Success At Sonic Speed

Changing the Mail Guidelines for SonicGear

2012-02-11T16:05:00.000-08:00

This is not that fascinating of a post but it's important.

TLDR:
Do not leave your mail subject line blank when you submit something to the site or it will get thrown out without being looked at, from now on.

The mail guideline for SonicGear item submission will be CHANGING in 1 way, as of like, now. The changes will be posted to the "mail guideline / how to" page too but this post is just here to elaborate / rant.

What is changing?
The "Subject Line" requirements. Ever since the start of that whole "virus that takes over your inbox and then spams ALL your address book people with trash & viruses forever" the Gear inbox has had well...lots of garbage in there. There's 2 reasons:

1. People don't know they have it. These things don't announce themselves, so unless a friend tells you, or you suddenly get a "Mailer Daemon / Mail Failure" notice to some defunct address you had in your book for BUY VIAGGGRAA that you know for a fact you didn't send...it just stays there spamming people.

2. People know they have it, but won't do anything about it.
This is mostly little kids. What they do is abandon that email. So if they were SonicFan45@wherever.com they change to SonicFan46@wherever.com and just LEAVE the old address ACTIVE to spam all their old contacts forever with garbage. These things are scripts. They're viruses. They don't ever stop, or know that whatever has been abandoned. They'll send for eternity.

Philosophy: Well with this new address, that virus isn't MY problem anymore! Who cares about anyone else's mail box! Mine's new!

Yeah, well, people care. "Making a new address" doesn't stop that thing from tormenting everyone you ever had on your address book.

There's been something like this before, but now the retaliation measures are going to get serious. Before, I'd still open a few things if it "looked likely" but now EVERYTHING that looks shady (as per examples) is going right into the trash. There have been too many porn/spam/virus/password grabbers in these things to risk it any more.

Examples of what's going to get thrown out, according to what appears (or doesn't) in the email subject line.

Nothing in the subject line
RE: Re: re
Work from home!
My great day
Look at this
I'm better now
RE:
Did you try...
It's new
Look at this new

So it's totally incredibly easy to get the mail right. All you have to do is put in the subject line something about what exactly it is that you're sending in.

Found a new Sonic Tee at Sears
Is this Sonic plush fake?
Jazwares toyfair photo shows ___
Terrible holiday Sonic plush
Here's a new Sonic sticker set
Look at this prototype photo for the Jet the Hawk ___
I found my old Tails ____
FYE Sonic Items new for May 2012
There are a billion Sonic related / news related things that are so easy to put. Just don't leave it blank!

Mostly the people who ARE sending legit things all do this anyway. But about every other week, someone will forget to put something in the subject line. Those blanks? Are going to get thrown out from now on because the "mailbox takeover" virus creatures LOVE to use that to get people to open it.

Also VERY generic things like "Look at this new" I must mention because that's a really popular one for the viruses to send out. New......what? Of course you open in and bang: Rrroooowwlllexxx Replicazz! Or the very creature that took over the poor senders' inbox is in there. But people send this and then there's a genuine Sonic thing in there and it's like........50/50. Well, that sort won't be opened any more either.

So...if you've sent something recently, don't see it, never got a response, and aren't SURE you put something in the subject line, freely re-send it. It might have gotten thrown out.

This isn't the fault of anyone but the virus making fools. It's a hassle to have to do.

BAD Names!
If there's an email that sends zillions of these spams & is clearly abandoned, it's going to get black listed by the Gear mailer. No one reading this would have to worry about such a thing, I don't think.

A few 'bad apples' make it rough on everyone.

Photo Improvement Update

2012-01-19T23:05:00.000-08:00

This second update for the week sees some interesting improved photos.
Mainly, for the super expensive SA1 & SA2 large Japan plushes. SonicTeam...about the only people who seemed to have afforded these things did some fantastic shots, especially of the rare Hero & Dark Chaos (That EVERYONE wants--yet magically no company ever bothers to make...!) So those went on as a part of the whole 20th Anniversary preservation project.

Then there's more phone cards...including one card that raises more questions then it answers and probably isn't a phone card anyway.

Japan Decor gets a page 3, too...which is pretty impressive considering how rare a lot of the stuff is/was. MIP curtain Sonic? That'll be a new one for many people/not something anyone thought they'd see.

Remember how that Jeepers Media Anti Sopa video made it look like there was some kind of secret motivation / hidden agenda behind SOPA?

Why would companies invent pirate software, tell people to pirate with it, and then get mad when they do? It was acting like a "set up" so that they could blame the internet for what they'd done. This guy here may have figured out a "why" ...at least 1 of them.

http://zerogov.com/?p=2550

To stop slavery.
I'm not in the music biz, but I didn't know that "new artists" are essentially slaves working for free at record labels for years before they get to real money. But I do know that keeping slaves or acting unfair is a bad business practice.

If you do business the right way:
Provide cool value for the customer's money, act polite, don't rip people off, treat employees and customers well, and produce items you can believe in/services that really work you won't have anything to worry about.

If you do bad business:
If you steal from customers, abuse employees, make garbagey products that don't work and rely on trickery, scams, slave labor, thieving and duping people, then you'll need oppression, lies, dictators, enforcers & etc to try and force the bad method along despite everything. Good business flows, bad has to plow down everything in it's path.

If the music/movie industry really is running off slaves and phoney price inflation or something...that's a bad biz. It's like how Netflix stopped people pirating shows & movies because it:

gave customers good service at a good price
put the shows & movies easily in front of them
works most of the time
doesn't give you a virus like a torrent

Same with itunes. Who wouldn't buy a song for 99 cents? It's so easy and cheap, AND it supports the artist too...so if you want more music/to encourage them, it's the obvious choice. Instead of going berserk with SOPA, they should of given all the money to an invention arm that'd make cool stuff at a good value for the industry & the consumer too.

In the mood for reading?
This is a longer article, but the guy seems to know what's going on:

http://joshuawise.com/28c3-transcript

Almost Through the 20th Photo Dump

2012-01-09T23:37:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been weeks & weeks...
But the site is almost through with the 20th Anniversary photo dump that SonicTeam had on their anniversary site a while back. That gallery thing was a prime candidate for getting taken down once the anniversary passed, so all the photos (that werent already on) were preserved.

This week sees the number of remaining items hitting almost the bottom, which is great. The mail had so many things in it each week that extra stuff slowed down the effort at getting everything posted. So it'll be a good milestone, and a nice blast of cool stuff to see this all finished off.

Naturally, since it was ST itself, they had a hold of some cool/rare things which you can see this week and likely next as well. They've been sprinkling onto the site since the gallery was uncovered. And no, it wasn't just Japan items, they had stuff from all over the globe, which is also to be expected as well as interesting.

The last of the stuff will see some really good all-around shots of the famously expensive chao plushes, more patches, some phone cards and still more prizes / watches.

There also should be a 2nd update this week.
The 2nd update will see more variety as it digs into the mail that came in for the week and tries to fix up some stuff as well. Fix what?

Knitting Pattern (you know the story....on wantedgear)
Papercraft external hosted links

Well, with the papercraft, everyone knew those would go down eventually too. Networks are fickle by nature and have to take away anything that's not relevant to what they're showing right now. It appears that the time has come and they broke the links. But, as usual prediction helps with prevention of loss! The files to make the crafts will switch to SonicGear's hosting instead and the links will be re-established for fun.

SOPA's still a threat so here goes more news against it. (Remember, it'd kill blogger too because if 1 blog links to something it shouldn't, they can close the whole site. They can still close it even if no blog links to anything, just by making false accusations too)

SOPA Junk of the day:
Just how out of touch with reality are the pro-SOPA fools?

Look at this guy here:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111230/10300517237/lamar-smith-out-touch-with-internet-still-thinks-its-just-google-that-opposes-sopa.shtml

"Google oppose sopa because they get their money from illegal downloads".
WAT.
Srsly. WTH dude?

No they oppose sopa because it'd shut down the majority of the internet, and they make money by being a search engine OF the internet. If it gets down to 5 stupid sites no one wants to visit, well then there's not much need to search then is it?

"The State Department doesn't want SOPA"
Well gee. Their whole State Department agenda of trying to discourage crackpot dictators, country oppressors, rulers who the people didn't vote in & etc ...doesn't fit in with 'shut down the internet so that the people can't speak to get rid of anyone oppressing them'. Of course the state department doesn't like it. They're trying to promote freedom everywhere! They'll look like morons if they try to promote freedom while the other hand shuts down freedom. It's dictatorly, it's what they're trying to stop elsewhere--why let SOPA get away with it here?

China doesn't want the communists to learn about democracy, so it censors the internet. Wherever was having a revolt didn't want the people to revolt so well, so it wanted to block twitter because they were trying to use it to coordinate against a badguy. Is stuff like that oppressive? YES. Would SOPA be? YES. And not just because of what it is, because it's already been proven that people will get away with abusing it left and right.

You don't even have to do anything bad.
You dont have to break even 1 law.
All they have to do is SAY you did, and you'll spend so much with court costs that you'll go out of biz forever even if you were right all along and 100% legal. Veoh died as proof:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111220/11021717143/veoh-still-perfectly-legal-also-still-dead-due-to-bogus-copyright-lawsuit.shtml

The story is a bit long but worth a read.

More SOPA Fighting & Helpful Link

2012-01-02T17:14:00.000-08:00

This update is on time too...
Trying to turn over a new leaf for the new year! Get the mail under control, get all the items on in a timely manner...and still have time for Sonic Games! Well, that's the goal at least. It seems to be off to an all-right start so far anyway.

2 new pages this week to celebrate the new year:
Japan Phone Cards
Japan Electronics

These 2 pages were a long time in coming, the 'jp misc goods' area had been a bit too big (at 4 pages) so it was time to get more specific/get items off those pages. There's still another to go (hygiene) but it won't have very many things / no new thing (as of yet) when it goes on.

SOPA is still a danger:
Last week's post talked about it in depth, and thank you to everyone who is doing something against it. Remember: SOPA can only win if people are too lazy to do something against it. They're counting on everyone not paying any attention and thinking that it can't take away all their favorite websites. How much of 'not pay attention' are they counting on? Look at this to get mad now!

"One woman wanted to pass SOPA because...'she was bored'"

Yes that's EXACTLY how much your representatives are paying attention when dealing with like...the whole livelihood of the internet. Do you know how many people will be out of a job because 'they were bored'? The whole thing is just ridiculous.

But you can get them to pay attention with this here:

http://americancensorship.org/

It contains push button tools for IN and OUT of the usa. It's so easy, it takes like 2 minutes to press them. If everyone presses it, neither SOPA nor it's stupid hiding-in-the-bushes PIPA will pass, and the internet won't get ruined. SonicGear (& loads of other places...like...all of them) will stay.

But what else will it do?
If both of these can be shouted down it'll frustrate/stop/prove wrong the clowns that want to ruin the internet because they somehow think it will give them more money if they do. (Yes, I'm sure all those jobless people will be buying bluerays & entertainment as 100s of companies fold up)

So everyone who pushes those buttons counts, that's what they're for. By the delay (SOPA was originally supposed to be a 2011 thing) it gave everyone more time to yell it down & realize what was going on/how bad it really was. So this is like a bonus time to get free hits in vs it.

This week:
Expect another update. Going to clear up some mail by doing another one this week, there may also be another (more Sonic related) blog post.

Fight Against SOPA for SonicGear

2011-12-30T00:49:00.000-08:00

So you've probably heard of this SOPA thing.
Likely on the internet because it doesn't seem to make the newspapers or the TV news despite how big & bad it is. So a quick run down of the facts you need to know before getting into what it'll do to SonicGear.

1. It's some kind of huge conspiracy. I mean it's seriously bizarre. I've never seen anything like it before outside the realm of sci-fi reading material or comic books. Don't think so? Check out this video

http://youtu.be/WJIuYgIvKsc

Yes its Mike Mozart (FAILToy guy) yes he's loud / obnoxious etc but he is succinct AND very factual in a speedy manner. You can look up all of his facts via youtube if you suspect tin foil hattery. As the video goes on, it just gets weirder and weirder.

The bottom line TLDW:
Giant big money corporations purposely create & release software that steals their own content, tells people to steal the content with the software, then acts mad when people do as they're told. They want to enact a law to ruin pretty much everything entertaining that happens online.

2. WHY do they want to do this?
Videoguy suspects that it's to force everyone off the net, return the status of the world to the 1990s era, and make everyone use only regular broadcast TV to entertain themselves. But can that really be the real reason?

3. What will it ruin?
Damm near everything. It holds providers responsible for ANYthing users do. So if 1 troll uploads 1 wrong thing to somewhere..........say the host of SonicGear, the law can shut down anything owned by the host. So like youtube would die if 1 person puts 1 copyright video up. (well you know someone's going to...) Every review site, video site, music site, anything with usergen content (photo bucket, flickr, etc) link places (like Reddit, Tumblr, forums) they'd all get the ax.

4. The most IMPORTANT:
This will only pass if everyone sits around. Every single person regardless of country CAN help to stop this. It won't pass if everyone yells loud enough at their state and country rep. Send letters, make phone calls. Yell at the government & send emails. You absolutely can do something. Even if its' tweeting or posting this blog post (copy paste it / parts of it)

Things to do:
Send that Mike Mozart video to your state rep
Send it to Obama
Send it to the governor of wherever
Send it to whoever is relevant in your country if you're outside the USA
Go here: http://fightforthefuture.org/ (it's a site to help you contact, it takes like 5 mins)
Send it to the newspaper

The SOPA fools are counting on everyone being too lazy & self absorbed and just ignore it till it passes. Yes if it does people will get mad but then its too late.

What About Gear?
Gear's host, 1&1 is proud to stand against SOPA, as it should. However, it hosts millions of pages, under millions of companies, individuals & whatever else. 1 person infringes, and the whole thing could get killed. There's no server here. 1&1 is Gear's only host. You like Gear being view-able? KILL SOPA.

Gear Directly:
Sonic is copyrighted, but if anyone were to directly attack Gear, probably the video, ad, & music pages would be erased. They show clips & previews of copyrighted matter that'll be under attack first. (The killing order is video > music > art > words) each thing will be attacked in order till it's all gone if it passes. It fits the meme of "I stood by as they took my neighbor, now there's no one to stand up when they took my son"

SOPA is the WolfCry
Watch out: SOPA is a crying wolf.
What lots of people don't mention is that SOPA fits the meme of "Dont Cry Wolf". They propose this 'big bad destroyer' so that it gets shot down. Everyone wastes all their effort on this sham, then whatever's next, people are too tired of fighting, so they just let it go. They're tired of hearing 'the boy who cries wolf' so they ignore the real wolf.

What's the wolf? PIPA
PIPA is a toned down SOPA. It's like
"We're going to shoot the puppies!"
followed by
"We're going to make adult cats uncomfortable for an extended period"

NEITHER one is good, but the 2nd one doesn't sound so bad, after you read the first, does it? That's what they're counting on. Its 1 boss monster after the next. As soon as SOPA dies (if it does) PIPA will spring up and then must be defeated with the same vigor. Don't let the red herring in the way. PIPA is still bad news--especially since it's bad enough that they'd throw SOPA down in front of it to distract everyone.

You DO make a difference. Tweet. Email. Blog. Call.
Tell everyone you know.

Sonic Sleepwear Page Added

2011-12-23T01:12:00.000-08:00

This week is a pretty competent one.
The update was actually on-time, and got a part 2. It seems like I can't get ahead on the mail, even with such a responsible time & loading in bunches of items. Was hoping it would calm down a little around the holidays, but it doesn't seem so.

The new page this week is Sonic Sleepwear.
Interestingly, tons of PJ pants piled up on UK modern clothes...so it warranted a whole page. Naturally, there are a couple new things on the page as well as everything that was moved off of the general clothing. The underwear page didn't get anything new, but it was also re-arranged as general clothing still had a couple underwears lurking on it. Curious that underwear & sleepwear both had to be spun off into separate categories...but only on UK area. Hopefully everywhere else will get it too in the future.

Item of the week:
HAS to be that Caliburn French set. WHY WHY is that thing France only. Everyone would of wanted this thing. It's practically a prop from the game. The quality looks good, it's pretty big and it's really detailed. It's like THE perfect thing for the wiimote too. The wiimote always begged to be some sort of sword, so when finally a sword attachment comes out, nobody even knows about it.
Did you know about it before the picture?
I sure didn't. I'm betting not a whole lot of people did.

Odd item - Re Use plastic cup.
All the style & fashion of a fast food cup...now in permanent form? Never heard of such a thing before. I guess it's 'anti spill' what with the lid & straw and all...but it still seems a little oddball. Hopefully it's not too expensive.

Next update:
Should be timely...and will have that new Jazwares 20th Statue Display Figure type thing. They may get a new page for 'display figures' rather than throwing it onto the general display figure page. With them re-releasing those F4F minifigs in 2 different formats now, they really seem to be getting into the 'non action' side of figures.

Wave the Swallow Seen at Last & Female Figures Talk

2011-12-16T00:32:00.000-08:00

This week turned out to be a really big update.
With 2 new country pages joining in, plus a giant load of regular stuff, there was certainly plenty of things of interest to see this week. The mail still isn't much better, but it is slightly improved. If things keep going well, more new stuff/features/pages can be added.

Item of the week:
Wave the Swallow FreeRiders action figure.
I was honestly worried that "The Girls Curse" was affecting Wave. The term is apparently some old action figure term, based on a totally bogus premise which seems to be something like "Nobody likes girls, so no one will buy a figure of a girl, thus, we should never ever produce girl character items because they won't sell."

Of course that phrase sounds so stupid and obviously untrue. So why does that bad 'attitude' seem to persist despite all the contrary evidence? That's why they call it a 'curse', I guess...real curses don't exist either, so it makes some sense because it's a bogus belief based on a premise that's false too.

But look how JW has been treating the girls!
They've promised Rouge the Bat for....like well over 9 months now. Where is she? WHY is there no single-card Amy, modern OR classic? Why is Wave the last of the Babylons to be released? Where is Cream? Where is Blaze the Cat?

You can totally overlook Cream because she's not super significant to anything and doesn't have a mega fan base. It's understandable that they'd put Cream on low priority. But how the hell did Big the Cat get out before Rouge the Bat? Even Blaze the cat! It's no secret that Big has few fans...and Rouge has tons, so what's going on? Do they think people hate Amy so much that you have to force a buy by putting her in with Sonic or other figures at ALL times?

It just seems weird to me.

Off Topic Zone!
So how about that Casino Night level?
I finally got my codes sorted (Gamestop printed out an xbox receipt with the code on it, while giving me the ps3 version of the game...whee--they did fix it though to set things right) and with the TV fixed (hopefully for good this time, Samsung!) I could input the code to get the special stage. REMEMBER! Do this by Dec. 31, if you're gonna! Otherwise you'll have to pay 2 dollars.

