Thursday, November 18, 2010

UPDATED: Jazwares Jumping Back Into Street Fighter and Megaman

Jazwares returns to the two properties they launched their company with waaaaay back in the day. You might remember, in the beginning, SOTA worked the specialty and comic shop angle with psychotically articulated Street Fighter action figures while Jazwares offered a mass market alternative for a slightly reduced price, sacrificing only a bit of articulation and extra bits. Now License Magazine reports Jazwares have the MASTER license for Street fighter AND Megaman toys. This makes them the overlords for each property. License explains...

The Street Fighter line will include action figures in single and double packs, as well as comic book battle packs. For Mega Man, offerings will include kid and collector action figures. Both ranges will launch in fall 2011.

While I am sincerely happy that someone will be releasing new Street Fighter merchandise, it makes me a little worried. Even though they haven't explored the new 3 and 3 quarter scale across all their lines yet, I think the urge to make the new line in that size for compatibility and monetary reasons may be too strong to pass up. Those of us with old Street Fighter figures would love nothing more than a continuation of that line, in the same scale, but I feel so much time has passed that Jazwares will be looking for a new beginning and to put their stamp of ownership on the entire set with something completely original. With the International Toy Fair just around the corner (this February), we'll find out soon enough.

NOTE: Jazwares has the master TOY license. This does not effect the statue deals with Pop Culture Shock Collectibles or SOTA.

UPDATE: Damn, I hate being right today. We just got the press release from Jazwares.

The spring Street Fighter™ 2011 toy line by Jazwares will include all new 3.75” action figures. Available in single packs, double packs and comic book battle packs, the toys will portray the characters of Street Fighter like no kids or collectors have ever seen before.

Here's the whole release...

Jazwares, Inc., a leader in the consumer products marketplace, has been awarded the toy licenses for Capcom’s Street Fighter® and Mega Man® video game franchises. Under the terms of the agreement, Jazwares will be the master toy licensee for Mega Man. The Street Fighter license is a category-specific agreement that covers only the categories of Boys BS/PVC/Vinyl figures and accessories, 4-inch and under playsets and vehicles.

The Jazwares’ team of design experts have built a reputation for producing true-to-life toys that bring action-figure play to kids and collectors alike. In 2011 they will translate two of the most popular iconic video games into new collections for the fall.

“We are extremely excited to put a new punch in the popular Street Fighter and Mega Man brands with all new action figure collections for the next generation of fans,” said Laura Zebersky, executive vice president sales, Jazwares.

“We’re thrilled to be on board with one of the premiere action figure design teams to help take our iconic characters from the arcade screens right into kids’ and collectors’ homes,” said Joshua Izzo, Director of Licensing of Capcom.

Capcom pioneered the fighting games genre with Street Fighter, one of the most successful fighting franchises in the world, selling over 25 million copies to date. Throughout its twenty-five year history, Street Fighter has continued to develop and successfully reinvent itself in the gaming industry.

The spring Street Fighter™ 2011 toy line by Jazwares will include all new 3.75” action figures. Available in single packs, double packs and comic book battle packs, the toys will portray the characters of Street Fighter like no kids or collectors have ever seen before.

Created by Capcom in 1987, Mega Man is one of the most iconic video game characters in the world and starred in more than 140 different games. Mega Man collectively sold over 29 million copies worldwide. Mega Man® 9 and Mega Man® 10 brought the reputation of the franchise back by recreating the classic game and graphics of the original Nintendo release.

Capcom and Jazwares team up in spring 2011 to combine classic entertainment with an all new line of kid and collector action figures, allowing kids and parents to continue the adventures of Mega Man at home.

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