Every year there are a few new ideas and licenses in toys, but there are far more that are anything but new. Street Fighter is one of the latter, a license that seemingly everyone has had at one point or another (and even today with liberal license slicing there are several companies with it). The latest line to hit shelves comes from SOTA Toys, designed to appeal to collectors with a mix of articulation and aesthetic.

Street Fighter has been a quest and labor of love for SOTA's guiding force Jerry Macaluso. A fan of the game and a talented sculptor in his own right, Jerry's personal mission is to create figures that pay tribute to the game and have plenty of action above all else.

The Street Fighter franchise began in the late 80's with Street Fighter, a game that wasn't really a stand-out. It wouldn't be until Street Fighter 2 appeared in 1991 that the game took arcades by storm. The game set the standard for fighting games, and spawned plenty of imitators (like Mortal Kombat). What followed from there was a dizzying array of follow-up games based around Street Fighter 2, a movie starring Jean-Claude van Damme and even an animated series on USA. Very few video games are able to translate into so many media even today.

What has helped keep Street Fighter in people's minds beyond the gameplay are the characters that inhabit it. Each character has a backstory that develops over the course of the various games, even though the overall theme of the games in very simple - fight each other until you win. Along with their histories, each character has special moves that are unique allowing them to make an indelible mark on fighting games.

The design goals for the line are pretty straightforward - make a highly articulated line ala Marvel Legends. The scale is based around 6" just like Legends, and the figures all have plenty of poseability, though not quite as much as Legends. Where they differ is that Street Fighter figures all have multiple heads and hands, and none of them have bases. The packaging is a clamshell designed to look like the front of an arcade game with an image of a joystick and the six buttons used in the game.

Removable hands and heads have good and bad points. The good is that you get more expressions or poses, but the bad is that they usually take some work to swap out and can be lost easily. The high levels of articulation mean you may have some loose joints, though most of these were very tight. Pay very close attention to Chun-Li as you 'break' the joints free. Since she's smaller than the other figures, her joints are more prone to being broken if they are forced, so be careful unless you want to break her.

A new type of articulation used for these figures involves a swivel across the mid-foot rather than a side-to-side ankle joint. The reason for this is to give the figure more stability than the ankle joint would allow for martial arts poses. However, when the foot is swiveled the heel isn't lined up so it can still be unstable.

Just as there are many versions of Street Fighter, there are many exclusive versions of these figures. For series 2, the following characters will join the fold - Blanka, Cammy, Ken, T. Hawk and Vega. These are due in November 2004 and will surely have a number of interesting variant figures as well.

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Every saga needs a bad guy, and Bison is it for Street Fighter. The funny thing is that he kept to the shadows until Street Fighter 2, and he's the head of the evil Shadaloo organization. He is the man who killed Chin-Li's father, and he doesn't mind bragging about it from time to time.

His secret weapon is the use of Psycho Power, energy derived from negative emotions. He uses his shoulder plates to channel the energy to himself. It sounds an awful lot like the dark side of the force, just like Mike Bison sounds like Mike Tyson. But the M stands for Mister on this guy, and he has the ability to jump into new bodies from time to time. He's one bad M!!

Bison has a sheer, removable cape held on by a pair of plugs that peg into his shoulder pads, and this is very well done. He has a grinning face and a not so happy one, and a pair of fists and open hands. He has an attachment to his fist for the psycho energy attack, just make sure he doesn't use it on you!

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Articulation:

• Neck - ball-joint
• Shoulders - ball-joints
• Biceps - twists
• Elbows - hinges
• Wrists - twists and hinges
• Chest - limited hinge
• Waist - twists
• Thighs - ball-joints and twists
• Knees - double hinge joints
• Ankles - hinges
• Mid-foot - swivel
• Toes - hinges

Street Fighter is a game full of revenge, and Chun-Li is out to get some. Her father was an Interpol agent and he ran afoul of Bison, who killed him. Chun-Li found this out after she tracked down her them missing father and ended up face to face with M. Bison. Bison just beat her down and then laid the bad news on her, adding insult to injury.

Chun-Li is notable for being one of the earliest female characters in video games that had a starring role. While she may have started as an object of respect due to her fighting skills, no doubt there are many fans who are drawn to her more feminine aspects and she is usually paired with Ryu in a lot of fan fiction. But she only cares about the fighting...

Chun-Li has the same general accessories as most of the figures - two heads and four hands. She has a pair of fists and open hands, and one calm face with the other screaming. She's the smallest figure of the bunch, and she needs the most care when changing hands and breaking the paint on the joints to avoid any breakage.

