SOTA Street Fighter ToyLine Update# 12

Source: Action-Figure SOTA Forum.
Jerry Macaluso, President/Founder Of SOTA Toys wrote:


Answers

- I never announced we were doing resin SF statues.. I said I would like to and its a possibility...If we did we would be working together w Udon on them

- No pics of the 'dirty' 2 pack yet...

- U will never see two females in a SF line

- I dont know when the line will go online only but not before Round 6

- Darkstalkers will do alright..it wont do what SF did in the begining though.

- Buying the figures is all I can ask anyone to do to support the continuation of the line.. buying them before they go on clearance is good as well ;)

- You wont see final Darkstalkers for a few more months...they shold be out mid late summer

- SF 5 didnt get finished in time for Toy Fair..so no pics ..sorry

- SF 4 is on the water so they should be in stores by end of feb/early mar ( first time we've made it close to announced release date !)

- SF 6 vote..after TF

- Darkstalkers 2 vote...closer to summer

- no plans on getting EX SF characters...I hate to disappoint but its just not worth the dough

ah dont be nervous about us... truthfully SOTA is very lucky we entered the toy biz AFTER the action figure boom. Many of the current companies experienced 'printing money' from 1999-2004 and grew very quickly..so when the market tanked it hurt them much more than SOTA which just started manufacturing in 2004. We never had a chance to grow larger before the bust. We laid a few people off last summer when I saw this coming and now we are back to 4 people in the office.. same as it was when we started.

Ive seen the changing tides since last spring and we began preparations for it by obtaining a very large licence for high end collectibles which will do very well for us ( announcement soon but its not action figures). Our biggest problem has been the very 'shady' factory we were using ( which Mezco told me NOT to use..lol - so its my own fault). I cant legally go into details but lets just say they ripped us off.

We are getting the new factory up and running which is why you havent seen much from us in the way of news...it takes a while to get their quality up to the standards our fans expect from us. Towards the fall, when the factory is 100% up and running SOTA will be 'back in the game' so to speak.

I consider us very lucky as I know the serious problems many companies are currently having.

P.S. no flame but to everyone who is raggin on McFarlane for moving into Hanna Barbera, Simpsons, etc... thats what they have to do to survive..sales of the 'intense', 'graphic' stuff is in the gutter..thats why NECA is releasing 7000000 products this year.. the profit margin is so low they have to triple output to make the same money they made a year ago. As for us..I've decided to just slow down and keep it simple...I dont want to be a player in what I see to be a no-win game.

So thank you for supporting us and I apologize for the snails pace we are currently going at.

Jerry

- I dont think we'll ever see a 'jerry' head on anything..lol..lets be thankful for that.

- Guilty Gear - no plans right now.

- There are two bodies for the Dolls..'busty' and 'not so busty'. As for which body gets used for which girl..well its a bit premature so we havent had that discussion..but it will probably be Capcom making the decision

- Pricing on Dolls ,etc...havent put much thought into it yet. We will allow certain online stores to carry them in other countries IF they order them...it'll be up to them not me.

- I doubt we'll do variant colors on the dolls. And they will come with accessories

- theres a chance the 'scarring blow' 2 ack will be released but not with blood..with dirt. Capcom is adamant about them not beign bloody. Ive seen the protos..they look cool

- Demitri...Im sorry I havent taken pics yet..Im a bad bad person :(

- No plans for us to be at any cons other than SDCC , NJ Chiller and Fangocon in LA

- I prefer neither Juli or Juni...I like Noembelu cuz I dig tha latin women :)

- Gouken is always a possibility...keep your fingers crossed

- the Ryu/Sagat 2 pack should be hitting Xtreme Toys in the next week or so

- I have some ideas as to who I want to begin the online only figures with..but havent firmed it up

- Dark Sakura was supposed to have her name on it..I think the japanese version does..once again the factory screwed up and we had shipping commitments..lets all be thankful after round 4 they are history

I have to run..if I missed your q post it again...


- no plans for 18" Ryu..

- No plans for the 'old' Resident Evil series. Capcom wouldnt want anyone to do it now anyway as they are concentrating on building off of RE:4

- Kingtigre..answer to your hypothetical question.What happens if 'Dr. Strange' sits on the Walmart shelf and goes to clearance is that Walmart charges ToyBiz the difference between what they paid and what they are now selling it for. Retailers rarely take a loss..they put all the burden on the manufacturer..which is why I always find it so funny that retailers are constantly going out of business...by the way the retailers also lie a lot about how much is left. Back on Tomb Raider, Musicland called to say they had half their inventory still in the warehouse and couldnt sell it...so they wanted to charge us for it. I said I'd fly out to the warehouse and get a truck to bring it back to SOTA.. they never brought the subject up again..why? BECAUSE THEY DIDNT HAVE THEM and were just trying to extort money from us.. They're sneaky and scummy ( except for Tower Records and Hot Topic who are very honest ).

- Red Earth..not likely...Im sorry

- SF 4 is already packed and shipping from China..so we couldnt change the Akuma pack out even if I wanted to.

- I havent thought about who to lock in for SF 6 yet...but it wont be Cody or Oro. It will be the headliner and neither of them are headlining.

- I spoke with Capcom today and we might do some Street Fighter resin...thats a MIGHT...dont jump the gun and say we're doing it yet.

Black Gen update...

i dont have time to explain but Black gen doesnt exist anymore except in Japan... those suckers are goin to be worth big bucks

Factory ( one we're leaving) painted them blue...ugh

so get your Dark Sakura now cuz there aint gonna be a black Gen

Guys 'I' dont even have a black gen....and from what I hear they are all sold out in Japan so I cant get any.

No one is more PO'd than I am.

Did the factory do it on purpose because we're leaving them or are these screw ups why we're leaving them ? Well Its a little of both.

As is usual with these guys they lied to me..they sent me pics showing black gens and then sent blue ones..the pics must have been the japan order. They NEVER told me until we got them in the warehouse and opened a case...

I think ML are good for a mass market line...but if I were doing them I'd make your head spin :)