Monday, June 22, 2015

Love Live Rin Update & Upcoming Amazon

Unexpectedly, this week's update was sort of taken over by that Love Live Rin thing.
All of it's merchandise was revealed in one go, so all of it came in to the inbox over the week. It caused a new page (Japan Hygene) and I believe is the first crossover promotion that actually had merchandise made for it. Like Sonic & Mario IS crossing over = Olympics, however, they're both games and they're doing it as equal characters in a game. Rin is on a show that doesn't usually have anything to do with Sonic. (A show about singing)

Is it good or bad?
Well, the merchandise is cute enough, and if people like it, or if it helps Sonic fans, then it's probably good. It's not diluting the brand or anything.

Housewares USA was added to as well (Because that's what came in) also for the sake of variety. If you didn't care about LLR, then at least a classic glass & stylish mug could be seen.

The other item to appear this week?
Balls. Why? I have 0 idea, but now suddenly there are 3 different "bouncy balls" for Sonic on the market. Who is hitting around a ball? These aren't sports balls either, they're like play & 'super' type/hi-bounce. I kind of don't know why there's a ball like this, in this age because doesn't everyone just kind of do sports or tv or video games? (Also if you throw a superball inside it's going to guarantee to bounce off one of your items and hit it down so.......)

Amazon Update = The SonicGear Store
I have been informed that their shopping item stamp/icon is changing as of July 31st. They're going to delete all items hosted by the old icon style (that code) and the warning appeared because at least part of the Gear Store is full of objects with that code type.

Is it ok?
Yes, because it SHOULD be replace-able with the new code without having to go find that specific bit of merchandise again (which can be tricky) which means it's fix-able before the deadline. No one should have to worry about not being able to find an item in the store due to it getting canned by the update.

It MAY replace a regular update.
A "Store Update" may have to occur maybe next week instead of a normal merchandise one due to time constraints. There's likely not enough time to fix the whole store AND put up new items too. So a regular update (sometime before the end of July) will either be missed or greatly reduced to avert any store related problems.

Item/s Of The Week:
Shadow Mug!
It's always great to see non-Sonic solo items & this is no exception. They really worked on the design and the mug looks good. If I find this, I will collect it.

Squishy Rin Combo Doll
A plush with a plush is generally pretty cute but both of these 'chibi style' squishy/flopped down characters with their squeezy expressions are very silly and fun. It's also a first of a kind and looks well made. I don't know who this Rin is, never seen the show (hope she is not a jerk) or even heard of it before this update/crossover.

Next week: probably a store scramble