Monday, January 21, 2013

Big Book & Small Toys

This week was a pretty big update.
For whatever reason, just lots of stuff came in. Also, the 'big book' was a big deal, with lots of photos and text to go along with it.

The History of Sonic the Hedgehog
Looks like a 'must get'. A bigtime fan isn't going to likely read or see much that's new to you...however, grabbing great looking pages of pro & classic art, character models & etc is always a good thing to do. I will be ordering this and doing a BIGtime review here on the blog. It's like 31.00 so no one should buy it without really reading up (as with the entry on gear) to know about it first.

Small toys:
Funko Pop prototypes...These are POP versions of STK, they've done other things in the POP style, like Heman/Masters Universe to...whatever effect. If you dig that look and think it's adorable, then more power to it, I guess. The prototypes look creepy to me though. Remember those frightful little white clicking zombie baby fairies in Princess Mononoke? Yeah....

They'll look better in their proper colors, certainly, but it's sort of surprising that Funko would want to do more 'minis' for Sonic. Remember the JUVIS? They didn't work out very well. Only the MetalSonic did sorta well, and he was exclusive, with special paint & also 'its ms' so...nearly anything Metal does well anyway. Are these figures risky, or are they cool because other properties did well in POP style?

Predictions:
About 10.99 or so each, so to get all you need to spend about 30
Should show up at TRU

A Bad Buy? Monopoly.
Where are the Sonic Monopoly game photos? Still MIA because...everyone so far who has bought this game, & opened it has broken pieces. Apparently the little player character markers are like micro Sonic figures but they break like all the time. The company will send replacements but something's amiss if they're showing up broken.
That also means they CANT be sturdy. Little brother too rough? You're out of luck. There's likely a reason the original monopoly pcs were metal & not plastic. Plus, its not like the game is cheap either, it's something like 40 bucks. If you read the review on the site from an owner...it's not looking that good for this thing.

Netflix & the blue-arms:
The blue-arm-Sonic error art they've got is no doubt from the Sonic Underground box/disks/whatever. To produce that supposedly 'kid friendly' banner (hilarious how raunchy Rocko is/was) they grabbed stock art from anything they had laying around.

Controversial opinion zone!
I actually DONT MIND blue arm Sonic. Not just that art/error of him either. It makes him match pretty much everybody else in like...the whole set of characters except Amy...who's arms you can actually see. Blaze doesn't count because she wont' take off her coat. I also dont mind pink-arms error Amy either. A lot of people mind him, but I think if the arms had always been blue no one would notice or say it looked bad. They likely weren't on Sonic 1 because it'd be hard to see with the 16 bit graphics blue on blue. I mean yes, its an error and they shouldn't be perpetuating it but I don't get all bent out of shape over it either.

Independent stores:
USA Store Display has a 'Sonic case' this time from a somewhat rare-er thing...an independent store. That just means it's not a big chain. It can individualize merchandise. Stores like that used to be more common (see 'mom & pop" and 'family video stores' before blockbuster/netflix etc) but are now sort of a novelty thing. These types of stores are cool, because they dont have the sameold sameold, but can also be uncool due to way high prices or incidences of bootlegs. Its still interesting to have a look, though.

Next week:
Maybe the big book review. Still want to fix the gear store book pages.