New Game & Figure Hype!

First up is the announcement (sort of) of a new Sonic game!
At the bottom you'll find First4Figures news too!

Gear doesn't cover games or much real game stuff. There are other sites that do that much better. Gear is mostly merch, but the blog can be about anything. And this time, there are some deductions to be had & some speculation.

Sonic Lost World
This was "uncovered" when Sega was discovered to have bought the rights to that trio of words a while back. Nobody knew what it meant at the time, but a new game was speculated. And so it was true...
http://sonic.sega.jp/SonicLostWorld/

Website doesn't do anything but fade in the title in JP text/white on 5.23.13 so its not much use to anyone except as a place-holder teaser type thing.

A photo from it is seen here with this article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/popular-sonic-the-hedgehog-video-games-coming-to-nintendo-systems/2013/05/17/cf9ef68c-bf51-11e2-b537-ab47f0325f7c_story.html

Where you can see the Tornado flying toward a clump of hexagons in the sky. They look pretty standard too, with icy ones, jungle ones, water ones, volcano ones....etc. Is it ALREADY becoming TYPICAL asks the skeptical viewer of the photo?

If you read the article carefully though you can get out some info and deduce some things.

"The next 3 Sonic games are Nintendo Exclusive"
It then proceeds to mention no other titles. However, Lost World is #1, you KNOW that Sonic Mario Olympic Funtime / wherever will be #2, leaving only #3 to be a mystery. All the olympic ones do really well, so yet another is a shoe in for "its going to happen". (I know not everybody is a fan of them, but they sell well so who cares...is the main thought by Sega etc)

The bottom line there...
All the PS3, PC or Xbox people won't have the super long wait for Sonic that they may be imagining.

(Above links discovered by Banana)

CONTROVERSY ZONE
You'll notice the article also mentions "returning friends" well obviously because Tails is in the Tornado in the photo they have so yeah, friends must return. But then it adds the words "new friends". This gets people up in arms. You'll notice "The Sonic Cycle" being tossed around too.

http://segaforums.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sonic_Cycle

(click photo in that article to see the so called Cycle)

Why does "new friends" upset people?
- It takes the focus off Sonic, who they like best
- It means less focus on their favorite character who already exists ex "I want to know more about Knuckles"
- Gameplay modes that they don't like (find emeralds, go fish, shooter type etc)
- Big the cat

Why does "new friends" excite people?
- It could intro someone cool
- It could bring in cool new gameplay type that people actually like
- Metal Sonic was a new character at one point and he turned out cool right
- No matter what, it shakes things up

Opinion Zone:
I dont know the plot, or anything else but my first instinct is "Dont add anybody new". I LIKE the chars we've got, I want to know more about them. I want to see THEM doing things. I'm no pessimist thinking they're going to toss out another Big the cat to us, but let's see more Sonic & somebody who exists NOW action.

First4Figures
As if 1 teaser wasn't enough!
Now you can see this video (sort of) for F4F Shadow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l5vxzke4a8&feature=youtu.be

Looks like they're gearing up to make another great display figure. Then, remember how the previous post talked about their All Stars license? They've got a poll now too!

http://forum.first4figures.com/topic/1358-poll-of-the-week-week-starting-20th-may-2013-nights/

I know there are NiGHTS fans out there (me too!) so this poll is good news for you no matter what.

Lots of exciting news this week!

Wanted Gear- Still Wanted

What happened to the rest of the update last week?
The software crashed before I could update the index so...the "part 2" from last week will be things you haven't seen anyway. The crash isnt a big deal, it's usually fairly crashy in general, doesn't seem to hurt it much most of the time, but it will stall an update if it happens at the wrong time.

Not directly Sonic But....
If you liked Shenmue for the Dreamcast , AND First4Figures, they've got a Ryo Hazuki figure coming out. He WAS on the "All Stars Racers" toy line...sort of, and as a hidden character in the game so he kind of counts. Anyway he is at:

http://cdn.first4figures.com/component/option,com_myphp/Itemid,3/product,105/

The other news is that F4F GOT the AllStars line so...
That could mean anything from the AllStars Racing showing up as a statue by them. Ryo  is just the start. The response to them acquiring the AllStars was apparently really good, so we can expect more figures later. With their passion for random light up stuff, what if they did a car with headlights? It'll be interesting to keep an eye on them.

