How would you market a new Street Fighter toyline?
 

If Capcom gave you the license, and you had to make figures for the entire cast from SFII all the way to SFV, including all redesigns like Alpha Chun and V Nash, what marketing strategy would you use to make sure they all sell?

I'm curious to see how people would approach this, because I've been into this franchise since SFII first hit arcades, and I've grown tired of Super Turbo-pandering. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. There are over 70 characters now (or around 90 if you count the EX cast), and a lot of them have a strong enough following to sell their own figures. At the same time, I also know there are just as many that are so unpopular, they could effectively end an entire licensing deal. I can appreciate what SOTA attempted to do by making figures based on Alpha and SFIII. But I can't deny that the imbalance between classic characters and hardcore favorites against those that are outright hated in later waves is what ultimately killed their production.



Personally, I'd use Vs-themed two-packs to circumvent this. Sure, not everyone will be happy to pay for someone like Remy just so they could have Sagat. But what if that Remy came with an alternate battle-damaged head? What if the whole point was to liven up your display, posing Sagat like he's handing Remy his ass? I don't know about you, but if I could victimize him like this on my shelves, I wouldn't feel like my money was wasted on him.

The Versus packs would totally fit the theme, but after a while you're going to run out of characters that can carry their counterpart, imo

What about stage dioramas? Getting every figure in a wave would let you build a subway platform or forced-perspective fighter jet tarmac! It wouldn't add as much to the retail as an entire second figure would, and characters you don't like would feel like they're adding onto something bigger and more grand, as opposed to an anchor around the neck of the character you really wanted

Or you could have a hefty amount of effects pieces spread throughout a wave. Flaming fists and electrical arcs and wooden boxes in the process of breaking apart, so someone who wouldn't even consider a figure of Hugo is suddenly eyeing those hadouken effects and considering picking him up

That would happen if you restricted yourself to making just one figure per character, definitely. But you could supplement each wave with alternate colors, or sequel-based redesigns. If I had nobody left to beat the crap out of Rufus, I would gladly fill that spot with Sagat in his SFV outfit.

Now there's something I can get behind!

Personally I'd do 4 inch 2-packs so my Gamerverse Ryu isn't so lonely anymore.

Agreed. There were so many 6 inch lines.

Make the 2 pack packaging into a fold out stage dio