Who Cares About Ray?
The title seems a bit of an attack...
But it isn't, it's an actual question of Who ACTUALLY cares about Ray the Flying Squirrel? What is his deal? Does he have any fans? Why do they like him? Or, is he unpopular for some reason? IS there a reason to not like him? (Other than 'new friend!' the trope) So, with the first of his actual merchandise coming to shelves, it's time to blog a bit about Ray. So first let's get the opinion zone out of the way. You can skip to the bottom for site items.
Opinion Zone:
Ambivalent.
As everyone knows, he was a "Sonic Clone" lazily introduced in the Sonic Isometric Arcade Cabinet that also introduced Mighty the Armadillo (who is Sonic colored black with a red 'shell' applied instead of spikes & removed buckles from shoes) While Mighty was more of a clone, Ray hit the sidelines because he wasn't included in Chaotix. Chaotix was rumored to have had Sonic IN it, but he got removed for reasons, and they didn't want to pull the sprite or lose a character out of the game so they just made him into Mighty because he was so close in design anyway.
Nobody played isometric.
The cabinet was rare, and the game used a trackball which made it super hard to port. Even though the 32X (the only system with Chaotix) was unpopular, more people played it by orders of magnitude than the Isometric. Plus, it had well-published manual that gave Mighty a profile. Then, it got released on compilations on stronger systems later so even more people could play it--because Chaotix was actually pretty fun & looked beautiful/still holds up today. Archie Sonic Comic also latched onto the Chaotix as characters, as did later games so Mighty has been able to get decent enough characterization over the years. But Ray never did (and if he did, he'd likely end up a Tails clone because of 'flying', and 'kid=cute' lean to the design)
A barely-a-character:
Ray, when he showed up in the comics at all wasn't the coolest dude around, and then he was used as a "missing persons" gaggy poster / inside reference in other Sonic games referring to his own neglect. Only Mania brought him back but.....there's not much about his personality or why you should be a fan of him in there. He's described as 'he can be funny but he is timid'. That's like.......it. His design is....kind of meh? They need to produce a reason to like him or think that he is cool. He is just kind of neutral. He's not "wow uhh" like Big, or "that's cool!" like Blaze the cat designs.
Is he ready for merch?
Sure. Why not? It's neat to own something of an obscure character. Probably nobody hates him like they do Big the Cat because he's not associated with "no-fun" areas of games (slow fishing), or with being a dumb drag (Big's personality was heavily disliked in SA1) He's not as unfitting as Big's design either. So, probably no complaining about him having stuff will happen. However, it's probably unlikely that he's going to get on lots of stuff or have tons of figures or high end feature type items.
Revisionist History:
Never create Big the cat for SA 1, use Mighty instead & don't have him go fishing. Put Ray with him instead of Froggy, where Ray gets curious and touches an emerald, so Chaos/whatever keeps going after him/trying to get him into the watery body of itself to transform while Mighty has to keep saving him.
The update:
More normal for the week, which is nice. The items aren't flooding in as much which means mail responses can be more timely.
Item of the Week:
The Ray in a sphere figure because it's a first.
Why is Finesse picking the Werehog? The werehog was never popular, sweeping it under the rug was a goal rather than sweeping it under a skateboard where people will actually see it.
Next week:
More tees, a super duper rare and unseen item, and more 60th Anniversary Sega items.
But it isn't, it's an actual question of Who ACTUALLY cares about Ray the Flying Squirrel? What is his deal? Does he have any fans? Why do they like him? Or, is he unpopular for some reason? IS there a reason to not like him? (Other than 'new friend!' the trope) So, with the first of his actual merchandise coming to shelves, it's time to blog a bit about Ray. So first let's get the opinion zone out of the way. You can skip to the bottom for site items.
Opinion Zone:
Ambivalent.
As everyone knows, he was a "Sonic Clone" lazily introduced in the Sonic Isometric Arcade Cabinet that also introduced Mighty the Armadillo (who is Sonic colored black with a red 'shell' applied instead of spikes & removed buckles from shoes) While Mighty was more of a clone, Ray hit the sidelines because he wasn't included in Chaotix. Chaotix was rumored to have had Sonic IN it, but he got removed for reasons, and they didn't want to pull the sprite or lose a character out of the game so they just made him into Mighty because he was so close in design anyway.
Nobody played isometric.
The cabinet was rare, and the game used a trackball which made it super hard to port. Even though the 32X (the only system with Chaotix) was unpopular, more people played it by orders of magnitude than the Isometric. Plus, it had well-published manual that gave Mighty a profile. Then, it got released on compilations on stronger systems later so even more people could play it--because Chaotix was actually pretty fun & looked beautiful/still holds up today. Archie Sonic Comic also latched onto the Chaotix as characters, as did later games so Mighty has been able to get decent enough characterization over the years. But Ray never did (and if he did, he'd likely end up a Tails clone because of 'flying', and 'kid=cute' lean to the design)
A barely-a-character:
Ray, when he showed up in the comics at all wasn't the coolest dude around, and then he was used as a "missing persons" gaggy poster / inside reference in other Sonic games referring to his own neglect. Only Mania brought him back but.....there's not much about his personality or why you should be a fan of him in there. He's described as 'he can be funny but he is timid'. That's like.......it. His design is....kind of meh? They need to produce a reason to like him or think that he is cool. He is just kind of neutral. He's not "wow uhh" like Big, or "that's cool!" like Blaze the cat designs.
Is he ready for merch?
Sure. Why not? It's neat to own something of an obscure character. Probably nobody hates him like they do Big the Cat because he's not associated with "no-fun" areas of games (slow fishing), or with being a dumb drag (Big's personality was heavily disliked in SA1) He's not as unfitting as Big's design either. So, probably no complaining about him having stuff will happen. However, it's probably unlikely that he's going to get on lots of stuff or have tons of figures or high end feature type items.
Revisionist History:
Never create Big the cat for SA 1, use Mighty instead & don't have him go fishing. Put Ray with him instead of Froggy, where Ray gets curious and touches an emerald, so Chaos/whatever keeps going after him/trying to get him into the watery body of itself to transform while Mighty has to keep saving him.
The update:
More normal for the week, which is nice. The items aren't flooding in as much which means mail responses can be more timely.
Item of the Week:
The Ray in a sphere figure because it's a first.
Why is Finesse picking the Werehog? The werehog was never popular, sweeping it under the rug was a goal rather than sweeping it under a skateboard where people will actually see it.
Next week:
More tees, a super duper rare and unseen item, and more 60th Anniversary Sega items.
posted by AzureBlaze at 11:37 PM
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