Sonic appearance at old Toyland ride at Alton Towers!

The Sonic Spinball ride currently residing at Alton Towers here in England is not the first time Sonic has appeared in a ride at the theme park! As brought to my attention by Tracker on Tumblr, there was a ride called Toyland Tours which had a Sonic dedicated section! He posted this photo above and shared his fuzzy memories of the discovery from ten years ago:

Sonic was at Alton Towers BEFORE Sonic Spinball! The Willy Wonka ride used to be called ‘Toyland Tours,’ and in one part this charismatic animatronic of Classic Sonic showed up! Thankfully my mum caught it on camera-this photo is around 10 years old! *and it still sits beneath my desk, next to my Game Gear and MDII and with my Sonic comics*

Also the game in the background is Sonic CD, the Special Stages particularly. I thought it was SA2 when I first saw it, but that was effectively the only Sonic game I’d played! No idea what happened to the animatronic after the ride was converted, sadly.

We found more of this ride cameo, including more photos, a video and even music after the jump!

Max Overload! UK Sega Comics beyond S.T.C!

What a cool thing to stumble upon. Toejam & Earl along with it's sequel Panic on Funkotron were re-released on the Playstation network and Xbox Live Arcade, and you should grab them, because they are excellent ports much like the other recent Sega Vintage Collection games, with awesome remix music on the menus, online co-op and challenges with leaderboards.

Anyway, these re-releases made me go do a search on Ebay for any Toejam and earl stuff I can find. I already have a rather awesome large badge of them, and own the two original Mega Drive games of course, but I also saw this magazine called Max Overload.

Apparently this Dark Horse joint only lasted for two issues in 1994, and so far no one has obtained a copy of the second issue. Thankfully, excellent comic book blog TwoHeaded Thingies has the first issue and has scanned the juiciest parts of the magazine...comic strips!

This was a a video game magazine with bonus comics, so like Sonic the Comic but with more magazine-y stuff like reviews. It was not strictly a Sega magazine, but two out of the four comics featured were based on Sega franchises, and the other two were also based on games well known on the Sega systems. Check out what those were after the jump!

'The best Sega Fanboy video ever. Recorded in 1992'

I've just today been emailed over this huge 2 hour archive of Sega footage from UK TV in 1992, recorded on video back in the day and compiled now 20 years later by Youtube user DodgyKebaab. He wrote:

Hello, I used to be a huge Sega Fanboy back in the early 90's and I used to make VHS tapes of anything Sega related that I saw on TV.  Video game shows, TV adverts, promo tapes I managed to get my hands on, etc. All the footage is from British TV because that's where I live, anyway you can see the whole 2 hours worth of Sega rare footage here.

Included is clips from TV shows like Gamesmaster, Bad Influence and High Five, an ITV news report about the lanuch of Sonic 2, Chris Evans and the puppets Zig and Zag on the Big Breakfast show talking about the Mega CD and other games, promotional videos of games (one of which I recall owning), an episode of Adventures of Sonic and more. It's quite a mess, some adverts are featured several times in a row, and some are of Lego and other things, but well worth watching.

This right here is my childhood. List of highlights after the jump.

Summer of Sonic 2012 - Cosplay Contest

Sorry for the delay, here is some more video footage of Summer of Sonic 2012, this time of the cosplay contest! This time they did things differently: in previous years they had every single cosplayer go up on stage to be picked based on everyones cheering, which is kind of a hard thing to judge I would imagine, so this time they had a panel of judges give each cosplayer points throughout the day and the top 10 of those went up on the stage in the afternoon. This meant the contest on stage was a lot shorter than previous years.

The pair dressed as banjo and Kazooie are friends of mine who did it for a laugh, and despite being only very loosey related to anything Sonic (having been in the X-box 360 version of All-Stars Racing) still managed to get 4th place! As for the top winner, I'll give you a WILD guess (heh heh) but even if you don't like the character you got to admit that is a stunning costume. I asked the woman who wore it how long it took her to make, and she said about 4 or 5 months. Not surprised! I still don't get how the eyes seem to look forwards no matter what way the head turns, it's kinda spooky!

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 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.

