inevitabledeth
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Post by inevitabledeth on Jul 4, 2022 14:34:25 GMT -5
After getting back into Street Fighter again and having mild interest in the upcoming Street Fighter 6, I thought it would be interesting to start a discussion about the most expansive figure line produced thus far: Sota Toys. I remember back when I first started using the internet, these figures would be one of the first things I looked into after seeing the advert in the game manual for the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. They were definitely the best figures of the characters at the time and still hold up really well imo aside from a few dated articulation points (notably the hips which seemed to be a common QC issue). It's crazy how quite a few of these characters never got new figures produced and how there haven't been any other figure lines that produced nearly as many sets nor variants. In scale, articulation, and overall presentation they were very much akin to Marvel Legends which was not very common to find at the time, considering Jazwares' Mortal Kombat line by comparison.
Things I particularly liked a lot about the line were:
-the number of variants per character, the unique exclusive variants in particular such as the All American Guile, Dark Sakura, Shin Akuma, Green Vega, etc.
-the many accessories that came with each figure including alternate heads and hands for most characters
-the packaging was simple but nice (I'm a little more partial towards the Preview line due to the poses in box and double window presentation)
It's just unfortunate that it ended as soon as it did, being shy 1 character (who had a prototype!) to complete the Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo roster and just missing out on the other potential characters that may have been produced along the way.
I am curious to hear from others what their experiences were like, whether it be buying them back then when they were being produced, finding them in stores or unlikely markets, personal favorite figures, the figures you wish you could find but haven't... This line is still among my favorites even if I've only had a few of them throughout the years.
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Post by JokerFC on Jul 7, 2022 19:33:39 GMT -5
I really enjoyed this line. Really really did. Guile still stands on my Xbox alongside my 6" Master Chief. Guile was my guy playing SF2. Loved this line.
Standouts for me were Guile, Sagat & T-Hawk
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inevitabledeth
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Joined on: Mar 7, 2015 14:14:30 GMT -5
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Post by inevitabledeth on Jul 8, 2022 0:06:39 GMT -5
I really enjoyed this line. Really really did. Guile still stands on my Xbox alongside my 6" Master Chief. Guile was my guy playing SF2. Loved this line. Standouts for me were Guile, Sagat & T-Hawk Guile was one of the ones that has stood the test of time imo. His overall sculpt was a perfect representation of the character and probably his only action figure to pull off the camo pattern convincingly. He was also the only figure I found at a flea market years ago (no accessories, but definitely worth the few bucks I paid). If I had to choose a variant besides the original color, I would either want to find the All American variant or the tan variant and retool/ repaint the torso to be shirtless to base it on a color edit I made on Capcom vs SNK 2. Guile was also my original favorite character in street fighter 2 when I was a kid alongside Vega (claw) before I became a shoto player. T. Hawk was one of the first three I bought off of eBay when I attempted to collect all of the Super Turbo cast (the other two being Cammy and Zangief). Safe to say, his overall sculpt and quality was the best of the three, especially considering Gief was a revolution series figure (still amazed mine didn't break between the time I owned and resold it) and Cammy would eventually get a better figure made. I never owned the Sota Sagat but did have a player 2 Jazwares figure around this time. I'm sure it would have been a solid figure by comparison as the Jazwares figures always came off as cheap knockoffs to me, even as a kid. My only gripe is that his player 1 color scheme is based on the alpha series while Ryu is not. The only coherent figures of the two would be the Scarring Blow 2 Pack which has them both in their Street Fighter 2 colors (although the pack itself is based on an event that technically would have happened back in the first Street Fighter). Otherwise, I would argue Sagat is among the few figures that has a solid likeness, where as Ryu is another story. |
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Post by Captain McKay on Jul 12, 2022 20:06:04 GMT -5
It was a great line for its time. I got into it late, after the line had already been over with for a while. Ended up getting Ken, M.Bison, Vega, Balrog, Sagat, and Blanka all in P1 colors (except Blanka, who was blue). They were really well engineered and had a lot of awesome things going for them. As mentioned, the color variants, the effect pieces…so cool. To say nothing of the alternate heads/hands…that was ahead of its time, for sure.
I ended up selling all of them except Ken since starting to collect the Storm Collectibles figures, but I remember when I got a few of the SH Figuarts ones that the SOTA line scaled really nicely with them.
