Sega Memories DeviantArt Group

Where have I been then? Not writing Sega memories articles that's for sure, poor Barry has been doing all the work lately! To sort of make up for it, today I set up a group on DeviantArt to collect all the best fan art I can find on the website, much like what I've done here before with the Sega Fan Art Showcase articles. If you're signed up to the website you can send in suggestions to add to the collection too. I still haven't got quite my head around every element of this newly made feature of DeviantArt, so bear with me, but there's already a small lump of art collected up to see.

AoStH Volume 3 DVD Spindashes into Early 2010

TVShowsonDVD.com has recently reported that the long awaited third and final volume of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog will be released sometime in early 2010. Unlike the previous volumes, volume 3 will be exclusive to the Shout Factory online store. The reason for this exclusivity is that previous volumes did not sell well in retail, so to save some pennies the set will only be available in one place.

DVD producer Brian Ward assures fans that this will still be a factory produced DVD and not a DVD-R like the on-demand shows coming from Amazon.com. As for the packaging and extras, nothing has been revealed just yet. There is a chance that in cutting costs, the set might be reduced to being in a simpler DVD case, but the menus and video quality will remain the same. I've e-mailed Milton Knight to see if another drawing lesson or the recently released pilot footage will appear. If he writes back, I'll post it here.

Edit: Milton wrote back! There is a possibility that volume 3 will contain an additional bonus feature! I won't spoil it here as I don't want to overstep anything between Shout Factory and Milton. ;)

Volume 3 will be the final batch of 90's era non-Japanese Sonic cartoons on DVD

European AoStH fans who have the region free complete series are probably wondering why us Yanks won't just import that. Well, the Americans who already own two-thirds of the series probably would prefer to just get those final 21 episodes online within the country rather than rely on international ebay auctions.

The Old Sonic Adventure Website is Still Awesome

In terms of advertising, today's games share much in common with the games of ten years ago. Print, video and web are all heavily utilized methods of getting a game's name to the masses. While television and print adverts of the past stand up well to (and in some cases exceed) today's tv and print ads, one form of advertising has greatly evolved; website advertising.

Web advertising of today features streaming HD trailers, interactive interfaces, mini-games, countless connections to social networks and in-depth development diaries. Compared to gaming websites of the past, today's gaming websites technically blow them out of the water. But don't let flashy interfaces and slick buttons turn you completely off to old school gaming websites. Today I want to share a real gem of a website: the Japanese Sonic Adventure website!

Okay, it doesn't look like much. But that list of links feature a treasure trove of low resolution images, tiny video clips and hilarious Sonic Team snapshots of the golden years. Rather than go on and on about the website, I invite you to check it out yourself. After you check it out (or before, your choice) I will present:

Eleven Awesome Things on the Japanese Sonic Adventure Website!

Happy Thanksgiving!

There's also this video, not for the feint of heart. For the full story of Sonic's Thanksgiving Parade debut (and pop), check out this awesome article from X-Entertainment.

Gobble gobble!

New Classic Sonic 2" figures

Just spotted these on play.com, with a pre-order date of the 20th of this month. Classic styled and just 2 inches tall (still bigger than the Sonic & Knuckles set I have) , they cost £4 each at the moment though I should imagine a box set of all three will show up at some point too. Wouldn't it be nice if they made a whole collection of these with Robotnik, Amy, Metal Sonic etc? For now though we just have the usual Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. Still, they look nice enough, decent Christmas gifts at least.

They also have the RC Racers and Track set that I showed you before up on the site for under a tenner. I wouldn't really recommended the track set unless you really must have the little figures that come with it: I got my set for much cheaper as it was faulty, the track is nothing special. The RC Racers however are quite nice.

Oh, and the 12" statue? Good luck getting that now, it's price is shooting upwards!

New First4Figures Sneak Peek

It hasn't even been six months since series 1 of the Sonic the Hedgehog vinyl toys hit stores, and yet First4Figures (F4F for the sake of brevity) is now revealing what may come next! The F4F Facebook group has revealed sneak peeks at an upcoming figure, and all signs point to Metal Sonic... again!

While F4F has yet to dip their toes in the evil robotic hedgehog waters, Jazwares has already released the awesome 10" Metal Sonic as well as the chibi-kawaii Juvi Metal Sonic. Is too much Metal a bad thing? Of course not! The F4F Metal Sonic could be one of two things: a large $100+ statue, or one of thee figures to appear in series 2 of the vinyl series. My hopes go towards series 2, as that would also mean two more figures. A Sonic CD reunion perhaps, complete with pink tutu Amy and a jolly Eggman. The figure would also have to be unique, in a dynamic pose, possibly sporting purple-pink flames shooting out from his behind.

