[Joe Moore]

Street Fighter Figure Kickstarter Update - The Toyark - News

[Enigma2K2]

I'm sorry about all that, but I'm not really that eager to fund a Kickstarter for yet ANOTHER Ryu figure.

[SteveGo]

So what is the update? That every figure will require it's own Kickstarter? I have a feeling that kind of revelation can only harm prospects of this Kickstarter being funded.

[Joe Moore]

If and when the Ryu gets kickstarted, and can go into production, then the money from the retail release of Ryu can (and should) go towards funding additional figures. If that's not the case, then it could be troublesome to have this be a sustainable line.

The more funding they get with this initial campaign, the more figures they can tool without additional kickstarters.

[ultraman zoffy]

7 inch scale = FAIL.

[Leo Primus]

That's a bummer, Guile is the only character I was interested in.

[Dann]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ultraman zoffy

7 inch scale = FAIL.

Agreed. If these were 6" scale across the line, and the character selection were more interesting (and y'know, if us international people could invest too), I'd be really into this. I'd totally buy a 6" Cammy, Cody, Yun, Yang, Juri, Alex or a Doctrine Dark. Also Ryu's face doesn't match his in-game appearances. No one's done a fully game-accurate nicely articulated Ryu yet. Must be a difficult likeness to sculpt, for some reason.

That said, good luck to Capo and I hope they get to do their line. I think going for 7" scale was a bad idea but I'd guess that's the scale they want to see it done in. The cloth outfits are a really cool idea.

[Dann]

It's a shame the kickstarter didn't work out, especially coming out so low below what they were asking for. Hopefully they'll rethink the whole thing and maybe do 6" scale figures with more popular character choice in the first wave, and open to international backers.

Even NECA couldn't keep a 7" Street Fighter line going, and their figures were easily available, well-priced and really well done.

[Harbinger]

It sucks cause I was hoping they'd go into others of the fighting style of ryu and ken like dan and Sean then get into others like cammy and guy.

[goatwave]

Its a shame that this failed, but I can see why:
1. No pre-kickstarter announcement.
The most successful toy kickstarters have a TON of pre-kickstarter hype. EG bossfight's H.A.C.K.S, 4horsemen's Ravens. With both of those you knew months in advance that they were going to be on kickstarter. This was just dropped out of the aether with no announcement.
2. Very little marketing during the kickstarter.
Very few people heard about this because the word was poorly spread. Toyark was literally the only place that I saw this even being mentioned.
3. Unexciting stretch goals
International backing shouldn't be a stretch goal. Using just the Ryu body with minimal new tooling you could have :P2 ryu. Ken, P2 Ken, Dan, P2 dan, are more.
4. Unexciting rewards
Very few people would want 5 slightly different versions of Ryu.

Overall this entire kickstarter was a poorly planned disaster and it bums me out that we won't get Vega or Juri.

[VashTS]

Sad, wanted to get a Vega and Bison and Sagat at some point.

THe Capo boss seems great when he explained the issues....shame though, great prototypes.

[Galaxy Of Rust]

23 years too late! If these had been made back when the game was hot in the arcades I would have been all over them. My friends & I were totally obsessed with SFII back then & were dying for somebody to make decent figures. But all we got were those crappy GI Joe abominations. These days I don't care about Street Fighter anymore & I don't even like those types of fighting games anymore. The only characters I still care about are Cammy & Chun Li & Play Arts Kai has them covered. I'll never understand why NOBODY ever made figures back in the game's first few years when it was the hottest thing around.

Now my Game is Mass Effect & it's the same story. Nobody can make decent figures. Play Arts Kai was kicking ass but then just fizzled out & stopped.

[Dann]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galaxy Of Rust

23 years too late! If these had been made back when the game was hot in the arcades I would have been all over them.

Street Fighter is still hot and has a large loyal fanbase. They had a new game out recently so now would be a good time for figures. Wish we were getting Tekken or Saints Row figures instead since SF has already had a few good lines, but hey... more SF figures is a good thing.

[trebleshot]

I feel sorry for the fans that were into this.

I passed primarily due to the scale. If they had went smaller, I might have been more interested.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galaxy Of Rust

I'll never understand why NOBODY ever made figures back in the game's first few years when it was the hottest thing around.