Is it worth 2 dollars?
(What did you expect...this is a merchandise blog) Yes. All it is, is a pinball game with 1 main table. There's loads of gimmicks though, like a slot machine that takes the polygonal coins, spins & dispenses rings like it did in Sonic 2, there's the classic music, nice graphics, and plenty of replay value while you try to get all the gimmicks out of the game. Yes, theres 2 dollars worth of fun in here.

Not without problems:
Some of the extra upper flippers seem to just kill you if you use them. He can glitch and fall out of the table too, one time he was let back down 'normally' from an upper table and fell on the outside of the far right extra launch slot, sat there for 30 sec, then spontaneously fell out and died. Also, could the board be any BUSIER? I know it's pinball but did it HAVE to be blue while your 'ball' is also blue? It makes the table annoying to look at and him hard to track. Nitpicks, mostly.

Next week:
More Japan things. Not yet finished with the 'big grab' of images that came off the anniversary thing. Brazil will likely be getting a page if all goes well / stays calm. Wave review will appear whenever she shows up in stores (so, patience, I guess...) Phone Cards should also get a page coming up.

Israel & Korea Added to SonicGear

2011-12-13T01:03:00.000-08:00

2 New pages join SonicGear this week!
It's Israel & Korea. These pages have been meant to be added for quite some time now, but floods of other stuff kept them away. There's interesting stuff to see at both! Which starts the question....

Why only now?
Why are these pages turning up with several items only now in 2011, and not around the time of Sonic X when a lot of the stuff was clearly made? (Most of it is X devoted) To further add questions...Gear DOES have a translation button for Korean, so it SHOULD show up in their searches. But as of yet, no Korea person has ever turned up with an item, or ever written to Gear. Israel is understandable because there's no button for Hebrew and the Arabic one is generally on the fritz. (Both of those are it's official languages)

Almost all of the things you see there were discovered by SonicTeam.
During their 20th Anniversary retrospective thing (in Japanese only site) They highlighted a bunch of rare and interesting merch they'd gotten their hands on. That's what the pictures are from. They were archived & added to Gear because who knows how long that anniversary special page will be left up, and such a cool image stash shouldn't be wasted by being taken down. It should be preserved for the fans to see it forever.

HOPEfully more stuff for both of these places comes in.
The stuff is varied, cool & good quality looking. And if there's that much...there's likely more.

There will be another update for the week.
An abundance of bootlegs kept the new regular stuff away for a bit. What should go on next?
Wave Swallow MIB
Tails Free Riders turn arounds
Bunch of Japan stuff
Fan stuff
Anything else that fits in the amount of time

With the holidays coming up it's also important to try and keep the Gear Store in top shape as well to help stamp out the fakers by providing links to as much real stuff (that's not sold out!) as possible.

Hoping also to do a review on the Archie big Sonic book thing/foil cover whateverness coming up for the blog. Keeps getting put off due to abundance of stuff/still trying to catch up with the mail.

Thanksgiving Week Update

2011-11-26T01:01:00.001-08:00

Well, with this being a holiday week and all, part 2 was a bit late...
But it went on there. TONS of stuff came in this week, like another perfect storm of merch. It's not all on yet either, which makes the next couple of things harder.

New pages!
Korea & Israel will both be getting a merch page. This is sort of unusual, because they had like...NILL before now. A country page (ie Spain, France) generally starts off on 'international' until it gets enough stuff for it's own page with titlecard and all. Not the case here, everything just snapped in out of the woodwork all in 1 go.

But where did it come from?
http://sonic.sega.jp/20th/item/097/index.html
Is a Japanese gallery up up by Sega. You can go see the merch that will be appearing there. (ability to read not nec.) It's likely part of some 20th special/retrospective deal. But, since it's a company doing it, they don't care if the images are harvested. So I got them all already. The descriptions aren't always right (they mis label some things, and generalize a few UK knowns into 'euro' general) but they're mostly for the best. They DO riff on some things--for instance having fits over that Toy Island Knuckles (6in line) ring holder widget he came with. Still, the whole thing's an interesting look till they take it down. (It may go down, but Gear is forever...)

As you can also see the new Riders going up this week...
Storm's the first out, and he looks decent. (Rather alien looking from the side though, isn't he) Anyone who can resist buying right away will likely get him with white socks. Wave the Swallow has been confirmed by ToyWiz, for all the reliability that statement has. Still, it 's good to see that she shouldn't fall victim to the "Girls Curse" which is just dumb in my opinion. Why should it exist? No one can explain it, yet it sure seems to. If she turns up shortly, it'll inspire more confidence in JW for sure.

Item of the week:
The plastic tumbler. 2 words: Cool. Gimmick. (its on housewares USA)

Who saw the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade?
Sonic was in position #1! What an honor! He was right behind the Macys Puffy Stars balloons, which ALWAYS lead the parade...so that's super cool. Just as pictured in the sneak preview earlier, he looked great. Hopefully he'll appear every year from now on. (Santa Claus is always the last item in the parade, just as the stars are always first--but one must assume the first Balloon is a place of honor of some kind. Very interesting.)

Buying Alert:
If you can get to Walmart this weekend, you can take advantage of the "black friday" time sale to get 2 new Sonic things. A "Football Catchin'" Sonic sweatshirt for like 4 bucks, and an Adult Mens checker (its new) blue modern tee for around 5 dollars. It'd be worth a check to see if they're still there over the weekend. Neither item made it to this week's update.

Next week:
If all goes well, the 2 new pages plus struggling to post the rest of the stuff. This is difficult.

Why does the USA get no Generations Bonus?

2011-11-09T22:07:00.000-08:00

A good, usual update again.
Wrong time of the week...but oh well to it, everything went on. A good variety of stuff with Sonic Generations leading the way. (as it should be, just after a release)

However, all is not well among Sonic Generations fans.
Why does the USA NOT get ANYthing at all bonus-wise for this game? (I mean physical items, those Xbox 360 avatar costume (NOT costumeS...only 1 is here) Why did every other region get something special except the USA? (And possibly Canada, waiting on confirmation from someone there if it was left out in the cold too)

You'll also note Korea making its debut on this update with an item--namely, their own special bonus disks released with Generations. Korea gets stuff all the time, make no mistake--it's just that they tend to not get things that are made there exclusively, or released there exclusively. Like how a lot of times "Europe" in general will get something, it's not something Netherlands specific where it needs it's own page/notifications etc. They share stuff with other release areas and that's normal & good.

Just look at that awesome deluxe Xbox package Europe got!
Why does EVERYwhere not get that? Is Japan upset? We already know the USA is having a fits over it (well deserved fits I do say, you know that'll be hiiiighly collectible) There are many theories including

1. It's the complainers fault.
If everyone wasn't constantly whining about how "Sonic could be better done in games" then, we would of got a bonus package. (the fans are unworthy of bonuses or deluxe opportunities)
2. It's forum hate spewers / troll fault
People are yelling like rabid howler monkies on the Sega forums! Punish the entire country by denying bonus items to everyone to "teach those trolls a lesson"
3. The USA got pre-order bonuses on other Sonic things that did badly.
Since the pre-order & bonus grabber record here is so poor, no one will bother to offer bonuses because Sonic fans clearly don't care about Sonic items.
4. The USA is always getting bonus items while other countries don't. It should punish.
Every time a land (it doesn't matter where) gets denied cool stuff / free stuff / super deluxe expensive package stuff the people there are usually hopping mad. The USA has a generally all-right track record of obtaining such bonuses, while not everywhere elses' record is so good...punish it to "even the score"!

Which one is true?
Who knows, but the only one that's 98% to be false is #3. Generations broke records on its pre-order list tally.

So what's the big malfunction here?
Only Sega knows the real reason. But being ' left out of' physical stuff is different than virtual stuff. That Casino Night HD zone preorder bonus? You know they'll release that sucker later on, either as a pay download, or on some deluxe cash-in version of Gens later on. Same with the wacky avatar costumes. The physical stuff will never see the light of day, unless it's on ebay's bidding block.

All internet theory-gathering aside though...
Item of the week:
Macy's Sonic Float Balloon Preview- Great float! He's shockingly on-model and looks amazing! Too bad plush companies can't get their items as right as this. It's fantastic to see him too, a great way to popularize Sonic since the parade is such a big deal.

The mail is doing well yet again!
Everything that came in, went on, and the total is down more too. It'll start paying off next week where at least 2 new pages will appear. Havn't had one of those in quite a while! That's because everything else was too busy to be able to work in anything new. One page sorts, while the other one presents new things. Both are totally new categories--so that's something to look forward to. Hopefully mail remains good.

Average Update...With Question

2011-11-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

As stated...the update was a tad late.
However, it still managed to be average, and the mail count DID go down a little bit. A few of the things were 'older things' too which got on from back in...2010! The mail does go back further than that, so it'll be quite a while yet before the whole back-log is cleared out.

Jazwares General Announcements:
Amy Classic stuff starting to appear in the USA as of this/last week so now's your time to start hunting
Australia is firing up the 20th line in (presumably) all TRU's that exist there, so again start hunting...since they're later to the game they probably wont have the "staggered release" that the US and some of UK did so who knows what they're going to do with the zillion figures vs peg-space

NEW Thing:
"Multi Modern Figure Mega Pack"- Yes this did go in "Wanted Gear" but had to throw it on here too. It's pretty darn redundant, as it's just a big long box with every modern figure they've done so far (except eggman & Super hedgehogs) for about 35 bucks. Not sure how well this'll do...everyone likely already has a majority of these guys already making it a forced rebuy if you were only missing say...modern Amy. (yeeea....because she magically never ever single-carded nor bothered to appear with a badnik)

Item of the week:
Sitting Sonic bag. That stock art of him is positively charming. Why it wasn't used more is beyond me. It is not only well done but it is extremely appropriate for the classic look and era where he was 'cool' sometimes and 'cute' others.

Annoyance of the week:
Xbox Live Avatar Sonic costumes are LIMITED AREA RELEASE? Are they KIDDING? These are downloads! There is no shipping, no manufacture, no licensing, no import duty, no export, no NOTHING to stop these things going everywhere. But no. Somehow you can only get like 1 costume per country. USA got SS, but if you wanted Amy you needed to live in Australia or something. WTH? It's like they're irritating the fans on purpose with this arbitrary nonsense.

Now...it's not like the costumes are a huge deal or anything...like barring an entire Sonic game from release in Canada because "____" but it just seems to throw mud on people for no reason. Hopefully they un-region-lock these things later on. The real bummer is not having the actual physical preorder bonus be world-wide. Europe got a sweet kit but no-one else did. (often it's "USA got a blah but no one else did" or "Japan" or any 1 place. Why can't they worldwide actual items?

These may be questions but they're not "the" question. Which is...

Has anyone actually found the EasterEgg on the site?

No you can't get a hint because I forgot where I put it. But I got all reminded because it went up around Easter and its now like Halloween. If someone ever finds it I'll put up another.

Next week:
May contain the classic Amy. Hopefully more old stuff too, if the mail continues along this good trend. A couple new pages may be needed as well, there's some sorting to be done yet that'll make it easier for navigation/finding of stuff. Also another Generations (part 2) review may happen.

Playing Sonic Generations- Pt 1

2011-11-01T00:47:00.000-07:00

Where is the update?
Delayed due to Sonic Generations. As a Sonic fan, naturally I couldn't skip this brand new game. The update will still appear this week, just...a little later on. So in the meantime, what about Generations? (This is the NON SPOILER part of the review--go ahead & read!)

I midnighted it...surprising as that may be.
Reserved it at Gamestop ages ago because you were supposed to get some prize lvl (have yet to find it) and when the call came, they said "Midnight Launch Party". Saddest. Party. Ever. Did you know that Uncharted: Drake's Surly Fanclub was also releasing at midnight? Yeah me neither. FIVE other people attended and I was the only one there for Generations. I guess when people said : "I will never buy another game because of the werehog" they were infact, not exaggerating. Or maybe it was because that particular gamestop had been robbed at some point a few months ago. Who knows. They should of put that internet meme "Foreveralone" face on the door.

Pre Ordering Reminder!
Do you want to let developers know that you like something? Pre Order it. It doesn't matter if you don't approve of game retailers or whatever, companies DO LOOK at the preorder numbers on their games. It is a great way to "vote" and show you care.

The Game:

It looks really beautiful. The 3 stages I did so far are Green Hill, Chemical Plant & Sky Sanctuary, as both versions. Sky Sanctuary is especially lovely with it's stark tropical lighting, plants, parrots, and techno-marble-ruins. Watch for the wetted areas/waterfalls in green hill. The badniks are cute, wacky, fun and VERY animated. Lots of personality for motobug, grabber spiders & egg robos. You can appriciate the Jazwares EggRobo toys! Giant spider is wacky too. Huge chopchop fish is an exciting touch! The characters all look good too, everyone's nice & on model there's nothing super odd running around yet.

Play Value?
YES. There's PLENTY to do. You can totally bomb thru it by doing the main stages if you want, but at a certain point a hoard of doors appear all around that contain "extra challenges" for you to do where the levels are changed around or have new features. (So it resembles the main stage, but has different stuff in it so it's like playing a different stage most of the time) And that's just the super obvious things I've done so far. You can get rings, use 1 ring, race dopplegangers/Amy/Tails' airplane, summon Knuckles to dig medals, or fight hoards of badguys. So not only does altering the stage create variety, the missions are rather different from eachother too.

But how is the engine? Does it play better than Sonic 4?

Yes, it's much better than 4. BUT it can be super super frusterating because it feels like there's a delay on the jump button. You mash, and it does nothing for like a quarter of a second. Like the controller is failing somehow. Maybe mine is but FRUSTERATION ABOUNDS because I am not completely psychic. With the delay the button is down, and WAS down but he's plummeting to his doom for the 8 billionth time because I wasn't precog enough to push the damm thing a full 3 seconds before I needed to. FUNNY THING: Less delay with classic Sonic. Srsly. What the hell.

Why can't this thing just play like Sonic Adventure 1?

Why can't it play like S & K?

Those controls were tight but they're old as hellz! Even day stage Unleash jumped better than modern in here.

Is it easy?

Yes OR No. Either you're going to S rank something on the first or 2nd go, or you die like 50 times suffering in failure over rinky dink junk. "Oh he picks the wrong balloon 14 times in a row!" or "You don't know where this is going to be, but you have to be able to guess right 3 seconds ahead of time on something totally random, or you deathdrop because jump delay" and "homing attack fails for no reason / spin dash does nothing at random" a case of "I'll pretend you never pushed the button and just stand here/just fall down!"

Did they do the nostalgia right?

This was a big thing on people's minds, and it sure seems so. The music is classic in the right spots and they've enhanced (rather than replaced) classic elements. Like the pink chemical in the plant, the blue blorp things, the tubes you go thru are now thick glass/see thru, and there are plenty of loops & twists and things all over. The "2D" stages also feature twists and turns that are not 2D looking...but are very fitting. It's a great thing to see. The modern has everything you'd expect, like boost areas to crash thru cannonfodder badguys, rails (but not to an obnoxious degree!), the rainbow rings/air tricks/boost gague & etc.

Interesting Aside:

Scoring is better. You get a bonus if you don't die before finishing the level. That's nice. Also that it SHOWS you what time you need for S is good too. No need for print outs/charts.

The over-all first impression is good...

If the jumping was better, this game would be over the moon. I am actually hoping it is my controller failing somehow. There will be a part 2 to the review, with more of the levels plus a look at the 3D.

Reccommendation now: Go buy it.
There's no "crazy garbage" (at least yet) that people wail about on the internet. No wierdo alternate Sonics, no forced bizzarre levels (ie Knuckles treasure hunt irritation), cutscenes are small/minimal but look good, VA's seem decent, you can Turn OFF Omochao (people hated him with a passion...he's optional) Metal Sonic is IN and you get to race him in a fun way (he was always a big fave, looks good here) No "hunting for level doors garbage" like in Unleashed where you needed a squillion irritating medals and then you ran around the 'map world' thing and still couldn't find where to place them or doors were in gimmicky stupid spots you had to waste time getting to. As soon as this thing loads, you can be in a level. Load times are fair, and if you want to just replay a place, theres no loading at all.

Jazwares Resculpt Improvement

2011-10-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

Another almost timely update/s!
This week went well again, with the main part of the update on sunday (when it should be) and the rest following after but still early in the week. The site mail is doing better now as well, gotten it down under 200 at last, so headed for 'how it used to be' before the JW explosion of toys.

Speaking of JW...

What's up with those horrible 10 inch fakes? 0 articulation and throwing around brand names trying to fool people? So corney. Hopefully those jerks can get shut down pretty soon for scamming the JW name for their phony figures. Had about a zillion submissions of them for the week as everyone found them in searches.

Jazwares Resculpted 5in Sonic-
When you roll out the comparison pics like that, he sure does shine. Their first one was good, but I had always thought something was a bit 'off' about him, though I didn't know what. I guess it was something about the face...too tall maybe? Anyway, instead of being annoyed at having to buy him again, I'm really glad they did it. I would recommend him to anyone...even if they already had the first. He just has too many improvements to pass up on. Don't under-estimate the hollow head either, it's a big help to the figure. Now, if only they'd fix the super-posers in this way...

Where are the Amy classics?
Not out yet. As near as I can figure someone jumped the gun with photos or there was some kind of early leak. NO ONE reports them in any store, anywhere. (Amy comic pack, Amy 4 pack)

Where is Iblis LBLIS / Silver pack?

Obviously this is that mis-spelled 'figure & badnik' pack and he's by far the hardest to track down. Despite news of multiple re-stocks, he just doesn't turn up. The rumor is that it has to do with his mis-spelling. They're trying to get him reprinted so it's right. Does this mean the original will become rare/wanted? Who knows. It's a mistake that makes it look worse than normal, so I wouldn't think so.
This pack was always pretty weak anyway because the Iblis Biter should be enormous, the size of a moose or a horse or something, with "lava skin" and the tiny toy kind of doesn't...get that across. The other figures with their badniks were at least somewhat to scale because they didn't select enormous enemies.

Item of the week:

HMV Segaworld London Catalog of boring expensive things!

What's REALLY interesting about this thing? Not one single item from it is anywhere on Gear. Every other merch catalog, article of merch & item booklet has at LEAST 1 thing. There's over 20 things there! I would have thought that in all the years it has existed, someone would have at least owned 1 measly item from it...but I guess not.

Items too boring?
Items too expensive?
Catalog never actually functioned & you couldn't order?
Catalog failed and never sent out merch, only refunds?

It is a mystery. I would think that if it did work, at least 1 person would have bought 1 thing from it in the course of its run in 1996. Some of the things were unique (Record bag, rugby shirt, square design shirt, logo punch shirt) which even when combined with the boring embroidery would have at least put them above "fake looking dull tee" in the temptation to buy it list. Yes, most of it did look like fakes from ebay because they clearly bought loads of generic tees, ball caps, & etc then quickly re-branded with 'Segaworld' but still...odd.

