Tuesday, August 18, 2009

August - Month of Not Much

For some reason, August seems to be a month of not much.
No big games, no big movies (summer rush ends at the start of the month, really) no one's announcing anything, people are mostly concentrating on 'back 2 school'. Basically, news doesn't make itself like it does other times of year. Why's it so slow? No one may know...

But, it did give enough of a break that the new page was finally added. Yes, it seems like after 3 weeks it finally got on. (Schedule seems to go: need new page, announce new page is needed, plan new page....4 weeks later new page shows up gah!) The new page is Sonic Cameos and it was populated with several actual new images. It arose from part of 'Sonic Fan Events' which WAS housing show screens, external video game appearances and stuff like that. Really, if it was someone like Shaq or something cropping up in a movie like 'drillbit taylor' it would be called a cameo, so why not. It's not like the Fan Events section suffered anyway, so now the site is just better.

Big news of the week:
Archie uses a Sonic comic to announce the release of the Jazwares small line/pack in. 2 figures from the line will be sold with #200 of the main series in a pack at Toys R Us. This was somewhat surprising that an AD would break the news/first photo on clear-Sonic but...so be it. The other 'issue' (yeah yeah) is that it'll devalue 200 as an issue. Sure the ones that stay in their pack with the figures MIP will retain it and rise (likely) but the open issue that you would have bought at the time will go down. These packs will be dispensing enough of them (that WILL get opened for the figures) so oh well to the value.

Their ploy?
It seems likely to be: Get more people to read Archie who currently just like the games/figures/Sonic community online or Sonic X. Slinging issue 200 around isn't likely to do a whole lot for it. They'd of been better off placing Universe 1 with it, or better yet 1 and 2 if they were actually going for the 'outside crowd' rather than throwing a bone to the already-archie fans. But who knows which one is the real deal.

Ultimately though, the fans win on this because it's a sure-fire way to get clear Sonic, plus the pack will end up collectible no matter what the reason. Hopefully all the other small line figures will be available on an individual basis (or you face dupe Knuckles) which was always likely anyway.

The bad news:
Jazwares appears to stink at plush-making. With the Werehog plush (which they'd publicly said they wouldn't do, earlier, but apparently whoever/whatever was preventing them, was removed) being the best looking of their first line, it's getting scary. Their Shadow is borderline mutant and Sonic's got a sour-puss-look. Thick arms, stubby limbs, and most of all faces that need to go back to the drawing board leave these plushes lagging. KellyToy may have made noodly doodle Sonics with run-of-the-mill faces but...
Hopefully they'll either improve or convert all their energy into making more awesome figures. Because really, figures are where they shine. With the small line looking as good as it does in the pre-shots, and the big MS looking to utterly floor everyone...it seems their SS fiasco is just that: 1 wrong move that'll soon be forgotten if they can turn out a decent REAL SuperSonic.

Next week:
Depends upon what's released. If it counts as 'end of aug.' enough then the new Jazwares line will arrive. If not, magazine scans may get a boost and the rest will be a random gathering of items.