Consider SonicBoom an "AU"

More Boom info to post/archive...
Pretty much what's come out officially so far seems to be the theme of "Consider Boom to be an AU" (AU= Alternate Universe) They don't say it in as much words, I guess because AU is such a "fan terminology" that they wouldn't dirty themselves with using something so internet like that*.

Most people consider the fact a bit of good news.
If you like Boomstyle, & dubstep and whatever else that's great because you can enjoy it in it's AU
If you don't like it, or you dislike 1 aspect or another, it's good because it won't "Infest" everything else

*Ugh. The internet and its terms aren't somehow magically inferior to everything else all the time. Corporate people, you're allowed to say words your audience knows the definition of, or explain people the definition if you don't think they're sure. Nothing bad will happen if you try to relate to fans on the internet by telling them things with a term they know. (That's totally about the method of explaining something, regardless of the actual content)

Stuff that has been published about Boom, gathered into 1 place with some commentary is below!

#1
“It’s a Cartoon Network series, so it has to work for kids, but the goal is to make a smart, funny comedy that will play on two levels," says Sonic Boom executive producer and showrunner Evan Baily. "We never write down to the audience and we tell stories that are really complex for kids TV. The goal has been from the beginning to make something that fans will love and kids will love.”

 Comment:
GOOD. That's what My Little Pony friendship is magic did, and look what happened to it. It went berserk and got about a zillion fans into it out of completely left-field because the show was good. Do you know the actual history of pony shows? It's actually very interesting

G1 Show - 80s action show. Action you say? Yes, they actually fought some kind of satanic centaur hell demon in an episode. People/ponies were getting turned into gross dragons or something. Evil cat woman was also reportedly squashing cute woodland creatures to gain eternal youth or power or something with a scary machine. Why is this not on Netflix again?

G3 Show - Very pastel show with simple plots written for little kids, only had a couple of movies and never got new fans to like ponies because it wasn't "Very good" for everybody. Vague morals & songs.

G3.5 Show - Mutant baby creatures that didn't look like ponies did basically nothing. They were supposed to be cute, because clearly, colorful pony-looking-ponies aren't cute enough. Written for 2 year olds. Failed hard.

G4 Show - Friendship is Magic. Like it or hate it, it worked for a lot of people because they weren't morons when they wrote it & didn't try to "Make it for babies".

#2
Sonic Boom will be supported by a robust global licensing and merchandising program, anchored by new master toy partner TOMY. TOMY’s line will showcase the new character looks, stressing interaction between core characters, and will feature new play patterns based on both the new game and TV series. TOMY will develop a comprehensive toy range across a broad number of categories including plush, action figures, RC, role play, vehicles and novelty. Sonic fans can expect a high-quality, collectible toy line fueled by TOMY innovation and energized with speed, lights, sounds, motion-activation and action-performance. SEGA will launch a broad licensing program across multiple categories including toys, apparel, publishing, accessories, food and beverage, health and more – making this one of the biggest license initiatives SEGA has undertaken in recent years. The company will enlist many of its current partners who have had tremendous success with Sonic over the past years while seeking new licensees to join this exciting new Sonic licensing program.

Comment:
Sonic Boom health care YEAAAAAA let's be like Hulkuckles! Scarves for everyone GO!
All jokes aside "High Quality Collectible Toy Line" sounds interesting, there hasn't been anything motion activated before and what is "Action Performance".

#3
“We want to ensure that the Sonic brand continues to evolve and appeal to new generations of Sonic fans and this different look introduces a fresh approach that will be at once both familiar and new to consumers,” said John Cheng, President & COO, SEGA of America. “We are committed to supporting this initiative to provide great entertainment to fans for all aspects of their lives.”

Comment:
Yeah ok.

#4 Boom Will Have no show to show continuity.
Any ep can be played in any order because it sounds like they'll all be individual 11 minute 'skit' type deals with 1 minor plot and gags. This means no over-arching story & no character development or changes as it progresses, because it won't progress.

Comment:
Ok so like AoSTH, and not like X or SatAM. Really, there's not much of a way to decide if this is good or bad. It'll all be in how the show actually plays out once it gets on TV. You can do a lot of smart, funny cool stuff without an over-arching plot, but you can also do a lot of bogus drivel too. It's totally up to the show makers & plot writers.

#5 No chaos emeralds
Not in the show, not in the game.

Comment-
Kind of weird if it's not in the game, but I doubt it'll destroy everything. You can still totally do plots without them, or the Master being the MacGuffin or whatever. Especially if the villain isn't Eggman trying to take over the world, which is what's being hinted at so far. They probably left 'em out of the show because there's no way to deal with them in 11 minutes. You're not going to get all 7 in that amount of time, nor be able to tell a "Super Character" (Super Sonic etc) story. So because it had to be simplified & the eps couldn't build on each other, it made sense to ditch the emeralds. Whether or not they'll actually put a Boom's cannon reason in or not is another question for later. "Oh we fell into another dimension where there are no emeralds & Knuckles is mutant".

Analyses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ__uzlfAdE
For the show & the game trailer that's pretty decent & points out some hidden stuff.

How will SonicGear Handle Sonic Boom?

So. SonicBoom.
It's a show! It's a game! It's...apparently going to be a big marketing thing where they try to produce tons of goods with the "boomstyle" in order to make it popular.

If you like the Sonic Boom Style
If you don't like the Sonic Boom Style

It doesn't matter because they are going to be making merchandise with it and SonicGear is going to have to catalog and show that merchandise. Opinion posting will be found elsewhere, this is just an info post on what's going to happen to it & how it relates to the site. The decision is based on facts that are known right now because stuff's got to get sorted.

Sonic Boom will be separated:
SonicGear will get a NEW section on the index page (like how "usa stuff" and "japan stuff" etc is now) with a title card and categories under it. It'll act like a country section all by itself. Boom merch will always be separate from all the other types of regular merch old & new.

Sonic Boom stuff will categorize differently:
ALL of Boom is going to be under the 'boom' heading. It's not going to be separated by country (like the rest of Gear...that country sep. is done to make the stuff easier to buy for the fans--you have to know right away where something is from before you can go looking for it) It will be separated by CATEGORY only. Like "food" or "clothes" or "action figures". The country/s the item is available in will be listed at the top of the entry for that item. So...

USA * Canada * UK Area
Blah blah this is the Boom Sonic figure of the # scale by Tomy it costs X.xx dollar and description etc.

or

USA * Germany
Blah blah this is the Boom Sonic & Tails blue tee shirt it costs X.xx dollar and description etc.

Would be how it goes, along with the picture/s of the thing. It'll still be find-able, searchable and the area of release will still be easy to tell.

All this stuff should make Boom easy to add to the site, easy to submit to the site & easy to look over while on the site. So that's pretty much the goal for everybody.

REMINDERS:
Boom is not replacing ANY form of Sonic. It's its own separate thing
Regular Sonic merchandise & SonicGear normal things will continue normally

*Speculation Zone*
I figure Boom will be like the Werehog, but not as extreme. It'll have it's fans and its haters, and it'll have it's time period too.
There will probably be a LOT of stuff made for it, because they've said so. How well it will do and how long it will stay will depend 100% on THE SHOW , not the games. Because it's been proven that a good show will sell anything to anybody. (Looking at you Friendship Magic My Ponies!) It's also been proven that critically panned & near unplayable (loading time 06) games won't stop fans from buying merch and more games in the future. The Boom games can be drivel & the merch will still go wild if the show is good.

If it stinks...
If the show is no good & the games aren't either, there will be stuff still, but it won't last & it'll just get squared away in its own corner of Gear and that's it. Since this is the speculation zone though, I kind of bet the show won't stink.

USA Stuff Update & News

This week had only USA stuff.
Oddly enough, it works out that way sometimes with the items that are sent in. A lot more clothing despite the fact that all the stuff is short sleeve tees and it's the middle of winter. I guess  Sears & the internet doesn't care what the weather is doing anywhere. (Still, I always say any time is a good time to buy a Sonic shirt if it has a design you really like)

F4F First 4 Figures announcement:
Remember how it was mentioned they were doing a "Sega All Stars" line of figures? (Nothing to do with the allstars racers games) Everyone wondered who all would be on it, etc. Well the first one is coming out and the answer is:

Akira Yuki

The guy from Virtua Fighter games. It's the 'game like' incarnation of him (looks older, crankier) rather than the anime incarnation (younger, somewhat pleasant) The white uniform is very very textured, the pose is Chinese martial arts (as expected) and it seems over-all decent if you need a figure of him. It seems like a good opening figure for the line, and should make people confident in it.

#But how many Virtua Fighter fans are there?
I actually have no idea how big of a fanbase this game has. How many people really dig this guy? It's less than Street Fighter & it's large & varied cast, I would assume. Hopefully it's enough to keep the All Stars line working along. I'm curious to see who else they will choose without a banana car fiasco*.  Does the statue represent him really well to his fans? I can't really judge it properly because I don't know enough.

Item of the week: Silver SBK Loose
Has to be this figure! It's just a company photo, but the loose shot came in for him this week. The metallic paint looks super & the shoes/boots are nicely colored. I'm not 100% sure of the sword size, does it match the game or is it a tad small? Either way, the figure genuinely looks good so far. I really want to get this and inspect it for close ups.

Sonic Boom:
Going to do a series of blog posts to talk about this and what it means for SonicGear , then link each post directly/permanently (for however long) in the "News" area on the front page. So everybody wrap your dolls in toilet paper, we're getting ready for Hulkles and his bandaid buddies. (or whatever trendy names Boom is having thrown at it this particular week)

Next week:
Probably some older submissions. There hasn't been an amazing amount of new stuff recently, nor submissions. Not real sure what's going on with that, but if it gives a chance to catch up, well so much the better for now at least.

*Banana car fiasco: what happened when Sega assumed everyone liked their ai ai & amigo monkeys as much as they did Sonic.