Jazwares Roundup: Classic Amy, Super Hedgehogs & Flocked Sonic

I've been holding off on another Jazwares post until I wrangled up enough figures for a good ol' fashioned blogger's roundup. Yeehaw! I've said it before and I'll say it again: Jazwares really has gone all out for Sonic's 20th. I never would have dreamed that in 2011 we'd be seeing a line of classic figures from the Genesis era. Beyond the classic line, Jazwares has given us improved 5" figures and new spins on already available figures. The first figure I'd like to show off is the highly sought after Amy Rose (who knew!).

Sonic Generations Art Show in Philadelphia from December 2nd!

Wow, Sega have been really pulling out the stocks for Sonic 20th anniversary. As far as events in America go, there was the Generations of Skate, the one-day Sonic themed playground build, and most recently Sonic returning in balloon form to Macy's Day Parade. Before the year is over there is yet one more event to check out!

From December 2nd onwards till the end of the month in Philadelphia, PA there will be a Sonic Generations Art Show featuring unique paintings, illustrations and sculptures inspired by the blue rodent! While there have been video game art shows like I am 8-Bit before, there were normally focused on the likes of Mario, Pac Man and other 80s icons little to no Sonic inspired art, but now his getting a show all to himself!

There are more examples of the art that will be on display at the website, as well as an address to go hunt it down when it's on if you live near there. If anyone goes there please send us some photos and impressions!

Summer of Sonic 2011 Documentary

Anthony Caulfield & Nicola Caulfield, the filmmakers who also put together the Birth of an Icon documentary were also working on this documentary for this years Summer of Sonic at the same time! Lots of interviews, including Svend, Kevin Eva, Nigel Kitching and Dobbyn, and many others. Cracking stuff.

Don't forget to check out all my previous coverage of Summer of Sonic 2011, 2010 and 2009 if you haven't already!

Official Sonic Merchandise website now open!

Sega has finally launched the official Sonic Merchandise store, just in time for Christmas! While there is nothing there that is exclusive to the website, plus in some cases you will be able to pick this stuff up cheaper elsewhere, it's nice to see everything on one place: All the school gear, t-shirts, action figures, posters, the chess set, Radio controlled cars, and even DVD box sets of almost all the Sonic cartoons (not including Sonic X).

They also have a points system so when you purchase from there you get a fraction of your money back in points. So far the site is available for the UK, France, Germany and Spain with the choice of listing everything by Pounds of Euros. Not sure if those outside those countries can also order, I guess you lot will have to find out for yourselves!

Pix 'n Love to release History of Sonic book (Update: English version too!)

Pix 'n Love are one of the many reasons I envy France sometimes (one other reason being their animation scene). They are a highly prolific publisher of gaming related books including many charting the history of consoles, game developers and franchises, most of which so far have focused on Nintendo and Hudson works. Early next year however they have their sights set on Sonic!

The History of Sonic the Hedgehog is currently up for pre order at their website for 30€ Euros and will be a massive 300 pages long! At this moment it looks like it's only going to be sold in French but some of their books have been translated into English before so here's hoping! Even with the language barrier however it still looks like it's going to be full of great full colour art from all over the history of Sonic; judging from this preview page below even as miscellaneous as Tails and the Music Maker!

Just because Generations has arrived doesn't mean the 20th Anniversary celebrations are ending! If we hear anything about a English translation of this book we'll of course let you know, at least after I've pre-ordered myself a copy anyway.

UPDATE: Well what do you know! Turns out Pix 'n Love will be releasing an English version at the same time! It will be available to pre-order from their English website in a few weeks!

Sonic: History of an Icon Documentary now online.

Thanks to the Sonic Show, the documentary that is found in the Sonic Generations collector's Edition is now onlne for all to see. It's covers some similar ground and is not quite as slick as the documentary GameTap put out a couple of years ago, but at 36 minutes it's still well worth a look. Funny how you can clearly hear the likes of Yuji Naka say 'Mega Drive' but it's subtitled as 'Genesis'!

EDIT: Replaced video with the extended cut which features an additional 6 minutes of footage.

Sonic Generations Press Pack

There has just been so much Generations merch to cover! Not only is there not one but soon to be two different collectors editions (as Barry's article of the newly revealed Japanese edition shows) but there is also a press pack floating about that only a select few lucky people have, including Diogo Miguel who is guest writing this article!

It's been twenty years since Sonic first stepped into the limelight of gaming. Not many video-games characters can claim to be around this long so it's not a surprise that Sega has decided to celebrate in style. Everyone know about the ultra rare collector's edition that Sonic generations has been treated to. But there's also been a limited number of shoe boxes containing promotional items for the game.

Hit the jump for more on this shoe box of goodness!

Japan's Sonic Generations Box is Crystal and Classy

Thought the European Sonic Generations collector's box was all we were getting? Think again! The Japanese release of Sonic Generations, due next month, is featuring completely new goodies! The laser carved crystal statue seen above is just the tip of the iceberg. The set will also include a cloth (seen after the break) and a CD featuring music from past Sonic games. The PS3 and 360 version of the collector's edition will have the White Edition of the CD, the 3DS collector's edition will have the Blue Edition. Each has a random mix of a dozen tunes, with no real real reason for the selection of songs. There is also mention of a bonus book, which I assume will be the booklet that comes with the CD.

Sonic Generations Collector's Edition: Unboxing video

Put this video together real quick this morning when it arrived. This video is literally me opening it for the first time. There are much better unboxing videos of this about, including one Svend did for Sega's official blog which you can check out here.

Sonic Generations Collector's Edition: IT'S HERE.

What can I say other than this is the best collector's edition Sega I have ever owned, and yes I am including the Segagaga box set. Just compare it to the 10th Anniversary Sonic Adventure 2 one for scale..

Some more photos after the break!

Ever wanted to cuddle Seaman?

No? Me neither. You don't really cuddle fishes as such do you? Especially fish with miserable ugly human-like faces on them. Still, the Dreamcast game Seaman, in which you raised said creature and had chats with it via a microphone, was big enough of a hit in Japan for it to warrant merchandise including a surprisingly large collection of plush toys, one of which I have got my mitts on because....I don't know, really. Why not I guess?

More photos of this thing after the jump..