Wouldn't this pose make an awesome vinyl toy?

I, and the fans, could also be completely wrong and we are in fact getting the little known Hyper Metal Piggy:

Beat in the Box - JSRF Merch

When it comes to SmileBit's Jet Set Radio franchise, I guess I'd say I'm a fan...

Okay... I own five discs when there are essentially two games. I'm a BIG fan. While I have yet to snag the holy grail of JSR merch, the De La Jet Set Radio Dreamcast Direct box, I was able to find another JSR item that has been on my want list for a while:

It's the GamePro Beat figure! I found this bad boy (or is that Rudie?) on ebay for $20, quite a good price considering how infrequently the figure appears and how high the starting price usually is. For those interested, a "buy it now" auction with a quantity of three figures has appeard on ebay, the cost per figure is just under $40. For those with deep pockets, a limited edition run of 500 "prototype" figures are out there, but when you do find one look to spend between $250 to $400. WAY too much for essentially an unpainted version of the same figure.

Sonic's Mystery Box

This past weekend my parents came to visit, and along with a fun-filled weekend came all of my Sega games, accessories and consoles that I had left at their house. After quietly sneaking six boxes past my girlfriend, I came to the last box. Inside was an odd assortment of items from my Sonic collection. My parents craftily snuck in a bit of things that I didn't ask to be brought. Rather than being a little brat, I thanked them for this random selection of Sonic items and now I'd like to share Sonic's mystery box with all of you!

Mega Drive Complete Japanese game Library

I did one of these for the Dreamcast once, so why not the Mega Drive? I've been on a bit of a high for Mega Drive Japanese games lately, so for those collecting them here is every game released in Japan for the system in chronological order (according to the database over at Guardiana), with their front covers featured which I found from various sources (some games were hard to find the covers of, so the quality of the pictures varies) and some OC Remixes of Ristar and Streets of Rage for good measure.

Funny to think of how many games they got over there that we didn't, yet their game line up is actually missing quite a lot too, such as Vectorman. Many Japanese versions of the games are much rarer, especially most of the games from 1995. Maximum Carnage and Bart's Nightmare can be found here easily and aren't even very good games, yet the Japanese version fetch hundreds upon hundreds of quid. A bit silly, really.

There's something to be said about the boxart from Japan though: there is a lot of nice artwork to be found. Compare the likes of Jewel Master, Alisha Dragon, Strider and others to their Western counterparts, you have to wonder what was going through their heads. Still, there are some odd choices like the cover to the The Ooze, which try to stand out as some sort of newspaper article with no artwork or screenshots, and Bio Hazard Battle goes by the name 'Crying' for some reason. These kind of differences from the west and east don't tend to happen so much now.

A blog you'll want to check out if you're looking to start collecting Japanese Mega Drives would be Mega Drive Memories by Ian Wilson.

More Juvi-nile Delinquents

As promised on the back of the SDCC Metal Sonic Juvi figure, the Juvi figures of Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow and the Werehog have hit stores!

Photo lovingly ripped from ebay

Like Metal Sonic, the first series are Toyr R Us exclusives. Unlike Metal Sonic, they can be found in stores and have yet to hit the online shop. Each figure goes for a reasonable $9.99 each. My take: I think they look alright, but I don't think I'll be buying them. The face sculpts look a bit too extreme and "Sonic X"-ish. I also don't like that they all look like they spotted a penny on the floor. You'll notice Sonic has a "shine" on the top of his head, like a light blue paint roller ran across his forehead. Besides the wonky look to their faces, the paint/print job itself is lovely and they look to be just as quality a product as the Metal Sonic.

The prototypes clearly had more of a neck and were looking upwards.

Internet rumors speculate that Series 2 will contain Amy, Silver, and Metal Sonic. I'd take this with a grain of salt, as Metal Sonic has already been released. Unless a variaton is made, or the exclusiveness of the SDCC figure is to be dissolved, I suspect we'll be seeing Tails and Blaze rounding out the four. I'll admit, when I read "Silver" I got excited for the Sonic 2 boss, only to realize they were talking about the Sonic '06 Silver the Hedgehog. C'est la vie!

In other news: Metal Sonic has returned to the Toys R Us online store! Get him while you can!