Race them all the way! The Broken Sonic track set

Despite the utter disappointment of there still being no sign of the Dr.Robotnik soft toy Impact Innovations promised us on the boxes of their other soft toys, not to mention the constant delays and doubtful release of any of First4Figures range of lovely vinyl figures and that statue, the odd piece of stuff from this classic style Sonic range has crept out into the wild over Christmas. If you've stumbled into a busy GAME store lately you may of seen the console carry bag things with Sonic on them that sell for about £12 and £15 each, but there is also a racing track set, much like the one Impact had early designs of on their website a while back, out there which as far as I know is only available in Debenhams stores at the moment.

Gotta love how they wrote "SONIC BROKEN" on the box. I'm sure you guys will read a lot into that.

More after the jump..

No, really, Japan still likes Sega Pt. 1

Right, as one or two of you may recall, I did promise an article ages ago about my trip to Japan, specifically about Sega stuff there (because noone wants to know about the arduous cultural stuff and the epic journeys I entailed climbing up mountains, walking around a volcano and staying in a very dodgy capsule hotel in Osaka’s probable red light district). Well, I finally got around to writing the article which, like Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy, definitely isn’t worth the wait but should be mildly enjoyable none the less!

^ Authentic photo taken by me. ‘Deckss’ was the name given to this huge department store-esque complex assembled in Odaiba.

More after the jump.

Just a brief one

Okay, first things first, I am a bad person for neglecting Sega Memories for so long. I won't bother making excuses, but Gaga's posted some fantastic stuff whilst I've been off so it's not like you kids have been without. Anyway, I actually have a couple of updates nearly prepared to post (but not quite there yet), but in the mean time I thought I would follow on briefly from an article posted by Gaga a few days ago.

We all know that to a certain degree, Sonic clothes are ridiculous. And yet, despite that, I continue to think that anything stamped with the classic Sonic design is golden. They're ridiculous, but awesomely so. To that end, I thought those of you who have as many fashion issues as myself might want to check out the following link.

This shirt is awesome. Whilst trying not to be a secret advertisement for Play.com, they do seem to be the only people selling it. As overtly nerdy as it is, the shirt rocks mainly because it's a great picture that wraps around the entire t-shirt (nostalgic nerd memory #4359; this stock art of Sonic adorned the cover of the first issue of Sonic the Comic I ever bought. Epic as). Whilst perhaps not as amazing as the Uniqlo shirts (which I am still bitter I never managed to get one of those silhouette [probably sic] ones), it is a rather nice little item. Just be warned if you buy it, the shirt is not that grey colour, it's much more navy. It'd look better if it was that grey colour, but whatever.

So yeah. Go buy yourself a Sega related Christmas present. Just don't spill mulled wine on it, as it probably won't come out.

Sonic The Chess Set (hopefully) coming soon

We can add another item to the expanding list of classic style Sonic gear we will probably never see. A German company has revealed concept art of a Sonic Chess set, with the pieces featuring Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy (her Sonic CD look, a rare sight nowadays) and a bunch of rings and chaos emeralds, all sitting on a nice green hill styled checker board. Release date is apparetly sometime in Feb/March next year for 40 Euros.

Source: Sega Nerds

More clothes with Sonic on 'em

Here's some stuff I got a few months back that I took photos of but didn't get around to uploading here. Some bloke at a car boot sale had tons of Sonic promo gear, mainly t-shirts and hooded fleeces, but also caps, of which he only had one of left, and some Virtua Tennis...things. I bought up two of everything, but probably should have just made him an offer on the lot, as seconds after I walked away some obese woman did exactly that. I decided to keep one lot sealed up for the loft collection, and the other lot for wearing.

More photos after the jump..

Is something afoot with the classic Sonic range?

So we're now in November, and the Sonic statue and vinyl figures from first4figures are still not out. Play.com has the statue listed for the 7th of December, but judging how they have given us random dates before only for it to be pushed further away, something tells me they have no idea when it will be available. As for the Vinyl toys...they don't even list them anymore. The Vinyls are still on play-asia, where they are still listed as nothing more than "Q4 2008". They list the statue as December. First4figures website says the same, so here's hoping.

On another note, remember how those classic Sonic plush toys that were released had a tag that stated "collect all four!", which included an image of Dr.Robotnik? We eventually got the Knuckles toy, but there has been no sign of the Eggman at all, not even an image of what it looks like? There's no evidence of it's existence even on the Impact Innovations site, so it looks like we'll never get one, let alone all of that other stuff they had planned, like USB drives, race track sets and radio controlled cars. Now would be a perfect time to release them, just in time for Christmas. What could possibly be a better present than a cuddly mad scientist that traps animals in machinery? I've always wanted one of those.

Meanwhile, a action figure of Sonic the Werehog (that new form of his in the upcoming game Sonic Unleashed) has been popping up on Ebay. All I know about it so far is it's a pre-order bonus in Australia, and apparently is "only in Toys R Us" in America. The toy isn't particularly brilliant (see above), but this might just be the start of a new toy chain, so who knows what will come from it? The werehog (shouldn't that be "Hedge-wolf"?) kind of reminds me of My pet Monster, so maybe they should do a Sonic version of that, complete with breaking chains.

Splendid Japanese Sonic plush toy of 1991

After my last plush toy find at a car boot sale led to this abomination, I was convinced that finding some of the nicer, older Japanese toys would be quite a long stretch (although I did mange to find a small Japanese one a while back with a SegaSonic tag on it which wasn't too bad). To my surprise the other week I found this one sitting amongst someones junk. I recognized it from one of Rhia's many photos of her collection and it was only a quid. An over abundance of photos ahoy (after the jump)!