Item of the week #2

First 4 Figures Knuckles Statue/Display Figure.

AMAZING. Again. They manage to do light up features without it being garish. Lots of places will shoe-horn in light features and it detracts. Not here. Their classic Knuckles is wonderful lit or unlit. Doing the Lava Reef thing with the base is brilliant, and his pose is very "Knuckles like" and fitting. Yet another 'must want' from these guys. I do wonder if they'll go for a modern license next...hopefully they do because each of these big display figures is a roaring success.

Next week:

As you probably remember, the site likes to have something 'Halloween themed' for the holiday...but I'm not sure if it'll happen. To clear up the mail I've had to shove everything on as fast as possible. (and not be able to 'wait' items so that they can produce a theme for a certain week, as in the past) Still, who knows!

About Back to Normal...

2011-10-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

Well the site is about back to normal.

Mail volume is almost down to where it was before the JW flood, and seems to be looking good. But the big news of the week was the super big

Store Update!

The Gear Store had a little mermaid infestation and too many of those blinking orange boxes that come out when something sells out. Really everything that goes out of there should become the blinking box, but for some reason some of the items had been switching to irrelevant things like Ariels and Otters & Naruto things. Everything should be restored now though. So it's basically the perfect time to USE the store, if you're going to. The store is best stocked when it is the freshest.

2 new pages join the store:
Posters Home Decor store & Party Supply Store
And the main store page had a bit of an overhaul too, to get all of the posters off of it and onto home decor. It's great to see how long lasting a lot of the items really are. The original flat rubber keychains are years old now, and offline have been long, long gone. However, they're well liked so it's nice to see the links being maintained in the store. The other surprising thing (as usual) is how badly categorized some of the things in there are. You'd NEVER find a lot of the items, even if you looked really hard on the 'customer side search'. Either the sellers stocking them don't know what they are, or people have loaded the category with zillions of totally irrelevant things and buried the Sonic thing.

Not that the rest of the site update was any bad...

Plenty of things still went on, including the Sonic Locks. Cute little locks are item of the week. I imagine they are the locks from the ancient official photo on Misc JP 1, but with the small size it's hard to tell. Little fully figural sets like this are what really sets apart the Japanese collectability. Everywhere else would of just done a Sonic lock and been done with it. But it's just so much more fun with mini Eggman, Tails & Amy too.

Next week:
Likely will highlight some magazines, and the blog should have an Archie announcement. Hopefully can start digging into older mail as well.

AmyRose-Rage - Averted?

2011-09-26T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well this post was going to be a bit of a rant...

But JW may have saved them self from that. In all of this figure release turmoil, many fans were asking "well, where is Amy Rose"? After all, she has both classic & modern looks and belongs on the character roster just as much as anyone else. These same fans, meanwhile, were snapping up the figures produced left and right. After all, you don't want it to sell out, right?

So then what happens?

Classic Amy finally makes her first appearance. Yay? No. She's part of a "classic figures 4 pack" which you just KNOW will be 19.99. Who's in there with her? Classic Sonic, who you bought to finally get your hands on fun/cute motobug toy. Classic Tails...who no one could resist because he came with Grabber Spider...Super Sonic...who was worse because you could get him IF you got a somewhat irrelevant tin for 14.95...which most people did because it was the first time 3.75 SS classic did appear.

Result: Spend 19.95 for ONE classic 3.75 inch figure

Conclusion: Girl's Curse is real, everyone hates Amy, girl figures never sell well waaah waah derp

WELL GEE.

What do they want anyone to do? NEVER buy ANY figure when it comes out because you MUST assume that some better way to buy it is right around the corner waiting to burn you if you buy it now? That makes no sense. It's unrealistic. I think it's also kind of mean to force rebuys, especially during a flood like this.

What COULD they have done better?
Change the release order to solve it all! Put out the classic figure 4-pack FIRST, then release that SS & his random tin menace later on. I get it, some people love tins...but not everyone loves tins. Give the spatially & money challenged a chance. At least that way you get 2 new figures in the 4box...(and super Sonic actually builds excitement/works FOR them not against) nothing can be done about S&T, because they had to come with badniks anyway.

Small saving grace:

They are ALSO releasing her with a classic Sonic in a comic pack. Sure sure, you're STILL paying 14.95 for JUST AMY ROSE but maybe it's a little better than a tin AND 3 dupes?

Better:

Single card classic Amy & single card Modern Amy! Put a badnik in there with 'em, or don't! People will buy Amy if you can find a way to not charge a billion dollars for her or pack her in with a zillion crazy things people already own or don't want.

Unanswered question: Where is Classic Knuckles?

Wanted still: Super Sonics 3.75 size 2 pack. The Super Hedgehogs pack had a huge amount of defective Sonics, mine included. Let us at least re-buy poor headless modern SS due to faulty original.

Crazy Stool- This is the type of bootleg that everyone loves to hate. I find the 'crazier' bootlegs to be the funnier & more amusing items. That "Harry Potter Obama Sonic" backpack was a riot. This sparkle leaf baby + Green Sonic is just so nonsense that it's funny to see.
You'll also notice that the 'nerd doll Sonic' took its leave of the bootlegs section...that's because it turned out to be (unsurprisingly) a Toy Network dumbness. While moronic, it's not fake so checkered suspenders bizzarro Sonic moves to Mutant Gear. I kind of suspected this from the start, but was on the fence because there's no holiday related to tacky clothes or poor disguises. I can't explain it still.

Generalized update stuff:

Mail is getting better! LOTS better! As stuff winds down with JW, things look to be getting back under control. This will restore variety and also sanity to the updates. Older mail won't be gotten into this week, or next, but DO expect a "Gear Store" update to fix broken links & add more stuff. Very, very glad to see this improvement in being able to keep up with things.

A Break for Sonic Clothes?

2011-08-31T16:34:00.000-07:00

The mail continues to fly in fast & furious.

A small amount of headway made this week in getting everything on. Of course, this results in another mega big update and more update fatigue. I still don't know what people are supposed to do with 100s of dollars worth of short-lived items coming out all at once. Seriously stormy timing by multiple unrelated companies.

This week does get a theme though (always nice)

Which is clothing. With nearly every available clothes page getting a couple of items, it's def. theme-worthy. 2 Dudes With Attitudes is another rare yet sought after one...seen only in catalog format up until this point. And what's up with that 80 dollar Japanese thing? WTH printing method are they using on THAT? IS anyone actually going to buy it? Too bad there's no origin site with some kind of official commentary on why it's like that. Thinking of throwing it onto "High End".

Clothes aren't invincible either!

Drawer rot, closet-rust, mildew, moth-larva...it's all possible to get an item hit by one of these maladies. Sure there's the Sonic Gear Clothing Care page, but knowing about it can't prevent 100% of incidents. How bad would you feel as you tried to keep that prize tee 10 years later if something happened?

As you can also see, effort is going into keeping the "Variety" in SonicGear.

It seems like EVERYthing is 'figures figures figures' lately. From fanstuff to bootlegs, to floods of Jazwares and now Gachas, if you don't like figures, you're out of luck. So putting forth a real effort to keep variety in place and keep everyone entertained.

Wanted Gear-
Should be even more full of 'easy hits' if anyone's looking to do photos. A variety of stuff at easy offline retail like FYE Hot Topic & Spencers.

The Figures-

Interesting stuff (egg robos) & redundant stuff (Super Sonic...with a tin! why?) Stuff no one predicted, like the 'shiny paint Silver / Shadow' too. I can't really decide if that one's a good move or not. Everyone will have just bought Silver & Shadow to get the badniks. However, the shiny paint I suppose is an all-right variant/motivator. Can't wait to get hands on for the EggRobos & Egg Fighters. Hopefully they're genuine 'extra figures'. Having a classic Eggman/Robotnick will be fantastic too. I do happen to be a figure collector so all of this is exciting stuff too except for...Gachas.

The Tin
Yes why do a tin? People still need tins? What do you put in tins? Why not do some kind of cool "figure display base" or something with a couple different mini 'shelf like levels' that have pegs for the feet. Maybe make it green or clear so it's like ground, and you can set the figures onto that and pose 'em. Then set the whole thing onto a shelf and you have a nice display with all figures attached. Maybe that would cost more than a tin.
Now, I don't grudge the tin any, it's a fine thing. But I do wonder how well it will sell with a figure everyone just bought. (It's Super Sonic! No one will be able to resist grabbing that SS 2-Pack)

BuildAble Gachas-
Do not like. Will not buy. When nasty stupid bootlegs can do a better paint job...you've really got something to worry about. Also, they're a little smaller than the JW 3.75 line, with 0 articulation and poor paint. And there are no new characters who you didn't already buy (Several times) FROM Jazwares already. Unless you need every single thing, or need to customize things in some way, I personally don't see the point of these.

Up Next?

Anybody's guess, but that guess should include 'more figures'. There's still loads more mail to go (it's at 221 now, but the old total before the crazy period was 189--so it'll have to get there again before actual progress can said to be made)

Blog Malfunction - Multi Update Irritation

2011-08-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

SO.

The blog decides to malfunction. You'll probably see several mixed up order posts in the recent history for this thing. That's more of the blog arguing with the browser. Several recent things went into "Draft" and got stuck there even though they should have published. To get all the news just keep hitting 'older posts' until you hit one you've already seen.

Angry now because it deleted a really nice one for this week's 2nd update. Not going to re write it, there's no time with everything else going on, AND the figures-only update that needs doing tonight.

1 Sign In for Everything is nonsense-
NO I DONT want to be signed in to the same twitter, gmail & blogger accounts when I sign in on ONE of them ONLY. Don't sign me into everything when I sign in to only 1. I have different accounts I manage and these pages are called different things because twitter is different from gmail. (as if that were hard to grasp) You can probably tell what conflict it was that broke the blog post even though "autosave" engaged several times.

A Shadow Plush I Want

2011-08-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

This first half of the update sees a batch of new plushes, good and bad.
The bad, is of course Jazwares modern Sonic small doll. Why are they making mutants? They're so good with figures, it doesn't make sense that their plush should be that horrible. It really does belong on mutant gear. One can only hope that people vote with their dollar and refuse to buy it. You can do so much better, for example with...

GE's new offerings. A small Sonic, a medium Shadow & medium Super Sonic. I'm VERY discriminating in my plush choices (no space for anything--you've got to be careful!) and also don't like spending a ridiculous amount. (so like SA2 Japan Shadow at over $500 if way off the books/would never consider) So I have very few plushes. If there's anything 'off' about it, I don't buy. But this new Shadow...I say..if it looks like the photo they took for the product: wow! I would even go so far as to say it could be the USA's best constructed Shadow ever. Since it's not actually out yet though- too early to judge. However, that one, and their Super Sonic are on my 'get list', as of right now, which is still hard to do.

The 2nd half will have more figures stuff.

The mail didn't freak out this week, so it's a good chance to try and get ahead before the next items release. You can look at the 'prototypes' page and see that not everything is out yet, including 10 inch Classic Sonic. However, we do know that JW is attempting to release all of it in a span of the next 4 or so weeks. The photo supplies are in to be able to get pretty much all currently available stuff up on the next update. Hands-on reviews should also be on most of it. Target getting figures too has made the old slow Toys R Us less relevant, so finally the site can keep up with everywhere else.

Upcoming:

"Hope you like figures" because that will be the dominant theme for a while yet. Other stuff will squeeze in around the edges as it's been doing. Not everyone is a figure fan, so it's important to try and keep up with variety too. (And there's plenty of it!)

20th Anniversary Figure Reviews Start

2011-08-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

These past couple of weeks have been CRAZY

I have to say I don't know what's going on right now that's making everything that makes Sonic things, release them all at once. It's very annoying, because it makes Gear too hard to keep up with properly (mail is out of control and it gets WORSE every week, not better) and also it's too hard to keep up with buying.

Not everyone who likes Sonic stuff is richie rich.
Not everyone can afford to buy everything they want off the shelf when there's 100s of dollars worth of stuff out there all at the same time--for a LIMITED time! The catch with these things always seems to be "Buy it when you see it because next time it won't be there" well that's rough when you're like 12 and out of money. This kind of 'merch storm' makes it difficult on the fans. Hopefully it's fought against by longer shelf times and better re-stocking so there are multiple chances for the fans to buy all the things they want.

20th Anniversary Figures:

Over all I have to say it's very positive. There are good choices all around for the line, like 5 inch Super Sonics & 5 in Classic Sonic's construction improvements. Letting Fuzzy Sonic onto the the Website TRU & TRU stores is also good, not everyone lives in California. The repeat figures feel quality (yeah yeah forced re-buy but...there isn't really a solution for it) so you can substitute out the older flimsier ones.

Complain Zone!

Badniks Badness:
WHY does Motobug not roll?
WHY does Grabber Spider not Grab?
WHY can you not turn Sand Worm?

These are stupid super simple little 1 spot articulations that would have just perfected the line. It's like...everyone who buys these 2-packs is going to be a re-buyer. That's pretty much a given--so why not throw us a bone here? Most kids/fans/people/whatever already have something like THREE SONICS already because of Racers, 2 Packs & Single cards. What are you supposed to do? NOT buy figures because you keep saying "well, he'll come out again with some widget I want...better not waste the money..." That's annoying and no one does it. Can't they throw people a bone here and just do that?

Badnik Choices:
The choices seem weird. So weird infact, that there will be a conspiracy theory below!

Motobug -
The iconic badnik! The first thing you fight in Sonic 1 Genesis! So then...why is it NOT the one from Sonic 1? I mean the box back card has Green Hill all pixelated...why mis-match the version of the robot? It's not like people can't tell.
MonoBeetle-
Really? You have a HUGE roster of enemies and you pick this boring thing? Why?

Grabber Spider-

THIS was extremely appropriate. It was like the 1 thing that auto-control Tails would save you from in the game if you got caught by it. His simple AI drive to be 'near' you would make him jump up and hit it once it reeled you in. It's fun, it's colorful, and you can tie a string around that winch on top to play with it. The only thing is: it doesn't grab. A barrette style clippy/clicky mechanism would of fixed that.

Spinner & Sandworm-

Meh.

What would I have picked?

Caterkiller. Crabmeat. Something BlackDoom brought along. I still can't figure why they did 'mono beetle' out of every crazy thing they had to choose from. To be stubborn that wind chicken weathervane thing which I find hilarious for some reason. Also comic of it!

http://sega-memories.blogspot.com/2009/01/sega-fanart-showcase-badniks.html

Why? because it doesn't seem like they're actually paying attention to what game they came out of, just that the char+robot appeared in the same game at least once.

Conspiracy Theory:
Jazwares was making a modern badniks "Sonic Colors" line, when Sega stomped in and forced the 20th Anniversary move. They didn't bother to re-tool anything and so just threw badniks in there and said it was classic.

Still, these are mostly smaller gripes. Nothing feels cheap or flimsy, the packaging is good, if you buy at Target or TRU the value is all-right (not at gamestop though! yikes!) It is also wonderful to finally have badniks as toys. The fans wanted them for ages, and this is a good time/way to deliver. The only thing they can do to improve would be 1 articulation spot per thing or a "Badnik Combo Pack" where you buy multiple baddies and no figures.

As more figures are acquired, more reviewing will follow.
Regular stuff blog post/commentary will be on the next entry.

Jazwares Megapost! (Part 1)

2011-08-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

There's no shortage of Jazwares items for this week's updates.

The mailbox has been going WILD with everyone sending in everything. Not only are there batches of figures, but plushes too. The whole 20th Anniversary thing seems to be really kicking up now (odd, because the actual date is over) with logos for it appearing everywhere / promotions & etc.

Jazwares mistake boxes note- Important!
You'll notice a lot of WRONG things came out with this new line of Generations classic/modern figures. Like the dates on some of them are incorrect for when the game was released that had that specific thing in it or the LBLIS vs IBLIS thing (can't spell) It's not a good idea to go spending a bundle trying to snag these wrong items. They may fix it /correct it later, but it's not worth it to go spending on ebay as these early acquirers would like you to do. The value for the error-boxes is unlikely to go up because it's not like those are cooler than a regular box some how.

Black-Card/Scratch Bubble Werehog:

Note, that special carded/1st release JW 5 inch Werehog has so far been the only thing where the box it's in has made it worth more. That's because of the spooky black card, and the 'cut in' texture "werehog claw marks" on the bubble. That box is COOLER than a regular one, so it is more desirable. Errors are generally uncool and result in products looking shabby/uninformed instead of better.

Are the ebay people posting the figures now scalping?
Should we be mad?

Technically no. They've somehow gotten a hold of figures early, and that's NOT the same thing as buying out whole stores to prevent other people from purchasing on purpose. The people who are desperate to "Early Adopt" will pay more, as is the usual with almost any item.

So...we have to re-buy all the figures again?

Yes. Yes we do. At least for the non-classics, if you want the badniks/accessories that they're coming with, you've got to re-buy everyone you probably already own. However, keep in mind that this will be the "New Stronger Joints Plastic" version of everybody, so you can replace yours with the better ones. Anybody who missed a figure will now be able to get it, also. Normally I would fuss a little, but the improved plastic makes it ok.

Another blog post should accompany the upcoming part 2 to this update.

It's way too big to fit everything into just 1.

Countdown to Jazwares: big figure release

2011-07-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

What was up with last week?
Where was the update?

The internet was down on the night the update was supposed to be. See, sunday night is the usual day to do the weekly update. During the week it can (and often does) get too busy to do an update...so if that 1 night gets lost, it can skip for the week. The ISP here decided to go down for that night, so...nothing happened. Wasn't able to get in there during the week to do it, so this week has to be a make-up update. Fortunately, this is super rare, happening less than 2 times in a year.

Jazwares big release:
Supposedly some time in august, but figures have already leaked onto Ebay & gotten sent in to Gear. Depending how they do it, it'll either sprinkle them in in psudo-waves like we've had before, or they'll just dump em all and flood the shelves. People are currently thinking 'dump', but who knows. And what'll happen to everything that's still on the shelf? Better pick up any figures you want NOW or this release may disrupt your ability to do so.

More things onto Wanted Gear this week...
And 1 thing off it. That Horrifica mystery has finally been solved and the answer was 'a cameo'. It's interesting to see they didn't pick someone like Yuri Geller who was famous for the supposed 'power' first with his spoon bending. Maybe he was debunked and Silver was someone more authentic?

Hopper Ball!

Is a 'generic styled' item which can be printed upon and thus 'themed' however you want. Generic styled items are terribly common among bootlegs, but this doesn't mean they're confined only there. The ball is certainly official. It's another one of those throwback toys to before technology (like a bop bag) where if you didn't have anything to do butt-bouncing on a springy thing held an appeal. It's interesting to see these things are still being made.

Good to see...