Um, Hasbro put out its SFII Joe figures in 1993. Given the fact that the arcade version was released in 1991 and there is a 1-2 year cycle for toy manufacturing, I'd say that's pretty close to hitting the Timeghost*. Also, since Hasbro had the US rights at the time, no other company could have produced figures for the IP.

*Registered trademark of Internet Personality Vangelus aka G2 Pat Lee and WTF@TFW.

[Galaxy Of Rust]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dann

Street Fighter is still hot and has a large loyal fanbase. They had a new game out recently so now would be a good time for figures.

Man, Street Fighter ain't shit anymore! That crap is old & lame. There are so many figures of the characters listed above just go buy one of them. Who needs new versions that look the same as the old versions?

[Dann]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galaxy Of Rust

Man, Street Fighter ain't shit anymore! That crap is old & lame. There are so many figures of the characters listed above just go buy one of them. Who needs new versions that look the same as the old versions?

Ehh?! Street Fighter's awesome! Their second-to-last one, Street Fighter X Tekken, is probably my favourite fighting game out there. Wish they wouldv'e gotten the rights to that instead. We've never gotten a properly articulated Jin figure (apart possibly from the large scale figures that came out years back).

[Enigma2K2]

Wasn't some of this money going to be used to help cover court costs? As in palming off legal fees on people that just wanted a SF figure?

If not, disregard, but if so, that's not a good way to run a Kickstarter.

[Dann]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enigma2K2

Wasn't some of this money going to be used to help cover court costs? As in palming off legal fees on people that just wanted a SF figure?

If not, disregard, but if so, that's not a good way to run a Kickstarter.

I thought the legal issues were ll tied up out of court already? Didn't they come to an arrangement?

If the kickstarter *was* paying for court stuff, that would royally suck. But I don't think it was. Could be wrong though.

[Joe Moore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enigma2K2

Wasn't some of this money going to be used to help cover court costs? As in palming off legal fees on people that just wanted a SF figure?

If not, disregard, but if so, that's not a good way to run a Kickstarter.

I don't think so. The court stuff was resolved right around the time the Kickstarter was launched as there was a settlement reached. I believe they said that the legal issues left them with out the start-up capital needed to get the figures produced, which is why they went to Kickstarter.

[boombatty]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Moore

I don't think so. The court stuff was resolved right around the time the Kickstarter was launched as there was a settlement reached. I believe they said that the legal issues left them with out the start-up capital needed to get the figures produced, which is why they went to Kickstarter.

That whole legal mess was crazy to begin with.

I think the Kickstarter uptick is great and all but I see a lot of new Kickstarters in the space that leave me scratching my head. This includes Skeleton Warriors (which hit it's goal right at the end), the FreshMonkey stuff (which has the appeal of a dollar store figure) and a the Archangel Michael (or whatever it was) figure that was really beautiful but the cost was really high.

I get the awesomeness of being able to bring interesting lines to the public like never before but they are all missing some core components that make these things work. Skeleton Warriors looked really goofy. The FreshMonkey figures look, well, cheap. The Street Fighter figures I think were scaled wrong but the 4" were covered recently too which may have taken a bite out of the market as well. The ArchAngel figure was one figure and costs both an arm and a leg to procure as well as a high KS price ($85K I believe) with no incentives.

What I have seen work:
1) Proper Scale. Look at Marauder and Vitruvian. Why did the scale matter so much? I think it had to do with the fact that smaller scale makes for army builders. Army building a $10 figure vs a $30 dollar figure and you see a big differential.
2) Articulation. No one wants an unposable statue and Kenner level articulation just isn't going to cut it. I think that is part of why FreshMonkey's Amazing Heroes will fail or if lucky just pass the goal. I get "retro" but you can be retro looking and articulated. Action figures in the 60's sucked, why recreate the suckitude?
3) Stretch Goals. Marauder and to a greater extent Vitruvian NAILED this. Make a lot of goals and make them worth it. The Archangel Michael figure was cool looking but there was no stretch goal to be had. It then feels like, "Pay me $85K or you don't get your figure". No audience participation is to be had.
4) Know your audience. The Vitruvian and Marauder figs targeted thos e that are into Super Hero and GI Joe figs at the scale. Great move, lot's of dollars flowed. The Amazing Hero figs are targeted at people that probably don't frequent these type of sites. The audience that might look twice isn't to be found here. Where to find them, I don't know? But if you are making a 4" Space Knight themed set I would recommend you post to the Stars Wars centric type sites. Making a robot that transforms into a weapon of mass destruction? Go hit up the TFW2005 type sites. Point being that if you can't find the audience online, they don't want it, don't bother.

