I can't believe I won! Thanks RocUniverse.
Thanks for the people who voted for me, and RocU!
I never won anything in my life!!!
Rocuniverse Forums SOTA Street Fighter 3 Contest...
http://www.rocuniverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6344
Thanks!!!
Monday, November 28, 2005
Friday, November 25, 2005
SOTA Street Fighter ToyLine Update# 7
Source: Action-Figure SOTA Forum.
Jerry Macaluso, President/Founder Of SOTA Toys wrote:
- Oh a post from industrial.. you know if you spent more time working and less on the message boards you might 'one day' get to work at SOTA ;)
- Street Fighter LE World Warriors boxset.. again thoughts?
- Why doesnt Ryu look like Ryu...sigh.. you should probably ask Will that ;)
- Why did we do 2 versions of Akuma... because we could. It wasnt that difficult and I knew the fans would like it.
- I dont think we have poor distribution on Street Fighter. We're in the same stores everyone else is in. I dont sell to mass market stores like TRU or Walmart.
This is a small company and its not worth the headaches dealing with them. I have no intention of trying to make SOTA some huge toy company. I leave that to NECA and McFarlane and Mezco and SEG.. they want the big $$... As long as Im making a decent living and my employees are taken care of thats all that matters to me. You know SOTA only has 5 employees..compare that to Palisades and Mezco at 15 or so and NECA over 20, etc... you see what I mean. The stress that comes with making Millions of $$$ isnt worth it to me.
- Why are Street Fighters delayed.. everything we were doing has been delayed. I made a bad business decision about a year and a half ago. I made a deal with one factory in china to do ALL of our work in exchange for better pricing. What I learned is if ALL your products are under one roof it gives THEM ( the factory ) too much power and they start making ridiculous demands on you because they know you are stuck without them.
Over the summer I started to move projects to 2 other factories..now we have three and if one is screwing up I can threaten them to move the job to one of the others..this keeps them much more honest and will definately help in us having less delays. Charmed and Johnny Cash both came out pretty close to on time.. guess what.. those were both done at different factories who want to make us happy so we give them more work.. now the original factory seems to have cleaned up its act and is acting ethical again to keep at least SOME of our work with them.
Thats probably way more of the internal workings of the toy biz than anyone ever wanted to know.
Happy Turkey day to those in the USA !
Jerry Macaluso, President/Founder Of SOTA Toys wrote:
- Oh a post from industrial.. you know if you spent more time working and less on the message boards you might 'one day' get to work at SOTA ;)
- Street Fighter LE World Warriors boxset.. again thoughts?
- Why doesnt Ryu look like Ryu...sigh.. you should probably ask Will that ;)
- Why did we do 2 versions of Akuma... because we could. It wasnt that difficult and I knew the fans would like it.
- I dont think we have poor distribution on Street Fighter. We're in the same stores everyone else is in. I dont sell to mass market stores like TRU or Walmart.
This is a small company and its not worth the headaches dealing with them. I have no intention of trying to make SOTA some huge toy company. I leave that to NECA and McFarlane and Mezco and SEG.. they want the big $$... As long as Im making a decent living and my employees are taken care of thats all that matters to me. You know SOTA only has 5 employees..compare that to Palisades and Mezco at 15 or so and NECA over 20, etc... you see what I mean. The stress that comes with making Millions of $$$ isnt worth it to me.
- Why are Street Fighters delayed.. everything we were doing has been delayed. I made a bad business decision about a year and a half ago. I made a deal with one factory in china to do ALL of our work in exchange for better pricing. What I learned is if ALL your products are under one roof it gives THEM ( the factory ) too much power and they start making ridiculous demands on you because they know you are stuck without them.
Over the summer I started to move projects to 2 other factories..now we have three and if one is screwing up I can threaten them to move the job to one of the others..this keeps them much more honest and will definately help in us having less delays. Charmed and Johnny Cash both came out pretty close to on time.. guess what.. those were both done at different factories who want to make us happy so we give them more work.. now the original factory seems to have cleaned up its act and is acting ethical again to keep at least SOME of our work with them.
Thats probably way more of the internal workings of the toy biz than anyone ever wanted to know.
