Street Fighter/SOTA

* Alex
* Dee Jay
* Oro

## Collectible Information

### Status

The maquettes that Jerry Macaluso made for PCS are still located in his private residence

### Location

Lost (the original SOTA prototypes)Found (the Pop Culture Shock redux prototypes)

## Product Information

### Year(s)

2006 (the original prototypes)2012 (the redux versions)

In 2004, SOTA striked a deal with Capcom to produce a series of action figures based off their best-selling *Street Fighter* video games. They churned out a lot of hits based on the most iconic characters, though there were at least two characters they did not get to translate in plastic,

## **Summary:**

Long before SOTA made *Street Fighter* figures, Palisades attempted to secure the license for themselves, though they could not reach an agreement with Capcom.  Around the time the *Tomb Raider* movie came out, Mark Moseman, a representative for Capcom; came to Jerry and inquired him if he wanted to make the *Street Fighter* figures instead since he was sculpting for Palisades at the time anyway. At first, friends and insiders didn’t want Jerry to pursue making *Street Fighter* figures as the last game made at the time “bombed horribly.” First made for the series’ 15th anniversary, many of the characters SOTA was able to tackle include Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, M. Bison, Sagat, Blanka, Cammy, Vega, T. Hawk, Balrog, Guile, Sakura, Ibuki, Fei Long, Akuma, Gouken who was made into an SDCC exclusive, Sodom from *Final Fight* (a personal project by Jerry despite Capcom’s hesitance), and many more.  For a ToyFare exclusive, SOTA did a two-pack set of Ryu and Sagat all bloodied which struck a huge cord with Capcom as they considered it “too violent” and “unpure” for their brand, despite the continue and winning for the first two games featuring blood running down some of the beaten character’s faces.

Revealed in San Diego Comic con 2006 were two action figures of Dee Jay, the Jamaican kickboxer first seen in *Super Street Fighter II*; and Alex, the main protagonist of *Street Fighter III: New Generation.* The last *Street Fighter* figures by SOTA were released in 2008, though Dee Jay and Alex were never included in any of the other waves and their prototypes are missing as stated by Jerry Macaluso in an interview he did with YouTuber BornFree. In that same video, he revealed that the hard-working elves of SOTA nailed down a sculpture of Oro, Jerry’s personal favorite character who first appeared in *SFIII*; though was never completed.

Capcom tried to strike another deal with Jerry after he sold off SOTA Toys, though he turned it down following his fatigue with the action figure industry. When Mark Moseman caught a whiff of Jerry sculpting an Akuma bust, he contacted Sideshow Collectibles which wanted to distribute the statues he made for profit. And thus, Pop Culture Shock Collectibles was made as they would release several more *Street Fighter* themed statues. Originally, the plan was to complete the “Original 12” World Warriors in the span of three years which was eventually met; though was usually put aside for characters like Akuma and Cammy to branch out their horizons.

During his time with Pop Culture Shock Collectibles, Jerry and his team considered doing a revisit on the original three action figures that were never made for SOTA’s *Street Fighter* line; sculpted in the exact same size and came within the same packaging, but were merely built as mini-statues with no articulation. The sculpts for Alex, Dee Jay and Ono were finish, approved & ready to go, though the retail interest for them was not there as the project was quietly shelved. While the original SOTA sculpts for Ono, Alex & Dee-Jay are lost to this day, Jerry still has the clay sculpts of them he made for his failed PCS revival project. Jerry promised in the interview with BornFree that they “may show up at some point” as Ono and Alex would finally be made by them; albeit in 1:4 scale . Dee Jay has yet to receive a statue from PCS.

## **References:**

1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPhoINTZo8c
2. ↑ https://sotastreetfighter.webs.com/checklist.htm
3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrQR1tq2dv8
4. ↑ https://www.sideshow.com/collectibles/street-fighter-oro-player-2-version-pop-culture-shock-9032721