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inevitabledeth
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Joined on: Mar 7, 2015 14:14:30 GMT -5
Posts: 745
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Post by inevitabledeth on Jul 13, 2022 5:12:42 GMT -5
It was a great line for its time. I got into it late, after the line had already been over with for a while. Ended up getting Ken, M.Bison, Vega, Balrog, Sagat, and Blanka all in P1 colors (except Blanka, who was blue). They were really well engineered and had a lot of awesome things going for them. As mentioned, the color variants, the effect pieces…so cool. To say nothing of the alternate heads/hands…that was ahead of its time, for sure. I ended up selling all of them except Ken since starting to collect the Storm Collectibles figures, but I remember when I got a few of the SH Figuarts ones that the SOTA line scaled really nicely with them. I like that you mentioned the SH Figuarts as I just recently got Ken and Ryu from a private seller and plan to get their Sota figures as well. I'm trying to make a small collection of them and Akuma based on SFA-SF3. Hopefully I can get everything to look and fit together the way I am envisioning it. I always found it interesting how Blanka had both a translucent and glow in the dark variant. While the glow emulates the effect of his electric decently, I wonder how the translucent one would look under one of those LED light panels with some Tamashii Nations effect pieces... |
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Post by Captain McKay on Jul 15, 2022 19:03:20 GMT -5
It was a great line for its time. I got into it late, after the line had already been over with for a while. Ended up getting Ken, M.Bison, Vega, Balrog, Sagat, and Blanka all in P1 colors (except Blanka, who was blue). They were really well engineered and had a lot of awesome things going for them. As mentioned, the color variants, the effect pieces…so cool. To say nothing of the alternate heads/hands…that was ahead of its time, for sure. I ended up selling all of them except Ken since starting to collect the Storm Collectibles figures, but I remember when I got a few of the SH Figuarts ones that the SOTA line scaled really nicely with them. I like that you mentioned the SH Figuarts as I just recently got Ken and Ryu from a private seller and plan to get their Sota figures as well. I'm trying to make a small collection of them and Akuma based on SFA-SF3. Hopefully I can get everything to look and fit together the way I am envisioning it. I always found it interesting how Blanka had both a translucent and glow in the dark variant. While the glow emulates the effect of his electric decently, I wonder how the translucent one would look under one of those LED light panels with some Tamashii Nations effect pieces... That sounds like an interesting idea, I bet the light would look great on Blanka if you were able to set it all up right. And yeah, some of the SOTA stuff still rivals the SHF from what I've seen - maybe not in articulation, but in style and scale. Sagat, for example, I know the SHF is undersized. But the SOTA is menacing. Also, looks like teaser images of a new series from Jada Toys have popped up. I'm not familiar with Jada's stuff, but their Universal Monsters 6" figures are great, by all accounts. So hopefully this will mean affordable SF figures that might mesh nicely with SOTA or SHF (probably too small for Storm, if I had to guess). Looking like Ryu, Chun Li, and Fei Long so far. Hoping for full images at SDCC.    From what I can tell, these look to be nicely articulated and pretty detailed. |
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inevitabledeth
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Joined on: Mar 7, 2015 14:14:30 GMT -5
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Post by inevitabledeth on Jul 15, 2022 20:45:15 GMT -5
I like that you mentioned the SH Figuarts as I just recently got Ken and Ryu from a private seller and plan to get their Sota figures as well. I'm trying to make a small collection of them and Akuma based on SFA-SF3. Hopefully I can get everything to look and fit together the way I am envisioning it. I always found it interesting how Blanka had both a translucent and glow in the dark variant. While the glow emulates the effect of his electric decently, I wonder how the translucent one would look under one of those LED light panels with some Tamashii Nations effect pieces... That sounds like an interesting idea, I bet the light would look great on Blanka if you were able to set it all up right. And yeah, some of the SOTA stuff still rivals the SHF from what I've seen - maybe not in articulation, but in style and scale. Sagat, for example, I know the SHF is undersized. But the SOTA is menacing. Also, looks like teaser images of a new series from Jada Toys have popped up. I'm not familiar with Jada's stuff, but their Universal Monsters 6" figures are great, by all accounts. So hopefully this will mean affordable SF figures that might mesh nicely with SOTA or SHF (probably too small for Storm, if I had to guess). Looking like Ryu, Chun Li, and Fei Long so far. Hoping for full images at SDCC. From what I can tell, these look to be nicely articulated and pretty detailed. I didn't even know about these! They look interesting, almost like a hybrid between SHF and Storm in terms of scale and appearance. Hopefully they will make more characters who haven't had a new figure in a while. Fei Long being in the first wave is already a promising start imo. And I agree about the Sagat figures. Just sad that the Sota one is based on his alpha look with the closest thing to his SF2 look being the bloody 2 pack exclusive. Maybe Jada Toys will get it right. |
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Post by dpd1967 on Jul 16, 2022 4:48:41 GMT -5
I really enjoyed this line. Really really did. Guile still stands on my Xbox alongside my 6" Master Chief. Guile was my guy playing SF2. Loved this line. Standouts for me were Guile, Sagat & T-Hawk joker fc is into a lot of collecting lines. He’s up there with pj. I wonder who is the biggest collector on the forum. |
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celflessness
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Post by celflessness on Jul 16, 2022 6:19:55 GMT -5
I was collecting these in college, and it really bummed me out they never did Dee Jay. He was my favourite in the version of Street Fighter I had for the SNES. A small consolation prize is that it destroyed any idea of being a completionist for me. I sold and bought and sold a few over the years, but I still have Ryu, Ken, and the main 4 villains. And Blanka, but he fell off of the shelf and his head broke off like 3 years ago.