-Wal-mart getting shirts again, and some nice designs too. The cheap prices and wide availability makes sure almost anyone can pick them up. Hopefully the sizes are decent.
-That one big issue of GamesMaster magazine being made available online to any who want to buy it. This magazine really went all-out for the 20th anniversary so it's a big deal.
-Alton Towers stepping up their game- A well designed photo frame, some new pins sets & adding MORE Jazwares items (plushes & figures) to the gift shop only serves to make it a better Sonic destination. Stock up on fun at the coaster, then stock up on stuff without paying shipping!

Next Update:

Will be a 2nd update for the same week. Got to make up for the missing one, or else the mail will go out of control again. It'll be a variety of stuff looking to clear up anything recent to make-way for the big Jazwares figure flood that's likely to happen soon. The official date may be august, but with leaks already occurring...

Sonic Haul Weekend

2011-07-11T23:27:00.000-07:00

Had a decent haul of items for my own collection over the weekend.

Sonic stuff seems scarce here, and contrary to belief, I don't buy a whole lot, not have a giant collection. I did manage to get glowing Shadow shirt, Sonic candy tin/emerald sours, that new water bottle, the air freshener, and the FYE Sonic/Shadow tee. All these things are good buys with reasonable prices. I was actually surprised at the 7.99 bottle, if HotTopic had had it, it'd be like 14.99 for the same thing.

The weirder the item, the more I seem to like it.

It must be a by-product of running SonicGear, you see so many typical things that you go for the unusual. Like the air freshener, I had to have. It's so odd. Waterbottle was off-beat enough too, though not good for much. If you use it for sport/etc you risk scratching the design. Also the bottle is opaque so you can't tell if it's clean. There are mildew horror stories that would put you off these things forever if you saw it. ESPECIALLY since you can't heat it to clean it, and it requires a bottlebursh, which few people own.

Why choose 'angry Sonic' for the freshener?
You'd be mad too if your head smelled like vanilla.

What smell should the air freshener have?
"Awesome". That way it would be suitable for Sonic.

Really? Vanilla? It's like the most generic smell ever. Make it exciting like uh...hot cinnamon, outdoor mountain wind, the ocean, cut grass (green hill!), or something. If anyone finds fresheners stinky (a common problem) simply leaving them MIP solves it.

Generations Demo Aside Piece:

Tried this demo the other day. It expired today, BTW. Seems decent. There's a lag time between pushing the button & him jumping. The screen 'chugs' along when you're not walking or flat out flooring it. I will make him run semi-fast, so I can look for secrets or tricks in the level without crawling. This makes it chug along worst.
The badniks making noise & being very animated is fun.
You can see where the 3D will be fun.
He gets good opportunities to go fast
The water is lovely, esp where the ground is wet
Physics better than Sonic 4

In all, I think the demo's a good demo. It was well worth the like 4 hours or something it took to DL. It must have been giant, so now that it's gone hopefully it can erase itself too. Def. looking forward to this game!

There should be a part 2 to the update.

Wanted gear is going to get A TON of stuff. There also should be another blog post talking about it, when it goes up. Likely tomorrow.

Update Fatigue

2011-07-06T01:18:00.000-07:00

Update Fatigue: I has it!

Has'd it. Something.

The update for the final day was a little bit short on stuff, because of it. As usual, the bday week is a rough one. This year's was made even moreso by the need to trouble shoot another Sega game all the way to Japan. (a far target indeed, when you can't read it.) And the issue still isn't resolved. Managed to miss an event too, because of it.

However, the week should be considered a success.

If this week's update goes off smoothly for the 2nd half, the mail will go down/less once again, which is the goal. There will be some interesting things on part 2, including more Feves.

Hopefully everyone is satisfied with what all went up during the big week.

It put a good dent in the mail too, but there's still far to go. There should be another blog post for the rest of the update, highlighting more items.

Birthday Week Update #2

2011-06-22T01:34:00.000-07:00

Timing is a little off...as you can tell still.

Was thwarted by UK HomeGoods 3 being yet ANOTHER leftover broken page from the old bad code. Keep hoping that every one of these that gets fixed is the final one. Will this be the last? As a result of that and the KB incident, the first update went up in 2 parts, thus delaying the one for today and making it 2 parts as well.

There's still plenty of anniversary stuff, like the skit, 2sided poster, and F4F statue.

Rare toothbrush:

This thing MUST be rare. It's classic, yet it only shows up now?

And why did they base the....base...on that somewhat terrible "Sonic Ball"? I mean, what's wrong with having a statue of him on the base or something--did they not want to create a new statue or figure and just settled for cloning that wierd ball? Still the USA Hygene section hadn't been updated in so long, this is interesting to see, especially MIB the way it is.

"Ghost Chao"

Seriously, what's up with this. My real thought is, the company saw how much those Japan chaos go for and wanted to try and extort the big bucks from the rabid Sonic fanbase, and so is claiming their wierdo blue thinger is somehow Sonic related. Since there's only one of it, they can SAY anything they want and ebay is unlikely to fuss. It's really well made but it doesn't seem very 'chao like' to me. Yes they could wear the little skull in the game, or a pumpkin or a box or an egg-shell but that's not quite how it looked. Plus, where's the "Flaming Ghost headball" they all had? Hopefully someone can clear up what's going on here/prove any claims.

Item of the day:

Black Base mystery statue. What's up with all these un-get-able statues lately? F4F starting it off with their 20th Anniversary 2 different editions one, and then this other one turns up in Japan. While neat to look at, it only annoys people who actually want to buy them.

Big page- Sonic Magazine covers. The whole point of the Birthday Updates is to give everyone A LOT to look at each day. Basically, post as much stuff as possible to make the updates as entertaining as can be. The things for this update are relatively 1-at-a-time-ish but certainly anyone can be entertained with the new Magazines page.

Things going off of International Unknown:
If you're familiar with the page, you'll see it's gotten shorter. Always a good sign. Everything that went off it (HP Pasta, Tails Scrunchy Doll, Soccer Poster) all got scattered into UK goods because someone finally wrote in with proof. Good to see this unwieldy long page getting shortened.

What's next?

MORE Sonic Boom & E3 coverage! Watch out for lots of great photos of more things from the event, plus some nice detailed information. Hopefully the updates will also even out and quit having to be done in 2 parts. It's all exciting stuff so far, and will continue that way throughout the update.

Birthday Week: 20th Anniv Update #1

2011-06-21T01:30:00.000-07:00

First blog post is kind of a double for the first 2 updates.

As everyone knows...it's Sonic's Birthday Week! Which means once again, SonicGear will celebrate with updates every single day of the week.

Why the double-covering entry/delay?

Keyboard malfunction. Wasn't aware the things could actually go wrong unless you spilled something on them. Used the last one until all the buttons were smooth, only upgraded because the new one had bells and or whistles. However the L key has completely lost the letter so it is blank. Don't make them like they used to? I guess NOT because it spontaneously quit working earlier in the evening. Vigorous shaking+unplugging+plugging back in fixed it. No idea why.

On to the update/s!

We've got everything going on so far that a bday update should have. A new page (UK books 3) a bday specific item (20th anniv Games Master book) and many things in general being added in a nice mix. (Old Japan shirts to new USA Game Guides...you can't say variety is lacking)

The UK is good at giving it away:

What is it with UK area publishers/producers of stuff and give-aways? Sonic the Comic was apparently regularly coming with all sorts of prizes. And now, here comes GamesMaster Magazine releasing some kind of Sonic supplement. It's got stickers, pins, pull out posters and semi-rare Japanese graphics. They apparently know how to do things right/give fans what they want. Other places can learn a thing or two about super supplements from here.

What's upcoming?

Better blog post. Running out of time on them is no good. There will also be more shirts, more magazines and several things going OFF of 'international unknown'--which is always good...so keep an eye on it if you were curious about things.

Go Buy Archie Sonic 225 (probably)

2011-06-17T15:18:00.000-07:00

Rarely, does the Gear blog recommend anything to buy.

Mostly because everyone's likes are whatever they want, and not all goods are a good fit for everyone. Certainly I don't own everything Sonic, nor want to. (No Calender of crud dolls for me!) However, when something's easily accessible, and likely to be pretty collectible/interesting/retain a value, it should at least get mentioned.

Caution: entry contains spoiler for issue.

PREVIOUS ENTRY contains more about SonicGear update for this week.

However...if you like the comic at all, or if you want a collectible piece that's pretty cheap, spending the 3 bucks to get this thing is probably a good idea. It's the first gatefold cover they ever did, and Spaz did it (fan fave artist, so that's always a good combination) Their history with repeating special covers is nill (the silver ink was used only on first run, thus making that one much more valuable) so the chance of this re-appearing later is close to zero, and it's on the shelves NOW--so I felt compelled to do an entry about it reminding everyone. (yes it will come up in compilations/books but it won't have the gatefold there)

Is it very Archie?
Will I like it if I'm a Sonic game player / regular item collector non-reader?
Yes, the cover and story are all extremely archie. Game players take it as you will. That's great if you like this sort of thing. The cover has Sonic and Sally in position 2, (Archie fans love!) along with Antoine.

Sega made them shoe-horn Tails in at the top (probably) or really why include him at all. (because he's not in the story at all-he has 2 active lines, again, very Archie very satam) The rest (under the gatefold) has the rest of your SatAm faves, and lands Amy close to the back. Where's Knuckles/Shadow/Sega people? He's never had anything to do with this particular story so he'd make no sense to include. DO note that that's not the fault of this issue/story, it's just how the plot has gone thus far, its not like they're purposely excluding during the banner issue or something. It isn't nefarious.

The back of the fold has a nice recap, so if you're STARTing your collection here, that's a good and handy move to use. (banner issues such as this do start fans off) The story itself is accessible enough: Eggman has a cosmic reset switch machine which he then uses. How much is reset is unknown, but the "OH NOES" development tells you how the whole thing will end and dissolves any over-reaching-mystery before it starts.

1. Eggman pushes cosmic reset switch in an attempt to "win"

2. Sally gets shot in the face by a machine gun and dies

3. Sonic must spend the next X issues figuring out what happened when switch was thrown

4. He un-does everything JUST in time to tell Sally to not go down that hallway

5. She does not, and all is righted, Eggman gets away

Of course there are still things no one can know such as if Ixus Naugus dies or goes good, if they decide to kill Nicole instead somehow or any number of other interesting developments. So it's not like her "Demise" has created something all-revealing/renders everything uninteresting but you do know the over-arching plot. They simply can't kill her, because she is a better & richer character than Sonic is** in the Archieverse and thus is too pivotal. When they tried it the first time, fanrage was so great her death would have killed the Sonic book.

(**Doubt Sally is better than Sonic? Her first killing proved it: HIS BOOK would have ended if SHE died. So she didn't.)

Yes, it does have something to do with Generations, and you'll be seeing a more game-like green hill, but as you also know the switch isn't permanent. How game-like will it be? How well done is it? They're all interesting questions and this book will start them off.

E3 Update 2011

2011-06-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

Miss out on E3? Not live in California?

SonicGear (and about a zillion other places) have some coverage. You'll notice the E3 theme with the 2nd half of the update. Mascot suits, booth shots, the Generations statues, the cake, and a video are all part of the deal. The bounty of photos is spread into the appropriate categories on the site, and it made for quite a large update this time.

The booth this year seemed nice, the timeline effect for the walls was a good idea too. I'm disappointed in the modern Sonic statue, the eye is certainly a bit wonky and the body is strangely put together with giant belly dot. They've produced better statues (and worse ones too you know) so it's kind of unfortunate to see it slip.

The cake. Good concept, nice stars, cool level loop execution but who made the Sonic? Yikes. I didn't want to say anything on the entry, but I've seen better fan fondant work. Professionals need model sheets just as much as the next fan. Never underestimate fan power, either.

The swag: Seems like decent enough stuff. 2 shirts and a pair of carded buttons. It's normal, and it makes sense. These will def. be collectible since they're likely event exclusives. A large amount of the spikes hats were also given away, but those aren't new nor exclusive to E3.

The mail was actually a mega-flood this week.

Video page will not be added this week, nor the next. It could take 3 updates to make this thing work, even just get the mail back down to the previous week's total. Why did it happen this way? E3 coincidence with everything else flooding in...no real reason, I guess.

Be on the lookout for an extra archie post next.

Fixin' Up Update

2011-06-06T22:43:00.000-07:00

This update was a good one.

It didn't have a ton of items, but it did have a ton of fixes. Info was added, items were moved & broken things were repaired. 2 pages fixed up, several image problems remedied and batches of 'where to get it' info too. Kmart shirt...hmmm...

Yes, the mail was light this week.

GOOD. It was quite a relief to be able to catch a break and do all the little extras that needed doing all in one shot. It may not be flashy and highly visible, but the site is better for it, that's for certain. Plus, me actually getting to get a rest is very good as well.

Does this mean it's out of stuff?

NO! There's loads of stuff left in the old mail. A 2nd update is possible, just to add more things for the week, but the numbers are still up around 190something and 240something worth of old letters containing items, so there is certainly no shortage.

Item of the week:

Sonic Boom. It's actually an event and not an item, and it's only on Wanted Gear because it hasn't happened yet. It's Sega's 20th anniversary 'party' of some kind where items may be given out and demos run for Generations. Naturally it's in California, so hopefully some Gear lookers/readers can attend and send a photo if anything interesting occurs or is given out. It's likely to be really games-based, which Gear doesn't cover because other sites do it better. Still, I'm curious about it.

Next week:

More mail bag which means randomness. If the new mail is light again, 'show pages' will appear to cover all of Sonic's serieses and disks/vhs/etc that were also made. Probably fortified with watchable youtube videos for extra action. This section is needed, and has been in the works for a while so hopefully the opportunity can come up to actually do it next week.

Older Items Update- It was late

2011-06-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

Update was late this week (clearly)
Why? MemorialDay holiday weekend disturbed the usual update time, then the rest of the week got in the way after that. Several 'new' pages went up as well & one more broken code page cured. What was broken? Fan Items hub of links. What pages were new? Just additional numbered pages (ie fan items 20) to categories that were already there.

This week is rather fortunate, in that several things from older mails started going on.

It's great news for anyone who submitted an item and then never knew what happened to it. This was made possible by a lighter-than-usual load of stuff and extra time to post it all up in. Really helped the mail too, which was nice to see after it only going down by 1 letter or so these last couple of times.

That doesn't mean there wasn't interesting stuff though!

A lot of it though is of somewhat...under suspicion interest. The silly looking 'chibi' Sonic plush found in Australia, and the 'updated SA1 Mighty' on the fake cartridge are interesting to see...but while its clear the cart is a phony, I rather suspect the doll is too.

What is up with:
Disk launchers. Seriously, what is the point of these? Launching a disk does...what exactly? Makes you go pick it up afterward so it doesn't go up the vac? Good for self-exercise? There have been other disk launchers released for Sonic (meal toys, specifically) I mean they're not even top launchers like a beyblade or other fighting top. I mean I'm sure they're ok to display and all but is that all anyone can think of?

What is up with II:
Stupid fake faded ink. Faux Wear, weathering, 'vintage look' whatever you want to call it, making things look shabby BEFORE you even buy them is a bad idea. I have never understood this fully. I mean yes, it's ok in a way for 'classic style' Sonic clothes that people are supposed to wear in an ironic way, as if it really was made in the early 90s and has been abused up until now...but it appears they've started doing it on modern designs too. That just makes no sense. Is it a price issue? Is busted up printing somehow less money than regular? Who knows, but it makes clothes harder to care for and collect/wear long term.

Item of the week:

Prototype Gacha style dispensing boxes & ball blindbox toys. PLEASE just release these in every country, whoever you are that's going to be selling these. Blindbox is bad enough without them being exclusive to somewhere annoying that's going to jack the price on the internet to fleece the fans. They're cute clever little things that should be easy for any fan to buy.

E3 is coming soon!

What sort of Sonic news will we hear there? Any Anniversary things or announcements? With an event this big, there's no telling what could be let out. (You can bet on Generations news though for consoles and 3DS) An exciting time leading up to this big deal. What else is coming soon (Sonic Bday) should also likely be figure news because of the anniversary. JW page may break the news, but who knows. Usually toy fansites get it first, somehow.

Next week:

Could be anything. The mail is clear for now on new things, so that means dipping in and cleaning up once again. It's time to bring out all of the interesting surprises that didn't get on earlier.

Game Guides Section Added

2011-05-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

This is an unusual week...

In that SonicGear got an actual 'all new' page. That new page is Game Guides (for the USA) Why does it appear?

They're different from regular Sonic books & there are a lot of them.

It warranted adding a section just for them. I'm sure more will turn up in upcoming weeks, so the page should do just fine. I know for certain there are several in the SonicGear collection that can go on as well...if I can get around to doing photos.

With the update of LCDs USA it might also be noticed that the MySonic Gear area is going to be demolished. Slowly. Once all the goods from each page are re-distributed onto corresponding/proper site pages, the page itself will be torn down and all links to it erased. There's no telling how fast this will be able to happen, it depends on the work-load for that week and if something is already going up to one of the categories. Why is this going to happen?
1. It needlessly divided up the merchandise on the site
2. It made things harder to get to because you had to know going in, which part it was on
3. It never got updated because it didn't make sense once the site took off
4. No one went there anyway

So nothing will be lost/deleted, everything will still be on the site, just in a better place.

The update was in 2 parts due to the new page and abundance of music CDs and track-lists that had to go on. It was too much for 1 update, but everything for the week DID get on...though the mail only went down by a single letter. (199 instead of 200)

Wanted Gear's Plea-
Wanted Gear also got updated (but not called out) this week. Because for the 2nd time in history (the other time was a photo, it was fixed in short order) SonicGear has LOST something that was sent in. In this case, it was a small booklet of knitting patterns dedicated to Sonic themed goods. Presumably there were knitting projects & all sorts of instructions inside.
Sent in by a fan a while back, it was saved and merely hoarded, waiting on the establishment of the "Sonic Crafts" section.

Well...the file was corrupted!
Somewhere between transferring over to the new PC...it went south and there's nothing to be done for it. I feel really bad about this because if it had been less busy and I had done something sooner...this wouldn't of happened. I'm betting this pattern set is really rare too since no one ever even MENTIONED the thing's existence. I can only hope it can be re-submitted somehow! (it had the submitters name in it--so thats gone too I cant even email them)

Next week?

Totally unknown. Hopefully loads more from the 'old mail' can get on at long last. But DO expect "Anniversary News" to start popping up on the web soon. It's nearly June so Sonic efforts of developers/jazwares/anything that makes Sonic stuff will start ramping up the hype machine. Naturally, anything merch related will be covered by SonicGear. With mid-week update/on the spot update if necessary.

*Yes there will be the usual 'birthday celebration zone' of 1 week of updates every single day again this year at Sonic's birthday week.

Pajama Update

2011-05-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

After the underwear comes the...PJs apparently.

