The Energon Pub

Several years ago a small company called SOTA (State of the Art Toys) released a line of Street Fighter action figures. Styled like ToyBiz Marvel Legends, these were approximately 6" tall, retailed for about $15, and have an interesting life story as far as action figures go:


Series 1 consisted of Ryu, Sagat, Bison, Chun li, and Sodom. Half the initial shipment was lost when the shipping vessel burned and sank in a Chinese harbor. These were really hard to find and are subject to rampant bootlegging/Knock-offs these days. Series 1 had one variant color per character with Ryu and Bison having two variants due to a SDCC special 2-pack with Evil Ryu and Psycho Bison. Evil Ryu as a separate figure and the 2-pack are constantly knocked off.




Series 2 consisted of Ken, Cammy, T.Hawk, Blanka, and Vega. It was perhaps the best series both in terms of sculpt and character selection. Series 2 had numerous variants per character and several retailer exclusive figures. It also introduced the infamous Gamestop exclusives which were literally less than 300 in production numbers.



Series 3 consisted of Guile, Adon, Balrog, Gen, and Sakura. An outstanding follow up to Series 2 with equally awesome sculpts but the beginnings of quality control issues crept in where numerous reports of broken Balrog and Sakura figures were happening due to the factory not allowing paint to dry prior to assembly.



Series 4 was the beginning of the end. The series included Akuma, Fei Long, Ibuki, Remy, and Birdie. It sold far worse than other series (not really true, but larger production numbers made it seem this way). The sculpts were solid, but problems crept in again with QC and with Ibuki being out of scale with the rest of the cast (too tall). Massive amounts of variants were produced including Shin Akuma, Alpha Akuma, and Third Strike Akuma.



Then, the line ceased to be. A rumored Series 5 was canceled and new ownership would eventually **** the line into nothingness.

An out-of-scale rerelease of Ryu, Ken, and Akuma was done with prices increasing by some 50% as part of a "Preview" line. All of these figures were produced with Akuma's larger sculpted body making Ryu and Ken appear to be monstrously swollen. Around this time a Wizard exclusive Dan was created with the same mold and one recolor.



Back from the dead SOTA gave it one last effort with Street Fighter Revolutions. The series included Zangief, Dhalsim, R.Mika, and Honda. Scale was really questionable and quality control was in the literal shitter. Figures broke, were frozen together, and paint was everywhere. Worst off yet, the series included R.Mika who took the place of DeeJay, forever ending the hope that a full ST cast could be created.

Side Note: Other figures were released as SDCC exclusives including Gouken, Shin Gouken, Spirit Gouken, and Cannon Strike Cammy.

The QC issues are what kept me from getting the final wave with R.Mika...

Wow, thats wicked.

Counterpunch wrote:Several years ago a small company called SOTA (State of the Art Toys) released a line of Street Fighter action figures. Styled like ToyBiz Marvel Legends, these were approximately 6" tall, retailed for about $15, and have an interesting life story as far as action figures go:

Good lord, I love that line. I have Ryu, Ken, and Chun Li.

I could never get into the SOTA SF figures but I really do like the NECA SF4 figures.

Convotron wrote:I could never get into the SOTA SF figures but I really do like the NECA SF4 figures.

Really??

Having both, I honestly dislike every NECA one except Chun.

Counterpunch wrote:Really??

Having both, I honestly dislike every NECA one except Chun.

Yeah, there's just something about the SOTA sculpts that I don't like. It's probably partly due to the head sculpts and the way that the figures generally seem to have gigantism of the hands and feet.

Counterpunch: Cool collection there! I think they would've been better if they were 4 inch scale.

Hmm, well here's some GI Joes from the early 2000's A Real American Hero collection:



These are reissues of older tooling, mostly in deep green camouflage as opposed to neon highlights. They're made out of a softer plastic so no breaking thumbs, and even feature some cool lame new characters like Big Brawler. Ignore that vintage HEAT Viper they've taken prisoner BTW.

This thread needs more attention.



