User:TheLastGherkin/Rodimus (DOTM)

First 4 Figures is a high-end collectible model and figurine company operating out of the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. Established as "Puzzle Productions" in 2002, the First 4 Figures brand was put on the map in 2003 when they acquired the worldwide resin statue license for what was then known as WWF. After also acquiring the license for Magic: The Gathering, a genial relationship with Hasbro enabled the smooth negotiation for the Transformers license, a childhood favourite of the company's director, Alex Davis.

First 4 Figures' Transformers merch began with high hopes, with several different lines and multiple characters on the docket for production. Davis proved communicative with the fanbase, posting polls on the company's homepage, directly emailing fan news sites himself, and even running a contest in conjunction with TFW2005.com to get a fan submission made into an actual figurine. Unfortunately, a challenging marketplace affected the company's ambitious plans, with lack of retailer interest causing pre-orders of future items to remain unfulfilled before ultimately being cancelled by 2008. All told, the vast majority of Transformers models planned by First 4 Figures remain unreleased.

Despite these setbacks and humble beginnings, First 4 Figures persisted, and now produces collectibles for the highly popular video game and anime markets, with merchandise for franchises like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, Spyro the Dragon, Metal Gear Solid, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Not bad for a company which counted the Dwayne Johnson Doom movie among its first licenses.

Merchandise

Owing to First 4 Figures' loss of the license, much of the figures below did not see release. Figures that actually were released have been rendered in bold text.

Transformers Battlefield

One shall stand, one shall not.

Announced in conjunction with their acquisition of the license in June 2005, Transformers Battlefield was an ambitious concept: each release would feature a battle scene between two "Generation 1" characters, complete with a square base designed to interlock with other bases in the same range to create a massive diorama. The statues also made use of "REPs", or "Replacement Exterior Parts", to allow buyers to minorly customise their purchases. Each release in Battlefield was to be designed by Argentinian sculptor "Mad" Alterton.

Unfortunately for a series designed around interconnectivity, only the first set, Optimus Prime vs Megatron, was released. Online retailer BigBadToyStore solicited three sets before F4F lost the license, revealing the characters intended for release in the next two.

Optimus Prime vs Megatron

Hot Rod vs Ravage & Rumble

Soundwave vs Jazz

SD Ultra Magnus

In September 2005, First 4 Figures partnered with fan site TFW2005.com to run a contest to create an original Transformers statue in the super deformed style. Artist submissions would be narrowed down to a top ten by the TFW2005 staff, before being narrowed down to a top five by forum voting, and finally a simple poll on the F4F homepage. In addition to seeing their design be turned into a figure, the grand prize winner would also get a $400 spending spree at the First 4 Figures online store, with the first and second runners up being awarded $250 and $150 credit respectively. All ten entrants would receive a poster print that collaged all ten original pieces of art (see below).

Submissions closed on October 1, and after the various rounds of voting were completed, the winner was announced on October 15: a design of Ultra Magnus by Xu Wei (a.k.a. Ironbird). The figure was limited to 500 pieces in the U.S., and 500 pieces in Europe. An even more limited version of 100 pieces, decoed in the colours of the Diaclone toy Powered Convoy, was available exclusively at the F4F online store.

Ultra Magnus

Ultra Magnus (Diaclone)

G.I. Joe vs the Transformers

First 4 Figures also held the license for G.I. Joe resin figures, and solicited a number of models based on the most recent crossover continuity between Joe and Transformers; more specifically, each statue embodied a cover from Devil's Due's G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers miniseries.

First 4 Figures also produced statues based on the Devil's Due Press G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers crossover, specifically a rendering of Storm Shadow atop the disembodied head of Optimus Prime Optimus Prime, as well as a version of Optimus Prime, depicted as a transformed HISS Tank, holding a battle-ready Snake Eyes. Other proposed cross-over statues, including a sculpted Baroness and Ravage, were later cancelled due to poor retail interest.

Optimus Prime vs Storm Shadow

Optimus Prime and Snake Eyes

Baroness and Ravage

The unreleased statues, save Baroness & Ravage, were reportedly cancelled by mid 2008 (give or take a journalistic error), but even that holdout wound up cancelled in early 2009. [2][3]

"Generation One" series

A challenging retail market place affected other ambitious plans for the company, including a series of Beast Wars busts, planned Battlefield extensions featuring Soundwave versus Jazz and Hot Rod versus Ravage and Rumble, and Generation One statues including Scourge, Jetfire and Swoop. Although images of a number of prototypes (including Scourge, busts of Optimus Primal and Waspinator, and the Baroness/Ravage combo) were prepared and shared on the internet and at various presentations, subsequent orders were unfulfilled until being ultimately cancelled in 2008.

• Scourge
• Swoop
• Bludgeon
• Jetfire
• Galvatron

[4]

"Beast Wars" busts

$49.99 SRP Cheetor Dinobot Rattrap Ravage Rhinox Scorponok Terrorsaur Waspinator

$54.99 SRP Megatron Optimus Primal

$64.99 SRP Depth Charge

[5] [6] [7]

Film cells

They also produced G1 film cells for sale through their website. [8] [9]

Posters

Further in 2005, First 4 Figures partnered with fansite tfw2005.com on a contest to create a fan-designed super deformed original Transformers statue. The top ten entries were announced in October 2005, and included renderings of ultimate winner Ultra Magnus, along with Cosmos, Jazz, Shockwave, Unicron, Skybyte, Bumblebee, Grimlock, Jazz and Trypticon. All entries were later incorporated into a collage-style poster made available through the First 4 Figures website.

• 1) Xu Wei/Ironbird – Ultra Magnus
• 2) Mike Doherty – Shockwave
• 3) Derk Vrijdag/RunaR – Jazz
• 4) Herman Lau/Kywyn – Cosmos
• 5) Chad Wm. Porter/C.H.A.D. – Red Alert
• 6) Dylan Glassford/Ninjatron – Skybyte
• 7) Joshua Perez – Bumblebee
• 8) Jeff Ellis/The Madness – Trypticon
• 9) Ryan Button/Private Random – Unicron
• 10) Simon Chiddington/DeadCal - Grimlock

[10] [11] [12] [13]

Notes

• Neo-Knights [14]
• War Within [15]

References

[16]

External links

• First4Figures homepage
• Gallery of the TFW2005.com contest entries (archived)

Category:Companies