Easily one of my favourite lines of all time.
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inevitabledeth
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Joined on: Mar 7, 2015 14:14:30 GMT -5
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Post by inevitabledeth on Jul 16, 2022 9:10:33 GMT -5
I was collecting these in college, and it really bummed me out they never did Dee Jay. He was my favourite in the version of Street Fighter I had for the SNES. A small consolation prize is that it destroyed any idea of being a completionist for me. I sold and bought and sold a few over the years, but I still have Ryu, Ken, and the main 4 villains. And Blanka, but he fell off of the shelf and his head broke off like 3 years ago. Easily one of my favourite lines of all time. I'm guessing if Dee Jay did come out, you would have wanted the whole SSF2T cast? Looking at other tidbits around the internet, it would have been cool to see alpha Chun Li and Guy if those stories were true. |
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celflessness
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Joined on: Feb 5, 2020 7:30:40 GMT -5
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Post by celflessness on Jul 16, 2022 10:37:34 GMT -5
I was collecting these in college, and it really bummed me out they never did Dee Jay. He was my favourite in the version of Street Fighter I had for the SNES. A small consolation prize is that it destroyed any idea of being a completionist for me. I sold and bought and sold a few over the years, but I still have Ryu, Ken, and the main 4 villains. And Blanka, but he fell off of the shelf and his head broke off like 3 years ago. Easily one of my favourite lines of all time. I'm guessing if Dee Jay did come out, you would have wanted the whole SSF2T cast? Looking at other tidbits around the internet, it would have been cool to see alpha Chun Li and Guy if those stories were true. At one point I had them. Including the Revolution Zangief, Honda and Dhalsim that I think came along later (and felt cheaper). One of them was in Player 2 colours that I really didn't like, but I still had the whole cast, minus my favourite. |
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inevitabledeth
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Joined on: Mar 7, 2015 14:14:30 GMT -5
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Post by inevitabledeth on Jul 16, 2022 12:55:36 GMT -5
I'm guessing if Dee Jay did come out, you would have wanted the whole SSF2T cast? Looking at other tidbits around the internet, it would have been cool to see alpha Chun Li and Guy if those stories were true. At one point I had them. Including the Revolution Zangief, Honda and Dhalsim that I think came along later (and felt cheaper). One of them was in Player 2 colours that I really didn't like, but I still had the whole cast, minus my favourite. That was ultimately my goal at one point too, although I started late and only managed to get 3 of them before quitting at the time. I have saw some good custom Dee Jays, but it still stings knowing there was an actual prototype. I still wonder why the quality fell off so badly once the revolution series took off. Sure, the Preview series all used the Akuma mold, but at least they were seemingly more stable. I only had Zangief of the Revolution set, and surprisingly it didn't break on me the few months I had it. |
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Post by Captain McKay on Jul 16, 2022 13:48:32 GMT -5
I’m mainly into the Storm line nowadays, but if there’s one thing I would love it would be to see them do a Final Fight sister line to the Street Fighter series. It’d be a no brainer since you’d have so many crossover characters (Hugo, Rolento, Poison, Sodom, Cody, Guy, Abigail, etc) and I think Storm would do a great job with them.
Plus I want a real, legitimate Haggar figure haha.
That was something I always liked about SOTA, they did have Sodom at the very least. I never got him but as I recall he looked good.
