TNInterview - Sota Toys and PCS Founder Jerry Macaluso Talks Street Fighter, Micronauts, Darkstalkers, Toxic Avenger And More

by Jay Cochran
January 17, 2020

Continuing our new TNI Interview series, this week I was able to sit down with Jerry Macaluso, who first worked in Hollywood doing makeup and special effects for such movies as Toxic Avenger 2, Darkman and Spawn. Later he turned his sculpting talents to the world of action figures where he did work for such companies as Toy Biz, Hasbro and ReSaurus. From that came Sota Toys, which gave us one of the best articulated 6" Street Fighter action figure lines to date. Several years later after selling off Sota he started a second company called Pop Culture Shock, which he also eventually sold.

In this interview I talk with Jerry about his time in Hollywood as well as his time in the toy industry. You will find out things like how the porn industry actually helped pave the way for the Sota Street Fighter figures, and what happened to never produced action figure lines like Micronauts and Darkstalkers. We learn why he left Sota and some of the struggles he faced at Pop Culture Shock, like trying to launch a Hot Toys quality line of 12" Street Fighter action figures. Jerry even talks about a never before seen toy line of his own creation that he started developing while at Pop Culture Shock called Defenders of Storm.

It's a long one, but we hope you enjoy it. After watching please feel free to share your thoughts about it in the COMMENTS SECTION below and you can also check out images for many of the cool action figures referenced in the interview in our IMAGE GALLERY.

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Comments...

Last 10 comments - ( Read All Posts )

iag25 - 2020-01-22 @ 3:39 pm

I'm listing to this interview and am amazed at the love he had. I joined the game late and have no SOTA, but seeing previous review of their toys, i'm blown away

lordtom - 2020-01-22 @ 11:10 am

On 1/17/2020 at 10:24 PM, GojiBill said:
Couldnt agree more, the Sota SF figures were amazing! Articulation, sculpting, and great accessories.

And damn good price too.

80sboy4 - 2020-01-21 @ 6:54 pm

Very interesting interview. Loved hearing the inner workings of the toy industry, have the SOTA Toys Toxic Avenger and still love it. Fascinating about how the Adult film industry helped launch SOTA and unfortunate how they folded.

Overall nice interview, looking forward to seeing more!

Darth_Primus - 2020-01-21 @ 6:26 pm

Great interview.

I actually have the entire line of Adult Superstars figures. Unfortunately, there are some deterioration with the materials used in the clothing of the figures.

EvilHayato - 2020-01-20 @ 10:23 pm

I enjoyed this interview! Jerry and the SOTA team were awesome. I have every fig from their SF license including most of the variants. They did some superior work on those figs that definitely still stand up today and were pretty revolutionary during their time. I noticed alot of quality control issues after series 4 when they remade it into revolutions or whatever. This explains alot. Also I was always a big fan of PCS but never understood the link between them and SOTA until now. I was also super bummed when the Darkstalkers line was cancelled as I was one of those who preordered in eager anticipation as it dwindled significantly throughout its lifespan.

JayC - 2020-01-18 @ 11:59 am

Thanks everyone for watching and glad you enjoyed it. Yeah this one didn't have any breaking news like the McFarlane one but just from getting a perspective of how the toy industry works and such I thought this one was much more in-depth as I thought it would be when I approached Jerry about doing it.

That time period when Jerry started Sota I think really was kind of the golden age of this hobby. You had so many retailers back then who were interested in carrying these kinds of collectible action figures beyond just the TRU and other big box retailers. Unfortunately most of those places also dealt with selling things like music and movies which due to the technology of streaming became obsolete and went out of business. That def had a cascading effect on the toy industry which we still feel and struggle with even today.

K9K1N6 - 2020-01-18 @ 12:52 am

I wasn't neither familiar with the name or certain companies mentioned on the interview, but it still caught my attention and it's quite an interesting story you don't hear often really, can't believe there was such moments like that i didn't even expect at all, but yes, it's a rather long way he came into and it was interesting to listen what he liked to do, what inspired to do the effects for movies and many more.

Belmont13 - 2020-01-18 @ 12:01 am

I wasn't really familiar with this man but I loved this interview, I found it far more interesting than the previous one. I really enjoyed all of the insight and history pertaining to the action figure industry.

GojiBill - 2020-01-17 @ 10:24 pm