Sunday, August 10, 2008

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

This week was the start of the 2008 Bejing Olympics.
However, Sonic fans have known that for quite a while, due to "Sonic & Mario at the Olympic Games" for the Wii. Of course this game is a 'cash in' on the real olympics, but, why not. Like most Sonic games, this one gets magazine-cover fanfare and likely some sprinkling of promotional items.
So, SonicGear is featuring these things! A collection of magazine scans went up, as well as a UK keychain with art from the game. With the olympics on everyone's mind, I wouldn't be too surprised if more things show up during the games on Gear updates.

The main focus of the update was Australia, though. Several items appeared at once in the mail, and the reserve bin is now empty for them, as it had enough in it too. Segaworld AU really did a good job featuring all the characters, while other places really just spammed Sonic. If you look at a lot of their things, they make sure to have Sonic Tails Sally and Robotnick on almost every line. Also, as you know by now, they were real big on Sally (from the Archie comics) for some reason. Even though she was invented in the USA, AU by FAR has more stuff for her.

The anti-highlight of the update though is the nasty Tails Sipper Bottle.
Sure, you knew Sonic was going to be fat and likely ugly before the photos even came in. (and so he is fat, but not that bad of a head sculpt) but SEEERIOUSLY Tails looks like some completely different character. He's brown, the face is all screwed up, tiny ears, fat, giant brown chest-fur-patch, tiny dumb hands...the only thing "Tails" about it is the color of the shoes. It's like you'd have to tell people that the thing was 'supposed to be Tails'. It's so outrageously off that I didn't know whether to put it in 'mutant gear' or not.

The other bit was a ceramic statue of one of the little animals that pops out of a badnik when you break it. Talk about highlighting a bit player! These guys were only a few pixels and existed only to run off the edge of your screen! The Fleetway (UK) comic gave them a bit of play, and is probably what helped to spawn the little "Sally Acorn" ceramic figure. You can see where Archie got their start for her name too...though the figure just throws more confusion into the mix.

Where there's 1...?
There's likely more than 1. Japan was big on the penguins and seals/walruses, so I wouldn't be surprised if whoever produced this also has made at least a few of the other animals in the same way. This thing is likely REAL rare though, so it'll be interesting to see if someone sends photos of more.

Next week's update is up in the air. No bin is really leaning toward being able to produce a theme, so a variety pack is likely, especially with mail thrown in.

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