Street Fighter Revolutions Round 1

Posted by hatemachine

WHAT’S IN THE BOX WHAT’S IN THE BOX TELL ME WHAT’S IN THE FUCKING BOX

OH GOD, OH GOD, NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN

All right.  Let’s get to it.

Street Fighter is undoubtedly my favorite fighting game.  I remember those halcyon days vividly: that game never left my SNES for months, and I always bolted to the cabinet whenever I went to the local Keystone and Golfland arcades, where I was usually met with a gathering of people huddled watching as Ryu gave a beat down to Guile.

I had such a great time with the various games that I collected various merchandise.  Soundtracks, comic books, and of course, toys.  SOTA Toys was the latest toy company to get the license and released their first figures at San Diego Comic Con 2004.  With great sculpting, a number of articulation points that put the Marvel Legends line to shame, and a strong line of communication with the fans, getting high quality figures of all the characters was a possibility.

Good things cannot last forever though.  After a contract dispute, SOTA lost molds of all the 20 or so character they had made to the Chinese factory they were working with.  You’ll be able to find a number of bootlegs today of these characters.   Rising production costs and the bankruptcy of Suncoast, Media Play and Musicland also put a dent into the revenue stream.  But SOTA and its owner, the great Jerry Macaluso (be sure to check out his statues featuring various Capcom characters), trudged on, planning a fifth round of characters to get the toy treatment.  Zangief, Dee Jay, Rolento, Guy, and both Juli and Juni were next with the first three in the prototype stage.

And then, quite surprisingly, Jerry Macaluso sold the company in 2006.  In new hands now, SOTA scrapped plans for Round Five and decided to start over.  They would now create Zangief, E. Honda, Dhalsim and Rainbow Mika, under a relaunched line called Street Fighter Revolutions.  Fall 2007 was the intended release.

Well, 2007’s fall season came and went.  Winter, spring and summer followed without anything to purchase in that time frame.  And then in the late Summer, SOTA confirmed that these things were finally in production, with a Fall 2008 targeted release date.  At around the same time, a different toy company, NECA, announced it would be releasing figures of characters from Street Fighter IV, with Ryu, Ken and Crimson Viper coming in time for the game’s console release.  It’s unclear whether NECA has the Street Fighter IV license or the entire Street Fighter license to produce figures.  All we know for certain is that SOTA stayed mum when the announcement was made, and hasn’t said a word since.  The Revolutions line was once again in limbo – would we ever see these figures?

Totally spoiled what happened next, didn’t I?

In any event, the Street Fighter Revolutions Round 1 figures finally arrived at my house on December 3rd, roughly one week after Corner Store Comics finally got the shipment in, about two weeks after comic book stores started putting these out on shelves, and 18 months after I placed a preorder for them.  Was it worth the long wait and numerous delays?

No, not really, though they aren’t bad.

The first thing collectors of the SOTA Street Fighter line will notice is a reduction of quality in the sculpting for this line.  The figures themselves appear to look god at first glance, but a closer look reveals that they the lack the polish of their predecessors.

Pictured is E. Honda open palm.  You’ll notice the rough quality the hand has.  And it’s not just his hand.  All four of the figures are like this in some way, shape or form.  The right thigh on my Zangief got it the worst – there are scratch marks on it, as if someone took a pointed object and had a go at it a few times.  None of the figures under Jerry’s watch were like this – they were always very smooth.

Another issue is the paint application: it’s sloppy.  SOTA might as well have handed a brush to Michael J. Fox and said “Do your best!”  Though the previous sets of figures from SOTA weren’t always impeccable themselves when it came to the paintwork, no one figure from the earlier lines looked as bad as this.

Then there’s the articulation.  Before I begin on the new things brought to the table, I’d like to point out that it was hard moving a lot of these joints.  Other people have reported the same problems, and more than a few owners have broken figures as a result of trying to force these guys to move properly.  A bath in warm/hot water for a few seconds will prevent breakage; I just wish I had done that to one of the hands on my Dhalsim, which now has a broken peg.

SOTA decided to introduce new mechanics for the Revolutions line, with mixed results.  This included a unique approach to the foot of each of the characters – the ankle now swivels in a similar way to shoulder joints.  This came out very well, and I was happy with it.  This came at the expense of the toe hinge, which had been featured in all previous figures and is sorely missed here.

This is the new approach to the stomach joint, as Honda proudly displays.  This didn’t turn out so well, as it is fairly loose. Dhalsim and Rainbow Mika got it the worst of the bunch with a very useless stomach ball socket.  Dhalsim also has a stuck stomach crunch and owners run the risk of breaking the small pegs in his upper stomach if they try and force it.  Zangief has a traditional stomach joint that was seen on previous figures and works fine.

That’s all that’s new overall for the line.  We’ll move on to each individual figure and break them down.

E. Honda comes with an extra head and two open palm hands.  As mentioned, the paint work is sloppy.  It’s not just his mawashi as shown earlier – his eyes also have a lifeless stare.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

His hands are also obscenely huge.  But you know what they say about guys with large hands.  That’s right: small personality.

Next up is Dhalsim, everybody’s favorite fire-breathing, Yoga-practicing pacifist.

Dhalsim comes with his skull necklace, an extra set of hands and his stretched out arms (the base is not included; that came with a Final Fantasy X-2 Play Arts figure).

A strong sculpt (specifically the head) marred by his stomach crunch.  The pegs inside are very brittle, so move with caution.  I’m also perplexed at his rope belt.  It gets in the way of his hip articulation.  I found that annoying, and don’t understand they had made that belt smaller and/or thinner.

There’s also a lot of slack in his necklace.  As a result, it drops down all the way to his stomach.   The skulls on the necklace, which are the remains of village children, are also very large.  Paintwork was the strongest on this one, although the brown wash on his clothes didn’t come out as well as hoped, and there was a small bit of smearing on the red face paint on his forehead.

His extended arms are done well.  I did not experience any balance issues when I had these on, though admittedly they were only for a short while.  It was a problem getting those bracelets to stay properly near his wrists, however, and that’s true with his “normal” limbs as well.  I would hold a higher opinion of him if the peg on his open left hand didn’t break, as well as the aforementioned problem with the stomach crunch.

The loud-yet-lovely Rainbow Mika is next.

The blond bombshell comes with an extra head and an extra pair of hands.  Her ponytails can be posed by twisting.  They can be removed by pulling them out so they can be used by the other head.

Comes off looking googly-eyed.  The only figure not to have any stuck joints when I took her out of the box.  Has a useless ab crunch like Dhalsim.  Not nearly as voluptuous as the character design.  Paint work was probably the worst of the bunch.  That said, she was fun to play and pose around with.  I’d like to purchase a wrestling ring for her and Zangief.  Ranks in the middle when it comes to the female figures released by SOTA.

Speaking of, here’s the final of the four figures, the Red Cyclone.

Zangief comes with only an extra set of hands.

He has the best body sculpt of all four figures.  It’s a pity he has a less than stellar head.  The paintwork on the head is also a disappointment, though the rest of the body comes out fine.  The peg in his neck is incredibly small for someone his size, so be careful.  If he takes a dive, there’s a good chance it’ll break.  My favorite figure of the four.

Overall, these are decent figures.  However, given they are lacking when it comes to figures in the previous line, and a year long delay should have resulted in better QC with the articulation joints and the paint.  In that regard, it’s a disappointment, given that these four figures appear to be the final ones to be released by SOTA Toys.  The line that started strong right out of the gate has seemingly ended on a bit of a whimper, just as Street Fighter mania is about to begin again.