Wanted Gear...
Still wanted. This section has been getting heaps of submissions but nobody finds the items! The list goes longer and longer because the items arent showing up anywhere, I guess? Hopefully some intrepid photo reporters can uncover this stuff in stores w/cameras because it's not all you might want to buy...

Tank Top - yeah...are these back in style now or something? (I dont know)
There are a few Sonic tanks but how stylish is that shirt type, really?

Pocketeer Wallet - Cute concept that lures thieves
I HAVE actually seen one of these, it was for MLPs , had Rainbow Dash, but then her tail was this outer flap that's supposed to hang over your pocket edge and show off. It was well made, the idea was good, but wouldn't that. advertise to pick pockets just where the wallet was? It didn't seem to have a chain either.

Item of the week:
Sonic Memory Game Challenge
The extra /fan photos for this actually convince me to buy this game. The emerald gimmick shakes it up enough (Memory is old as the hillllzzz) that it looks like it could be fun, plus its got tons of cards with character art AND it is generally inexpensive. This is yet another proof of how great it is to have fans sending in the details! Maybe it will convince more people too.

There will probably be a 2nd update this week.
Not all of  the recent letters were cleared out of the mail, let alone an old one. It'll likely be tuesday night that it goes up, and hopefully cleans out everything for the week. It was a mini stuff flood.

Jazwares Stuff For 2013

Havn't heard from Jazwares in a while, have you?
When they were nearly a no-show (or showed very little/or made 0 news at all) at a toyfair in a couple of places, people had started to wonder if they were getting out of Sonic stuff.

Well this week's update is here to show that's not true!
They've got some interesting stuff on the table, so the blog is here to break it down and see what's going on & what we can expect. The photos are all official stuff, like some kind of ad pages JW itself made, they're meant for distributors/stores and not the public. So, what did we see?

Old stuff being repacked & called 'new'
This includes things like the chaotix 3pack with charmy & super hedgehogs with corrected emeralds & the better joints. Also more All Stars Cars/Figures coming out again.

Why is this bad?
It's not actually new.
Why is it good?
Toys R Us's around the country had/have/are becoming spotty on carrying enough Sonic stuff. Some states NEVER get a thing (as in, Florida never got figures/accessories) while others get so few, chances are you don't have it. So re-releasing these popular things will give the fans another chance. Also, corrected emeralds are also good.

Rouge the Bat is back on the table...
For now. There had been rumors that she was never going to get made, they were ditching her, "Nobody Likes Rouge" (oh yeah and everybody likes Big? And grass is always purple? How about no. Every character has fans, don't just lie) For whatever reason she's just taking a billion years to turn up.
No one knows what the excuse is anymore either, they're obviously using Sega models from the games to make parts/all of many of the figures, why can't they just get a Rouge polygon and be done with it.
So she's once again going to attempt to be in a comic 2-pak with Shadow. But she's (of course) only stock art as of now.

Allstars Racers Transformed-
Everyone was kind of wondering where this merchandising was. Tees are showing up in stores, so where are the toys? Planned and actually made, because they had real photos for these. Sega (as you know) kind of dictates a little of what JW does, and they really want to peddle Transformed, so expect loads of vehicles. Pullback n' Go is nice & the big hovercraft/ship transformed cars for Sonic & Shadow look nice too. Hopefully we see EVERYbody Sonic related in the pullback n' go...with their alternate form vehicles.
Prediction: it'll do fine if they avoid flooding the market with vehicles

Real exciting stuff!
MORE of the Black Knight figures! They did a fantastic job with Sonic & Shadow, so their track record is great going into more of them. But where's Blaze the Cat? Will she fall victim to the "girls curse" and never get made? I mean come on...they're making Blacksmith Tails who didn't have a super mega huge part...
Prediction: These will be a hit almost nomatter what.
The Sonic Shadow ones can't stay on shelves and the detail is amazing.

5 inch Silver! 5 Inch Shadow! More!
The 'light up emeralds' are nice, but of course, having a non-3.5 good JW sculpt of everybody is much cooler than the gimmick of the line. Customizes will love the bigger size, little kids will love the gimmick, which actually looks nice & not cheezy so collectors can like it too.
Prediction: these will be a hit if they can keep the price nice.
Hope: They add more characters so you can get all 7 emeralds as light-ups. (let's get 5 inch Amy!)