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Post by kennyw86v2 on Jul 16, 2022 21:30:27 GMT -5
I've never been a street fighter guy, but I did have a solid Chun Li collection
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inevitabledeth
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Joined on: Mar 7, 2015 14:14:30 GMT -5
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Post by inevitabledeth on Jul 17, 2022 15:36:45 GMT -5
I've never been a street fighter guy, but I did have a solid Chun Li collection I never played Final Fantasy games (other than Dissidia) and had a few of the old Play Arts back in the day. So I don't find that too strange. I'm curious as to which figures your collection consisted of. |
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Post by kennyw86v2 on Jul 17, 2022 17:30:46 GMT -5
I've never been a street fighter guy, but I did have a solid Chun Li collection I never played Final Fantasy games (other than Dissidia) and had a few of the old Play Arts back in the day. So I don't find that too strange. I'm curious as to which figures your collection consisted of. Figuarts chun li, Cammy, and rainbow Mika Storm pink chun li Storm hot chun li con exclusive Funko chase pink chun li A couple pops Kid robot chun li Banpresto chun li Pint size hero chun li and Cammy And a half dozen or so things I can't remember a brand for |
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inevitabledeth
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Post by inevitabledeth on Jul 17, 2022 18:25:01 GMT -5
I never played Final Fantasy games (other than Dissidia) and had a few of the old Play Arts back in the day. So I don't find that too strange. I'm curious as to which figures your collection consisted of. Figuarts chun li, Cammy, and rainbow Mika Storm pink chun li Storm hot chun li con exclusive Funko chase pink chun li A couple pops Kid robot chun li Banpresto chun li Pint size hero chun li and Cammy And a half dozen or so things I can't remember a brand for That's cool. I was also interested in the Figuarts Cammy but haven't found a good deal on it. I had the Sota, but it definitely pales in comparison. Reminds me of this guy on Reddit who had a really extensive Ryu collection. A thing of beauty if you ask me: www.reddit.com/r/ActionFigures/comments/o5xbm2/just_wanna_showcase_my_street_fighter_ryu/ |
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Eric
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Post by Eric on Jul 25, 2022 22:26:58 GMT -5
I never had any of the Sota figures. I recall them being expensive and harder to find, especially since I wasn't a collector. I'm a huge SF fan, going back to SFII on the Super Nintendo. The only ones I've ever collected were the Hasbro G.I. Joe versions. I'm really hopeful for the new Jazwares line, though. If they're decently priced, I'll want the entire Super Street Fighter II Turbo cast, but if I had to pick a few only, I'd want Ryu, Blanka, and Sagat because they're my favorites. Next up would be Ken, Vega, and Fei Long.
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inevitabledeth
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Joined on: Mar 7, 2015 14:14:30 GMT -5
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Post by inevitabledeth on Jul 26, 2022 17:56:03 GMT -5
I never had any of the Sota figures. I recall them being expensive and harder to find, especially since I wasn't a collector. I'm a huge SF fan, going back to SFII on the Super Nintendo. The only ones I've ever collected were the Hasbro G.I. Joe versions. I'm really hopeful for the new Jazwares line, though. If they're decently priced, I'll want the entire Super Street Fighter II Turbo cast, but if I had to pick a few only, I'd want Ryu, Blanka, and Sagat because they're my favorites. Next up would be Ken, Vega, and Fei Long. At their retail price, they weren't bad. I recall my local shop selling them for about $12 when they were still in production, but online pricing may have varied. I can't imagine it having been much though since action figures were cheaper back then (like everything nowadays). I also grew up on a home port of Street Fighter 2, but I had Special Champion Edition for the Genesis; one of my very first fighting games (along with MK1). I still need to get myself a Vega figure. I used to think his Sota figure was good, but I feel like the Figuarts is a huge improvement, especially the face. |
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Eric
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Post by Eric on Jul 26, 2022 18:52:24 GMT -5
I never had any of the Sota figures. I recall them being expensive and harder to find, especially since I wasn't a collector. I'm a huge SF fan, going back to SFII on the Super Nintendo. The only ones I've ever collected were the Hasbro G.I. Joe versions. I'm really hopeful for the new Jazwares line, though. If they're decently priced, I'll want the entire Super Street Fighter II Turbo cast, but if I had to pick a few only, I'd want Ryu, Blanka, and Sagat because they're my favorites. Next up would be Ken, Vega, and Fei Long. At their retail price, they weren't bad. I recall my local shop selling them for about $12 when they were still in production, but online pricing may have varied. I can't imagine it having been much though since action figures were cheaper back then (like everything nowadays). I also grew up on a home port of Street Fighter 2, but I had Special Champion Edition for the Genesis; one of my very first fighting games (along with MK1). I still need to get myself a Vega figure. I used to think his Sota figure was good, but I feel like the Figuarts is a huge improvement, especially the face. I must not have seen them until they weren't as available, or I'm just not remembering properly, cause $12 would have been well worth it. Vega is one of my favorites as far as his look, but I don't usually like playing as him when I'm playing SFII, so he gets bumped down my list of favorites. As far as action figures, he'd be a must-buy for me if they make him in this new line. |
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