allow for you to pick up your statues directly from their warehouses.
• If there were an F4F Animal Crossing line, the first statue would be of Tom.
• Video game remakes are an opportunity for F4F to create more statues.
• If F4F were to create statues from a movie, it would have to be something that was a complete no-brainer, but Alex doesn't see that happening.
• Currently, F4F's website cannot properly handle multiple items under one order. They will still have to see what the best course of action is for this issue.
• Nothing to report on NieR: Automata, but it's very interesting for sure. They can try, but it's more complicated than it seems.
• F4F has some stuff coming down the pipeline that applies different statue-making techniques.
• Would you be interested in 1/1 scale Blizzard complete figures worth around USD 5,000? Let Alex know in the comments section below.
• Alex proposed something to Blizzard for Hearthstone about a year ago, and when he got denied, he stopped playing the game.
• Alex reached out again to the Darksiders licensors but hasn't received a reply.
• After the size discussion for Rider Link, Alex thinks that he may have underestimated the prices mentioned on his Darksiders poll.
• No chance for pre-orders to re-open for statues that have already passed.
• They would like to do more for all their licenses for as long as there is support for them.
• A typical contract with a licensor lasts for about 2-3 years.
• It's still complicated with the My Hero Academia license, but Alex does have a meeting with the licensors in Las Vegas during the Licensing Expo.
• Alex had a meeting with a super secret licensor during New York Comic Con 2017.
• Metal Gear Solid is the hardest license they've acquired to date.
• They are willing to do an Alucard statue from Hellsing far into the future when they're not so busy anymore with their current workload.
• Alex first started out in the industry when his cousin asked for his help to manufacture a figure since Alex was based in China. This eventually led to their first license, which was the WWE license, which then led to the Magic the Gathering license, then the Transformers license, and finally, the Nintendo licensors where everything else was history from here on out.
• F4F works on more resin statues rather than PVC figures because as a small company, it would be easier to absorb a loss from a resin project rather than a PVC project since the capital needed for the latter is significantly more than for the prior.
• The first statues that Alex was directing were from the WWE, Magic the Gathering, and Tails of Midnight.
• The cardholders are all part of a master plan.
• Nothing to report on the Persona 5 license
• Chocks likes the Japanese-version Godzillas, but not as much as his love for monkeys.
• There is no timezone sheet for the admins of the Official Collectors Club since this is something they only do on the side during their free time.
• They paint translucent resin with colored translucent paint.
• No plans of selling Day One Edition Signature Cards
• Alex will be trying a time-based feeding frenzy instead of a fixed-number feeding frenzy after the stream and see how that goes.
• Alex and Chocks love Dead Space. Alex would love to make statues for this, but it's more complicated than people think behind the scenes.
• F4F was denied the JoJo license back in the day and would like to establish their anime lines first before trying again.
• No plans of revisiting the WWE license
• Alex will be getting all four versions of their Guts: The Black Swordsman statue.
• Unsure how many of the 2,600 Edition Size for Majora's Mask was actually made
• Alex drinks Oolong Tea during the Friday Q&A live streams.
• WHO DAT WHO DAT: The answer was Donald Trump. The winners were MARC-ANDRÉ DUCHARME (lost) and JR GUZMAN (lost).

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.

If you wish to watch the entire video: