Monday, September 29, 2014

Sonic Boom Merch First Wave

This week's update features the first 'wave' of Boom stuff.
It's factory photos of stuff you've seen before as prototypes / toyfair display stuff, and some new stuff that's a surprise. It's nice to see factory photos appearing in a timely manner & the items looking mostly like how they were suggested to look by the prototypes. Of course, keeping in mind that only consumer/fan photos are the real "show" of what you'll ACTUALLY get.

Why stuff like the dolls are showing up right now (Sept) & preorders are setting up for Oct is a little strange, because the show & games (I think) aren't supposed to be out until Dec. Who knows if it's good or bad to let out the new designs early, will they do bad because the show & game have not yet created hype needed for success, or are they supposed to create the hype FOR the show & the game?

Never "Boom Only"
This update is another reminder that SonicGear will never go "boom only". If you are not a boom fan, don't worry, every update will always have some regular stuff on it. If you are a boom fan, don't worry because Gear will cover it too & not neglect it or ignore it for coverage of other stuff.

Item of the week:
Shadow micro raschel throw. Solo character items where it's NOT Sonic are always really desirable. This Shadow throw captures his attitude (instead of just having him frown at a sunny scene with other characters) , isn't too busy, & is actually appropriately themed FOR HIM. It doesn't just have Shadow on there, it goes with his style. I don't own this but I want to. The fact that it matches the Sonic one is just icing on the collectible cake. You could easily use both, or switch 'em out in your Sonic room.

Early Opinion Zone!
Figures: Could go either way. NOTICE they all have LESS joints than the JW ones. People could either:
A: Get super annoyed that the figures are "less fun" because "less action/poses"
B: Say these figures are superior to anything JW has done & Boom is "better than everything" because less joints = less to go wrong = less opportunity for flimsyness or bad sculpting. They're naturally easier to get right even with bad materials because they're less complex. If everyone forgets that JW had more articulation, or just no one cares that much about articulation, it'll go to B.

7 inch light up shoe Sonic
Yeah there's no excuse to not give this guy elbows. The light up feet REQUIRE no knee joint to get the cord down his legs, but at 7 inches he should have articulated elbows, and maybe even balljointed wrists or articulated (Super poser style) hands. You know this thing's gonna be expensive too.

Plush Dolls:
Whoever they have making the dolls beats JW hands down.
The Tails is actually cute, contrary to how a lot of Boom art portrays him (he looks snarky / sarcastic, or has a tendency toward it) If you like Boom style, chances are the dolls will be a hit with you, especially if they can keep their prices in check & not gouge for tiny dolls. Faces are good, proportions are nice, accessories are sewn on, it's looking up.

Plush hot dog:
Yeah...the first plush accessory & it's a chili dog? Very strange. But, maybe it's super with the "wacko" style of the show? The problem with letting all this out early is it has no "mental significance". Like those 'energy figure pairs'. No one has had the fun experience YET of using whatever that energy is, so the figures are automatically less tempting because you're not associating it with skills / fun /action to "re create" from the game.

Let's think about chili dogs too much:
To get it, you kill a random living creature. Grind up some of it's greasy bits. Squeeze the poop out of a section of its intestines. Replace the poop inside the intestine with parts of its ground up body. Cook that. Put it in your mouth. That doesn't seem like a good idea. Nor an appealing one. That is the origin of the sausage which is the 'hot dog' that is used for the 'chili dog' and it is kind of nasty.

Next week:
More USA tees, more housewares (probably) possibly Music Store being added, if there's a reliable way to keep bootleg albums out of it. Amazon doesn't exactly police for bootlegs as well as one might desire, and unlike other bootleg items, albums/music CDs when they're fake, are 99% impossible to tell apart from the real ones...sometimes even after owning. This is unfortunate because people WANT to give their money to the musician to support the music that they like from Sonic.