Happy Turkey day to those in the USA !
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
SOTA Street Fighter Round 5 Update, Plus More...
Source: Action-Figure SOTA Forum.
Jerry Macaluso, President/Founder Of SOTA Toys wrote:
We wont be changing Round 5 lineup.. though we have finally seen the 'tappering off' of sales that I knew was inevitable... by Round 5I predict we are selling half of what we did on Round 2.
Its just the inevitable outcome of the most popular characters already being used.Having said that the line will continue..its just not going to be a huge success anymore.. just another line that does alright.
I think we can all feel safe that as long as the diehard SF fans keep buying the lines they can continue until we finish all characters.
Jerry Macaluso, President/Founder Of SOTA Toys wrote:
We wont be changing Round 5 lineup.. though we have finally seen the 'tappering off' of sales that I knew was inevitable... by Round 5I predict we are selling half of what we did on Round 2.
Its just the inevitable outcome of the most popular characters already being used.Having said that the line will continue..its just not going to be a huge success anymore.. just another line that does alright.
I think we can all feel safe that as long as the diehard SF fans keep buying the lines they can continue until we finish all characters.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Capcom Classics Collection Remixed' for the PSP...
Capcom remixes retro collection for PSPOriginal Street Fighter, Strider games featured in lineup for latest edition of archival arcade anthology.
When Capcom Classics Collection came out, it compiled 22 of the company's greatest arcade hits, with a handful of glaring exceptions. With the PSP release, dubbed Capcom Classics Collection Remixed, scheduled for March of next year, the publisher is scaling back the number of games included to 20 but is including some of the games that were overlooked in the last outing.
The original Street Fighter, Strider, and 1941 highlight the additions to the collection, but they are far from the only new faces in the lineup. At least half of the games on the PSP version of the collection will be new, including Avengers, Block Block, Captain Commando, Magic Sword, Quiz and Dragons, Three Wonders, and Varth.
Capcom Classics Collection Remixed will include wireless multiplayer support, differing aspect ratios for each game to take advantage of the PSP's wide screen, downloadable music, abundant bonus materials, and customizable controls.
When Capcom Classics Collection came out, it compiled 22 of the company's greatest arcade hits, with a handful of glaring exceptions. With the PSP release, dubbed Capcom Classics Collection Remixed, scheduled for March of next year, the publisher is scaling back the number of games included to 20 but is including some of the games that were overlooked in the last outing.
The original Street Fighter, Strider, and 1941 highlight the additions to the collection, but they are far from the only new faces in the lineup. At least half of the games on the PSP version of the collection will be new, including Avengers, Block Block, Captain Commando, Magic Sword, Quiz and Dragons, Three Wonders, and Varth.
Capcom Classics Collection Remixed will include wireless multiplayer support, differing aspect ratios for each game to take advantage of the PSP's wide screen, downloadable music, abundant bonus materials, and customizable controls.
SOTA Street Fighter ToyLine Update# 6
Source: Action-Figure SOTA Forum.
Jerry Macaluso, President/founder Of SOTA Toys wrote:
Hey Everyone...
Sorry I havent been around.. been laid up in the hospital. Seems i had some condition that was making it hard to breathe ( no fun ) so they had to cut away a bunch of tissue from the back of my throat and make the holes in my nose larger so I could breathe easier. First 4 days were the most painful of my life but I was on so much pain meds i barely remember it. Just got to go home yesterday and Im feeling a little better so thought I'd check in.
- As for European SF variants..I try not to look at our variants on a per country basis. We offer all variants to all countries to make sure all fans have a chance of getting them. Problem is not all countries take them. Example USA guile.. we did ask some people in Europe but they didnt want them.
- We wont be offering either Ryu/Sagat 2 pack on our site. Both ToyFare and Xtreme have told me they will ship international orders therefore there seems to be no problem with everyone getting a set. yes I know the shipping is a killer but not much i can do about that. Let me explain a problem with shipping international.
