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.

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.

Modern Sonic F4F Statue Revealed

Via their Facebook page, First4Figures have revealed the first in their modern line of Sonic statues: Sonic the Hedgehog. Like the photo says, pre-orders start May 15th, 2012 and there will be a very limited number of statues available. I have to say, when I heard of a modern line I was iffy, but this statue looks great! While I won't be getting it, the F4F statues are too rich for my blood, I do love looking at photos of them.

Metal Sonic statue is here! Photos galore!

Came home this afternoon to find this sitting in my corridor! As you could probably guess I couldn't wait to tear this box open (well, tear it open in a very careful nerdy manner anyway) to see! I don't have time for an unboxing video so I took a truck load of photos instead! Just play this music in the background while looking at the pics and will get a similar impression!

Lots (and lots and lots) more photos after the jump!

First4figures teases new Tails statue.

So First4Figures have just stuck this picture up recently on their Facebook of yet another statue in their classic Sonic range, this time of Tails flying on what appearers to be a stand based on the Mushroom Hill zone.

I have to say though, "Coming in 2012" seems very unlikely to me, seeing as we are only just now getting our orders for the Metal Sonic statue, which was revealed in 2010, and there is a Knuckles statue due before this one as well, so judging by how each statue has eventually shown up one per year around Jan/Feb, a more realistic date for this one may be something like 2014. Fine by me, to be honest: I wouldn't be able to afford more than one of these a year and to be honest I might not pre-order the Knuckles and wait till the regular version is in shops like Forbidden Planet. My wallet can only take so much punishment!

Metal Sonic Statue is almost here! Production photos!

 Eeek! It's the brotherhood of Metallix!

I love when First4Figures does this. They have put up production photos of the Metal Sonic statue on their Facebook. You know what this means? They are almost ready for shipment! This also means a big chunk of cash will be leaving my bank account. Ouch.

First4figures Knuckles officially revealed! Here we go again!

It's that time again! First4Figures has opened pre-orders for the forth in their series of highly luxurious and highly expensive Sonic statues, this time of Knuckles punching into the ground of the lava reef zone!

Much like the Super Sonic and still as yet to be released Metal Sonic statues, this one comes in both a standard run of 1,500 for $170 and a limited edition light-up version that is exclusive to their website with only a run of 500 that will sell for $190! These are available to pre-order now and the estimated release date is "Q2 2012" though I would bet on that slipping to "Q4 2012" as the same happened with all of the previous statues.

Personally? I think I may pass on the limited edition this time around. I think I will hold out until shops like Forbidden Planet have the regular edition. I don't think I can justify three of these statues for that kind of money in a row. They have yet to even take the money for the Metal Sonic one and to be fair I'd be happy with having two special ones of my favorite characters (Metal and Super) and two regulars for Sonic and Knuckles, as much as that lava effect is nice. So once this one is out who's next? Tails would be my guess and I know they've stated they are going to start a line of modern statues as well including Shadow, but I could live without those myself.

Knuckles statue from First4figures is next!

They released a pixellated image of this statue a while ago, and now it's revealed that Knuckles will be the next in First4figures line of massive (and expensive) Sonic statues! So far it doesn't look as though there will be a additional light-up limited edition like there was for Super Sonic and Metal, so this one will just be a regular slightly cheaper statue like the first Sonic one. Pre-orders for this one start in just a couple of days.

Speaking of the Metal Sonic statue, it's still not yet! It's due this month sometime however, though an exact date is not confirmed yet.

F4F Reveals Sonic 20th Anniversary Statue, And Now the Bad News...

... it looks to be a contest giveaway prize, to be handed out by SEGA of Europe. Per the F4F website: "These are incredibly limited and will not be available for purchase so if you manage to snag one, you’ll be very lucky! He stands at about 10 inches tall." Hey SEGA, why not send us two? One for us to keep, and one for us to give away? Heh heh.

You can see more views of the statue here. F4F has also announced that they have renewed the Sonic license worldwide, so those in Europe and in the States will have little problem ordering statues and figures. F4F is also teasing a new statue, the teaser pic can be seen on their facebook wall and it looks to be Knuckles punching/digging rock.

Super Sonic Statue Unboxing Video!

Will post some more photos and impressions soon!

Super Sonic Arrived!

Nuff.

Said.

Unboxing video coming up tonight!

First4Figures Statues: good news and bad news.