This update sees almost nothing but clothing items. Certainly, the UK had much more than I had anticipated/heard about. The variety for the pajamas & boxers is really something to see. However, pj pants can be worn/enjoyed by anyone while boxers are sort of 'not for girls', so the pants will see more use/are more for everyone. A good thing!

It's great to see sections getting such a focused & thorough update again.
Having to go through maximum mails kind of stopped the 'themed updates' that people had enjoyed. The other thing to go on was shirts. As a big shirt collector, this was fun for me to see as well. The USA had at least 10 new designs, and 1 for 'Wanted Gear'.

Curiosity point:
What is it with writing sound effects onto underwear? I mean do you really want "BANG SPLAT" written on your butt? (if you do, then there's a pair for you out there this week) I am I the only one who sees this as a little funny? Sound effects have their place and all (in comic books) but "Kaboom" isn't particularly underwear material. (insert fabric related pun here) It's almost like that 'bustin thru/out' design on the true vintage usa Sonic underwear. You dont want anything bustin' thru/out of the butt area of your underwear. This reminds me of kool aid man for some reason ("oh yea")

What happened to the blog last week?
You'll notice it's post was yesterday instead of when it should have been. The new Internet Explorer version hates blogger or something. You would think they would want to make this program that lots of people use work with the blogging site that even more people use. Plus, it's been out how long now and they not figure it out?

Yes, USA Clothing 11 is the new page for the week. Forgot to mention it on index.

Next week:

Shows page? It's possible if the mail is calm enough. Got the numbers down again, 200 even this time, but semi-cheating by getting rid of old info mails that didn't have actual stuff in them. However, thats good for people who sent in info and now get the credit added. There are some biggie mails lurking loaded with tons of stuff still.

Underwear Update

2011-05-09T01:53:00.000-07:00

As you'll of noticed...

This update contains a ton of underwear. Why the sudden surge in boxers? Who knows, but England is loaded with the things. While once a rarity, Sonic underwear is now a big deal. If you live anywhere else though, you'll have to import it, or get a place that ships world wide...which can be troublesome. All the designs are rather decent, there's nothing terribly tacky among them, though some are rather busy. It's just interesting to see this BIG of a quantity of any one thing turning up at once, esp. if it's as obscure as underpants.

Where is the girls underwear?
Why isn't there a Sonic underwear for girls? There are girls-fit tees, so why not a panty of some kind? Everyone likes Sonic. Hopefully, someone will take some consideration and create it soon.

Store displays also make a re-appearance on the update.

They're kind of uncommon because they're produced only for retail stores (less of those than there are fans) and they're meant to be disposed of once the promo period ends. However, lucky fans can sometimes obtain them after the store doesn't want them, so they make a fine collectible. Some of them are quite creative too, so they're neat to see.

International Gains 1 / Loses 1

International unknown lost an item, the mystery mini fig turned out to be from France. It's good to have this placed, finally. What likely contributed to the confusion was it was a multi-use figure. Not only was it enclosed with a game in one instance, but it was also in capsule machines. It probably got distributed outside France too...but that can always be added later if proven.

Item of the week
The HP pasta that went onto Int Unknown
A mystery food is uncommon...usually people can find out where it's from right away. What's so interesting about it, is that it uses badnik shapes instead of Sonic ones for the noodles. Certainly mechanical shapes like Orbinaut & Batbrain are easy to do for the large, heavy die that makes the shapes. (these things are made by pressing dough through a thick steel die with shaped slots, after which a blade slices the shape off & it is cooked before canning) The die itself is difficult to make as well as costly, so any shape you desire...you have to be positive the fans will really like.

Generally, I think badniks are under-appriciated/under-represented on the whole. Their designs are clever & often nature inspired. They're fairly unique & colorful, good for placement on products--so it's sort of surprising more of them aren't seen. Is it due to lack of good stock art? (that didn't stop mutant goggle-eye ugly Tails did it??? I kid....sort of)

Next week: may contain shirts

Info Correction & Needed Section

2011-05-01T21:39:00.000-07:00

Sonic Foods!

Sonic Foods are always a favorite subject of mine. I'm not sure why...maybe it's that they're always a little odd, or unexpected, or that it shows how popular he is that Sonic can reach into every area of goods. This week sees 2 old foods:

Sonic Lollypop Shell

Sonic Blue Rad Lifesavers Roll

That lollypop shell REALLY PROVES why Sonic fans are so awesome!

It had been 'wanted' for such a long time, but I knew someone would come through eventually....and they did. It's what makes the site so super--people can find anything! Then, I had no idea Lifesavers actually dedicated a whole FLAVOR to Sonic. That is just awesome. One must wonder what they tasted like. The whole LS Sonic Contest was big/well known for ages...so why not this flavor?

Info Correction:

It turns out the DVD Sonic MegaMix (previously on Bootlegs 12) IS REAL.

CookieJar Entertainment apparently got rights to all 3, and threw a batch of eps onto a set of disks in their box to total 155 minutes. It's not every episode of all 3 shows though, which is way unfortunate. Being able to buy ALL of EACH in 1 grab would be so great for the fans. The way this thing appears, you'll just end up having dupes out of the sets you already own. They should really put their back into it and release an ultimate box or something. Even if it was expensive people would likely buy it.

You should be able to find it at: Toys R Us, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kmart & Target (And also online) price should be around 8.99.

Info correction provided by A Cat & VoluptousSpy

So where did the set go?
If you notice, Gear DOES need another section. Namely "shows pages" or something like that. There is not yet a section dedicated to explaining the various shows or for photos of the released show-items such as disks and box-sets. It should be established soon, and that's where the set will land once it's made.

Item of the week:

Sega employee watch. HighEnd is a rarely updated section of the site, mainly due to such things also being really rare. But a watch made of gold & silver certainly belongs. It's also extra special because it was donated for charity to save earthquake victims. A great item all-around.

Next week?

Possibly the shows section, if everything is calm enough. This week sees another drop in the backlog of mail, so if you're still waiting to see your item go on, just keep patience and it'll get there eventually. Current count is 210, down from 216.

Easter Egg Update

2011-04-24T19:57:00.000-07:00

This update has an Easter Egg!

Well, after all, what more appropriate day than this, to add the first one?

What is an Easter Egg?

Well a colored egg found near a holiday. But the internet definition is a bit more fun. It is a hidden item that a maker puts into whatever they've made, for a user or a buyer to discover. In games, it can be a hidden reference, secret room, or special item. On physical items, it may even be something like nanoscale art. Such eggs are usually found in large, complex places. SonicGear counts as large AND complicated, so it's about time it had some eggs too.

What is the philosophy of an Easter Egg?

_I_ believe that EE's should be fun, but NOT necisary. Like, if you can't find it, you're not missing out. I don't believe in hiding good or important content/locking things up. I do think they should be interesting/funny/amusing so anyone who finds it should not be dissapointed. I don't believe people should have to spend hours searching for it. If anyone stumbles onto it, well that's a nice surprise. Easter Eggs should be harmless fun.

What is the finding theme of this 1st egg?

Look for something that doesn't belong on any page.

(so that means it wont be anything Sonic goods related, because all things Sonic DO belong on SOME page of gear. You'd have to find something that's totally out of place and click it)

Item of the week:

GE's Chao plush. FINALLY. This is another one of those 'well why didnt they make this years ago, clearly everyone wanted one'. The JP chao plushes were always insanely expensive. We did get several chao things here, keychains, figure accessory, that terrible hat...it's about darn time a real plush appeared. Bonus points that it looks happy too. Yes, it's not as perfectly well made as the 300 dollar deals, but it's not horrible nor off model. A great chance for the fans to pick up a long awaited item.

WTH of the week:

Light switch plate. WHY is the switch always in the wrong place? Legitimate (other franchises, of course) light switches do this too. Yes the internet is perverted and tends to be guttermind on the whole, but who can argue with things like that.

State of the site:
Had to remake 1 page again due to the last bits of bad code. (world places) Keep hoping another of it won't turn up but...meh. Mail continues to improve by very slight amounts. Hopefully it will cut me enough slack that I can establish a new part to the Sonic Crafts section that has big fun potential.

Next week: crafts?

Where did the thong go?

2011-04-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

There may be a single casualty item of the 'bad golive days'...

And that's the Sonic themed thong underwear. It's fake, of course, one of those terribly generic things where they iron on some of Sega's art to their own boring object and hope to get people to buy it over ebay or wherever. I know someone sent it in, I know it got onto the site, and I clearly remember the description for it. However, it seems it's totally gone now. It will be wonderful if it's the only item that thing erased completely. This week it returns, though submitted by someone different.

Trashcan Werehog:

Interesting to see that JW can mis-tag as well as mis-card on the rare occasion. I suppose I am a paragon of virtue by resisting writing into the description "tag may be appropriate for what some people think should be done with this doll's design...the trash can!" It's no secret that I don't like the design on any of the current JW plushes, even their so called 'fixed' ones. I think they're off model, werehog included.

Further Annoyance:

Did you know that Internet Explorer 9 is not compatible with Blogger where this blog is written? Well it's not. The publish button doesn't work and theres nothing anyone can do until MS decides to fix it. I use different browsers to stay logged into different things so I'm not logging in and out fiftymillion times a day in all that I have to do so it's no joy to have to crank chrome open to push 1 stupid button. HURRY UP MS and fix your dumb thing. So this is just a public service warning. It also explains why the dates of the posts are not correct.

Abolishing a Section of Gear?

For a while, I have thought of getting rid of a section of SonicGear: MyCollection. It's the only part that doesn't get updated, because the 'in collection' now changed into a footnote on items instead of double-adding them to that old, obscure stale section. Naturally, the items found there would be dispersed onto the regular pages as it was eliminated. It adds confusion & disorganization to the site.

Item of the week:

Sonic 3 promo cup. I own this. I don't know how the photo for it got missed a billion years ago when Gear was started. I can't believe it's been unseen ever since. It's a nice cup, especially in an era where free promos weren't super common.

Double mystery tin. Usually the mystery is 'where is this from' not 'what is this thing', making that item quite special for the week. No one knows the use for this embossed tin full of smaller tins. It doesn't help at all that the set is totally rare/that's pretty much the only photo of such a set that anyone's seen.

Next Week:

Unknown. Whatever was scheduled for this one (bootlegs) took a hella quick back-seat to the party supply bonanza that erupted this week. See, you never know what sort of interesting surprises can crop up with Sonic stuff!

Party Supplies Party Part 2

2011-04-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

When it rains it pours is an odd expression...

But it's very fitting for the Sonic Party Supplies currently. For YEARS and YEARS they were the most wanted, most asked for thing Gear ever saw, and there were none around. Now, there are bucketloads of them from all around. Now that Party City & Wal Mart have joined the 'party' the update is swimming in the things. Plates, cups and decor galore are all around the update. There's something like 22 things in JUST that 1 section new this week. Certainly 'complete coverage' is what SonicGear is all about.

These things are great to see but there's some advice too:
BUY THIS STUFF NOW.

BUY IT.

Stock up if you want it. All this stuff is really cheap, I mean like .99 cent cheap and a buck here or there cheap. Anyone can afford it. It's also disposable goods, so not a lot of people are going to hoard it. A lot of people just assume everything that's out now will be out forever. But party supplies usually seem to have 2 - 3 year cycles, if not shorter. Sure new stuff might appear, but you want the current stuff too? The only real excuse against it is not having the space, or not wanting to buy online/no store near you. Since the cycle is long (certainly longer than shirts etc) you can even buy slowly if you have to. But getting these mostly nicely designed party supplies is a great way to build a collection without spending a lot of money, as these are some of the cheapest Sonic goods ever made.

Cone hats:
Who decided that everyone should put paper cones on their head at a party? What does this do? Why is it so similar to a 'dunce cap'? Yes, there's another round of Sonic themed paper hats on the post, but I've always found these curious & odd.

Favorite thing: Confetti. So fun!

Obviously...the party supplies ate up all the time available for this update.

So there will need to be a 2nd one for this week to clear out the mail. A lot more things than this came in and they've all got to go on. Also the mystery of the dissappearing thong has not been solved, so it'll simply return to bootlegs.

Elusive Item Update

2011-04-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

This update is an interesting one. It has photos of 2 items which had eluded cameras/documentation for many years on end. The first being the Toy Island school supplies. Sure these have been KNOWN about since SonicGear itself opened. (I had the gel pen set, which advertised it) but no one had actually ever managed to get a photo of the things until now. It leaves 3 pencil sharpeners yet to be found, but at least now there's 1, and a good photo of the rest. The second is the nice big write up on the Milton Bradley Sonic 1 Board Game. Odd, isn't it that they'd do a board game of a video game? It's so you can...play games while you're not...playing other games? I'm not sure how that works, but the thing looks well put-together and interesting. It's fantastic that it's so well documented and yeilded such a nice write up for the site. Digging in and getting the coolest info on rare/seldom seen merchandise like this is a real highlight of any update. Good stuff! Also: S & K Disposable camera. You'd think by now all the S & K stuff would have shown up already. Guess not! (but then again, it was disposable. Either sacrifice the camera, or never get your photos out) It's also great to see a good quantity of UK things showing up with the accessories & shirts in nice abundance. Everything had seemed to get so 'America centric' lately as that's all the merch that had been rolling in. (But then, why is the US suddenly short on shirts?) Variety is the spice of updates...usually. Next week: Could be anything. Likely to contain more fakery to avoid though. A mid week update is possible, but unlikely...this one was immense but seemed to only clear out what came in. Hotmail count is down to 225 though which is decent enough. Hopefully it continues along as there are plenty of super interesting things sitting clogged up in there.

Sega Helps the RC & Japan

2011-04-03T22:59:00.000-07:00

With this week's update you'll notice several charity items. Recently, Sega itself auctioned off many things it had in an attempt to raise money to give to the Red Cross to help the Japan earthquake & tsunami victims. This was a great idea because it let the fans see/get cool items while helping raise money. They used ebay to do this. There were, of course, several Sonic things (as well as other general Sega goods) Some of the things were old, like regular action figures, dolls etc. but some had not yet been seen/weren't on Gear. You can see all of these items scattered about the update this week. Squeezy Figures If Germany was the one making these things, why did they sell them to Australia first? It makes no sense to ship them a zillion miles away and then not let the German fans have them. Hopefully they just release them world wide. Which figures CAN JW replace on 3.5 line so far? Sonic Tails Knuckles Sonic Black Knight Version Shadow Silver Metal Sonic Espio Others are likely to be added to the list, so if you have a bad Vector or Super Hedgehog, wait and see. It's odd to see SBK in there, not many of those were reported to have problems. Those are the figures they've confirmed to have made with better joints/construction, and the Silver may be larger. Info by: SonicToast Item of the week: Rush Adventure Shirt. VERY pirate, classy and somewhat subtle. You'd have to be in on it to know what the design was for. It's not blasting you with words, slogans and logos all over the place like some big ad. It's simple and different. It's also too bad it was only a promo and there's not many of them. State of the site: Mail is down by a little, week was fairly busy. 2nd update MAY appear with bootlegs in it, depending how time goes. Next week? Moar bootlegs (unfortunately) and hopefully a greater range of items from some of the older mails.

Jazwares figure service

2011-03-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

Jazwares has updated their customer service. It would be a good idea to visit this page here Jazwares Customer Service , if you have suffered from a figure that fell apart, was built wrong (ie you got a 2 left hands Sonic, or someone with the wrong feet, etc) , one of the Tailses that simply dropped apart once de-boxed, etc. Things to keep in mind when you use the page: Did you document the figure's problem? (photos are a must!) Did it just fall apart / be floppy /won't stand right out of the box? Can you describe the problem well in your mail? This is a well-deserved fix for JUSTIFIED broken or defective figures. They realized they were punishing early-buyers with bad figures and set this system up to fix it. For example, if you bought one of their first 3.5 inch Tails figures, the tails not only wouldn't spin but would fall out of the figure if it merely tipped over from a standing position. It was unreasonable for a toy to do that, so they are setting things right. It is especially useful for their more costly figures such as the 10 inch Sonic who can drop his hands once de-boxed, and the Super Hedgehogs 3-Packs which were riddled with defective headless SuperSonics. Any figure that is replaced will be substituted with one of their 'new joints' strong figures. Be sure to act wisely and provide documentation for everything. *SonicGear collection will be using this service. Link discovered by SonicToast, replacement joint info by DrEggplantman "Forever a prototype?" Remember those ooooold "Sonic Squeezy Keychains" that some German company was going to make? Their prototype art has been up on Prototypes for...like years. Even before the art appeared these guys said they were going to make something. Well with this week's update you'll see an actual photo of the prototype item (not just art) It's really curious how some companies can take forever to actually make a product. It shows how nice & fast JW really is. A lot of people thought they had abandoned these classic squeezy things but, I guess not. Odd. State of the site: Mail is getting better still, progress has been made once again. Only 1 broken page encountered, that needed remade/wasted time. The gear store got an update too, a few of the broken things got fixed, and 2 more products (Drink & candy) were added. That's always a good thing because regular retail seems to sell out of the drinks frequently for whatever reason. Next week: More random stuff, probably several bootlegs on the way to avoid as well. A midweek update is highly unlikely. Watch out for more older submissions to go on. If you've been awaiting seeing your item, the time may be coming for it because the mail is clearing slowly but surely. Things are looking up!

Late update & return of...

2011-03-24T21:44:00.000-07:00

What held up the update?
A nonvacation. That is, a time-off that wasn't particularly entertaining. However, late as it is, the update appears in full-force.

Thing to marvel at of the week:
A 10th Anniversary Sonic Ring sold on ebay (out of the UK) 168/500 complete with it's documentation/box etc for 595 or so dollars plus about 4o to ship it. It is always fascinating to watch these 'grail type' items appear and sell for huge sums. Certainly, it lives up to its "Super Sonic Gear" status once again.
*Fact pointed out by JordanxSonic

This week's update also marks the return of a very old SonicGear feature:
Widgetscribble Sonics. These little things were scattered around the site at the beginning. They were a bit of a place-holder thing as the pages were being populated with images. But, they too had fans so now a couple of them are new. One will be easy to spot (since it's on an updated page) the other will not be. Of course, it's more of the silly nonsense they always were.

It could be just me...
But are the poses on the new FYE Sonic Shadow shirt that appeared this week a little odd? I mean...what is Sonic supposed to be doing? Is it some sort of gesture? I know it's the latest stock released by Sega (a great thing! keep it fresh! USE it!) but...? I mean, eventually one will run out of poses to put a body in, has it occurred here? I don't mind, and will try to aquire this shirt anyway.

WTH of the week- Knuckle Creature
Seriously. Scary & bizzarre all at once. I can't help but think this is some sort of wierd Munny like item but it's had plushwork done to it. But why? It's just super odd. I also imagine it's not a fake, but rather some kind of pet project. No one would mistake it for Knuckles--it is just very odd.