Figma time! (oh it's time baby...)







Women flock to Duke. Obviously.

Man, GD is a boring place...

Figure I'll share a few of my valkyries! I should be getting my VT-1 Super Ostrich and Queadluun-Rau this month, for those who care lol.

Bandai's DX VF-27 Lucifer, Brera custom!


And Luca's VF-25R


Not really a toy, but I'm sure Blurrz will dig it:

I love that Shooter statue. She's definitely a character that plays well to that media type.

Shamal

Why is GD so boring?

So, no one else collects toys. Cool. I've got this.

I dig the donuts.

After taking these pictures weeks ago and forgetting to post them, I figured I would contribute to this thread

Quaedluun-Rau and VT-1 Super Ostrich from Macross: Do You Remember Love?


Out of any transforming toy I've EVER owned, these Yamato 1/60 VF-1 version 2.0's are the best. Hands down perfect transformation and details...

Little Hikaru and Minmay in the rainbow tinted cockpit!


Revoltech Lazengann, Enki, Enkidu, and G.F.F 1/144 Deep Striker


Full line of Revoltech Evangelion 2.0 You Can (not) Advance, except Unit-02 The Beast due to the fact that it looks rubbish!


I'm more of a statue/figure guy lately, so I'll post a few more of my favs!

Guts and Serpico from Art of War. I love these guys and their work, but they have seriously forgotten the value of money. Most of their retail prices are above $1000 USD, absolutely absurd!!


Modern Iron Man and Warmachine from Bowen Designs, this company does truly great work, check them out if you're into Marvel/DC.

Awesome stuff.

I'm just getting my Eva collection going with the Figma pilots and the Revoltech Evas. I have the Unit 05 like you do there, but I went with the #100 Unit 01. It's really, really nice. I think they've perfected the Evas with the new designs that came out of #100.

You should get this too:

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/prod ... ode=retail

It's on clearance for $7.50! If you miss it, I think you can get the gun and shield separately for a dollar more.

Counterpunch wrote:I have the Unit 05 like you do there, but I went with the #100 Unit 01. It's really, really nice. I think they've perfected the Evas with the new designs that came out of #100.

Ya, the new line is looking pretty nice. Though, I think I'm done dealing with Kaiyodo after they decided to bundle Unit-00, 01, 02, and 03 together and sell them all for 9800Y. Unit-00 was a 7-11 exclusive, and Unit-03 was a hard to find magizine exclusive. Why did I even bother to hunt them down and pay top dollar when they were just going to have a standard release later that year?! As mad as I am now, I know I won't be able to resist a Mark-06 and the Unit-08 when 3.0 comes out...

Counterpunch wrote:You should get this too:

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/prod ... ode=retail

It's on clearance for $7.50! If you miss it, I think you can get the gun and shield separately for a dollar more.

That has been on my want list for the last two years lol. Next time I order from BBTS, I'll be sure to pick it up.

Jesterhead wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:I have the Unit 05 like you do there, but I went with the #100 Unit 01. It's really, really nice. I think they've perfected the Evas with the new designs that came out of #100.

Ya, the new line is looking pretty nice. Though, I think I'm done dealing with Kaiyodo after they decided to bundle Unit-00, 01, 02, and 03 together and sell them all for 9800Y. Unit-00 was a 7-11 exclusive, and Unit-03 was a hard to find magizine exclusive. Why did I even bother to hunt them down and pay top dollar when they were just going to have a standard release later that year?! As mad as I am now, I know I won't be able to resist a Mark-06 and the Unit-08 when 3.0 comes out...

Counterpunch wrote:You should get this too:

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/prod ... ode=retail

It's on clearance for $7.50! If you miss it, I think you can get the gun and shield separately for a dollar more.

That has been on my want list for the last two years lol. Next time I order from BBTS, I'll be sure to pick it up.

I got my Figma Asuka today. Her embarrased face is adorable. If only there were a Shinji for which she could be embarrased about...

Let's have a look at the new additions: