Summer of Sonic '09: Neo Merch Zone photos galore!

Seeing as Sega memories is primarily a Sonic merchandise related blog (at least it's ended up that way), it only makes sense of provide a whole bunch of photos of the merchandise area of Summer of Sonic, so here we are!

Summer of Sonic '09: Meeting the S.T.C Artists

Dobbyn to the left, Kitching to the right. What a pair of Nigels!

One of the highlights of the event for me had to be meeting two of the artists/writers of Sonic the Comic, Nigel Kitching and Nigel Dobbyn. I grew up on these comics and they had a big influence on how I draw, in particular Kitching's artwork for the Decap Attack comic, who was also the writer for a majority of the entire comics lifespan, everything from the crazy Super Sonic all the way till the comic's last story ark where Johnny Lighfoot died and Robotnik lost his mind They did a Q&A session which I caught on (very wobbly) video, which I might upload later.

Summer of Sonic '09: Summary

Summer of Sonic '09 was a shock to me. Why? Because it was far beyond my expectations. It was almost a little overwhelming that such an event for Sonic the Hedgehog could exist. Arriving at Liverpool Street at about 10:30am a bunch of Sonic fans were waiting up near the exit calling over anyone they could find who had Sonic related things on them (I was wearing that white Secret Rings shirt I showed you a while back).

This is when it started, before half the people sat down to draw together.

So many Sonic fans in one place is pretty surreal. 

Summer of Sonic 09 this Saturday

We will be bringing you loads of photos, info, maybe even some video clips of this Saturdays' Summer of Sonic event taking place in London. I'm personally looking most forward to meeting Sonic the Comic writer Nigel Kitching, a guy who's Decap Attack artwork was a big inspiration to me throughout my childhood. Another STC artist, Nigel Dobbyn, will also be there as well as two guys from Sumo Digital currently making that Sega All-Star Racing game. The SOS website has also revealed that a rather fancy art book will be given away, in their words 'designed in the style of a classic Mega Drive manual'.

If you're attending, you might just bump into me there wearing a "HELLO. I AM THE GAGAMAN." badge.

10 inches of Metallic Hedgehog Awesome

Jazwares, the guys who have made quite a few Sonic action figures as of late such as the Werehog and pose-able figures, are later this year (apparently September, but you never know with these things) releasing this rather ace looking pose-able Metal Sonic.
It's the old Sonic CD Metal Sonic too, not that rubbish thing in Sonic Heroes they called Metal Sonic. The guy seems to be making quite the come back as of late, also showing up in the new Mario & Sonic Olympics games, and of course there was that smaller mighty mugg style figure of him from Comic Con too not long ago.

The First4Figures Statue is out!

Well it only took over a year but the 12" Sonic statue starting shipping out last week from all online shops that sell it (Forbidden Planet, Play.com, Play-Asia I presume, and a few others). Only 1500 have been made, so wherever or not pre orders gobbled all of those up or not is unknown but I've got mine and it's numbered 693, either that means they've been sent out at random or they're almost (or already) gone! Who knows!

Sonic's Shoes Blues

No, this is not a review of the Little Golden Book Sonic's Shoes Blues. Though as a kid I could relate with Sonic's predicament as I too wanted a pair of Sonic shoes.

Since first playing Sonic the Hedgehog I've wanted a pair of bright red and white striped shoes. Of course, SEGA never made an official pair of Sonic shoes, so I'd have to settle for shoes like the ones seen below.


Over the years my interest in finding Sonic-like shoes waned and I passed up "close enough" opportunities like the SOAP Scorchers and red and white Adidas.

Sure, Sonic wore SOAP shoes, but they didn't look anything like these.

Then, today while shopping with my girlfriend I encountered some pretty cool Sonic-like shoes! The Cole Haan Men's Air Granada II come in a nice reddish-brown and feature a beige stripe. While they aren't bright red and white, they have a muted color scheme that suits my age and they were half off. So I picked up a pair and took embarrassing photos of my feet! Enjoy.




Close enough. :)

Another lazy commercial videos post!

The 'Genesis' is 20 years old from it's American release this week so why not?



This is a promo video presumably from 1989/90, before Sonic had even shown up. It's pretty long as it's a collection of commercials stringed together, but at least skip to 3:27 for the hilariously bad Stallone impression the narrator makes when talking about Rambo III.

This one is from Australia sometime around 1994/5 I'd imagine, when dodgy looking 3D animation like this was all the range. Vaguely interesting notes: the Ren & Stimpy footage shown is from an early beta build of the game, which you can find floating around the 'net' (which according to this Sega created). The beta is extremely basic with almost non existent level design and backgrounds. Also, when it talks about turning into Super Sonic in Sonic 3, doesn't that sound an awful lot like who currently voices Sonic in the modern games? Just a coincidence of course.



And yes, if you didn't already know in Australia they really do pronounce Sega as 'See-ga'. I wonder if the Aussie version of the Sonic games changed the logo voice to that. Probably not. This ad above for the master System is mainly notable for the rather ace rendition of the After Burner music. I also like how you could rent a Master System console in a sweet Sega branded suitcase of sorts.



Oh hey, here's some more Pirate TV ads I haven't linked to before! Above is a musical number about the Cyber Razor cut, and below is a rather bizarre shower scene Game Gear ad. Still my favorite Sega ad campaign of the lot.

Mega Drive/Master System Stand: I'm nuts.

Chalk this up as one of the craziest Sega related purchases I have ever made. The game shop I bought it from said they paid £600 for this back when the Mega Drive was the best selling format at the shop (15 years or so ago I'd imagine), and I got it for the starting bid of £50 one morning a week ago on a whim on eBay.

Up, Over and Gone! - AoStH Production Art

Hey SEGA fans! I thought I'd kick off my membership with the SEGA Memories team by sharing some of the most prized Sonic items of my SEGA collection: Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog animation cells! Before I post a string of jpegs, let me share the memories associated with these babies.

It was 1995 in Minnesota, my dad was, and still is, an avid Donald Duck collector. Through connections with a Disney collectors club, he obtained invites to a meet and greet with the voices of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor (also the voice of Ralph on The Simpsons). The event took place at an animation art gallery and it was a blast, Wayne and Russi shared stories of what life is like as Disney voice actors and we had the chance to look at hundreds of animation cells from TV and film. My eyes were drawn to The Simpsons cells, particularly a special edition Who Shot Mr. Burns? sericel (a cell not used in the show itself, but rather made in limited quantities for framing). While very awesome, these were also very expensive. My dad suggested I look in back at the lesser known shows. Instantly, Sonic the Hedgehog came to mind. They HAD to have it! SO I inquired and I was in luck, they had a good dozen cells available. They were, from what I remember, $50 each unframed. A very reasonable price! Unfortunately, I was twelve years old, and $50 is a fortune at that age. My dad, knowing my birthday was coming soon, asked what cells were my favorites and we returned to the party.

One month later my birthday had arrived, and so too did three oddly shaped presents. I opened them to reveal three of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cells that I had pointed out to my dad! While they weren't Sonic items that I could play with, but they hung on my bedroom wall with Hedgehog pride and were a great backdrop for my drawing desk. Let's take a look at them:


This first cell is my favorite of the bunch, a scene from "Robotnik's Rival" depicting the entire main cast of the show. Interesting to note: this particular frame never appeared in the show, as the characters are in poses from different moments of the scene. Take a look after the jump, the scene appears at 2:29.