Darkstalkers/SOTA

Following their *Street Fighter* toyline, SOTA Toys set their goal on producing action figures based on another Capcom fighting game, but ultimately went nowhere.

## Darkstalkers

From left to right, we have Lord Raptor, Anakaris, and the original Morrigan prototype on display in San Diego Comic Con 2006.

## Collectible Information

### Status

Found (Anakaris, Morrigan V1 and Lord Raptor)Lost (Demetri, Morgan V2, Donovan Blaine, Lillith, Jedah Dohma)

### Location

Anakaris and Morrigan V1 are owned by Will Harbottle while Lord Raptor is owned by Alexi Bustamante

## **Summary**

***Darkstalkers***, known in Japan as ***Vampire*** (ヴァンパイア, *Vanpaia*), is a series of 2D fighting games developed and published by Capcom, beginning with *Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors*(*Vampire: The Night Warrior*) in 1994. Whereas *Street Fighter* is a more popular series that focuses on worldwide martial arts, the general setting of this franchise is a pastiche Gothic horror universe with a highly stylized, cartoonish graphic style and the characters consist of monsters (the titular “darkstalkers”) and their human hunters. *Darkstalkers* introduced many of the concepts used in later Capcom fighting games, including its first use of 16-bit color animation sprites and gameplay mechanics later employed in the *Street Fighter Alpha* and *Marvel vs. Capcom* series. Some of the tie-ins *Darkstalkers* have had over the years include a Japanese OVA with four episodes (basically an anime miniseries) by Madhouse Productions, a [terrible] American animated series by Graz Entertainment with only 13 episodes, a Canadian comic book series by UDON Comics and published through Devil’s Due, along with several other mangas, art books, novels, and graphic novels. However, the series as a whole, excluding *Marvel vs. Capcom* crossovers, is utterly ignored with only three main games in the series with the latest *Darkstalkers* game from 2013 being another compilation of the three.  ToyBiz made three sets of two-pack action figures to promote *Darkstalkers 3* in 1999 and some collectible statues have been made,  but there were plans for updated figures by a newer company a few years later.

## **Action Figures**

In 2006, following the success of their *Street Fighter* action figures that nearly saved the company from going bankrupt, SOTA Toys announced they would be producing a toyline based on the *Darkstalkers* games. Series 1 was first shown at San Diego Comic Con that year with the line-up consisting of Lord Raptor the “rock and roll zombie,” Anakaris the mummy, and Morrigan the succubus.  On December 3rd 2006, SOTA announced they were producing a 5 1/2 inch limited edition resin statue based on the feline femme character Felicia, posed in the midst of licking herself clean and sculpted by Alexi Bustamante.  It was later sold by SOTA as an SDCC exclusive during San Diego Comic Con along with limited edition busts of Demitri and Donovan Baine.  Some changes to the planned lineup of action figures were evident during the exhibition as new character molds were shown off. Now part of Series 1 were the vampire Demitri Maximoff and Lord Raptor. The Morrigan figure made a return where she was announced for Series 2, but was notably different compared to the prototype from 2006 in that her mouth was smiling instead of being closed and her wings were fully spread out instead of being half bent. Anakaris was nowhere to be seen, but other characters that were shown during that event were Lilith the succubus and the demon Jedah Dohma who were first introduced in *Vampire Savior/Darkstalkers 3*.

Given that *Darkstalkers* is a criminally overlooked franchise, the toyline was in trouble during the very beginning as unlike *Street Fighter*, it had barely any new movies, TV shows or games to spark interest in the buying public. SOTA tried getting their retailers to release them in stores, but they objected due to the lack of recognition the series has in general. Left with no other option, SOTA put up the figures for sale online with 560 out of the 3,500 pre-orders made. But it wasn’t successful for a lot of reasons as people weren’t were aware of the line to pre-order, not many people pre-ordered back then, and that they did not care to know about the toyline’s impending doom.  It also didn’t help that SOTA’s main Chinese factory permanently shut down after their company filed for bankruptcy and that for months on end, the founder was pressured to sell it to a Chinese stockholder. After the company was bought out, the new owner decided to cancel the *Darkstalkers* line and none of the figures were ever sold.

Interestingly enough, Pop Culture Shock Collectibles, which was founded by former SOTA genius Jerry Macaluco, released a few *Darkstalkers* statues based on Morrigan, Felicia, and Lord Raptor with distribution by Sideshow Collectibles.    In 2019, Storm Collectibles announced they obtained the license to produce *Darkstalkers* action figures with a 1/12 scale prototype of Demitri Maximoff teased in February 2019.  Another teaser showed up in a company catalog by Storm Collectibles in July 2020 with stockholder pictures of Demitri and Morrigan under the label “Darkstalkers - Coming Soon!”; teasing the prospect of an action figure for everyone’s favourite succubus. The matter if they get finally released and pave the road for more *Darkstalkers* action figures or if they get mercilessly taken to pasture again is up for fate to decide.

## **Final Verdict:**

Like I said, the only pieces of *Darkstalkers* merchandise released by SOTA were limited edition statues for SDCC 2007 that are rather scarce to come by these days. Interestingly enough, on the online retailer starstore.com (which has been inactive since 2009, pre-order listings for the Morrigan, Dimitri, Lord Raptor and Anakaris figures are still available.  As for the prototypes, the original 2006 Morrigan and Anakaris, which were sculpted by Will Harbottle, was posted on his website Wak!Toys.com, implying that he still owns them in his private collection.   The Lord Raptor figure was sculpted by Alexi Bustamante and still had it in his collection as he posted a picture of it onto his Deviantart page known as “Trapjaw.”  Though its possible those artists may not even own the models and considering many of the other prototypes have never been found to this day, the case will remain: **UNSOLVED.**

## **Gallery**

Dimitri Maxinov on display in San Diego Comic Con 2007Donovan Baine on display in San Diego Comic Con 2007The second Morrigan prototype on display in San Diego Comic Con 2007Jedah Dohma on display in San Diego Comic Con 2007Lillith on display in San Diego Comic Con 2007

## **Sources:**

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkstalkers
2. ↑ https://www.figurerealm.com/actionfigure?action=seriesitemlist&id=897
3. ↑ http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/sdcc2006/sota.shtml
4. ↑ http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/sota-announces-felicia-from-darkstalkers/
5. ↑ http://www.statueforum.com/showthread.php?t=88990
6. ↑ https://toynewsi.com/175-11669
7. ↑ https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/save-the-darkstalkers-figures-pre-order-today.158565/
8. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWjGjOM8454
9. ↑ http://www.succubus.net/wiki/Pop\_Culture\_Shock:\_Morrigan
10. ↑ http://www.toymania.com/news/messages/11377.shtml
11. ↑ https://www.sideshow.com/collectibles/darkstalkers-lord-raptor-pop-culture-shock-901425
12. ↑ https://news.toyark.com/2019/02/15/darkstalkers-license-announced-by-storm-collectibles-332703
13. ↑ https://news.toyark.com/2020/07/23/storm-catalog-with-new-licenses-and-figures-soul-caliber-vi-tekken-darkstalkers-and-more-396154
14. ↑ http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/Starstore\_Catalogue\_DARKSTALKERS\_SERIES\_1\_ACTION\_FIGURES\_5835.html
15. ↑ http://waktoys.com/Morrigan\_Sculpt.html
16. ↑ http://waktoys.com/Anakaris.html
17. ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/trapjaw/art/Lord-Raptor-Proto-1-99099626