The only affordable way to ship outside the usa is the postal service. Problem with them is they dont guarantee anything and their so-called insurance is bogus.. So we have found ourselves many times shipping multiple sets of figures to foriegn customers because they 'claim' they never got them. And truthfully they probably didnt but it was costing us a small fortune. But we have no way of tracking the shipment through the post office.. this is why almost everyone uses a more expensive service. because we can see if the product actually arrived or not.
- Soul Caliber - no hope.. Im not very happy with the way i was treated by Namco.
- SF round 4 is supposed to start shipping middle of january 06. Asia will get them first. Someone brought them from my office today so I could look them over.
- How do we assign online exclusive retailers? Starting with Round 3 we didnt have anyone as exclusive. All the variants were available at all the online retailers. EXCEPT Brown Guile. But that was a mistake. See we had someone working here who shall we say ' had their own outside interests at hand' and made a deal I didnt know about. Thankfully that person is no longer with us and has joined a company that deserves each other. So Round 4 will not have anyone as online exclusive.
- Megaman Jazwares.. I think they do a pretty good job for mass market. I think a higher end version would be cool as well but Im probably not going to do it though Ive been asked.
- CS Charlie and Fallen vega..hmmm..no ones ever asked for them before that I can recall so it doesnt seem a lot of people who want them.
- Accessory packs got put on hold ..just too much to do. I should ask Will if he can sculpt some between SF round 6/Darkstalkers round 2 and everything esle the poor guy is doing
Jerry Macaluso, President/founder Of SOTA Toys wrote:
Hey Everyone...
Sorry I havent been around.. been laid up in the hospital. Seems i had some condition that was making it hard to breathe ( no fun ) so they had to cut away a bunch of tissue from the back of my throat and make the holes in my nose larger so I could breathe easier. First 4 days were the most painful of my life but I was on so much pain meds i barely remember it. Just got to go home yesterday and Im feeling a little better so thought I'd check in.
- As for European SF variants..I try not to look at our variants on a per country basis. We offer all variants to all countries to make sure all fans have a chance of getting them. Problem is not all countries take them. Example USA guile.. we did ask some people in Europe but they didnt want them.
- We wont be offering either Ryu/Sagat 2 pack on our site. Both ToyFare and Xtreme have told me they will ship international orders therefore there seems to be no problem with everyone getting a set. yes I know the shipping is a killer but not much i can do about that. Let me explain a problem with shipping international.
The only affordable way to ship outside the usa is the postal service. Problem with them is they dont guarantee anything and their so-called insurance is bogus.. So we have found ourselves many times shipping multiple sets of figures to foriegn customers because they 'claim' they never got them. And truthfully they probably didnt but it was costing us a small fortune. But we have no way of tracking the shipment through the post office.. this is why almost everyone uses a more expensive service. because we can see if the product actually arrived or not.
- Soul Caliber - no hope.. Im not very happy with the way i was treated by Namco.
- SF round 4 is supposed to start shipping middle of january 06. Asia will get them first. Someone brought them from my office today so I could look them over.
- How do we assign online exclusive retailers? Starting with Round 3 we didnt have anyone as exclusive. All the variants were available at all the online retailers. EXCEPT Brown Guile. But that was a mistake. See we had someone working here who shall we say ' had their own outside interests at hand' and made a deal I didnt know about. Thankfully that person is no longer with us and has joined a company that deserves each other. So Round 4 will not have anyone as online exclusive.
- Megaman Jazwares.. I think they do a pretty good job for mass market. I think a higher end version would be cool as well but Im probably not going to do it though Ive been asked.
- CS Charlie and Fallen vega..hmmm..no ones ever asked for them before that I can recall so it doesnt seem a lot of people who want them.
- Accessory packs got put on hold ..just too much to do. I should ask Will if he can sculpt some between SF round 6/Darkstalkers round 2 and everything esle the poor guy is doing
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Set for North America...
Source: IGN
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max, a "direct conversion" of the Street Fighter Alpha 3 arcade game. The PSP version is known as Street Fighter Alpha 3: Double Upper in Japan.
Along with the original game content, Alpha 3 Max includes Wi-Fi multiplayer functionality and new game modes including Variable Battle Mode, for real-time tag-team fighting. Yun, Maki and Eagle from Capcom vs. SNK 2, as well as Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution join the game's original 30 fighters.Street Fighter Alpha Max 3 is currently scheduled for release in February 2006. Look for plenty more on the title as news comes in.
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max, a "direct conversion" of the Street Fighter Alpha 3 arcade game. The PSP version is known as Street Fighter Alpha 3: Double Upper in Japan.
Along with the original game content, Alpha 3 Max includes Wi-Fi multiplayer functionality and new game modes including Variable Battle Mode, for real-time tag-team fighting. Yun, Maki and Eagle from Capcom vs. SNK 2, as well as Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution join the game's original 30 fighters.Street Fighter Alpha Max 3 is currently scheduled for release in February 2006. Look for plenty more on the title as news comes in.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Official Street Fighter Website launched By Capcom..
Finally Capcom gives SF its due. I hope this over due kind gesture from Capcom, toward their biggest franchise' means more things to come for Street Fighter, like SF4, dammnit!
Here:
Street Fighter Official Website
Here:
Street Fighter Official Website
Monday, November 14, 2005
More on Ryu & Sagat 2pack by Sota Toys...
Source: Action-Figure SOTA Forum.
The bloody 2 pack was ToyFares pitch to us...we accepted. They insisted they get worldwide...we can use the promotion so we accepted. This IS a business.
We then thought..well since we are pulling out the old molds why not give the people who never got the original Ryu and Sagat a chance at getting those as well.
So thats what Xtreme will have.. the original versions in a 2 pack. The 2 pack aspect will make sure those MOC collectors retain the value of their original Round 1 single packs but out of the package the figures will be exactly the same.
By the way I believe there are only 3000 Xtreme 2 packs and 1500 ToyFare 2 packs...
Now ..why arent they available outside the USA? Simple economics.. Xtreme said they would take 3000 if we gave them an exclusive. So we went to the rest of the distributors to see if we could sell more by opening them up to everyone. Turns out we couldnt.. we sell more by just giving Xtreme 3000 than if we simply took orders from everyone else.
So if you're pissed you cant get these locally dont complain to me.. complain to your local distributor who doesnt want to order enough to make it worthwhile to us.
We also will not have either of these available on our website.
As for resculpts... too expensive for very limited releases.
Anyway.. I think the scarring blow 2 pack is very cool..the pic is also slightly inaccurate.. there were some color changes made after those were shot.
The bloody 2 pack was ToyFares pitch to us...we accepted. They insisted they get worldwide...we can use the promotion so we accepted. This IS a business.
We then thought..well since we are pulling out the old molds why not give the people who never got the original Ryu and Sagat a chance at getting those as well.
So thats what Xtreme will have.. the original versions in a 2 pack. The 2 pack aspect will make sure those MOC collectors retain the value of their original Round 1 single packs but out of the package the figures will be exactly the same.
By the way I believe there are only 3000 Xtreme 2 packs and 1500 ToyFare 2 packs...
Now ..why arent they available outside the USA? Simple economics.. Xtreme said they would take 3000 if we gave them an exclusive. So we went to the rest of the distributors to see if we could sell more by opening them up to everyone. Turns out we couldnt.. we sell more by just giving Xtreme 3000 than if we simply took orders from everyone else.
So if you're pissed you cant get these locally dont complain to me.. complain to your local distributor who doesnt want to order enough to make it worthwhile to us.
We also will not have either of these available on our website.
As for resculpts... too expensive for very limited releases.
Anyway.. I think the scarring blow 2 pack is very cool..the pic is also slightly inaccurate.. there were some color changes made after those were shot.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Update on the "Street Fighter "Scarring Blow" Ryu & Sagat 2-Pack"
Source: Wizard Universe Store ToyFare Exclusives
Toyfair exclusive "Street Fighter "Scarring Blow" Ryu & Sagat 2-Pack"
We are unable to guarantee the availability of limited edition Advance Order items. In rare circumstances the supplier may not deliver a full order to us.Advance Order dates are subject to change without notice. However, in most cases your Advance Order will ship on the scheduled release date to the commercial marketplace.
Item is due to ship by Late March, 2006. $24.99
Toyfair exclusive "Street Fighter "Scarring Blow" Ryu & Sagat 2-Pack"
We are unable to guarantee the availability of limited edition Advance Order items. In rare circumstances the supplier may not deliver a full order to us.Advance Order dates are subject to change without notice. However, in most cases your Advance Order will ship on the scheduled release date to the commercial marketplace.
Item is due to ship by Late March, 2006. $24.99
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Street Fighter "Scarring Blow" Ryu & Sagat 2-Pack, Sneak peak...
Should be out sometime in December...
Saturday, November 05, 2005
SOTA Street Fighter ToyLine Update# 5
Source: Action-Figure SOTA Forum.
Jerry Macaluso, President/founder Of SOTA Toys wrote:
Been awhile since Ive answered questions and I find myself with some time so here I go!
- Round 4 are finals though you guys havent seen them yet as we did revise some stuff. The wrinkles in Ibukis knees are to try and hide a very large double knee joint.
- We will do 2-3 color variants on J&J ..the Dolls wont come out until SDCC
- Round 5 release is not going to be April..More like May/June
- Ive been a Vampire Hunter D fan since High School. But I dont think we'll do toys. In general I dont think we'll do a lot of japanese properties. Its kind of difficult.
- Sagat/Ryu 2 pack should be out in jan/Feb .. there are two different versions of the 2 pack. One is exclusive to ToyFare magazine and one is exclusive to Xtreme Toys.
- Voting for Round 6 ... Round 6 is scheduled for October and we've been really busy so I probably wont do the vote until begining of the year
- Dark Sakura and Black Gen not arriving with the rest of the variants was a surprise...I was told they were all coming together. So we're waiting for them now and they will probably arrive a week or two before Xmas.
- Accessories for ROund 4/5 - I generally dont like to give that away until the figures are close to coming out
- Im not sure why anyone cares about how we cast/mold the accessories for the Dolls ? All the dolls will have new heads and each will have new accessories. Really thats all we need to knwo right now
- Fighting style plays some part in desiging the figures but the real issue is that I like the entire line to have a cohesive style. Im not down with the whole concept of each figure getting different styles of articulation as some other companies do. Im a fan of US action figures..its where I grew up and what I know so I keep our stuff looking like US style.
I know some people really dig what Kaiyodo does with all the crazy articulation thats 100% different from figure to figure but I dont really like it. Back to your question.. we try our best to allow the characters to get into their signature poses but sometimes its just not feasible.
Ryu and Ken dont hadouken very well because in real life there is compression in the chest. Plastic figures dont compress. Therefore we'd have to put another joint in them..but that requires them to look different than the rest which i dont like.
- We make exclusive because exclusive create 'buzz' and excitment. Some people dont like them but most do. I try to be as fair as possible and give everyone a chance at buying them which is why we put them up on our website after the cons.
- I should have actual SF 4 variant pics mid December. variants should hit in February.
- Blanka has a skull because....
- The sculpts for Round 5 are just about finished..probably wont show them until Jan though
- We will decide internally who is nominated for Round 6. You guys can suggest though
- SDCC is probably the only Con we will do
- Im supposed to be getting Demitri in from China in the next couple weeks and will take pics for you all.
- Female characters dont sell as well as male.. even popular ones like Sakura/Cammy
- Andrew isnt with us full time anymore. Andrew is a great screenwriter and hes concentrating on that right now.. Jed@sotatoys.com has taken over customer service..let me know if he does a good job !
- As far as I know Tower Records continues to support us on almost all lines
Sidenotes..
We havent been announcing much lately or 'keeping up with the joneses', i.e., NECA who seems to put out 20 figure lines a month. I was working too hard and I needed to slow down so we're being pickier about what we do. As much as I;d like to make 10 figure lines a year I just dont feel i can.
we're also getting more into high end collectible stuff. You'll hear a huge announcement soon. having said that we are not abandoning fully articulated figures but the thing is they are VERY expensive to develop/make. Its easy to churn stuff out with a few swivels and a ball joint or two ala Now Playing. But doing something like Street Fighter is intense.
Im currently looking for the perfect license for fully artic figures..something that can last 4-5 series,etc....In the mean time when micronauts comes out we will have set a new standard in the fully articulated category.
Thanks to everyone for continuing to support us..I try my best to come and post as much as possible but life gets in the way. As many of you might know we started a film company so between designng toys and coming up with stories for films I run out of time. But never think i dont appreciate your input. We're a company created by fans and its the fans who made us successful.
Talk to you soon.
Jerry Macaluso, President/founder Of SOTA Toys wrote:
Been awhile since Ive answered questions and I find myself with some time so here I go!
- Round 4 are finals though you guys havent seen them yet as we did revise some stuff. The wrinkles in Ibukis knees are to try and hide a very large double knee joint.
- We will do 2-3 color variants on J&J ..the Dolls wont come out until SDCC
- Round 5 release is not going to be April..More like May/June
- Ive been a Vampire Hunter D fan since High School. But I dont think we'll do toys. In general I dont think we'll do a lot of japanese properties. Its kind of difficult.
- Sagat/Ryu 2 pack should be out in jan/Feb .. there are two different versions of the 2 pack. One is exclusive to ToyFare magazine and one is exclusive to Xtreme Toys.
- Voting for Round 6 ... Round 6 is scheduled for October and we've been really busy so I probably wont do the vote until begining of the year
- Dark Sakura and Black Gen not arriving with the rest of the variants was a surprise...I was told they were all coming together. So we're waiting for them now and they will probably arrive a week or two before Xmas.
- Accessories for ROund 4/5 - I generally dont like to give that away until the figures are close to coming out
- Im not sure why anyone cares about how we cast/mold the accessories for the Dolls ? All the dolls will have new heads and each will have new accessories. Really thats all we need to knwo right now
- Fighting style plays some part in desiging the figures but the real issue is that I like the entire line to have a cohesive style. Im not down with the whole concept of each figure getting different styles of articulation as some other companies do. Im a fan of US action figures..its where I grew up and what I know so I keep our stuff looking like US style.
I know some people really dig what Kaiyodo does with all the crazy articulation thats 100% different from figure to figure but I dont really like it. Back to your question.. we try our best to allow the characters to get into their signature poses but sometimes its just not feasible.
Ryu and Ken dont hadouken very well because in real life there is compression in the chest. Plastic figures dont compress. Therefore we'd have to put another joint in them..but that requires them to look different than the rest which i dont like.
- We make exclusive because exclusive create 'buzz' and excitment. Some people dont like them but most do. I try to be as fair as possible and give everyone a chance at buying them which is why we put them up on our website after the cons.
- I should have actual SF 4 variant pics mid December. variants should hit in February.
- Blanka has a skull because....
- The sculpts for Round 5 are just about finished..probably wont show them until Jan though
- We will decide internally who is nominated for Round 6. You guys can suggest though
- SDCC is probably the only Con we will do
- Im supposed to be getting Demitri in from China in the next couple weeks and will take pics for you all.
- Female characters dont sell as well as male.. even popular ones like Sakura/Cammy
- Andrew isnt with us full time anymore. Andrew is a great screenwriter and hes concentrating on that right now.. Jed@sotatoys.com has taken over customer service..let me know if he does a good job !
- As far as I know Tower Records continues to support us on almost all lines
Sidenotes..
We havent been announcing much lately or 'keeping up with the joneses', i.e., NECA who seems to put out 20 figure lines a month. I was working too hard and I needed to slow down so we're being pickier about what we do. As much as I;d like to make 10 figure lines a year I just dont feel i can.
we're also getting more into high end collectible stuff. You'll hear a huge announcement soon. having said that we are not abandoning fully articulated figures but the thing is they are VERY expensive to develop/make. Its easy to churn stuff out with a few swivels and a ball joint or two ala Now Playing. But doing something like Street Fighter is intense.
Im currently looking for the perfect license for fully artic figures..something that can last 4-5 series,etc....In the mean time when micronauts comes out we will have set a new standard in the fully articulated category.
Thanks to everyone for continuing to support us..I try my best to come and post as much as possible but life gets in the way. As many of you might know we started a film company so between designng toys and coming up with stories for films I run out of time. But never think i dont appreciate your input. We're a company created by fans and its the fans who made us successful.
Talk to you soon.
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