SOTA Street Fighter ToyLine Update# 13

Source: Action-Figure SOTA Forum.

Jerry Macaluso, President/Founder Of SOTA Toys wrote:

Whew..never ceases to amaze me how many questions you all can come up with :shock:

- SF4 variants just happened to get finished first so instead of waiting for the regular figures to be finished we decided to ship the variants first. So ive been told they should arrive in a couple weeks.

- SF6 I know I know... we need to do the vote...alright I PROMISE it will happen next week...hows that ?

- SF5 should hit shelves Oct/Nov..the Musicland bankruptcy combined with Gamestop not carrying figures anymore caused a big problem with the SF line as they were the #2 and #3 largest retailers for us. We're still doing them but we sort of had to adjust a bunch of stuff.

- No KGB Zangief.. :roll:

- If anyone needs to exchange anything just email Jed@sotatoys.com..if you have a legitimate claim he'll hook you up

- The Shin Akumas dont say Shin Akuma :( Truthfully I never realised that would make a difference to anyone. I was very very wrong...

- The Dolls will be released same time as SF 5.. my bad saying they wouldnt

- We didnt make ANY announcements at Toy Fair even though we were going to make two..we stink :lol: we'll make them soon enough

- There was going to be two SOTA exclusives for SF4 but alas we decided to only go with one - By now you all know the Ryu/Sagat 2 pack is out and we did make a few 'dirty' versions with the Ryu translucent hand.

- Resurrecting old characters... not unless they are all new sculpts. i dont want to just re-release stuff with a few small improvements. I onyl did the Ryu/Sagat because it seems like so many people never got them.

- Darkstalkers 2...I'm going to do everything I can to try and make all the DS characters. I think the line will do well..im not really worried about it

- I dont see us ever putting two females in any single round

- No plans for Rival School..dont hate me..

- Would SOTA ever work with DC...Ive talked to them. They dont seem to want to let anyone do anythign cool except themselves.

- its possible to do a FFSW version of Guy...its not planned as of right now though... would anyone else like that?

- SF headliners... I dont think there are any more headliners left. I think now its about making a overall strong line instead of letting one or two characters carry it.

- SF accessory packs,,they WILL happen.

- I know now we havent been on the ball with a lot of things lately...the company got a lil too big for itself and I had to scale it back as its supposed to be about fun. I also run a fx company and I produce movies..I wasnt getting any sleep and was stressed out.I really needed to chill. Having said that we have two great people on staff now ( jed and Adam) who are making a lot of new things happen so I think things will pick up for us again later this year. thats all I have time for tonight....

- International shipping is not something we are very well set up for so yeah its expensive. But we thought giving you the option was better than not giving it at all. As far as i know we dont have a markup on international shipping. Post office, insurance, warehouse people, etc all cost. I dont really know the details on international shipping..you would have to email Jed@sotatoys.com for that info.

- With Musicland filing bankruptcy it causes major problems. They were about 25% of our USA sales and they are not ordering much anymore. SOTA is basically on a hiatus from starting new licenses ( other than what we've already announced)... we're going to see how it goes in the next 4 or 5 months. Then I'll start thinking about new licenses.

- Havent thought about Juni and Julis packaging poses yet..they definately wont be a two pack.

- Darkstalkers accessories..yeah those are decided..I generally dont like to show accessories unutil I have finished figures

- Ibukis hips..keep in mind when these characters were designed it wasnt to be action figures..there are inherrent problems in making them three dimensional. For me it was ultra important Ibuki had the ability to do kicks,etc..that kept us from making her costume connect around the hips. To me the play factor was more important than the look there. She does have a masked head so unclear as to what you are refering to...

- We dont design figures for other companies anymore. We feel we're slightly better than most and thats what gives us an advantage. If we give our abilities to other companies I think it hurts us. If you remember we designed most of Palisades products until a couple years ago.

