First 4 Figures

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.^[1] 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.^[2]

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.^[3] 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.^[4] 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

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.^[2][5]

Unfortunately for a series designed around interconnectivity, only the first set, Optimus Prime vs Megatron,^[6] was released. Online retailer BigBadToyStore solicited three sets before F4F lost the license, revealing the characters intended for release in the next two.^[7]

Optimus Prime vs Megatron

Hot Rod vs Ravage & Rumble

Soundwave vs Jazz

The Optimus Prime vs Megatron set also featured an A4-size mini-poster depicting the fight scene by artist Little IroN, who also implied involvement in further releases.^[8] The mini-poster was made available separately as a digital print (see below).

A digital sculpt of a fourth Battlefield release was shown to the ASM website crew at New York Toy Fair in 2006, depicting Beast Wars Megatron impaling Rhinox through the chest with his T. rex hand,^[9] designed by Palisades alumn Jeffry Englert (alias Trion Studios).^[10]

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).^[3][11][12]

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).^[13] The figure was limited to 500 pieces in the U.S., and 500 pieces in Europe.^[14] 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.^[15]

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. The subline was announced at the UK Toy Fair in January 2006, with the Optimus/Snake-Eyes and Baroness/Ravage sets on display alongside two of the Beast Wars busts (below)^[16] before seeing a second showing at New York Toy Fair in February 2006.^[17] The Storm Shadow statue was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con five months later.^[18]

Despite the former two being revealed and listed first,^[7][19][20] Storm Shadow was the earliest to be released.

Optimus Prime and Snake Eyes

Baroness and Ravage

Optimus Prime vs Storm Shadow

In fact, Storm Shadow was the only one released. After a series of delays, F4F's Transformers outputs were reportedly cancelled by mid 2008, save the Baroness and Ravage set^[4] (give or take a journalistic error^[21]), but even that holdout wound up cancelled in early 2009.^[22]

Beast Wars busts

Also on display at both Toy Fairs^[16][17] were the first of a series of Beast Wars mini busts in the form of Optimus Primal and Dinobot. The Beast Wars range was intended to celebrate the franchise's tenth anniversary with a series of busts accurate to the original animated series (though the Primal bust's product listing also noted an influence from Dreamwave Productions^[23]) and, in a cute nod, each was to be limited to 1,996 pieces.^[9]

ASM reported on seeing digital mock-ups of Depth Charge, Megatron, Rattrap, Ravage, Scorponok, and Waspinator at New York Toy Fair,^[9] with a rounded out line-up including Cheetor, Rhinox, and Terrorsaur revealed by a later BigBadToyStore newsletter^[24] and corresponding product listings.^[25] Optimus Primal and Dinobot were the closest to being released, receiving finalised product images (seen at right). Waspinator and Rattrap were also far along in development, with the former's digital render being made public,^[26] and both putting in appearances at San Diego Comic-Con 2006 in unpainted prototype form.^[18]

We've elected to list these busts by their suggested retail price as seen on BigBadToyStore, as it likely reflects the range's stated dedication to show scale – after all, Depth Charge is real tall.

$49.99 SRP Cheetor Dinobot Rattrap Ravage Rhinox Scorponok Terrorsaur Waspinator

$54.99 SRP Megatron Optimus Primal

$64.99 SRP Depth Charge

So for now, let the battle be here, on this strange primitive world. And let it be called... Bust Wars!

"Generation One" series

First heard of in the same BigBadToyStore newsletter, the "Generation One" series of statues sought to bring classic characters into the 21st century with a more realistic aesthetic.^[24] Despite being solicited for sale,^[7] this range of statues was another casualty of the license's discontinuation; only Scourge has ever been seen publicly, in the form of a 3D render^[27] and as an unpainted prototype seen both online^[28] and at SDCC.^[18] Digital mock-ups of the other four releases were shown to the toy press at Toy Fair 2006.^[9]

Bludgeon

Galvatron

Jetfire

Scourge

Swoop

Film cells

First 4 Figures also sold film cells from the original Transformers cartoon, in conjunction with memorabilia company Rye By Post.^[29] Cells were available as "standards", "doubles", and "trios".^[30]

If you build it, they will play. This toys & merchandise-related article is a stub. You can help Transformers Wiki by expanding it.

Posters

The mini-poster included with Battlefield Optimus Prime vs Megatron, depicting the same fight scene as drawn by Little IroN, was also sold as an A2 poster, limited to 2,500 worldwide. Corresponding posters were intended to be released for further Battlefield sets.^[31][32]

Another poster was produced as part of the contest that resulted in SD Ultra Magnus, featuring the winning design by Xu Wei flanked by the runners-up in the top ten (from second to tenth place): Shockwave by Mike Doherty, Jazz by Derk Vrijdag/RunaR, Cosmos by Herman Lau/Kywyn, Red Alert by Chad Wm. Porter/C.H.A.D., Sky-Byte by Dylan Glassford/Ninjatron, Bumblebee by Joshua Perez, Trypticon by Jeff Ellis/The Madness, Unicron by Ryan Button/Private Random, and Grimlock by Simon Chiddington/DeadCal. Each of the ten entrants received a copy as their prize. The posters measured 20 by 16 inches, and 500 prints were available for purchase on the F4F store.^[33][34]

Notes

• First 4 Figures was no stranger to courting fan feedback, posting polls on their website gauging interest in statues and busts based on The War Within^[35] and the Neo-Knights(!)^[36]
• The company also had TFW2005.com hold a discussion thread about the desire for a Transformers-themed chess set, which they monitored for product viability.^[37]
• Other entrants in the SD contest that had done or went on to do official work for Transformers include Josh Burcham, Richard Chang, Jeffry Englert, Evan Gauntt, Eric Schwartz, and Andrew Scribner.

References

External links

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