State of the site:
Doing well despite the lateness. Mail is getting cleaned out more (238 or so) which is still progress. Next week could be anything--no specific plan in place or visible trend in the remaining mail.

Cameo Overoload Update

2011-03-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

You'll notice the biggest share of the update this week went to Cameos.
Cameos were always an interesting thing to me, as it shows who is paying attention to Sonic / who likes Sonic enough to include him, etc. Everything from movies, shows, and videogames can all use him for a cameo. It also gives fans something fun to spot.

Wierdest cameo:
BEAN the Dynamite Duck in Virtua Strikers the soccer game. Bean is so obscure...and snarled in copyright nonsense. Did Virtua Strikers developers also help out with Sonic the Fighters game? (The only thing that featured Bean aside from Archie Sonic comics) I mean Sonic you expect, Chao you expect but...Bean sure isn't expected. Makes it interesting to see, though.

Annoying Item:
Toddler Tee. I thought TopHeavy was OVER WITH on making lame-size clothing?? The little kiddy tot stuff never did all that well because REAL Sonic fans tend to be old enough to choose Sonic clothing for themselves. And if this thing fits you...you're not the one pickin' your clothes out if you know what I mean. But the design is modern/geometric and not that SonicX stuff they produced a good while back so...? Meh.

Fuzzy Sonic...
I know tons of people are curious about this figure, so be sure to look carefully at the prototype image that went up this week. Someone managed to clip him in the corner of it. Too bad you can't see the whole thing.

This update, as you've seen was immense.
There may or may not be a 2nd update this week. What's likely to be on it? Fan Items & Bootlegs...because those are still numerous. The mail did get a bit less, again...but only marginally. People will have to continue to wait.

Jazwares New News (20th anniv)

2011-03-06T21:36:00.000-08:00

Upcoming words:
Since it's JUST 'words' at this point, it's got to go on the blog. Some possibly-facts have appeared on new Jazwares items. Whether they actually do them, or what order they do them in, is naturally not set. Remember that in the past JW has said 1 thing will be first, and then something else entirely comes out. Still, looks like interesting stuff so the rundown seems to be:

1. New modern-style 10in Sonic will be flocked/fuzzy surface
2. They WILL make a Wave the Swallow
3. They WILL release Blaze & Charmy Bee
4. Classic Sonic figures available in 3 inch, 5 inch, 10 inch

Info contributed by SupermetalV2
ALSO check your Kmarts! JW figures have been reported at SOME K-Mart stores in the USA. Having another source besides "We're sold out TRU" would be a real nice addition for some fans. Yes kmart is another store where you can't call to check what figures are in or not, but having options is always good.

Update news:
Another 'bad code' page appears to waste time on the update/take away from posting anything good. I had thought most of them were gone but (usa clothing 9) appeared to thwart me. There ARE a few more bad code pages lingering around, mainly on packed/closed old pages where there's a zillion of the category page. They don't come up for editing often...fortunately.

Flocked Sonic Possibility?
Srsly? What is the point of this? I don't understnad the need to make ANOTHER modern 10in Sonic and then it's fuzzy for some reason? I mean, I'm not here to knock something before it comes out/I see it, but this just seems really bizzarre to me. I dont think of Sonic as being wooly, fuzzy, or hairy in any fashion, I guess. Quite curious to see what this does.

2nd half:
Zany mutants & bootlegs will be forthcoming, along with a mess of posters. Some photos may be replaced on a couple of pages as well, with upgraded pics. Also an Easter Egg may appear!

FreeRiders Figures Reviewed

2011-03-01T22:40:00.000-08:00

With this week's update (finally) comes the FreeRiders JW Figures full review.
It took so long because the TRU here just was really slow with getting them in. They're 7.99 or so, because they have boards & goggles with them (as opposed to the 4.99 for regulars) but, it's still an ok price for the amount of articulation & detail work on the boards. Stickers+paint are used, and the boards also roll, so it's not like they cheaped out.

The over-all opinion on the figures is pretty great.
Why? BETTER PLASTIC!
These 2 guys are the first real figures you'll get with the NEW JW plastic they apparently implemented after sending a dude to the factory to give it heck after everyone's figures broke. Usually I don't advocate rebuying figures but the Sonic in here is worth having even if you've got one of their previous ones. Jet is impressive too, as he has the arm-flames and the same nicely done gloves. The only flaw you're likely to find is the odd paint error.

Item of the Week: Sonic Glassware:
THIS is classic done right. I'll fully admit I'm slightly biased against 'classic style' because I've seen the same 5 or so stock Sonics 1 gazillion times. I get bored of it in under an instant. Classic doesn't have to mean old and stale looking over-simplified 'designs' or garish themes. These glasses choose rare art that looks good. It's nice & big on every one. Eggman is also cool to add. Hardcore collector? Happy. New Sonic Fan who likes classics? Happy. Everyone wins.

Wierd plug-n play 'consoles':
I swear these are the new LCD games. Could today's one be any shady-er? I'd swear the thing was fake. It has to be entertaining for like 2 seconds because Sonic 1 isn't a motion control game, yet you must use an awkward wiimote to play it. Then, remember how the wii acted before that widget brick upgrade thing you put on the bottom of the wiimote, well you know this thing's "Motion Sensing" is going to be like 50x worse than that. Bonus: every part of it gobbles batteries.

Why is that "Fake Fang Plush" so bootlegged?
Here's your friendly reminder: a real one just closed bids at 575 USD. I'd call that incentive.

State of the Update:
Good. Once again. With the 2nd update the mail drops further to 248, so this is another good bite taken out of the overflow. There's going to be some BIG letters on the next one, where people bombarded the inbox with letters that have like 30 things in them. Unfortunately a lot of it looks like it's going to be bogged with bootlegs.
Next week:
More bootlegs, and hopefully some prototypes can make it on. This 20th Anniversary thing's shaping up to be a big deal and everyone is curious.

2011-02-23T23:20:00.000-08:00

A double update week.
Mostly because the first update was various fixes, moves and corrections. It had some videos in there too, but it didn't clear out enough items. In keeping with trying to get the mail down each week so that everybody's everything goes on, a 2nd one was needed.

Item of the week:
Anti Aging Cream. GOT to be it. "Sonic Everything Ever" is a very interesting concept. I fully confess to being an 'unusual items only' collector...completely fascinated by things that are ultra odd and wierd. The Sonic wet-nap, Sonic perfume, Sonic toothbrush, lamp, bedsheets etc. Things that are totally unexpected are also totally cool.

I'm also fairly surprised that the Induction Wii Charger is some limited edition gizmo.
Why? I mean, there's no real 'why not'...but it seems a sort of odd pick. Mad Catz usually churns out tons of stuff, when they decide to make anything, so it's an odd fit. I TRIED to hype it as much as I could "It's in the Gear Store yayay" because things like this (1. costly 2. limited 3. numbered 4. like a statue) ALWAYS are in this big demand. If you don't score one now, you'll end up spending a bucket of money later. At 49.99 when just anyone can get one, you can imagine what happens when they're all sold out.

Yes, the chao hat is scary.

Next week?
Probably bootlegs, and hopefully fixes for some of the Sonic commercials. Apparently a ton have broken. But anyone who mentions it never refers replacements. Having to seek them out takes time away from the update--that's why they're not that frequently fixed. If you have any hot tips for replacement videos (people quit their account, get banned for some other video etc) by all means: Send 'em in!

Toyfair Jazwares 'art' Show

2011-02-14T23:14:00.000-08:00

As you probably heard...
Toyfair was this past weekend. And yes, Jazwares had a showing. But ironically enough most of what they showed..wasn't actual TOYS! It was more of an art show. There was literally nothing new on display there, that was really a toy. The tons of boxes you see all have some copy-paste Sega art inside them, instead of actual figures. These mock ups are mere representations of what they'd like to do at some point.

Why is it like that?
Toyfair happens 'when it happens' regardless of anyone's schedule. Jazwares could not have new figures or even prototypes ready at the time of the show, so they had to make up packages and put 2D art inside them to try and give the concept of what they'll make.

But what's the word?
The 20th Anniversary toy celebration looks like it'll be great. It's got something for everyone, with loads of classics & modern as well. Badnicks are FINALLY on the scene after so many years of everyone wanting them. Conspicuous by abscence though is Rouge the Bat, who they have been promising for ages. There are a few baffeling selections as well, such as the mystery 'big size' Sonic in new package. Is he a re-release on the 10 inch, or something else entirely?

Most Crazy Mutant Bootleg Award:
Sonuckles? Knuconic? The bizzarre bootleg 'blue Knuckles' really takes the cake. It's by FAR the ODDEST doll I've ever seen. I keep thinking it's got to be a hoax or some kind of fan-made fake leg-pulling item just to see if they can put one over on the fandom. It's got a tag, and is rather expensive/large (30 bucks) but it CANT possibly be real? What kooky bootlegger would think they could get away with this wierdo?

Torture Ad!
Seriously wierd ads continue their odd little streak. "Naked Rouge The Bat" in the contender for worlds' worst CG Failure a couple weeks back, and now it's time to torture Robo. Is that Australian ice pop ad in poor taste? Yes. It doesn't matter if he deserves it or not, tieing someone up and electrocuting them isn't appropriate for an ad spot. It's not very encouraging for anyone to want to eat the damn things either. 15 second better plot: Robotnick hates delicious things, tries to ruin ice pop shipment. Sonic & Tails stop him, sending wacky rocket pops sparkling everywhere. Sonic speeds up to the screen and says "Great taste & fun fizzing candy speeding to a store near you now!" MAKE THE FOOD LOOK TASTY. Oy, that's the whole point: ad failed.

Questions:
What did these taste like?
How did they keep the pop-rocks fresh? Wetting them lets out the CO2 'milk' is wet.
What is that goop on the bottom?
Was there more than 1 flavor?
Was there more than 1 ad?
What IS 'milk ice'? Sounds like icecream to me.

Item of the week:
Sonic Bandz. Yes its "Faddish" because 'crazy bandz silly bandz colorbands' whatever you're going to call them are a huge fad. Like most fads they're a nonsense item: rubber bands you wear on your wrist for no reason. HOWEVER....the colorful cute wisps with simple shapes lend themselves perfectly to this medium. Not contrived, looks cool. They're inexpensive too, and I want some.

General site news & next week-
The mail finally makes progress. With 263 messages left to go, the total is down from the week before (and not up, finally) Hopefully this is a good sign that everything is slowly getting back under control. No bad pages or bad code this time, so all went well. Next week? Fan items for sure, but no real clear theme, just clearing up as many mails as possible.

Late Update & Toy Show Thinking

2011-02-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

The update this week is later...and in 2 parts.
This post going with the 2nd part. More of that leftover bad code helped wreck down the timing of the first one. I keep hoping to have seen the last of it, but it always seems some obscure page was infested with it that rears up to mess things up.

Feat of the week:
Someone paid 41.00 for an old, used, empty soda can. BEHOLD: the power of Sonic.

Fan Papercrafts:
These were actually sent in as the submitter's Xmas gift to all SonicFans. Do I feel bad about not having it go on till now? Absolutely. This whole being behind on the mail thing is really wrecking stuff with it's crumby timing. People love papercrafts, the dude put a lot of time into the things, they need to get on there. So.........late xmas present?

RANT WARNING BELOW (skip to avoid irritation)

Prototype Nonsense Classic Sonic-
Yeah. So. WHO IS IT that CANT tell their OWN right from left? Ok seriously you're 100% ignorant of Sonic (yet somehow you're called to assemble him because you're a wizard) so you put his feet on backward cause you think the buckles ought to go to the inside of the shoe. FINE. But there's NO NO NO excuse for people who can't tell RIGHT FROM LEFT. Yeah I'm sure someone's 'super power' is having the hands on the wrong arms. What kind of morons do they have there? Are they activly TRYing to shake everyone's confidence in the line before it even starts?

Look, JW has a history of great sculpts but crummy quality. Achy breaky figures, loose joints and fall-apart-figures are common. They recently stated they want to 'up their game' to restore confidence in fans & parents of screaming kids who have broken toys 10 seconds after opening it. So one might guess they'd try to scrape together the common sense to hire someone who knows what "A right hand" and a "Left Hand" looks like to assemble their figure for media photograph time. Maybe they thought no one would see him at the toy show? (who looks at or takes photos of toys at a toy show: they think: no one)

Ranting Aside...
The concept "Sonic thru Time" is a good one. Not every collector is an oldschool collector searching ebay for classic goods. Seeing JW sculpting applied to classic style things should make for some interesting combos. It'll give all the fans a chance to collect classic type items too. The "Eggman + 2 Guys" is also a cool concept if the box art is any indication. He always built lots of things (ie multiples of the same robot) so it's a great thing to do. Can't forget the 'modern' end of the line either, so with both combined it certainly has a lot of potential to let out cool stuff.

Most hoped-for out of the line: BADNIKS.
Everybody and their little brother wants badniks. Fans have always wanted badniks but aside from that ancient rare PVC set, none were done. They're fun, colorful, varied, and don't NEED articulation to be great. They seem like a shoe-in, yet are oddly never made. They'd be even a cool pack-in like the Wisps were. They're certainly one of the top requested things in the mail for gear.

Prediction: We'll see more of it at this weekend's upcoming toy show.
We'll get a big bit of news on it closer to Sonic's anniversary which is in June

Upcoming updating:
Yes, there should be even more update for the week. A lot of this one was mini info-nugget based (ie Spencers Gifts angry clock is 19 dollars) so it's not flashy but it's good for completists. No less than 2 foods will apear and fan items will get another block of stuff.

Figures Complete Update

2011-01-30T22:47:00.000-08:00

Another labor-intensive update.
This time, Invisible Espio & Big Froggy finally got the full set of photos & review. How in the world BIG got out before fan-fave Rouge...who even knows. But it's a very good Big. Great articulation, good color, blank zombie expression...he's got it all. Invisible Espio is great as well, I have to recommend both, for the completist. If you don't like Big, just leave him in his box. He displays well, and he'll complete the set for you.
*Prediction Zone:
Watch out for him to become rare. No one actually likes Big, so he won't get bought a lot, and then later every hardcore collector will want him, but be unable to get him. It happened with the previous 2, and history tends to repeat on things like this.

I believe that with this update, the site is fully caught up on JW figures.

Interesting item of the week:
That Jordan Nike Sonic Shoe. Is this shoe one of those 'monkeys with typewriters finally banging out a chapter of Shakespeare?' I mean, with all the color combos that exist, someone was eventually going to do an all red shoe with a white stripe at some point. But still, the things are uncanny. Too bad they're from way back in 1995 though...makes it very hard to pick up a pair. However, these ARE evidence that people would wear a shoe styled directly after Sonic's, so why can't we have an official shoe?

Parody Page Fixed:
You might have noticed that the parody page broke pretty badly last update. Stretched photos, blank space, ruined text...yes silent revenge of the bad code. But this one was easily defeated. Too bad they all weren't like that.

Sonic Puppet Show:
Yes the puppets ARE just about as horrifying looking as you're thinking. However did you guess? Seriously...bring out the Tailsdoll from Sonic R already. One must wonder just how bad this thing was to expierence in person. (hopefully someone'll turn up a video!) Cameras existed in 1998, it's got to be out there. Clicking the Sonic Stadium link is an absolute must for details on it, and the absurdfail plot. Really? He builds a machine to make the ultimate robot, but instead it's the worst robot ever and fails right away? That's like that time when I tried to fly but instead dug a hole into the ground by accident. WAT?? Maybe it was better in-person and the description just went awry.

Still, it's totally fascinating to me that this thing went on for an hour and a half or 2 hours total EVERY day for YEARS and yet no one knew about it until today. It couldn't of existed in a void.

Nagging Curiosity:
It states that the puppet show replaced a song & dance number with costume characters. What was THAT then??

No, there's not a "In Soviet Russia...." Joke on the green Sonic phony mascot. I couldn't think of anything. GB2 Ogorki Pickles, green mascot faker.

MAYbe a 2nd update. More photos were prepped than got on this week.
Next week:
Fan stuff & fakes. The 2 sections most likely to over-load themselves & I dont know why.

Sticker & Figure Update

2011-01-24T00:59:00.000-08:00

This week's update sees lots of photos, but not so many categories.
The big deal is certainly the unloading of all the pages of the UK Modern Sonic Sticker book. This thing debut the new art (stock art) that has been appearing on a few shirts and some other merch. It's a FANTASTIC book, and the stickers coming in trade-able packs seems like a good idea as well. The only bad part about it is, it wasn't a world-wide release. There's not anybody who wouldn't want to collect this thing...but if you're out of the UK area, you're going to have trouble.

Opinion:
More stickers would be great. Give everyone in the world the opp to collect fun Sonic stickers. They're inexpensive, anyone can like them, and they don't hog up space. They're also not prone to degredation or problems. Stickers are a wonderful collectible.

Figures:
SP Tails & Racers Tails went up this week with full reviews. Both are nice, though SP Tails wins the day. It's 'meh' that RT doesn't fit in his airplane that well, while apparently everyone else does. The little touches (re sculpt on hands & tails) ARE nice. It makes him into a unique figure, not just ANOTHER duplicate that 'they made you buy'. Stuff like this is nice to see.

Best quote for photo caption of the week: "Tails Steering Photo"
"WHY? WHY DID I MAKE THIS PLANE SO SMALL?!"
by Taaron

Several things got moved and fixed this week, for example the Bayonetta Xmas card, and several things among UK General and UK Electronics. Partially due to having to remake yet another full page because more bad code was discovered. Stuff like that doesn't link on the homepage, but it does serve to spruce up the site.

Next Update:
Will likely try for a 2nd update this week. I got Big/froggy pack & clear Espio, so those reviews can go up once the pix are processed. (watch out for zany Big pics!) That won't be all though. There's still tons of mail before it's even close to caught up.

USA Update- F4F Metal Sonic

2011-01-16T19:39:00.000-08:00

Not 100% site-related but...
I went on a Sonic buying spree. The FYE store near here is going out of biz, and markdowns were close to the end. So I swooped in and bought up every Sonic item they had remaining for %50 off. It was a good deal but a bad break. I'd rather the store not go out of biz at all, because it was the only one around and with it gone, it'll limit my ability to search, buy & report for SonicGear.

What was aquired?
Metal buckle, rings-themed sleeve-blanket, black embroidered thumbs-up cap, classic style slippers.

Single Card Super Shadow-
Why him? It's a mystery. Did they have extras of him somehow from the super3pack? This figure doesn't appear to be 'everywhere' as well, just certain TRU's have it. What _I_ am really wondering is why isn't it Super SONIC on single-card? I mean, HE's the one that broke all the time on the 3pack. If people are going to want to replace any of those figures one-at-a-time, it's going to be the shoddy Sonic.