[Dann]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boombatty

4) Know your audience. The Vitruvian and Marauder figs targeted thos e that are into Super Hero and GI Joe figs at the scale. Great move, lot's of dollars flowed. The Amazing Hero figs are targeted at people that probably don't frequent these type of sites. The audience that might look twice isn't to be found here. Where to find them, I don't know? But if you are making a 4" Space Knight themed set I would recommend you post to the Stars Wars centric type sites. Making a robot that transforms into a weapon of mass destruction? Go hit up the TFW2005 type sites. Point being that if you can't find the audience online, they don't want it, don't bother.

I'm actually VERY interested in the Amazing Heroes figures. They're based on the 80's (not 60's) Marvel Secret Wars style, and that was one of the most fun-to-play-with toylines ever. The Amazing Heroes line is the first Kickstarter I'm actually considering giving money to. And people are going to want those cloth capes, too.

I agree they need better marketing though. They're not really getting talked about on sites from what I've seen.

[boombatty]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dann

I'm actually VERY interested in the Amazing Heroes figures. They're based on the 80's (not 60's) Marvel Secret Wars style, and that was one of the most fun-to-play-with toylines ever. The Amazing Heroes line is the first Kickstarter I'm actually considering giving money to. And people are going to want those cloth capes, too.

I agree they need better marketing though. They're not really getting talked about on sites from what I've seen.

Don't get me wrong, they are bound to get folks like yourself that are very interested. In fact all the Kickstarters have some audience. More I meant that there may not be enough Danns' out there to support it.

On the 80's vs. 60's thing you might be right. I got the date from the write up on the Toyark frontpage that said the characters appeared from the 40s to the 60s but the style might be 80's.

[Dann]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boombatty

More I meant that there may not be enough Danns' out there to support it.

I've found there's *never* enough Dann's out there! ;D

Quote:

Originally Posted by boombatty

On the 80's vs. 60's thing you might be right. I got the date from the write up on the Toyark frontpage that said the characters appeared from the 40s to the 60s but the style might be 80's.

Yeah. The Marvel line from back then was basically this exact same sculpt. Hopefully they have the slightly rubbery vibe the original figures had because that was part of the awesomeness. They had more flexibility and therefore more play. Hopefully they'll do well enough to put out other Golden Age and Silver Age characters. I'd love to see Adventures Into The Unknown's Nemesis or Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt.

[Trivial Psychic]

Outside the weak unlocks and it's curious kickstarter strategy, the single biggest mistake that Capo Toys was to not get the fighting game community involved. The Kickstarter debuted literally the week AFTER the EVO championship tournament, which once again drew record crowds and viewers watching via streaming video, and there was rarely a peep of advertising anywhere for this venture on popular fighting game sites like SRK and Eventhubs. There are also NUMEROUS other venues in which Capo could have spread the word, or shown off a live prototype. Popular youtube channels that have an emphasis on fighting games such as Maximillion Dood, Cross Counter (home of the popular "Adventures of Gootecks and Mike Ross"), and fighting game streams like Team Spooky and others on Twitch could and would have given Capo the chance to explain what their plans were, and better yet, show off the product to a fan base that's been known to be feverishly loyal. Heck, they could have presented the product to Peter "Combofiend" Rosas, a popular and well known professional player who was a part of the development team on Ultra SF4 for a bit of a promotional rub.

While I initially picked on the choice of Ryu for a character, it saddens me that this never got out the gate. I was really curious as to what was coming out after the initial offerings. I've seen people say that SF is outdated, and that it's 20 years too late, but I honestly think they couldn't be more wrong. It's as popular now as it ever was, and with the fgc behind it, it can come to fruition. Hopefully this won't do much more than force Rocco to rethink his business strategy, and we'll be talking about this line in the future with the passion that we hold for the beloved SOTA Toys line from years ago. Some of the figures of my favorite characters that came out of that line (M.Bison, T.Hawk and Blanka) are still some of my favorite action figures to this day.

[Maverick]

Well hopefully these make it out someday. The sculpts are pretty incredible.