Presenting @SEGAJunkyard - All the SEGA Memories & SEGA Junkyard articles in one Twitter feed!

The SEGA Junkyard blogs have had a long history on the interwebs. In 2005, Tomleecee created The Dreamcast Junkyard, a blogger.com shrine to SEGA's final consumer console. The blog was such a hit, that in 2006 Dreamcast Junkyard writer Father Krishna spun-off his own SEGA console blog entitled The Saturn Junkyard. 2007 brought about two more blogs: The SEGA Master System Junkyard from Saturn Junkyard writer gnome, and The SEGA CD Junkyard from Dreamcast Junkyard writer Caleb. Also created in 2007 was this very blog, SEGA Memories, by Dreamcast and Saturn Junkyard writer The Gagaman. Finally, 2008 saw the creation of The Nomad Junkyard, my own blog devoted to mobile and handheld SEGA games from the past and present.

In 2010, SEGAbits was launched following the demise of SEGA Nerds. I was brought onboard as a writer (now an admin) and I went about creating the SEGA Network. The SEGA Network, seen on the sidebar of this very site, was an attempt to tie together the many SEGA Junkyard blogs, as well as SEGA Memories and various other SEGA news sites. Basically, if you have a good site, keep it updated, and are able to add the shared links bar to your main page's sidebar, you're in. GET TO THE POINT! To push this concept of rounding up the various Junkyard blogs and SEGA Memories further, I've created a handy shared Twitter feed entitled SEGA Junkyard. SEGA Junkyard collects the feeds for the many Junkyard blogs and SEGA Memories and automatically notifies followers when a new article is posted. Sure on the technical side of things this isn't anything new, but for us its a cool way to get our articles out there! We also plan to occasionally post classic articles as well as classic SEGA Memories and Dreamcast Junkyard YouTube videos.

TL;DR - If you like SEGA Memories and the SEGA Junkyard blogs, follow @SEGAJunkyard on twitter!

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!

New Sonic toys revealed at New York Toy Fair 2013

The super Sonic fans over at The Sonic Stadium have come across a bevy of photos from the Jazwares booth at the 2013 New York Toy Fair. Jazwares, who has the license for Sonic toys, has a few new items planned for release this year. While nowhere near as big as the 20th anniversary line of toys, some of the new toys are pretty cool. Spotted in the photos are Sonic branded disc shooters, Sonic and Shadow masks, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed figures of Shadow and Sonic with their vehicles in jet form, mini-figures of various All-Stars Racing Transformed vehicles, a life-size ring that lights up when held, and plushes of Metal Sonic, Silver and Super Sonic. To see more images, check out the article over at The Sonic Stadium!

Sega Fan Art Showcase 2012

There was some stunning fan art submitted to the Sega Memories DeviantArt group throughout 2012, so many it's hard to just pick a handful, but are just some of the highlights from the past year of the amazing talent who love these Sega games, covering a whole range of different franchises including some real surprises. Enjoy!

Alex Kidd by Vandrell

Sonic Advemture - Total Chaos by Stephenb19

many more after the jump!

First4figures latest statue announcement is...well..

How this for a Christmas present? First4Figures have today put out a preview of an upcoming statue. However, it is NOT a Sonic character. I have put the image after the jump because, well... it's a biggun.

Sonic UK Christmas Cracker toys

I've been sitting on this article idea since I had it back in the summer, because obviously it makes sense to write about Christmas related Sega merch near the actual time, right? We're not like a TV channel that repeats xmas specials at random times of the year! Either way, while these toys are not particularly Christmassy, they were sold in Christmas crackers here in the UK back in the heydays of early 90s Sonic mania. Take note the palm tree thing in the above photo was just some souvenir from a holiday we had lying about and not part of the set, in case you were wondering. Check out more photos after the break!

Sega Arcade Classics book is here!

My copy of Hardcore Gaming Presents: Sega Arcade Classics Volume 1 arrived yesterday morning! The front cover looks even more beautiful in print, and the book itself is larger than I was expecting, larger than a majority of these Japanese Sega books I have anyway. More photos after the jump!

Buy Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed at Gamestop, get a new car!

Those who follow SEGA news over at SEGAbits (plug plug) may have read about the marketing tie-in Hot Wheels and Danica Patrick had with SEGA. The team up has been a long and winding road, filled with complaining fans, happy fans, stupid moments and cool moments. Danica Patrick may have been an odd addition to Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed's roster, but I think most SEGA fans can agree that the car she raced at Texas Motor Speedway in November looked awesome. Okay, so that explains why Danica was in the game. Her SEGA connection was racing with SEGA as a sponsor in real life. But why in the world was she driving a Hot Wheels branded car in the game? Well, back in October 2012, SEGA revealed a Hot Wheels Danicar (a toy car designed by Danica Patrick back in 2011) with SEGA branding. The car was to be given out at select retailers to those who bought the game. Awesome! Free merch, and a reason for a Hot Wheels car being in the game. 

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!

Hardcore Gaming 101 presents Sega Arcade Classics Book!

The English release of the History of Sonic book is due sometime in December, but at the same time we now have another Sega book to look forward to! Hardcore Gaming 101 has revealed Sega Arcade Classics Volume 1, which will contain articles about the best Sega franchises that started in the 80s, including Space Harrier, Alex Kidd, Shinobi, After Burner, Outrun, Wonder Boy and many more. As far as I can tell the book will also go into these games console ports and spin offs.

Of particular note is the beautiful cover art by none over than Jonathan "Persona" Kim, who is most well known for working on the Scott Pilgrim game and Skullgirls, and has done plenty of Sega fan art over the years. Loving the inclusion of Dynamite Dux, the Quartlet gang and even Teddy Boy there!