- Demitri is still sitting in my office and I just keep forgetting to take pics... SF 5 you wont see until they're ready to be seen and Im going to stop guessing as to when that is

- I am a sculptor..thats how I got into the toy biz...I prefer super sculpey or pro-clay for statue style figures and castiline for fully articulated ones and WED clay for large special fx masks and such. Everything has its purpose.

- The info on the cheap cases of Chun Li's is interesting...we never made any cases like that...so yeah its probably a factory selling them without us knowing it thing. Its all too common...file it away with 'Spaderman'..lol

- There will be a locked in character in Round 6

- Violent ken...umm...no plans but since I have the kens molds it wouldnt be that hard at some point.

- Im not answering any more questions about Poison..lol

- I dont think we'll do any online only characters for SF this year..things seem to be fine the way they are.

- I wish I had the time to sculpt Oro...but I dont.

- Darkstalkers 2 is on hold until we see how well series 1 does for the simple fact that the action figure market is in the dumps and no stores want to order a 'series 2' until they see that series 1 did well.

- I image SF will come twice a year..MAYBE three times if the new factory can handle it. I have to be careful to not get into a problem like I previously did with over burdening the factory.

- I love udons SF work...I hope we do get to work together on resin stuff..I havent had a chance to discuss with Erik at Udon yet... but soon.

if I didnt get to your q please post it again... J

Update To My SF Collection!

This week I got the cancelled Ryu & Sagat Scarring Blow' 2-Pack, also High-Dream's Gouki figures last week.

Enjoy the pictures...












Thanks to my Bro for the use of his DigiCam. :)

Capcom Vs SNK 2: Series 2 Now In-Stock!

The long-awaited second series of Capcom figures from High-Dream is finally here.

Series 2 set includes: Akuma, Haomaru, Chun Li, and Mai.

CornerStoreComics have the Akuma & Haomaru variants for sale, these are limited to only 500 pieces.

Capcom profits on the rise...

Zombies and monsters mean money as publisher posts improved results for the holiday quarter.
Capcom today announced its financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2005, and the results were looking up over last year's numbers. Revenue was up almost 13 percent to 47.9 billion yen ($404 million), with net profits of 7.4 billion yen ($62 million), more than four times what the company posted for the same quarter last year.

The company cited strong sales of Resident Evil 4 on the PlayStation 2 and Monster Hunter Portable on the PSP (to be released as Monster Hunter Freedom in the US) as main drivers of its game revenue. Capcom went so far as to issue a pair of separate statements touting that it has shipped 3 million copies of its latest zombie shooter for the PS2 and GameCube and 500,000 copies of Monster Hunter Portable. While it didn't divulge any numbers, the company also said Mega Man Battle Network 6 for the Game Boy Advance was selling well.

However, the biggest impact on the company's profits over the same quarter last year was made not by game sales, but by taxes. Instead of paying out 1.7 billion yen ($14 million) in corporate, local, and enterprise taxes, as it did for the previous holiday quarter, this year the company actually added 2.1 billion yen ($17.7 million) to its bottom line in apparent tax breaks. Before taxes are figured in, the company's profits increased a more modest 66 percent from 3.2 billion yen ($27 million) to 5.3 billion yen ($44.7 million).

As for the future, Capcom reiterated its previous projections for its current fiscal year (ending March 31, 2006) but said that its numbers might be affected by "the aggressive action of foreign game manufacturers," an especially severe winter, and even the Torino Olympics. In less-than-shocking news, Capcom also said it would continue its multiplatform strategy and streamline its development efforts to offset the rising cost of making games.

By Brendan Sinclair -- GameSpot

Sotatoys.com Now Has The Option For International Orders...

Source: ToyNewsI.com

For quite a while, Sotatoys.com has only sold their exclusive and limited edition products to collectors inside the USA.

As of today, collectors from around the world are welcome to visit Sotatoys.com and purchase whatever they desire. In an effort to make shipping costs affordable, all rates are based on the US Postal Service's Airmail International rates. SOTA is happy to announce this improvement, as it has always been an issue that we could not get collectibles into the hands of everyone who wanted them.