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!

GamesMaster Sonic 20th Anniversary Magazine Special

Well didn't this pop up out of the blue! To celebrate Sonic's 20th Anniversary (I suspect you'll be hearing that a lot in the next few months but especially this month), GamesMaster has just released a special 130 page magazine dedicated to nothing but Sonic! I only heard about it today via twitter and pretty much ran over to WHSmith to see if they had and sure enough they had a whole pile of copies. It's £8 but trust me it's worth it. Hit the jump to see more..

Tiny Tomy Sonic Duel Toys

What's this mysterious purple box that I found recently in a retro toy store for a few quid, and what does it contain? Find out after the jump!

The Sonic 1994 Panini Sticker Album

You may recall me bringing up the 1993 Sonic sticker album when a new album was released some time last year. In that article I talked briefly about it but recently I've gone on a bit of a mission. You see as a kid I never managed to complete the album. I could of saved up to just order the  numbers I was missing back then but I guess I was putting my pocket money elsewhere. Either way I did get a good majority stuck in there.

A friend of mine had got much further along with only a select few (about 16) left to go. He had the shiny sticker poster pull out on his wall for some time so it got a bit torn in places, but after a while he didn't want the album anymore so gave it to me. Then just recently for a few quid a bought a third album from ebay which is in the best condition of the three but also had the least stickers, about half complete, maybe more.

Now I was determined to finish at least one of these albums off, so I got looking for the stickers themselves, which are obviously not as easy to get a hold of now. See how I did after the jump..

Ebay Hunt: Sonic & Knuckles Camera

Just a quick post about something I stumbled across on Ebay. I didn't buy it as it went a bit high for my liking but it did bring a small dose of nostalgia flooding back as i had forgotten all about this little disposable camera I once had. The seller says they reckon it was given away as prizes and I'm pretty sure Sonic the Comic gave these away but I recall my one being bought from a shop.

I obviously now don't own it now due to it being a disposable camera and being a kid at the time but I do recall hoping to get my hands on a second one when mine ran out only for them to have already vanished from shops. i think it came from somewhere like Boots and was released in 1994 or 95, when Sonic & Knuckles was being plugged.

Got a longer and more interesting article on the way!

Sonic Chess Set magazine in the UK!

Sometimes it is rather awesome being a UK based Sonic fan. In the last few years especially, what with Summer of Sonic, the Sonic Spinball ride at Alton Towers amongst other things. Now not long after we got a new sticker collection, we have one of those subscription based collectors magazines of Sonic, of a new chess set not to be confused with the chess set released some time ago, in fact I would say this set looks more interesting! See more after the jump!

Sonic Spinball @ Alton Towers

So this weekend me, my parents and my girlfriend spent the weekend up at Alton Towers, where we stayed in one of the hotels in the park, went out for some lovely pub dinners in the local village and larked about in the park and water park. But this is Sega Memories so let's get straight to the point: the Sonic Spinball ride. It opened this year, as did a Sonic themed hotel room (we didn't stay in that) and we had a go on it. Impressions and photos of the ride and the general Sonic-ness added to the park after the jump!

So, there's a new Sonic Sticker Book out in the UK..

If you regular any of the Sonic fan sites you will have heard about this. It actually took me a while to track one down from a WHSmith because it turns out the stores all keep them behind the till because they reckon kids will steal them. Doesn't explain the piles and piles of football stickers all over the stores, but whatever. Basically if you're in the UK still looking for one ask at the till. Not in the UK? Ebay's your best bet.

(Left) 1994 Album (Right) 2010 Album. Like you needed to be told that.

But is the album even any good? I've only just bought one and some stickers today but we'll have a quick look, and unfairly compare it to an almost complete 1994 Sonic sticker book after the jump.

Sonic Spinball @ Alton Towers in February

I'm sure many of you have probably already heard about this by now, but it couldn't be more appropriate to mention here, what with all our nostalgia fueled posts about London's old SegaWorld park and the reveal of Sega Republic in Dubai. While it's hardly the same as having a new Sega park here in the UK again, it's about as close as we're gonna get at this point: a Sonic Ride at Alton Towers!