Item of the Week:
Well you can easily guess this one, the First4Figures Metal Sonic statue. They hit the classic nail on the head once again with a wonderful figure that everyone will want. The light-up version is especially amazing. They also certainly know dramatic lighting, for their figures. Their photos are always top-notch. I would imagine that all of this figure has already sold out via pre-order. And YES they did crop the base out most of the time. I don't know why, but you never really see the full thing in any of their photos.

Windpower Sonic Suit- Wierd. Kinda-lame. I HIGHLY doubt Sega would approve of this oddball 'classic' thing being used in this day, but I'm imagining it was wadded in a closet somewhere at a gamestop and they trotted it out for the 'event' of their points program.

Surprise of the week:
Sonic Trapper Keeper. Yea, odd surprise. But the thing must be insanely rare for it to have not showed up till now. Everyone has thought the known binders were the ONLY binders since like 2000...so this one's a shocker.

State of the Site:
Notice how the updates are getting more items and more links than before? That's the good part of this bestgolive. There was 1 page (display figures) that had the bad code, so a "perfect delay free update" has not yet ocurred. Perhaps next week? Looking to do maybe a 2nd update this week. Mail is clearing well, but a double would really do it some good.

What will happen next update?
Tails airplane photos/partial review, SP Tails review, Sonic sticker book pages added. A lot of those have tons of photos for each thing, so they were too large to fit onto this generalized update.

Many page update

2011-01-09T21:14:00.000-08:00

Another update on-time update with a good amount of items.
So on to the items!

Quite a selection of Japan Plush added this time. (section had been a tad neglected) Better shots of that 300 dollar UFO Rouge too, because really, who wants to pay that. More variations of "Posed Sonic" also appear. Really now...are they going to do one of him for every single stock art pose ever drawn? (it seems likely) It seems a tad excessive, unless it was to fill some unknown demand in Japan. You'd probably need a time-machine to figure out what was up with them, by this point.

How to Draw Sonic & Gang Book:
This thing has sat on the SonicGear Store page for quite some time. It IS in the Sonicgear collection, that's why the review/description wasn't impressed. Reverse engineering stock art isn't 'learning drawing'. They didn't get an actual artist to do the book. *Opinion zone: I am also extra-annoyed by the book because Princess Sally steals the show again with good art and a big section while squeezing out the other characters. She is just SO good at that.

Jazwares plush Tails-
By far, he's their best one. On all their hedgehogs, I think the eyes are what's ruining them. They're just very un-Sonic-like. Silver...it really says something about him that he looks better from the BACK. Will I spend 11 for their tiny Tails? Unsure. Have to see this one in person...but as far as I know, they're selling well despite the small size, high price, and off-model nature. This could be because they're the ONLY dolls available at retail too....

State of the site:
Only 1 crash and 1 badcode page needed to be repaired. Not all stalled up, so tons of pages were updated. Still not satisfied with the mail, will try to do a 2nd update.

New Year, New Update

2011-01-02T23:01:00.000-08:00

Happy 2011 Sonic Fans!

It's shaping up to be another great year of cool Sonic stuff to see and collect...yes even this early in the year, new things are flowing in to stores all around! With the technical difficulties far behind, hopefully this year in SonicGear gets off to a great start as well.

The good news here is as well: I finally got Super Posers Tails.
Great. Figure. The review will be going up soon, if not on today's update. This Tails is very super...but he only makes me want JW to do a SP Sonic EVEN MORE than before. It's a tragedy they just copped the crummy ToyIsland SP molds and left it at that. Their SP's are just soooo much better. His open hands work great with the articulation, and his tail set up is also really clever. He's just a great figure if you get one with good paint. (I had no problem finding one, but there have been reports of bad paint)

What is up with all these clocks?

Clock this week, clock last week. The site can go for years without a single clock and now here come 2 of them. Not that either is all that much to fuss over, but the old one is interesting.

Expect a 2nd update for the week,

2010-12-30T21:27:00.000-08:00

2nd update for the week!
Really trying to get things back in control here by posting as much stuff as possible. Need to fight back against all the stupid technical difficulties & delays that have kept the site weighed down with blah updates and not enough fun stuff.

Annoying item:
Angry wall clock. Seriously? That's like the ONLY picture of Sonic you wouldn't want on some big bold lame analog clock on your wall. Why do you want angry hour, every hour? Rage-a-holic nonsense on whoever designed that thing. Yes yes 'steamin' Sonic' the stock art is not often represented but who wants a grump?

Shiiiirrrrttss
Clearly, one of my favorite collectibles. Inexpensive, useful, show-off-able, stylish, easy to store & easy to display. You can't go wrong with lots of these. Good to see the week getting a nice sprinkling in regular & winter wear. Still need to own several though...hurry up Sears.

Several things moved around behind the scenes this week as well, going off of international unknown and getting info added. Another update IS likely for tomorrow as well, to finally get the new JW stuff up, and the pile of fan items which has accumulated as well. Depending how well it goes, the First4Figures Metal Sonic statue/info will also show up. Trying to move the site into the new year on a good note...

All-Day Update

2010-12-29T15:17:00.001-08:00

What does updating the site all day do?
Makes for a lot of fixes, and also a lot of items added. So...into the content!

Sonic Colors Wisp Pack USA-
This thing went up this week, and also into the SonicGear collection. Opinion? Dissapointing! As the entry says, why not just port over the one they released in Australia? At least THAT Sonic would be different. AND you're essentially paying 13 dollars for 2 wisps. You know everyone's got at least 1 Sonic already from their previous releases. (If not, kudos, I guess?) I would have liked to see them release him with the open hands/ability to hold wisps.

Prediction/Hope: WISP PACK. Give us some kind of multi-pack with all the wisps. Either throw in open-hand Sonic or don't, just put out a wisp pack. What's this going to do? Irritate everyone who dropped 13 on the first thing up there, that's for certain. Extra good: resculpt the white one into Yakker, spread the tentacles out so it stands up better. It would be a waste to not use all the wisp molds they made anyway.

Sonic Earbuds-
With just his face sticking out of people's ear...is the rest of his body in their head?? I mean this is one of those designs that may look better on paper than in practice. Still, the whole thing is well sculpted, it's just a shame about all the reports of poor sound.

This also knocked out a couple more of the known 'bad code' pages, so future hold-ups will be far less common. I hope.

Trying to plan another update, maybe for tomorrow. The mail is going well, but there's a lot of stuff to go. Expect t-shirts!

Revenge of the Bad Code

2010-12-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

This week's update looking a little sparse so far?
Blame the BAD CODE generated by badGolive. EVERY SINGLE page that took an update this week had it. That means re-making from the ground up, with only copy-past 1 thing at a time ability. In otherwords: EVERYthing this week was a huge time-sink. Before even the smallest change can be made, each page had to be re-made. It wasted all the time.

Should be a 2nd update this week, if I can manage one.
Focus is still on eliminating the mail to get caught up. Again, no JW stuff appared because the old had to get on first to try and maintain at least a little organization. Jet Hawk & Clear Espio will be going up on the next update.

Regular old update

2010-12-12T21:45:00.000-08:00

A nearly normal update!

Lots of things on lots of pages, but none of them particularly 'new'. Loads of new images have come in, but the swamp of back-logged ones need to be cleared out first. Progress is being made though, and the mail is clearing up.

The broken pages are still standing in the way by hogging up time. Still no solution for having to re-build them from scratch every time one appears. USA Clothes 10, JW Small Line 3, JW Racers 1 & 2 and JW Small Line have been hit, both of which are image & text loaded full pages...making them a huge time sink to have to fix for no good reason. The others are pure nightmare to fix. It'll be a great day when all of those are removed/cured and an update can simply progress normally.

Normal updating?
I'm thinking...that this bettergolive will actually result in faster updates with more stuff on them. I'm VERY curious to test the theory, but can't do it with all these stupid busted pages throwing time in the trash!

*If you have had trouble viewing Jazwares Racers 1...it's fixed now.
(Was likely doing 404 errors, or having nothing but broken images since an unknown point in time) It is now cured.

TLDR: About a ton of work went into this update, but it doesn't look that way

Item of the week:
Has to be the enormous Sonic Colors banner. The thing is just silly huge. What is it, 20, or 30 ft? It's fantastic that they gave it as a prize, but what is anyone really going to do with it? How do you fold it? How heavy is it? It's pretty much got to be 1 of a kind. It's a neat thing to see, but totally unsure what anyone would do with it to try and display it. Where was it hung originally?

Dissapointment of the week:
Figures de-carding themselves as the glue degrades. The figure pulls itself off the back-card dropping the bubble. Very annoying for anyone who worked to keep anything pristine. No particular prevention method other than 'avoid humidity'.

Next update:
Yes...once again looking for a mid-week deal to try and mow down more mail and actually get into recent items. CLEAR Espio, anyone? The shots are in but with busted pages my hands are tied. It'll have JW stuff on it for sure, likely a new page of it on the way as well.

Holiday Sonic Store Update

2010-12-10T00:43:00.000-08:00

The week's 2nd update turned out to be a Store Only Update.

Why?
Tis' the season for panicking parents who need to find gifts in Sonic style or else there'll be dissapointment under the tree & menorah. It's important to keep the store in top shape around the holidays. Annoying brick/mortar stores that let stock run out, don't carry everything, and certainly don't advertise...don't help anyone. Hopefully, the Sonic Gear store can step in to provide an easy portal to pretty much everything I can get my hands on.

1000s of links were sifted, and hoards of items were added.
Books & Shirts got the biggest update. A lot of things there had broken (Especially shirts, they sell out) so they're pretty much fixed. A few shirts repeatedly refuse to show up so probably 2 orange boxes remain. One day, I hope "Sonic Clothing Store" lives up to its name and is able to have something other than just tees. Shorts/Pants/coats...whatever would be nice.

Blue girls/juniors/fitted "Bluescale only" large graphic Sonic shirt, by all means BUY THIS THING NOW if you want it. It's 1/3 the usual price (that Spencers Gifts usually has it for) at 8.00 and it seems like everybody and their little sister wants it. It's always the first thing to sell out and then people promptly flip out because it's gone again. It is quite stylish and the only other one in the que was like $25 bucks so it'll replace the 8.00 one if it goes again.

Yes, I do choose bargain links.
If several items appear before me and they're the same thing, always the least-money one is chosen to appear on Gear. Everyone wants to save! The store is attempted to be the best price found for each thing.

Most impressive bargain?
There's a book on there for something like a penny. THIS is the opportunity to get your hands on quaint old Sonic books. They're not super glamourous but they're fairly interesting to collect. The GearCollection has quite a few of them, simply because they're easy to get, and easy to store.

What's next for the store?
The action figures will likely form their own page, separate from "Sonic Gear Store 1" which is basically a 'catch all' for misc goods that don't have enough items for their own page. There are enough figures available for order now (that TRU lost the exclusive) that they do warrant their own page. Outrageously priced ones (o noes the Big & Froggy set is 34.99! duur) still won't appear. Over-charging and ripping people off with figure prices is wrong, and no one wants to sort through overly expensive links to things that are readily available on store shelves now.

Next for the update?
More stuff. Hopefully bootlegs are over with for the time being. With the store as fixed up as can be, the updates are freed up for pure stuff-posting. If you've sent in something, do be patient, it'll get on there eventually. Things are still recovering from the breakage of GoliveBS version.

Update: Back on Track

2010-12-06T00:10:00.000-08:00

This week's update SEEMS to be back on track.

The new-new-golive has only crashed 1 time upon the update. There ARE still lingering problems (pages that are messed up) and 2 forms of time-gobbling black-hole remain:

1. The old 'bad code' that lingers on any page outright ruins it, sprouting link-warnings everywhere and forcing a re-do to shut everything up. Most of this was cured upon the last 'fixing/nonupdate' last week.

2. The old 'bad code' that was previously benign (and thus hidden, even from me) has returned for revenge on pages. Sure they LOOK fine but it renders them un-edit-able and un-update-able, so the whole page has to be re-created from scratch in order to get it going again. So far 2 of these little nightmares have appeared on this update. Who knows how many more pages have it lurking.

HOWEVER:
You'll notice that the update is still of a pretty good size. That's a credit right there to this bettergolive and how nicely it works. So you can imagine that it'll do much, much better when all this fix-it hassle is out of the way. I take that as a good sign. Certainly there IS enough catching up to do.

Bootlegs:
Yes my least favorite section had the largest part of the update this time. Loads & loads of cheap junk and garbage are here to festoon Bootlegs 11. Why is it a least-fave? Because what would you rather look at, horrible stupid things you'll never buy or awesomely cool new stuff? Bootleg-Avoidance, however, is a necisary evil. It has to keep people updated on what these fakers are letting out...but it shouldn't have to be the star.

What is the elusive allure of the puffy sticker?
I don't know. But I kind of like them.

Item of the week:
Personal one this time, and hidden away a little too. The wii fit Sonic theme pack. I really want that silicone step cover...why can't it release to worldwide?

Next update:
Going to try for a mid-week. It should have Jazwares stuff on it, Clear Espio, and some other things that have come in and been pushed to the side by the recent troubles. Hopefully no other wrecked pages are in conflict with that. The less of those that are encountered, the larger the update will actually be.

The Return of GoLive (CS edition)

2010-11-28T22:54:00.000-08:00

The new-new Golive program arrived!
Way ahead of...what was predicted, the program, its immense instruction manual (Srsly its like 300 pages) and all important CD+serials, have all arrived. So it is time for a progress update

Skip for planning of actual content....

Progress:
Successfully installed program
Program updates itself for no apparent reason- success
Refuses to open .site file of SonicGear, says its 'too new'
Program tricked into downloading all of Sonicgear from the server (takes over 2 hours)
Program successfully tricked into opening site because it downloaded it.
Breaks img links arbitrarily on several pages for no apparent reason
Main Malfunction Currently: randomly opens & closes object placement pallet (its what makes the images & text boxes go...you kind of need this open at all times if you want to...do anything) at any time it chooses.

Naming problems:
All other adobe programs tend to go 1 thru 9, then skip 10 and name themselves "CS", and then CS1, CS2, CS3 on and on. Golive did not. To be ornery, it went from 8 to CS, then CSX, and then finally 9. Inexplicably, 9 is worse than all the others with a more horrible interface that's purposely difficult to use. If anyone saw 9, it isnt any wonder they terminated the golive brand. Viewing CS would have likely saved it from termination. (well aside from the whole pallet with a mind of its own) But at least the text tool in this one isn't some random black blob, and the paragraph options arent some static filled cubes of guesswork.

So yes the site was "Too New", since 9 was the final golive and this CS one here is actually a downgrade to 'broken golive' which was what died last week. Not that I am all that sorry, it worked most of the time but was cranky as a can of bees. So long as this one can repair the links and the pages STAY FIXED, and the pallet stays open most of the time, it will be just fine.

CONTENT PLANNING:
This update. Use the index to inform regular readers of this blog post. Put out all the fires caused by downloading the site from the server. (AKA eliminate arbitrary broken images)
Hidden benefit- ANYthing that was broken on SG should be corrected. Most people don't write to inform about broken images so they stay broken forever. Until now...

Update:
Not really. Fixing everything will take up all the time the update would have required. (and maybe even more) There won't be an actual item-update this week unless there's a "2nd update" during the week. Too many problems were caused by the new program & getting everything right again. The 'bad code' spawned by brokengolive also ruined several pages. When it was 'dormant' on the uploaded page, it was still present when downloaded. The dormant code ruined 2 whole pages so far, which causes scratch-re-build aka mega-time-waste.

The site isnt completely restored to working order, but it is very close. There will be a content update next week no matter what. Midweek is looking likely for an update, or at the least, a fix to the rest of everything that broke on the way in.

Bottom line:
New program will work better & faster than golive9, once everything is restored. No bad code, no mass of glitches. Outlook: hopeful.

SonicGear Store - Accessories & Keychains

2010-11-23T20:45:00.001-08:00

Well, the Gear Store has been updated some.
Due to the demise of newgolive, the week's update consisted instead of a full update to the Accessories & Keychains / Pins section of the store. Those pages have no 'photo assets', everything is served by the seller, so it doesn't matter which PC it's done on. And those pages really ARE FULL updates.

*stay tuned till the end for an annoying fact

Everything that had sold out (remember, when an item sells out it turns into a boring orange banner or just vanishes) and COULD be re-added, was added. Some things (Like the pvc Rouge keychain that was always extremely popular) could not be re-added at this time because they were sold out everywhere. But in those 2 sections, that list is very small now. Even the popular Shadow Phone Charm got back in. (it goes out all the time, people always buy all of it)

Accessories especially got a huge boost.
Wallets, hats, slippers....tons of stuff really. It's great to see especially around the holidays that people are setting out their Sonic stuff. It's terrible to not be able to get something for someone when they really want it just because you can't find it at a store. (plus, bargain hunting is always nice too)

So those 2 sections of the store are pretty much wrapped up. Expect to see all the other sections updated in a similar complete fashion as well. If something needs to split off onto a whole separate page to help organize the store, that can also happen. The only thing that CANT is an update to the actual home page to announce any of this.

Replacement software IS on the way.
It has one heck of a long 'shipping window' which is any time between now and dec. 15, wich is pretty much 'any time they feel like sending it' so...meh? It will be installed & investigated upon arrival, though. No guarentee that it'll work, but at the current time it is still the best bet the site has going for it.

* Annoying fact:
I have a Jet the Hawk action figure photo that I can't post because of this mess. I had it HELLUVA EARLY too, and there's nothing I can do but sit here on it. He does look all right, from what I can tell. Do you want to see it? PSO World has it. The link leads to one of their galleries from a Sega Event in which he was part of a prize box. You just have to hunt thru the photos until you get it.
Nobody picked up on it because the event was Phantasy Star related, and even the JW site doesn't have photos for this figure up. Really, I was shocked to see him boxed like that AND being given away to the public. So, it's their photo that'll go on when it is able to be updated again.

The Night GoLive Died

2010-11-21T21:54:00.000-08:00

GoLive is Dead.
Well, newgolive, at least. Went to start the update and it says "Product License has Expired". Well no it DIDNT. That's a lie. But, it's a lie that can't be fixed. When the program gets like that, there's nothing you can do, it's basically over.

What does that mean for Gear?
No update this week, and no update next week. So if you have photos DONT SEND THEM YET! Hold on to your photos! (Hold onto them until a real update appears--it will make it go much smoother. Blog will also announce when it's good to send again)

What's the plan?
Gear will be updated...but ONLY the SonicGear Store for these upcoming weeks. The store has no photo assets, so the old machine, running old golive can be made to update only the store...to at least do SOMEthing while the program is out of commission. So look at the gear store to have loads of new items, and possibly new sections....IF they can be pulled off on the old machine.

*Note: the 'news' section and the 'index/home page' will NOT talk about the updates. Probably. Depending on how hard it is to do. This is subject to change but on the 'unsure' line.

