Syndicate Collectibles

RicksNerdLife

RicksNerdLife

Thoughtful
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Apr 11, 2025
Messages
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Alright, so let's discuss these fuckers. Because my God, what a massive whiff.

At San Diego Comic Con in, I believe, 2023, they came out of the gate swinging.

-Bloodsport
-Ghoulies
-Pumpkinhead
-Klownzilla from Killer Klowns
-True Romance
-Golden Girls
-Dragon's Lair
-Double Dragon

Since that time, they have released the Pumpkinhead figure, which is actually pretty awesome.

A Howling figure--that released at the same time as the vastly superior NECA version.

And such extremely outdated Double Dragon figures that would not look even the least bit out of place standing next to the 2000 Palisades Resident Evil figures.

Other than those items, they've gone on to cancel practically everything else they've shown off.

Ghoulies? Cancelled.
Dragon's Lair? Cancelled.
The Ed Harley figure to accompany Pumpkinhead? Cancelled.
True Romance? Cancelled.
Klownzilla? You guessed it.
Ghoulies--uncancelled with big to-do, only to be cancelled again. And only spoken upon when pressed.

And now, again after no announcement and being pressed, well...hope you weren't excited for Bloodsport, because...wouldn't you know it? Cancelled. Just found out today.

How can a company this brand new suck this bad right out of the gate, less than three years in? There definitely is a common denominator here, I'm finding.

Had a company called SOTA. Had a company called Pop Culture Shock. Where are they today?
 
I think Syndicate can be pretty well summarized as: This is what happens when people refuse to adapt. When you hit a point in your career where you think you know everything and have nothing to learn about how to do your job, you suddenly find you're actually really fucking bad at it.
 
Yeah, I had been interested in the Double Dragon and Bloodsport figures, and I'm always up for a decent Pumpkinhead, but the Double Dragon stuff is crazy expensive for what it is so I never ended up buying them. Like, do you know how mid you have to be for me to nope out of a beat 'em up line?

Were these the SOTA guys? That makes sense, their stuff looked pretty SOTA-ish. Their Howling werewolf wasn't super distinct from the old SOTA Dog Soldiers werewolf. There was another company I had a lot of hope in, that released a few decent things and seemingly just collapsed in on itself.
 
secondwhiteline said:
Yeah, I had been interested in the Double Dragon and Bloodsport figures, and I'm always up for a decent Pumpkinhead, but the Double Dragon stuff is crazy expensive for what it is so I never ended up buying them. Like, do you know how mid you have to be for me to nope out of a beat 'em up line?

Were these the SOTA guys? That makes sense, their stuff looked pretty SOTA-ish. Their Howling werewolf wasn't super distinct from the old SOTA Dog Soldiers werewolf. There was another company I had a lot of hope in, that released a few decent things and seemingly just collapsed in on itself.
Click to expand...
Yeah, Jerry Macaluso is running the show over there. Partnered up with ToyNK.
 
secondwhiteline said:
Yeah, I had been interested in the Double Dragon and Bloodsport figures, and I'm always up for a decent Pumpkinhead, but the Double Dragon stuff is crazy expensive for what it is so I never ended up buying them. Like, do you know how mid you have to be for me to nope out of a beat 'em up line?

Were these the SOTA guys? That makes sense, their stuff looked pretty SOTA-ish. Their Howling werewolf wasn't super distinct from the old SOTA Dog Soldiers werewolf. There was another company I had a lot of hope in, that released a few decent things and seemingly just collapsed in on itself.
Click to expand...
At least the head guy, yeah.
 
RicksNerdLife said:
Yeah, Jerry Macaluso
Click to expand...
THANK YOU!

I can never remember how to spell his last name.

I’m super disappointed in how Syndicated flamed out. I’ve been saying for years we needed “a new NECA.” Because it used to be McF did the weird unprofitable out there stuff, but as they decided money was more important than making horror for shock value, they moved onto Halo and NECA stepped up as the “we can be weird!” guys. Well now (well at the time I guess it’s about to change again) McF is the friggin’ DC Comics company and NECA is the Ninja Turtles company! Who’s going to make weirder?!?! What’s this?!?! Ghoulies, Pumpkinhead, Blood Sport, Double Dragon, King of the Hill?!?! WE’RE SAVED!!!!

Oh wait… no we’re not just kidding, prices are insane for what they’re offering and most of this product just won’t exist (that’s the SOTA guarantee!)

Oh well… Trick Or Treat is trying it looks like, maybe someday they’ll dip their toes into higher end collectibles… (but hey *A* Leprechaun is still more than Jerry ever produced with the license so I’ll take it!)

A completely random aside: I saw Jerry walking around Monsterpalooza one year, he wasn’t like at a booth or anything just free roaming (PCS had a booth but I don’t recall if he was still associated with them, I know it was the year they showed some absolutely baller ass 1:6 Street Fighters that made me decide ‘yeah… I think I’ll probably start getting into 1:6 scale now’ only for them to NEVER be released) anyway, I usually shave my head bald when going to events but keep my full beard and my wife usually dyes her hair bright red, I joking said “maybe I should dye my beard to match someday” she sad “no that would look horrible!” So anyway we’re walking around Monsterpalooza enjoying the sights and there’s Jerry and he’s dyed a bright red stripe in his beard that, well to keep it clean let’s say look like “he won the pie eating contest”, I just turned to my wife and said “wow! You’re right, that DOES look horrible!”
 
The Syndicate Pumpkinhead is a fantastic figure...one of my favorites of last year (was it last year? Time has lost all meaning). I skipped that Howling figure because it looked terrible though.

I really was looking forward to the True Romance figures. I love that flick, and it's my s/o's favorite movie ever, so those were going to be a must have. Such a shame they dropped the ball.
 
I had no idea these were the SOTA guys. Hell, I had no idea there were SOTA guys. I bought their Street Fighter line as a kid, and that was the first I had heard of them. Then they stopped making Street Fighter stuff, and I stopped hearing about them. Sounds like there's a whole messy history to go with it.
 
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