Source: Action-Figure SOTA Forum.
Jerry Macaluso, President/Founder Of SOTA Toys wrote:
- Time to answer some questions...
- I plan on creating limited runs of cerrtain SF characters to only sell over the web. Its the only way we'll get through everyone.
- Is my interest in SF waning...whenever you take a hobby and turn it into business you end up seeing it in a different light. Having said that i havent rreally lost any of my passion for Street Fighter, but I dont really get to enjoy the game and or anime anymore..I cant look at it objectively anymore.
- Last figure I sculpted was Mega Darkness..I just couldnt find the time to do it anymore..things were too busy between running film comapny and running toy company. Having said that over the Xmas holiday I set up a little sculpting table in my house and started a Godzilla figure ( just for fun). The only sculpt I plan on doing this year for SOTA is the Blairmonster from The THing..stuff like Street Fighter is just too time consuming and truthfully Will and Aaron are now better at fully articulated figures than I am :)
- Ibukis new hip joint..we tried but it wasnt working.. Still fiddlin with morrigan
- Darkstalkers will be carried in most of the places Street Fighter is carried in. They just wont have as many. DS wave 1 is summer..2 will be early 07
- I just havent had any time to take pics of Demitri...hes sitting in my office.
- Akumas gi is the same as Ryu/Ken..so the ab joint moves but to reallly get use out of it you;d have to take the gi off
- Juni/Juli will have more butt than cammy..yes cammy is 'butt-lite'..when we make the Dolls they will all be in correct colors including their ties.
- Akuma is heavily packed per case..there shouldnt be any problems finding them.
- I think Akuma is too big for Third Strike Ryu.
- Will and the rest of the sculptors are swamped so in answer to 'who are the toughest critics'...it depends on the character...for Street Fighter I would say the fans. For Now Playing I would say myself...for an unannounced project we are currently doing I would say the sculptors.
- International Shipping..I have told Jed he HAS to have international shipping in palce by the time SF 4 hits...thats the best I can do.
- I havent had any SF 4 break yet.
- I believe our UK distributor ordered some of all SF 4 variants
- SF 5 looks good...its will and aaron..what do you think ? :)
- SF4 should actually be in UK around mid/late Feb
- The 'Big' unannounced license will be shown around Toy Fair..as I said its not really toy related...But it will be good for SOTA
- Why dont we try and get our hands on some Marvel licenses...you never know right? But I can tell you right now theres no way they woould ever let us do anything action figure-ish or articulated...ESPECIALLY now that Hasbro is involved.
- Contact Jed@sotatoys.com for figure replacement..there are no fees...use your best judgement to determine if the breakage was your fault or the figures fault.
- We dont have any plans to expand on the Street Fighter product line...I wanted to..I really did...but then everyone jumped on our band wagon and now theres way too much SF stuff out there. So nope.
- I believe Udon has the master resin/statue license for SF..I wish theyd make more stuff cuz I want it !
- I dont see the SOTA staff cosplaying..though we will have our Booth Babe Shadow Lady Chun Li at SDCC ! I was going to go as Akuma for Halloween but I didnt have time to sculpt the costume..'not having time' is the story of my life lately...
- We've sculpted some accessory packs...but theyre sort of on hold while we find a new factory to produce SF 5...
- I will not pick a SF round myself.
- The SF Ryu/Sagat 2 pack is an Extreme Toys exclusive..they have the right to then sell them to anyone they please including Toyfare..but I dont know the details of whats going on with that.
-Mr. Discord glad you like the rotos... we made a mistake and priced them too high..because of that they diidnt sell all that well and the stores are reluctant to take a series 2.
- SF 4 should hit International mid/late Feb and USA early/mid March
- If I didnt get to your question sorry I just ran out of time ! Have to run..
Has Sota broken the Resaurus curse?
- I think the curse was broken a while back...Even if a catastrophe occured SF 5 would still at the very least get made and thats so much further than any other company ever made it and further than anyone ever expected SOTA to make it.
As for what happens after 5 ? SOTA is ready and willing to go the distance if the fans show the support by buying enough of Round 4 and 5...
As you may have heard Musicland filed bankruptcy...its going to be harder and harder to find a 'collectors' line ( and NO Marvel Legends is NOT a collectors line ) at chain store retail. Most of this type of product is going to end up being web sold and/or comic store sold...thats the future.
SOTA is a very small company so we can weather this storm...but I feel for the companies that are bigger than us but smaller than Hasbro/Mattel etc as times are going to be very difficult for them.
I was reading Michael Crawfords assesment of the collector industry earlier and he's right on target in that its shrinking every day.
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