Toys"R"Us Shows Sonic & SEGA Some Love

I felt like a kid in some kind of store!

Just as things were looking grim for Sonic and SEGA at my local Toys"R"Us, a recent visit brought with it a surprising number of new items! Last month I checked in on the video game figures aisle only to find that Sonic had been relegated to a foot length of shelving, with the only toys available being Knuckles in an ATV and a dozen werehogs. But enough about the sad past, the Sonic and SEGA section is bumping! Let's check out what is new in the world of figures and take a closer look at what I bought!

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Modern Remix

Consider this a mini SEGA Fan Art Showcase. Inspired by the official "cover" art for the soon to be digitally released Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1, I decided to make an Episode 2 cover by using assets from modern games. I used the CG renders from Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing for Sonic, Tails and Eggman's face, while Eggman's hand is actually from his Sonic '06 render. The "2" was made with the SEGASONIC font found at the excellent site ACT SELECT and was given the 3D look in Illustrator CS4 using the 3D extrude and bevel tool. The rest was all done in Photoshop. I would like to spend a little more time on it, but it's not too shabby for under an hours work. Check out a larger version of the remix after the jump!

Eggman Takes Revenge

My ugly plaid couch makes the perfect backdrop

Just when I thought Jazwares gave me all the figures I could need, they reeled me back in with the awesome 2-pack titled "Dr. Eggman's Revenge". Included in the pack are Eggman (obviously) and some sort of robotic Sonic made of metal. How do these figures stack up? More after the jump! Or "more after the homing attack", depends on your preference.

Four Big Hedgehog Photos

 While sorting through my iPhoto library I came across four photos of moments in which I saw big Sonic the Hedgehogs. Rather than let these photos collect digital dust I thought I'd post them here and write some words inbetween each photo to, ya' know, make it look like an article. Nullam sapien eros, facilisis vel, eleifend non, auctor dapibus, pede.

SegaShiro Podcast Episode 3: featuring the Gagaman!

So this Sunday I decided to jump in on the third episode of SegaShiro's new but already essential podcast and today the podcast is finally online to go check out. We chatted about what we have been playing (in my case that new Scott Pilgrim game), Sonic Adventure (though that ended up becoming a general Sonic 3D games discussion) and movie/license games.

I think I was actually a little nervous at some points lol, not sure if that shows in the final edited podcast as I am just about to listen to it, but I had fun chatting with DarrenIndeed (who I met at Summer of Sonic), DJ Bob Fresh (whos video reviews I've been a fan of for some time) and Arby Wan Kenobi. I would defiantly up for joining in on this another time.

SOS '10 Videos Part 4: Crush 40 Live

So here we are at the last of the four SOS 2010 videos I will be uploading. Here we have some of the best bits from Crush 40's live performance at the end of this years Summer of Sonic. I didn't film the whole thing because I knew many others would be and with better camera and steadier hands, and I was right: just search for crush 40 on Youtube and you can watch the entire thing from more angles than you could possibly ever need.

SOS '10 Videos Part 3: The Cosplay Contest

There was just so many cosplayers this year that it was hard to include all the footage of them walking onto the stage to be judged into one video! Thanks Youtube for increasing your time limit to 15 minutes! I did have to cut out all the bits where people had to cheer for their favorites, as well as the part with the top 5 being voted down to 3. Still, you get to see every single cosplayer (bar the winning Rouge from last year who was there but didn't enter the contest) that attended the event here.

If this event was evidence of anything it's that there are a LOT of fans of Shadow, as more people dressed up as him than anyone else. We need more Sonics next year guys! Tomorrow will be our last video: the Crush 40 live performance!

SOS '10 Videos Part 2: Never Mind the Buzzbombers Quiz

Four our second video here is some highlights of the 'Never Mind the Buzzbombers' Quiz, a Sonic themed take on the BBC music quiz Never Mind the Buzzcocks, in case you wasn't aware. Like that show there was an intros round where one of the team had to imitate a Sonic tune and the others had to guess, and there were also some quick fire question rounds. It's not in the video but the winning prize was a rather spiffing Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics snowboard!

The highlight for me had to be when when one of the questions was about a comic I drew for Sumo Digital at last years SOS. You will hear my girlfriend shouting out about it! We have two more videos coming up this week of the cosplay contest and of course Crush 40's live performance!

SOS '10 Videos Part 1: Summary and Intro show

As promised I have a few videos of this years Summer of Sonic to treat you with. Of course there is already possibly hundreds of videos of the event online, many of which are most likely a whole lot less wobbly and covered in the backs of peoples noggins, but you may get some kind of enjoyment out of it with any luck.

We journey from the queue outside into the Pavillion where we check out the goodie bag, have a look around at what there is to check out at the booths and the like, then about 20 minutes after arriving inside the introduction show begins, featuring some guy doing the caramelldansen dance thing, which is a bit odd.

I also put together that artwork at the start of the video, which you can see in full below (click it)!

The second video will be online tomorrow!

It's a SEGA PC Kid's Meal!

 Back in 1999, when you thought "SEGA" you inevitably thought "Dreamcast". With the impending September launch, Dream-hype was seen anywhere and everywhere... except at the Califronia based fast-food chain Jack in the Box. Jack in the Box, oddly enough, had featured a SEGA Kid's Meal in 1999 that focused on SEGA's PC games. Guess they didn't get the memo.