I'm aware I forgot to post the full set of new Metal Sonic statue photos here but if you haven't seen them yet you can check them out at First4Figures website. meanwhile, there's been some news about it. Some good, some bad. See after the jump.

Oh christ, another Sonic staute from First4Figures..

First4Figures have just revealed on facebook that they have another large Sonic statue in the works which will be ready for pre-order on the 28th of December, and it's none other than Metal Sonic, with glowing eyes! We haven't seen what level the stand will be based on, Now hold on guys, what about the Super Sonic? They still haven't even charged me for it yet let alone sent it out. The wait is becoming unbearable. With that in mind expect this new statue to be shipped out by 2015. Maybe.

These things cost so much, but really: if I was only allowed to own a few pieces of Sonic merchandise, a set of these statues would be them. Plus Metal Sonic is personally my all time favorite character from the series so resisting this will be very difficult. My poor wallet!

10" Sonic and the Sonic PVC 6-pack!

 As 2010 comes to an end, so too does a great year for Sonic toys! This year we saw toymaker Jazwares make a huge step up in quality and number of new figures. Meanwhile, First 4 Figures covered the collectible side of things with an awesome Super Sonic statue and a great collection of PVC figures. Today I thought I'd highlight two recent acquisitions: Jazware's 10" Sonic and First 4 Figures PVC 6-pack!

SOS '10: The Merchindise in the Glass Box!

Just like last year there was a 'No Merch Zone' present, which consists of a large glass cabinet of Sonic related treasures. There was some of the same stuff from last year but mostly completely new stuff, so here's a bunch of photos. Apologies the photos are not quite so good this time but you'll get the idea. Check them out after the jump..

SOS '10: The Swag

Instead of making a couple huge articles like last year, I'm going to be posting a bunch of shorter articles about last Saturday's brilliant Summer of Sonic convention. Safe to say they really outdid themselves this year. To kick off, here's what I brought back from there. A bit silly that I'm starting my coverage with the last photo I took but never mind!

So a bulk of it is from the goodie bag that was given away to the first few hundred entrants with tickets (people without tickets couldn't even get in until an hour or two after it opened! Sucks to be them I guess :E). My girlfriend also got a ticket just before the registration ended because she wanted to tag along even though she's not that big into Sonic (she enjoyed it though, so that's a relief lol) and when we entered from the HUGE queue we got the last bag! However they did have hundreds more of the highlight of the bag; the Metal Sonic figure, to give away to people that entered (tickets or not I believe) right through till about 4pm. More after the jump..

Summer of Sonic is imminent!

Summer of Sonic kicks off in The Pavilion, Shepherd's Bush, London this Saturday and you can expect to see coverage of the event throughout next week (providing I get time as I'm currently rather busy for this and next week) including plenty of photos and videos. For those not in the know, here's some of the excellent stuff to expect:

 Free Metal Sonic Toy!

Last year the freebie as we got in the door was a neat little Sonic art book, but this year they have really outdone themselves. The first 750 entrees with a ticket will be getting this yet to be released mini Metal Sonic figure from First4Figures! This is one of the three new 3" toys they will be releasing later this year to sit along side the Sonic, Knuckles and Tails ones they made last year. There will also be a box set of all six in the near future if you have not picked up the others yet. The other two new figurines consist of Super Sonic and Amy Rose!

Sonic 4 and Sonic Colours (Wii and DS) Playable!

Yep, not one but all three of the currently known upcoming Sonic releases will be there to test out! This includes the much awaited (and debated) Sonic 4 and both the DS and Wii versions of Sonic Colours, the next in the main line 3D Sonic games. I'm personally looking forward to trying both out: Colours looks like it's taking everything that worked in Unleashed and ditching all the annoying stuff to give us a simple fun new Sonic with no werehogs, no medal collecting and no need to endlessly boost everywhere! The DS version appears so far to be essentially Sonic Rush 3. Sonic 4 is well, Sonic the Hedgehog Number 4.

All-Stars Racing Tournament!

All-Stars was playable in an early form last year at SOS and since then the game has been released (and was awesome btw) and this year you can see if you can be hailed the All-Stars racing champion! I bet most people will be playing Alex Kidd, Ryo, Shadow....bascilly anyone on bikes. We shall see!

Crush 40 Performing!

Jun Senoue and his band are one of the major players in Sonic's musical history, producing the soundtracks to a large portion of the franchises existence, and at SOS this year we will get to hear them live, ask them questions in an interview and even a instrumental jam session with Jun at tea time! For me at least this sure beats seeing that Bentley Jones guy performing, who I'm not a fan of by any means (I'm trying to be polite here lol).

