What SWAMP said rings a bell, I'm sure P4 geometry rsr files are implicated in this.

I used to get this problem in p4. If I remember correctly it happened when a character used 'geomCustom' (geometry stored internally in the cr2), eg when new groupes were created in the figures head. If this is the same problem, try closiong P4, deleting the relivant geometry rsr files, then loading the character with the 'geomCustom' only after all the other characters have been loaded.

I doubt that a NULL Figure would help, but it might be worth a try if nothing else works.