New Sega Girls phone strap things!

We don't often get to post about new Sega merch that is not Sonic, but here's something different, as little as it may be...

Phone strap/key chain things of different Sega ladies. A bit like the seires of figures they did a while back, but not quite as interesting really. Still, you get cute SD renditions of quite a few characters from games new and old, including Honey from Fighting Vipers, Ulala, Amy Rose, Fei-Yen from Virtual On, Selvaria from Valkyria Chronicles, the lead lady from Sakura wars and more. There is also a mystery one which is in a fighting stance so could be Sarah from Virtua Fighter? Just a guess. If you wanna pre-order they are up at AmiAmi and probably a few other places too.

Sonic: From Video Games to Board Games

Thanks to the Sonic Stadium's resident merch hound Hogfather, it has been discovered that American board game company USAopoly will soon be releasing a line of Sonic the Hedgehog games and puzzles due out in August 2012! Various online toy and game retailers have started posting up pre-orders for games and puzzles, including a Sonic die cut puzzle, a Sonic memory game and... a Sonic Monopoly! The last item mentioned is the most exciting of the three. Many franchises have gotten the Monopoly treatment, including Nintendo, World of Warcraft, Seinfeld, Simpsons and Futurama.

A Sonic Monopoly could be awesome, or it could be a disappointment. USAopoly has a history of some great versions of the classic game, such as the Simpsons version. However, other franchises aren't so lucky. Nintendo Monopoly, for example, features a plain white board with Nintendo characters acting as property. How uninspired! I only hope that some Sonic fans are working on the project, so we get a Monopoly that the franchise deserves. And hey, if it doesn't work out, you can always print out and play the Sonic Monopoly that I'm making!

[Source: Sonic Stadium Boards]

New Sonic Toys Revealed At New York's Toy Fair!

Another year, another Toy Fair. That means more Sonic toys from Jazwares! Unlike last year, which revealed a LOAD of 20th anniversary figures, this year is rather light despite the many figures and plush dolls crowding the booth. The first thing you'll notice is that they'll be removing the 20th anniversary logo and will be replacing it with a standard gold ring and Sonic logo. There are a few repackagings of existing items, such as the classic 3" figures in a four pack. The new additions to the line, seen for the first time in these photos include:

• Metal Sonic plush doll - seen above
• Modern PVC figure set including Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy and Metal - seen above in front of the classic PVC set
• Chaotix figure 3-pack featuring Charmy, Vector and Espio - seen after the break

Sega Magazine Highlight: Surf's Up! Sega's website from 1995!

Here's another neat article found in the official UK Sega magazine, from issue 15 (March 1995) featuring Sega of America's website at the time! Would you look at that! I thought this would be an interesting thing to put up as there is no way to access far back anymore: the Way back machine can go as far back as late 1996 but even that site was no where near as basic as this! Look at all that stock clip art and flame text! I also quite dig the pixel art of Sonic and Knuckles with the Sega logo surrounded by a web. Get it? Because it's a WEB site? Oh boy.

What's more Richard Leadbetter sums up the Internet in a way that shows that it really hasn't changed much at all! He also complains that the site was really quite slow compared to other websites at the time, but also states that the site has only been online for around three months. Does that mean this is the first ever revision of the official Sega website? Haha, wow.

Comix Zone promotional comic strip.

Now here's something I can't say I have seen anywhere before: a free promotional comic strip for the Mega Drive cult classic Comix Zone! This was a freebie with issue 38 of Mean Machines Sega (the issue of which was when the mag became an official one), though I would imagine it was available to pick up in game stores or events for free too.

While the comic is has no credits as to who made it, I would recognise that art style anywhere! Surely it is none other than Brain Williamson, who worked on many Sonic the Comic stories including Kid Chameleon, Eternal Champions, a couple Sonic stories and helped on the Mutant League story too. More than likely it is Steve White doing the colouring, as he did on most of Brain's other S.T.C art, and has that same psychedelic look to it. No idea who the writer could be, mind. Makes you wonder how Comix Zone never became a S.T.C series really, though by around 1995 they were giving up on non-Sonic franchise strips, the last of which was a Shining Force story in '96.

Without further a-do, check out scans of the entire comic after the jump!

Sega Magazine Highlight: Sonic Merchandise Showcase

One of the best articles (at least for this blog) that I found in my new collection of the official UK Sega magazine was this two page article about Sonic Merchandise from Issue #5 (from May 1994). It shows off tons of the Sonic toys, clothes, stationary, books and even food from the era, most of it I either had (and in many cases still own) or at least remember, with many things I forgot all about but this article sent memories flooding back! Best part is they even tell you where to buy them and how much they were!

In particular interest (for me anyway) is the food items, as for obvious reasons next to no one would have thought to keep any of the packaging for that. I was a Sonic collector even back then, but I wasn't that sad! I do remember sticking the crisp packets into scrapbooks though. Who remembers the Daily Milk Easter Egg? The Chocolate rolls? How about the MEGA MILK, which sounds a bit too close to Chemical Planet Zone's purple water of death "Mega Mack"?

One thing I defiantly don't remember is the official Birthday cake from Sainsburys. For one of my birthday's I had a basic chocolate cake that had Sonic Pogs decorated on it. My mum knew exactly what stuff from this she bought me back then, including some of those daft looking trainers! Also lol, they don't know who Sally Acorn is.

BONUS! Found a news snippet in issue 8 featuring another Sonic food stuff I forgot all about...toffee biscuits! How exciting!

Sega Official UK Magazine 1994-95

So I've finally got my hands on a complete set of this magazine. A friend of mine is moving to Sweden soon and is selling a majority of his game collection, and he let me have these for nothing. I also bought a bunch of stuff from him including a pile of Game Gear games, a Sega Nomad and even a Tiger Game.com with Sonic Jam, because of reasons.

All 22 issues are here. it was a pretty short lived magazine at least by this name, as afterwards it was renamed to the official Sega Saturn magazine, of which I have all but a few of those. I did have a load of these mags as a kid, but you know how it is: they probably got binned due to lack of space. Also got some Mean Machines Sega mags including one with a bonus Comix Zone comic strip, which I have never seen before (want to scan this soon). Got a few of the freebies from the official mag too like a large 'History of Sonic' up to 1993 thing and a huge Virtua Fighter 1 poster in all it's blocky goodness.

My friend also found a Sonic sticker album which he is posting over to me. Not sure how many stickers it needs but we'll see! Either way as far as I can tell there are barely any scans of these mags online so I hope to get time to bring you scans of some highlights.