Nigel Dobbyn returns!

One of the leading artists from the UK Sonic the Comic, Dobbyn was at SOS last year selling many of his original artwork. Unsurprisingly most if not all of it sold out, so this year he will be selling newly drawn prints like this little beauty here (above)! He will be there like last year for a chat and to get whatever you like signed. The guy is a mega talented artist so even if you never read the comic you should check him out!

That (in my opinion) the highlights for this year, and there is bound to be more surprises too so if you're going to be there I might see you there (just look for this git on the left, above) and if not look forward to checking out our coverage! :)

First 4 Figures jump on the Super Sonic bandwagon

Remember First 4 Figures? Of course you do, they do those lovely Classic Sonic styled models that generally completely outclass most of the modern figures. As well as that, they do highly elaborate (and expensive) statues of characters, not least including one of Sonic. Well, now they're planning to release another large statue. No prizes for guessing who!

It looks rather fantastic really - the base is an especially nice touch (I'm assuming it's meant to represent Sonic 2's Death Egg). But unless you have $140 dollars spare, this is the epitome of a luxury purchase. For an extra $20, you can also get something a bit... brighter.

Whilst the price might be outrageous (these are rather high-end statues, after all), it's nice to see Super Sonic finally getting some merchandise based acknowledgement. Perhaps the next range of smaller models from F4F will include Super Sonic as well?

More information here and here.

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!

They finally arrived! The Classic Sonic Vinyl Figures

To say these have been a pain in the arse to find for sale is an understatement. I ordered them from Forbidden Planet way back in march (along with the 12" statue, which is actually now in stock over at Play-Asia if you're willing to pay the shipping fees) and just today I finally got a set of the First4Figures Classic Sonic vinyl toys, and they do not disappoint.

Here they are in the packaging, which is luckily that kind that lets you place it back in the box if and when you please rather than some sodding blister pack that needs to be slaughtered to open up.

Here's the back of the box. It says 'Series 1' so hopefully one day we'll get more of these. I'd be all up for a set of Metal Sonic, Amy Rose and Robotnik myself. Considering how long it took these ones to fruition I doubt we'll see a series two, though. Please prove me wrong, First4Figures!



More often than not with figures the photo on the box looks a darn sight better than the figure you get in the box itself, but in this case that's not the case. They really do look just as good as they did in the early promo photos. The quality of these toys is up there with the Japanese Mario figures that have been floating about for the last few years, they're simply brilliant.

Sonic is the odd one of the bunch in that he's not in a standing pose, rather a mid run which makes sense as running is what he's known for. For the toy to stand upright the little black stand has littles in dents for the feet to sit inside which work nicely (unlike so many figure stands I've had before that are far too fiddly).

He hasn't got much of an expression going on so this is probably the figure with the least character of the three, but that's not saying much as it's still a whole lot better than 90% of previous Sonic toys. The pose looks great, especially from the side.

The Tails figure is, lets be honest here.. the best Tails shaped lump of plastic to ever be molded. Tails in particular has been a character that companies have rarely got right in toy form: normally he ends up with a smashed-in-the-face-with-a-shovel look. Just compare this new toy to this rather wonky Sonic Adventure one from 1999:

HURRRRRR. DURRRRR. HURRR DURRR.

DERP DERP DERP.

I really cannot fault this one, they've nailed it. My favorite of the three, which is also what I said about the Classic Sonic range plush toys that came out last year. Basing his design on the far cuter Japanese artwork was a very smart move. The proportions are just right, and he has such a joyous smile on his face. What's not to like.

The Knuckles figure is also excellently designed. Again the proportions are as close to the old Japanese artwork as you're going to get. The pose is nice and despite his fits covering up a lot of his chest they haven't forgotten his collar/birthmark//whatever that thing is supposed to be. Even his tail goes wonky at the end like it should. It's the simplicity yet attention to detail that makes these such a brilliant set.

If you can hunt these down I would defiantly recommended buying them. These are quite possible the nicest Sonic figures to have ever been produced, they really are that good. The bar has been raised by First4Figures for quality after years of mostly wonky Sonic merchandise and I hope their 12" Sonic statue is as high quality as these are, though unlike the statue these are a measly £10-15 each so they're also a bargain for how well designed they are (you'd never get a Mickey Mouse Vinyl toy for this kind of price, for example).