See the Big Picture

Articulation:

• Neck - ball-joint
• Shoulders - ball-joints
• Biceps - twists
• Elbows - double hinge joints
• Wrists - twists and hinges
• Chest - limited hinge
• Waist - twists
• Thighs - ball-joints and twists
• Knees - double hinge joints
• Ankles - hinges
• Mid-foot - swivel
• Toes - hinges

Ryu was the only guy you could play in Street Fighter (well, you could be Ken in VS matches), and he's really the protagonist of the first game. Ryu heard about the Street Fighter Tournament and felt he needed to prove himself against the best the world had to offer, culminating in a fight with Sagat.

Ryu wanted to win no matter what and this all-consuming desire left him open to evil. His evil twin, who helped him win but also left Sagat scarred. And using your evil twin really isn't the most honorable way to win. Even so, he still was the winner so he continues to defend his crown as the Street Fighter contests continue.

Ryu has a pair of heads, one that is more an action face, and another that is a calmer, more peaceful one. He has two sets of hands, one with fists and the other as open hands so he can shoot out a nasty energy ball. To round him out, Ryu has a travel bag to keep his clothes while traveling the world for the Street Fighter contest. As a secret weapon he gets some dirty clothes in there and brings opponents to their knees from the smell!

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Articulation:

• Neck - ball-joint
• Shoulders - ball-joints
• Biceps - twists
• Elbows - hinges
• Wrists - twists and hinges
• Chest - limited hinge
• Waist - twists
• Thighs - ball-joints and twists
• Knees - double hinge joints
• Ankles - hinges
• Mid-foot - swivel
• Toes - hinges

Sagat (no relation to Full House's Bob) is the master of Muay Thai (which sounds like what you say after eating some bad Thai food). He is the man who got the whole Street Fighter contest started just so he could prove he was the best in the world. The bad news was that someone actually beat him.

That guy was Ryu, but in reality is seems that Evil Ryu was the one who delivered the final blow that caused the massive scar on Sagat's chest. Sagat isn't really one who forgives and forgets, more like a guy who dwells on stuff and lets it eat at him. He wants revenge and bloody satisfaction and aims to get it from Ryu. Deep down though, he is still an honorable man, he's just blinded by his thirst for vengeance.

Sagat has two pairs of hands - one with fists and the others open, and two heads - one stoic and the other grinning. Even with two head he only has a pair of working eyes and still no hair! He's the biggest of the bunch at around 8" tall. He also has some really big feet!

See the Big Picture

Articulation:

• Neck - ball-joint
• Shoulders - ball-joints
• Biceps - twists
• Elbows - hinges
• Wrists - twists and hinges
• Chest - limited hinge
• Waist - twists
• Thighs - ball-joints and twists
• Knees - double hinge joints
• Ankles - hinges
• Mid-foot - swivel
• Toes - hinges

Sodom is one of those guys who really wants to be something he isn't. In his case, that something is being Japanese, and his American ancestry and birth seems to be a real pain in the butt for him. His solution is to immerse himself in the culture and eventually joins the Mad Gear gang and his skills help him to get some respect.

But what you are given may be taken away, and Guy the ninja took away Sodom's self-respect. Even worse, Mad Gear the gang ends up being destroyed despite Sodom's efforts to recruit more members. Why do you feel like this guy sits in his room all day long listening to 'Mr. Roboto'?

Sodom only gets one alternate hand (holding a fan) and he doesn't get an alternate head. What he does get is a nice hat with a cape for disguising himself (though the symbol for 'death' in on his chest and makes him obvious), and a pair of jitte. Jitte were used in ancient Japan by police and are primarily used to defending against sword attacks, so Sodom does have that nice cultural note.

See the Big Picture

Articulation:

• Neck - ball-joint
• Shoulders - ball-joints
• Biceps - twists
• Elbows - hinges
• Wrists - twists and hinges
• Chest - limited hinge
• Waist - twists
• Thighs - ball-joints and twists
• Knees - double hinge joints
• Ankles - hinges
• Mid-foot - swivel
• Toes - hinges

Credits

SOTA is one of an increasing number of companies that does give the artisans behind the scenes credit. Jerry Macaluso is not just the president of SOTA, but he's also the art director. Sales and marketing is headed up by Jess Bansal (who loves those professional bull riders). The COO for SOTA is John Schouweiler and Marc Mostman handles the licensing for Capcom. Jed Haigh is the product manager and the sculptors for series 1 are Will Harbottle, Alexi Bustamante, Jon Stevens, Aaron McNaught and Davis Fandino. Paint is courtesy of Joe Petro and Katherine Sapene with manufacturing done by Brighton Intl Ltd.

Where to buy Street Fighter: The Street Fighter action figures retail for about $10 to $12 each (or around $55 for a set of five), and are available through the SOTA Toys online store and through various online toy retailers. Many online stores sell these figures in sets rather than as single figures. Several such online stores are RTM sponsors Big Bad Toy Store, Action Figure Xpress, and Killer Toys. (Be sure to check the other RTM sponsors, listed on the Shop Center.)