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.