Reversible Plushes:
The gimmick is good...2 dolls in one is nice IF IF IF IF they can pull it off. JW track record with dolls hasn't been the best. They've actually made mutants, as well as some mediocre dolls. Their best were merely "good", without anything totally amazing or super cute. The gimmick angle will make the dolls actually MORE difficult to look 'right' or on model than it would if they were just making normal dolls. I'm actually really surprised to see them attempting something so difficult after messing up their previous efforts.
Prediction: Depends totally on how nice the ones on the shelf look. Dolls can be 'dressed up' for official shots to make them look nicer than the production ones.

As a figure fan, I'm excited to see JW on the scene again, making news.

Sonic & Megaman crossover has commenced, (but just started) all early books should still be on shelves, so if you're getting this thing, NOW is the time to do it.

Nike ID Shoe Fan item - VERY good use of an official customizing tool to make something Sonic-like. It's creative and likely results in a quality shoe. Too bad the options aren't more robust so you can't get the stripe all the way across the front of the shoe. It still looks good though.

Next week:
Hopefully a batch of old mail. Things are doing really well with the site! Nothing's over-loading, but solid updates each week without overwhelm or ignoring people (which I hate to appear to do) So, next week could see some old & interesting things.

Archie Stuff Post - Crossover Starts

This week's update was a bit behind the scenes.
Stuff got moved around/corrected & taken off International Unknown. Always a good thing, but generally doesn't get listed as part of the update because it was all already on the site, just moved around. The most notable item was a frizbee/'flying disk' that had been on Japan items for pretty much ages. The weird slogan/phrase on there "Try telling your mind its not real" was also a contributor to its original position (doesnt make 100% of sense, if you think about it) but it turned out to be a Segaworld London thing.

Archie Alert: Skip next section if you don't care about Archie.

Archie Alert:
NOW is the time to be going after those Sonic/Megaman crossover comics if you're going to get them.

They posted BleedingCool's video interview
http://www.archiecomics.com/Blogs/tabid/97/EntryId/1285/BLEEDING-COOL-interviews-Editor-Paul-Kaminski-on-SONIC-MEGA-MAN-WORLDS-COLLIDE.aspx

Also they still have up the "Subscribe to everything for a year" package price going on at
http://archiecomics.stores.yahoo.net/wocosude.html

They MAY have the books grouped up as a set and sold later, but keep in mind those things tend to sell out & it might just be easier to buy it when it's out now, rather than waiting.

I have no idea how actually popular this is going to be.
Is the Megaman community excited? Do Megafans respect the Archie book? They're going all out with variant covers and all, are those going to end up expensive/collectible?

Sonic Legacy 2 is also out.
I do approve of these compilations, they're great for people who want to get the old stories/art/etc. without spending a bundle on the old/collectible books. For example, that one has Issue 25 in it, which is notorious for its first run having special silver ink that was never used again. It also featured Fan Fave Metal Sonic + Spaz art so that issue couldn't lose. Naturally, it's costly now, so just grabbing Legacy sort of solves it. (Remember, its all in black/white only)

Mawhinny Interview:
Interesting to see. Hopefully they keep doing these in various future books. There's nothing super surprising in there. He used the tv shows & Manak as a ref for the art. (Shows how little Sega did there...where were their reference sheets? Answer: non existent) & didn't try to put his own style to Sonic (which you shouldn't do anyway on an official book so.....) Lots of people complained the early art "The FANS can do better! For FREE!" was a battlecry, if you were there. Well that's why: no official style sheets & no Sega reigning in the art like they should of been. (That's how we get panels with 4 nostril Sonic & etc)

Have some fun here:
http://amomentofarchiesonic.tumblr.com/

SatAM News:
If you didn't research it on the internet, SatAM was their most popular show, they put it up against Power Rangers & it lost & got cancelled. (big surprise...you couldn't run ANYthing against them -- this will always go down as a super stupid move. Kill your best guy on purpose? Yeah....uhhuh. Why not just put reruns there? If you already know nobody's going to tune in, don't be stupid.)