The book will be available to pre-order on Amazon (no link yet) sometime in December, with a $10 black and white version and a $25 full colour version, as well as a Kindle release for just $5. Hopefully the "volume 1" is an indication they have a 2nd volume in the works if this one sells well, so get on it!

Oh yeah and while you're at it go get Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, which just released here today.  Do it now.

UPDATE: It's out! You can get it from the following:

US Amazon: Color - $25.00
US Amazon: Black & White - $9.99
UK Amazon: Color - £15.99
UK Amazon: Black & White - £6.99
DE Amazon: Color - €21.39
DE Amazon: Black & White - €8.55
PDF Download at Sellfy - $4.99

Grabbed my copy, will show photos and review it when it arrives!

Shadow the Hedgehog statue announced by First 4 Figures

First 4 Figures have announced another one of their Sonic the Hedgehog statues. This time, the company are adding Shadow to their line of modern era statues, which began with Sonic the Hedgehog. The Sonic statue as well as the Shadow statue have yet to release. But both are available for pre-order, with Sonic slated for a Q1 2013 release, and Shadow slated for an unspecified date. First 4 Figures, however, has revealed the pre-order date, which begins November 11th. Those who have been collecting all of these statues as well as the Shadow fans out there should be very happy to hear the news.

Where's Sonic? He might be in any of these four books.

What goes around comes around. A new book has just been released in the UK called Where's Sonic? A search and find adventure. Funnily enough, this idea, right down to the title, was already done back in Sonic's heyday in the early 90's, both with a pair of books in the UK and also with the different titled Search & Find Sonic the Hedgehog in America. To think there are now four books based on this same exact premise, inspired by the Where's wally/Waldo books. How do they all compare to one another? We'll check them all out after the jump!

Sonic the Hedgehog Monopoly - Unboxing

My Sonic the Hedgehog Monopoly arrived from Amazon today, so I thought I'd do a quick unboxing. I've yet to play it, but I'd assume it's like playing Monopoly, but a lot more fun thanks to the Sonic theme. There are a few fun nods to past games in the cards, but nothing mind blowing. Still, a very well put together set that I definitely recommend.

'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.

Virtua Fighter 1 Bandai keychain figures

 

At the same as I bought all those keychain Sega girls some time back I also got this set of six Virtua Fighter keychains. Judging by the auction they were produced by Bandai around the time the first Virtua Fighter game was released. I assume this is not a complete set either as Pai and Lau Chan are missing from the original roster of 8 here, or 9 if you count Dural but they rarely make toys of her. This is unless they just forgot those two for some reason, I guess I won't know unless I see some kind of packaging that these did not have. Either way check after the jump for more photos!

Sega Gals Keychain figures

I bought these two small keychain figures of Rage (from Virtua Cop) and Bahn (from Fighting Vipers) back at Summer of Sonic 2011, and ever since they have been waiting for some company from the same set..

..until now! Recently I bought this small collection of Sega keychain figures that are exactly like these two, right down to the little blue stands with their names on. These however are from a different set released at the same time (1998) of Sega's many ladies! Hit the jump for photos galore and more info on the (almost) complete set.

Say this in an angry Batman voice: "Where's Sonic?"

It's rare to see a Sonic book hitting shelves that isn't either the elusive History of Sonic book, or an Archie Comics compilation. So when I saw this, I was very intrigued. “Where’s Sonic?: A Search-And-Find Adventure” is a Where’s Waldo/Wally style book in which fans try and find Sonic as well as other items as they litter recognizable zones and stages from the franchise. Looks like they'll be using CG renders throughout, most likely pre-existing poses, and the book will probably only span Generations and perhaps Colors. However, I would be surprised if Riders, All-Stars Racing and Unleashed get their own pages. Currently the book is only listed in the UK and Australia. Amazon UK is taking pre-orders for £2.99 with free shipping within the UK. The release date is October 11th, so until then try to find Shadow creeping in the shadows in the image above.

Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de: An anime with Sega characters, sort of.

Well this is the weirdest thing I have seen in some time. There is going to be an anime airing from next month in Japan called Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de that, according to MyAnimeList is:

Segua Kingdom has been losing the war against Ninterdo Empire but the tables are turned by the appearance of a boy called Gear. All the characters are parodies of Nintendo or Sega games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda etc.

and they included an image:

 Not terribly obvious from that artwork but the guy with the blue hair is a parody of Sonic. Not clear enough? This image from the already existing manga probably will..

More info (what info there is so far) after the jump.

An infamous Sonic Says in 3D

Regulars to SEGA Memories should know of our love for all things "The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog". Even those who aren't steeped in the series know of the many memes to come from it, as well as the infamous Sonic Sez Says segment in which Sonic warns of molestation. In what is one of the most creative remixes of the original, a fan animated a 3D model of classic Sonic in Source Filmmaker and created this 3D recreation. If anything, it's the first believable video I've seen of Jaleel White voicing a Sonic Generations classic Sonic. I have to say, it works really well!

USAopoly reveals the Sonic Monopoly board!

The USAopoly Facebook page has revealed the upcoming Sonic Monopoly game board. Just standing back and looking at it, it’s a really great looking board! The design looks nice, a ton of zones and stages are represented. And unlike the Nintendo Monopoly game, thought has been put into the renaming of the chance and community chest cards. Seriously, the Nintendo Monopoly was garbage compared to this beauty. Players bought characters like property and built houses on them. How does that work? Gives a whole new meaning to Hotel Mario. Fans have taken note that the Genesis/Mega Drive games really get the shaft with only three properties representing the classics, and all three are from Sonic Generations. Meanwhile, Sonic 4 receives three properties and Sonic Riders, a spin-off title, receives two. If you’re really bothered by the property selection, just use my custom Sonic Hogopoly board.