SOTA Street Fighter

Review by Loc

I remember walking into the Regency Game Palace and seeing a slew of people gathered around a new machine. This was the closest thing we had to a local arcade, and it was actually pretty nice. Anyways, the new machine had all manner of teenager crowded around, watching the video screen where two unique combatants battled. With a variety of superhuman attacks, the colorful characters beat each other to submission, the fight ending when one fighter’s energy meter was drained. The winning player stayed on the game, while the next challenger deposited his quarter, chose from a half dozen characters, and began a new round of fighting.

This was how Street Fighter II took the gaming world by storm. The idea to offer a roster of “world warriors” wasn’t necessarily new, but SF II did it well. Characters were unique in appearance and in gameplay. Fighting styles and body types led to different strategies and tactics. Most importantly, special moves required some skill to perform, but were available at any time and for every player. All these factors brought out a unique strategy component in a fighting genre that usually required nothing more than button-mashing. In fact, SF II introduced a joystick-and-six-button configuration that brought out more complexity and dexterity than all other games at the time.

But this isn’t a history of video games article, this is a review of SOTA’s Street Fighter line of action figures. Over the years, Street Fighter has spawned multiple video game sequels and this has introduced more and more characters to the universe. As you can imagine, this wealth of source material has led to many toy incarnations. There was even a GI Joe: Street Fighter sub-brand that tried to capitalize on these world warriors. However, until SOTA’s line, nothing captured the characters in colored plastic all that well.

With the success of the Toy Biz Marvel Legends line, companies realized that collector-driven lines had come en vogue. The six-inch scale with high levels of articulation excited fans and collectors, and SOTA noticed. The company scooped up the Street Fighter license and decided to create a line of figures completely in-scale with the Marvel Legends. Not only that, it went out of its way to cater to the quality standards of the Marvel Legends line, committing itself to create highly articulated figures with beautiful sculpts and collector-standard packaging. It was a labor of love that served both Street Fighter fans and action figure enthusiasts to no end.

Starting with the sculpting, the Street Fighter figures were great representations of their pixel-based counterparts. From Ryu’s white gi to Sagat’s towering proportions and battle-scarred chest to Bison’s hulking mass and sadistic grin, this sculpts were amazing. Some have complained that the characters were based too much on animated or comic representations, instead of the actual in-game graphics. I say these look bad-ass and capture the essential essence of each character.

In addition, most characters came with a bevy of accessories. In today’s rough market, companies continue to skim on the extras and offer the bare minimum. Back in the day of the collector market, companies like SOTA tried to offer the highest value to their consumers. As a result, we got alternate heads, extra hands in various action poses, energy projectile attachments, and random tidbits to fully round out the character. For example, Guile would have been a fine display piece as a standard figure. The fact that he comes with an additional thumbs-up hand, a hand-comb hand, and a chopping hand allows you to recreate almost any fighting scene from the game. He even comes with a screaming face and two blue projectiles that attach to his fisted hands, recreating the fury of the Sonic Boom move at any time. It’s this attention to detail and willingness to cater to the target audience that makes this line exceptional.

To capitalize on the color variations in the game, SOTA released numerous character variants. Some were simple color swaps, like a white gi for Ken instead of his traditional red. Others included nuanced changes, like the “green” Vega also included a different alternate head that referenced his appearance in the SF Animated movie. Others still were character variants, like Evil Ryu with black gi and red eyes. In all, these paint application chases offered SOTA a way to recoup costs on original sculpts while offering more variety to fans who never dreamt of getting something like a “translucent” electricity Blanka.

The actual toy quality is something to note as well. These are heavy pieces with a lot of raw material put into them. For a smaller company like SOTA, where resources are limited, the high quality product was a conscious choice to appeal to the collector.

Another great quality exhibited was its role as the fans’ company. Character selection for each series of figures was a balanced business decision that utilized the fans. For example, online polls were distributed to allow fans to voice their preferences on character selection. There were times when entire series were chosen by fans. In the same way, SOTA worked to get the most popular characters into the hands of the fans, sticking to its idea of delivering at least one “headliner” figure per series.

Early plans even had ideas like “accessory packs”, where you would be able to purchase a whole slew of energy accessories or alternate heads and hands, to be available online. Or having special figures available online that wouldn’t normally warrant mass production, but fans still salivated for: Bison’s Twelve Dolls, or Hugo and Poison 2-packs. These never came to light, but they were heavily considered strictly at the request of fans.

The sad fate of these toys has little to do with the toys, and all to do with the distribution. Early on, SOTA had delay issues with getting product into the fans’ hands. However, each series eventually hit shelves, delivering four series of characters. Yet, those early delays would be welcome today in light of the current state of SOTA. Nearly two years ago, founder Jerry Macaluso sold his stake in SOTA to pursue his interest in films. This could be compared to Steve Jobs’s initial departure from Apple as Macaluso was the creative force behind the line.

Since that time, SOTA has spoken of revamping the Street Fighter line. Maintaining the quality and style, but repackaging the toys is the idea, but only three “Preview” figures have hit the shelves in nearly three years. A new “Revolution” series is supposed to hit stores soon, delivering the final three characters of the original 12 found in Street Fighter II. For fans, completing the set of 12 would be a great way to continue supporting the brand, but the initial excitement and enthusiasm for the line have subsided.

Will the Street Fighter line find new life and new fans in its Revolution line? Time will tell, but signs seem to point to a slow and drawn-out death to this once-promising toy line. It’s a shame, too, because there hasn’t been many offerings that catered so faithfully to the fans.

You can find the older series, featuring Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka, and the gang, online for pretty cheap. Be careful as the earliest series also saw a huge influx of knock-offs saturate the market. One of the biggest blows to SOTA was their dealings with foreign factories. After a falling out, the factory kept the original molds and produced more toys without SOTA’s consent. These knock-offs look very good, but helped kill off genuine hype for the line. And as stated above, a new series featuring Honda, Dhalsim, and Zangief are slated to hit shores any time now. With all things in life, the majesty of the SOTA Street Fighter line seems to be coming to an end. But in its prime, the line was a spectacle to behold.