Visualshock! Speedshock! Soundshock! The Mega Drive is 20 today.

On this day in 1988 the Mega Drive was released in Japan. It was actually about 2 and a half years from this point before Sonic The Hedgehog debuted on the system. Just take that into perspective for a moment: 2 and a half years was very much the Dreamcast's entire life span (if you don't count all those shmups released here and there afterwards, but I'll be going into the Dreamcast more next month for the Dreamcast's 10th Birthday) and yet in this time the Mega Drive had barely even started and would only get stronger and stronger from there on. It was Sega's most successful console in Europe and America, and longest living on the market worldwide. It was also the only console that managed to shake up Nintendo's stranglehold on the gaming market at the time and force them to push themselves to make their own 16-bit console. If it wasn't for the Mega Drive, Nintendo would of most likely of sat on the NES for much longer and wouldn't have felt pressured to make even better games which to the most heated and most exciting console "war" in it's history to date.

The Mega Drive still lives in many forms. The games are available on the Wii's Virtual console, on many Sega collection discs released, and in dozens of TV plug in and handheld devices, like this recently released tiny console that has 20 games built in and even a cartridge slot for the original. Mega Drive systems and games are also still sold in Brazil, where it even got some brand new games like a suprisenly well done port of Duke Nukem 3D.
Still, there is nothing quite like playing these games on the original hardware and you don't as much classy than the original model. The Mega Drive looked and feeled like a truly powerful and slick piece of hardware at the time, especially compared to the plastic lump that was the NES. It was also dark and not very toy-like at all, which was quite unusual for a console. There were many different kinds of Mega Drive models released in later years (The Wondermega, MegaJet, Mega Drive II and 3, the list goes on) but this will always be the most iconic.

Saying that, this is what I currently own and is my favorite model of the lot: The Multi Mega. At about half the size, with both the Mega Drive cart slot and a Mega CD disc drive, it is a wonderfully small but robust system. Combine this with a good scart cable for my LCD telly and a extra Master System converter makes it the ultimate retro system for me. The CD drive actually conked out on it a little while ago but I made sure to get it fixed, mainly because I'll never find one of these cheap again, I reckon. Did I mention it came from a car boot sale for £6.50? I probably did, because it's probably the best gaming related purchase I have ever made.

One of my other favorite things about the Mega Drive has to be it's controller. It's possibly one of the most comfortable to hold ever made, has a fantastic d-pad and great feeling buttons. Every thing about it just comes together beautifully. The six button controller they released later was a bit small for my tastes, but many claim it to be their favorite controller of all time.

Some things I can never say i liked was how Sega of America handled the Mega Drive. Simply put, the "Genesis" is a pretty dumb name, and the advertising, while very effective, was pretty obnoxious, often making up utter codswallop like "blast processing". I guess in that case I can see Nintendo fans who grew up in the US of A found Sega to be quite annoying and quite difficult to take seriously. Sega Europe were far more clever with their advertising (if a little batshit at times, see my Pirate TV articles), which is probably why is was even bigger over here still, although it also helps that Nintendo of Europe always were and always will be incompetent.

But in the end for me it was the games that really made the Mega Drive for me. The variety and quantity on offer was just something else. The excellent video above by youtube user Alianger does a very nice job at summing up what the Mega Drive was all about. If you don't have time to dust off your Mega Drive today to give it a play, at least watch this 10 minute epic.

Sega Fanart Showcase: Space Channel 5

Haven't done one of these in a long while, have I? Even though racketboy already did a Space Channel 5 art showcase, but he barely scraped the surface of just how much great art fopr this game there is floating about. The game is still well known despite not having a new game in years, mainly thanks to Sega giving her cameos in many of their recent games like Sega Superstars Tennis and the new Samba De Amigo. With any luck they may be considering giving Ulala the come back she truly deserves with a brand new game one of these days. Until then though, here's some brilliant art by the games many talented fans. Eniotna in particular has too much great SC5 fan art to include here, so I've just featured my favorites of his here.

- Bonjour Ev'rybody - by ~Eniotna

- Pudding Desu - by ~Eniotna

More after the jump..

I'm a terrible man

Long time, no post, I know. I've actually been back from Japan now for nearly two months, and I still haven't really got off my arse to sort out my article about the surprising prevelance of SEGA within Japan. What can I say, I am a tad lazy. It may be a little while yet before you see said article, but in the mean time, let me update you on the awesomeness that is Samba De Amigo for the Wii.



It has Sonic in it. That's a pretty groovy addition. Furthermore, Ulala of Space Channel 5 fame is included. I am really enjoying SEGA's recent trend of pretending the Dreamcast was the most succesful console in existence, and including references to it in its newest games. First we had SEGA Superstars Tennis, which was filled with fan service, left, right and possibly even centre, and now we have Ulala in the new Samba De Amigo game. It's like it's all coming together (just pretend Sonic & The Black Knight doesn't exist).

Okay, I realise this entire post is a big cop out on my part, but it is basically to inform you that I have intentions to make an article at some point. In the mean time, here is a small teaser image;


You saw it here first, Sonic is encouraging middle aged Japanese men to spend their hard earned yen in a very noisy gambling arcade, whilst he rocks out on a guitar and so on.