The 1st ep of the next season got written & that season would've had Knuckles.
Of course everyone was VERY curious of how they'd of treated him. They basically dismissed/got rid of Tails in that show (Tails fans are generally not big SatAM lovers), would Knuckles have merely been a cash-grab cameo who's quickly dumped off-screen to make more room for their own OC's?
It's unlikely anyone will know.

Sally Rotor & Bunnie were his faves from SatAm & to draw for the comic. Well big shocker, they were always more developed than everyone else. He considers his highpoint during the Death of Sally arc (everyone remembers how well that went over so...)

Next Week:
Update status is doing remarkably well, as evidenced by the recent fixes!
Expect photos to appear on Wanted gear (what's up with that? wait n' see!)
Not sure what else. Getting into the goodies from ancient mails, hopefully.

Sonic Feature Film - How Far Did It Get? 1996

Curiously, the most interesting thing on this update was NOT an item!
It was information inside an item. If you carefully read the description for the Franco American Sonic Pasta...press kit/convincing kit, whatever it was, you'll see they have some kind of info I was never aware of, despite being a Sonic fan from the start.

The only Sonic 'movie' that ended up happening was the somewhat weird Sonic Anime "Sonic the Movie" which they eventually dubbed TERRIBLY into English like, years and years later. Any fan, of course, knows about this, or even owns it. (my first owning of it was a bootleg vhs copy because for years & years that was pretty much the only way.

The details are scant:
"A feature film for Sonic is planned in 1996, by Trilogy Pictures /MGM"

One line on a kit. But that kit, rare as it is, had to have someone researching/planning all the facts for them to put in there, so somebody had to think this movie was real at some point.

The questions it leaves:
How far did it get?
Was it a unique continuity?
Was it based around any known Sonic continuity? Archie/SatAm/AOSTH
Was it going to be horrible CG?
What all did Sega have to do with it?
Why DIDNT it happen?
Is there anything left of it that we could look at?
How did only a NOODLE PROMO find out about this thing?

There was always rumors of a 'Sonic movie', basically since the internet started. but nothing ever materialized. SatAM was supposed to have another season too, and you can read interviews with the story people from that finding out about what was supposed to have happened in it, and how a couple of them moved to Underground (which I personally can't stand) and tried to make Underground ok. There's also fuel for the rumorfire too because movie posters are easy to fake up.

Opinion Zone:
I'm actually pretty glad it didnt happen. CG in the 90s was nasty & did not stand the test of time*. Sonic Underground proves nobody in the USA knew what they were doing to handle him. It would be seen as an affront to fans of the games TODAY because 1996 was still too early for a good character roster so you know they would have the movie crawling with OC's even if they didn't choose an existing continuity.
Pick AOSTH: "its too silly"
Pick SatAM: "up with Sally, down with Sonic, Tails doesn't exist" (and he's brown aaaaaaaaaah!)
Pick or start Sonic Underground with a movie: "Nuuuuuuuuu"
Pick original continuity: "Every other continuity flies into a rage in 1 minute, hating the movie"

*Oldest CG show that did withstand the test of time? Reboot. Because it looked wierd & was actually supposed to look that way, continuity wise. Plus the plot was pretty good.

Of course, that's not the only thing that went on this week.
The actual pasta promo object itself was pretty cool. Another Super Sonic thing is always welcome as well...nice that it's an actual classy glass...glass. The matte black is good. I'm guessing it's supposed to be a beer glass, as it is a pint & shaped sort of that way. (odd how alcohol makes everyone invent new glassware for each different kind of it they make up...but oh well) Can't expect much else from Spencers.

Ye Olden SegaWorld Stuff:
Always good to see, but not that common. I guess the souvineir shops did ok at the time, but...there's still a lot of stuff nobody's re-found. Perhaps they were over priced.

Mail Announcement:
Spam is at an all time high in the Gear inbox. It's especially crucial to watch over the titles of emails if submitting anything. I have no idea what happened to cause it either. It's all weird & irrelevant. Heidi Klum's furniture, what Oprah has to say about Bees...just really random and dumb.

Still, I'm really curious about this movie thing & how much info exists about it. Hopefully now that it's on the site & blog someone will have some info and come forward. I know no one in the movie biz & never have.