What about regular updates?
They WILL resume. SonicGear is not defeated. I'm looking into buying yet another program to be able to continue. But I'm held back waiting on gift certificates to raise the money, and then further because it has to be shipped to Gear HQ...it's a physical disk. That's why the 2 weeks wait. (1 week for the cert, 1 week to get the program here)

What could go wrong?
The program would be GoLive CS - It might not work with the pc, it might be too difficult to use, any number of things really. But all that's pretty unlikely. If it DOES go wrong, it would mean shifting to DreamWeaver which I have no idea at all how to use or even if it would open everything Gear had properly. If this program fails the next update could be months away. Here's to hoping it does not fail.

The blog always works:
Watch the blog for real updates on what's going on. The blog will say when everything's active again, and will update progress on the replacement program & everything that's going on. Probably expect a post about the store too...or anything going on in the section as it updates.

Late Half An Update

2010-11-16T22:08:00.000-08:00

Update is late this week...
But with decent enough reason. Yes that reason is called 'a 50 inch 3D lcd tv' and 'getting the cash to buy it put together' But just think! How great will Sonic games look on it? Fantastic, there's no doubt. If I ever get to play them. Confession: I own Sonic Black Knight but it was never even opened. I've had it for months.

Sonic World Events/Places:
You'll notice this section got an over-haul with this update. The original page morphed into JUST Summer of Sonic, and the new, 2nd page now holds all the 'world places' instead. But don't under-estimate this as a simple content move...there's plenty of new shots to see this week, especially of a fascinating hotel room that any fan would love to stay in.

Wall Decor Decal Thinger:
This is on my want list. It's classy, simple, not busy and BIG. Plus you can re-position it and it looks like it is made of tough stuff. All things that add up to a big want, at least for me. 39.99...hopefully it is worth its price. Plus, the fandom has never seen anything like it before.

Fan Paper Craft:
I openly dare any company to top it including Sega itself. It's a great design work, and turns out a really good looking final product if the photos are any indication. Extra good that it can use made-up paper emeralds or use the ones from the Super Pack. It is clearly a design with fan use in mind. The fans have always loved paper craft, it's odd that more of them aren't officially released.

Next time:
Even though the update is late, expect a 2nd one this same week. Not enough stuff went on to get the mail down any. It was a busy week with lots of items sent in and some complicated things going on with the pages as well.

Halloween Update - Big Spooky Fun

2010-10-31T20:27:00.000-07:00

As you'll notice...
The update skipped last week. Why? Finally got everything moved over to the new PC, and the old one is out of the way. Now it's newgolive or bust. BUT the good news in all of it is, updates should be able to be done FASTER which is always better. So, an ok sacrifice.

Happy Halloween!
Most Halloweens of the past have been greeted by horrible dolls for the calander of crud, but this year everyone is fortunately fresh out of them. (gee, how long did that take? I mean, they havn't been making them in quite a while, yet always more of them managed to show up each year inspite of it all) However, there is a cool pumpkin to look at, which is much better than dolls no one wants to buy, and a fairly scary pinata up in bootlegs.

This update will be appearing in 2 parts, because it's so large.
It will contain everything from the skipped week, plus everything that would naturally appear. It also is starting to have some of the "Orphan Images", things which are so old they're separated from whoever sent them in, or the person never got back for credit. It starts with the Eggman statue...so if you sent it, DO write in again! The Orphan Images are products of the massive mail overload, but they need to be cleared out by being added anyway.

Big the cat & froggy pack:
HOW HOW did this get released before Rouge the Bat?
Am I mad? Well sorta...I mean why bother releasing Big first? Everyone knows Rouge is the more popular/desired for stuff character. All her things sell like hotcakes. I do wonder if it's a design or articulation issue that they can't get her right, or something.
Is Big going to do well when diehard fans buy him? Or is he going to be a shelf-warmer as his slightly expensive pack is shunned because of Big's general unpopularity? Only time will tell. The only thing that's a pretty sure bet is that Big won't be flimsy. (isnt it odd how Big continually gets these great figures, yet he's like the most hated guy?)

Next update:
Everything that didn't make it this time, from the last 2 weeks. Also the 'ultimate hotel room' should be making an appearance.

Sonic 4 Weekend

2010-10-17T19:27:00.000-07:00

Finally got Sonic 4 this weekend.
Tried to get it during the week (when everyone else did) but the PSN won't take ANY of the credit cards. Not even 1 out of 4 of them would work, despite different companies (visa, discover, master, etc) it always just blather out 'CC data not correct try again.' So the advice was to wait a day or 2, then do it again.

Yeah well those cards work in 99% of stores in the USA both online and off. Totally frusterating to have the store just say 'take a hike, you can't buy this' like 10x in a row. So I got dissapointed sat. night, tried to get the demo. If you click 'demo store' and then press 'Sonic 4 demo'....it only takes you to a buy-only icon. Fantastic. I can't even try the thing out.

So...only choice is to drive to the Gamestop and buy a stupid psn card (with the SAME credit card PSN doesn't think is real! IRONY), spending 20 instead of 14.99, and use it. By the time I had returned I got to play Sonic 4 for 10 minutes. Whee. Thanks Sony. NOT.

Info tidbit:
Jazwares IS making Charmy Bee figure, but it won't appear until 2011
"Invisible Espio" will be produced, and be slightly purple/clear
Info discovered by: Strap

As you may have noticed this week...ANOTHER Jazwares correction appears. Remember those black lines around Super Sonic's eye edges? Well they've painted over them now...poorly. You can see their lumpy paint job in a comparison shot spotted by a fan who bought both sets. Why do they keep insisting upon punishing fans who buy the item first? Why can't they just make the figure right the first time? Supposedly these new guys have better-fitting heads as well. It's not like it's incredibly difficult to look at art and then say 'make the figure look like the art. If it's not plaid, don't put plaid!' Certainly, their sculptor is on the ball...figures have NEVER looked this good! So what's up with the paint problems they get?

Either way, you'll probably notice the change as the sets get re-stocked. I will be painting over mine with white acrylic, instead of buying it again. It's far too late to return it/exchange it, and now that the white is official, I'm pretty sure I can do a better job with Liquitex & a brush.

Matter of Agitation:
WHERE is the news of world wide wisps? Australia got ANOTHER photo for their pre-order guys, and they're looking fantastic. Everybody's going to want them, so why is news so scarce? Nothing's even been confirmed for EU, North America or anything, and those 3 areas (USA, CAN, EU) are big buyers! At least announce something to make the fans stop worrying.

Next Week:
This week's update went really well. Nice and fast, with good variety. Everyone should be pleased as many categories as well as many countries got used. Plushes are always a fan-fave too. STILL looking for a SP Tails to get my hands on, for the in depth figure review, hopefully that'll show up next week. Clothing may appear, and the focus could be on vintage items. It all depends on the mail

Update: Not thwarted

2010-10-12T19:37:00.000-07:00

Well Golive couldn't stop this update...
Just delay it. The page 'prototypes 3' is fast becoming a huge problem. Whether it's ruining the photos, putting text all over everything, or just making the page show up as all-white, golive is determined to destroy the page. It crashed on it, even, to stop work.

It's still not properly fixed.
I'm just hoping a solution appears, because it could do that to any new page that's ever made. However, the update must go on, and so it does. It has also put in the 'bad code' to almost every page updated this time, slowing everything down and necesitating multiple uploads just to get everything to behave properly.

It's back to some variety, though!
Jazwares couldn't dominate this update, so there's a batch of categories to see, including a fan favorite: classic clothing. Real classics buffs will want to know that 2 shirts made the jump from the USA to the UK...where they belong. (thanks to added info) Really though, the 'multi slogans' one makes more sense on the UK...for some reason those shirts DID have a big habit of scrawling phrases all over everything, even if they didn't make a whole lot of sense.

All-Stars racing is really getting a heap of attention, with not only JW figures on 2 lines, but also the RC cars and now a race-track set. How well is any of it doing with so much of 'the same' 2 cars released? How well is the market (in general) responding to the flood of new Sonic Electronics? Remember, the camera, walkie-talkies, 2 race sets, mp 3 player, CD/radio thing etc. are all out NOW in fall of 2010. CAN fans buy all they want of this simultaneous release-stuff? (it'd sure be an expensive prospect)

Nothing overly-remarkable discovered this week, bootlegs are pretty standard about this time of year. The question remains why won't Sega cobble together some sort of official Sonic costume? These things are clearly in-demand as much as bed-sets are, they're sitting on a gold-mine but won't get up off their butts and let the fans have waht they want.

Next week:
More variety, hopefully, and getting further back into the old mail. Turn arounds HAVE been sent for SuperPoser Tails, so that's guarenteed to go on. STILL looking for that fabled "Super Sonic Shirt" that's over on 'wanted gear'...the only surprising thing is that it hasn't turned up yet...you'd think it'd headline for how many people claimed to want such an item.

TopHeavy Fall Line 2010

2010-10-05T00:31:00.000-07:00

2nd half goes off without a hitch!
The site may be back on track again. 2 new pages this week help to illustrate that, along with a really big set of updates.

The highlight of this second round is EASILY TopHeavy's fall line of shirts.
Everything got onto Winter Wear, and it's not to be missed. Bringing in the newest Sega stock art, and not clogging the works with 'classics' that everyone already owns a billion of...the fall line really impresses. They weren't afraid to use new color combinations and throw in fan-fave characters like...

The Chaotix!
FINALLY a Chaotix shirt! It may star Knuckles, but it still features them nicely. This one's going to be a must-have for me, along with the new Shadow shiny ink one. It's actually reccommended to never really wear those shiny ink shirts to keep them at their best...but I can't resist collecting/displaying it. Top Heavy continues to impress with great design and good choices. Hit your Sears, people!

*When I (or fans) can find and confirm prices/locations a tweet will appear.

Fan Shadow Car-
Tikal strikes again, with this very stylish item. Real ingenuity going on here...the effect could likely be replicate-able by dedicated fans...who have cars.

Bootleg spam on ebay:
SonicGear USED to have some fan submitters dedicated to trawling ebay for the latest shirts but the floods of garbage have scared them off. Don't fear, shirt collecting...anyones..reading this...I'll still bring in the photos no matter how many "RObbeez brithday" items get in the way.

Yes the Super Poser Tails initial (official) photos are on, but he's still pending a real review/turn arounds. I've yet to get a hold of this or the 10 inch Sonic. Stores in some areas may be slow.

Next Week-
Full reviews if I can get the JW items, and random stuff no matter what. More TopHeavy IS anticipated, this isn't their whole fall line.

Jazwares. Again.

2010-10-03T22:52:00.000-07:00

How is this happening?
Jazwares dominates another update. Hope you like action figures!

And no, this isn't just the missing 2nd half from last week, this is more new stuff sent in for THIS week...plus the (seemingly) un-avoidable 'it broke!' shots and sob stories that they create by making weak figures. Headless Super Sonic, reports of Super Poser Tails losing the paint off his face, 10 inch Sonic with a hand that just dropped off while he's MIB...none of this inspires fan confidence!

I've had loads of emails with people describing how their figures just snap apart or the heads fall off. My Espio has 180 degree elbows and 1 knee that won't keep its pose. What started as a Tails with tails that'd drop off has turned into an epidemic of sad fans and broken stuff. I don't know what to say or do, except "Return it!" and "Inspect it!" (before you buy, I know Gear is always harping on inspecting merchandise before you buy it, but they keep making me have to say it)

Try to exchange broken things for unbroken ones at the store, if you get something that just falls apart in its box. If you keep your recipt, you shouldn't have any trouble. Is JW even AWARE that their figures are doing this? They keep putting the "Safety Tested" sticker on the box, but was it safety tested by a pack of sharks who totally don't notice when the figures fall apart? Is Wile E Coyote using ACME shipping to get them to Toys R Us so they're destructed by the time they arrive?

Their sculpts are SO SO GOOD.
It would be a horrible shame if their bad quality plastic or bad construction, or over-used molds, or wacky packaging harms their reputation / turns off fans/buyers/parents etc and they take a hit because of it. They're the best company to handle Sonic figures....EVER. No one's done more characters, no one's listened to the fans as well, no one's sculpted better than these guys. They just need to clean up their act. EVEN if it means figures cost a dollar more...it's worth it to not have them all break!

Opinion Zone:
I don't even own it yet and their 10 inch Sonic is a zillion times better than Giant Talkin' ReSaurus Sonic. It's so so so so so much more Sonic-like. It doesn't look totally psychotic. Geez, he is how you do it right...I've not displayed the ReSaurus thing in forever just because it looks so bad. Those giant goggley eyes...the BDG...the bent up shoes...just...blargh! I guess you dont realize how off it is until you see one that actually bothers to look like the offical art.

Where are the racers?
Who is pulling the strings with the Jazwares mini racers? If you read the wikipedia for the game (or play it) Metal Sonic & Big are in there too...but they let out Amigo & Aiai? I don't know what the fans of Shenmue, Billy Hatcher (if he has any fans...) Alex Kidd or even ChuChu Rocket think. Still, you'd think they'd want to put all the actual...you know...Sonic people in there instead of throwing in Jet Set Radio randomguy.
And were are mini Knuckles & mini Shadow? You'd think they'd want them out before the monkies.

Even the electronics & fan items this week are all due to Jazwares.
The 2nd part of the update will have more (super poser Tails, broken photos, etc)

Next week?
Hopefully could have some new shirts. Top Heavy did indeed start a fall line. Otherwise, mixed bag of everything I can lay on there. Likely won't include much JW, as the last of it should be on the 2nd part here today.

Jazwares Steals The Show: Again

2010-09-26T21:48:00.000-07:00

With this update, it looks like Jazwares steals the show again.

Hope there aren't any anti-fans of theirs out there, or they'll be in a fit by this point. It's been quite a few updates now that they've either had several things, or dominated the update by themselves.
This one is no different, with mini racers, giant Sonic, wisps revealed and even the prototype and error are ALL related to them. They licensed out the walkie-talkies too...so even though those are electronics...there it goes anyway!

Wisps:
I was right.
If asked (and I frequently am) I will give an un-professional prediction regarding the future of whatever it is you're asking about. I get a lot of these emails, and my predictions are always based on: past events, past actions, how things operated in similar situations, facts, & things official people said.

Putting together all those elements...Sometimes its right and sometimes its not but of course no one can really see the future. But most of the time only real shockers can get the drop on such things.

The Wisps were just an example of this.
They're perfect for the 3 inch line because it is inexpensive. JW already said they wanted to put 'everything' on that line, a figure from JW has already been used as a pre-order bonus (in Australia) so they're likely to do it again...etc etc.

And so, here are wisps, on the 3 in line, as a pre order bonus.
Will everywhere get them? So far everything seems to be "AU only", but unlike the werehog (who was released to the USA first, and then just generally released everywhere else, but you had to pay for him) people are gonna get mad if they don't get wisps everywhere, regardless of pre-order status.

Didn't see it coming:
10 inch Sonic ONLY 15 dollars??
No one ever asked, but I sure as heck wouldn't of predicted him that low. With the rumored price increase, and the 13.99 2-packs we've seen...this guy is a steal! Metal Sonic was 18.99 too...so he's a real bargain if that info is true. I would have said 'same as Metal', or same as ReSaurus...which was I think 22...but he had voice/disk.

Will they steal the show next week?
DOUBTFUL. There's pretty much nothing left for them to do, (until their next wave) and everything that's out pretty much has all the photos.

Big:
Yeah you can see another of him. Wonder when he'll release, and with who? Initially, it was stated he'd be with Eggman in a Big & Eggman combo pack, but clearly that won't be the case now. Will he be single card or will they get too scared no one will buy him and force in a more popular figure to get you to buy Big?

They've done it before. Look how they shoved that "Jet" character into the Mini Racer 4 pack. Did anyone ACTUALLY want that guy in his dinky car? Who'd of rather had mini Knuckles who HASNT been released yet? That answer is probably 100% in Knuckles' favor.

I think it's actually ok that Big isn't out yet. It would have just been embarrassing if he'd of come out before like...Metal Sonic, Silver, or Super Sonic. I mean, everybody likes those guys a zillion times more than Big. It'd of been an insult to let him out first and make people wait for the real favorites.

Prediction time:
The next line, whenever it may appear will have Big, Cream & Rouge on it. Rouge is the last of the real "bigtime players" that everyone really ultra-wants. She was extremely popular on the Figures/Emeralds line, and Cream was actually in demand there too, despite her relativly lower fandom status. All Rouge things sell super well, and if they go out of production they tend to get expensive, FAST. She's also not featured much on merchandise, which seems to fan the flames.

Likely/Unlikely?
Blaze the cat, another version of Metal Sonic (pick any of them, people will go wild), Marine, Tikal, Chao of any variety, chaos-0, "Invisible Espio!" Make him clear! You can do it! CHARMY BEE--not a fave of anyone's but he's still a chaotix member, Froggy (if you're going to have Big...do it right) and something to involve badniks.

2nd update thinking

2010-09-21T23:34:00.000-07:00

Once again a successful and timely 2nd update.

If figures weren't your thing, you'd of been dissapointed with the week if this hadn't happened. Most people can't get enough of everything Jazwares has been doing, but there are exceptions.

The 1st update is really what Gear is all about...drilling down with in-depth reviews of items, and providing plenty of pictures of complicated things. No store site or anywhere like that will really get as 'into' the product, so I feel it was a fantastic update--one the site could use more of.

Sonic Overload?
IS there a Sonic Overload going on now? With tons of figures, new shirts appearing, AND all of the electronics now in Toys R Us...if you tried to collect it all it would be massivly expensive. Just getting the Super Pack, mini racer pack & espio Vector 2 pack was like 50 bucks. If fans want to get it all, they better really be 'in the money' with the CD player at 40, the mp3 at 35, camera at 20 and walkie-talkies around 20 as well. Not to mention the RC cars!

Is it a problem?
Yes, if you want to have it ALL. Flooding a market can be not-good for it, and can frusterate the fans as too many things pile on, then leave shelves before anyone can save up enough to buy them. Long-term availability helps this situation immensely...but Sonic stuff has often proven to NOT have that as a feature.

Tried to clear through more mail with the 2nd half...posted some videos that were a long time in coming. Why was only 1 linked? The 2nd is an AVGN video (of course there's loads of swearing!) so it needed to start off a bit buried because the site is supposed to be pg-13 rated and the video has like 5 swears per minute, and then instantly piles on toilet-humor. However, it comes across as a bit of a 'system profile' with slight documentary elements to it...so it was worth-while to add.
AND if anyone is actually still offended by swears, then I MUST ask what are they even doing on the internet AT ALL? Everyone knows it's 2 biggest exports are swears and pr0n!

Next week:
You will be seeing WISPS!
So if you see any action figure & wisp combo...it's already been sent in, save your time.
More update variety style with anything I can grab out of the mail to try and clear some of it. Expect some new shirt photos too, the fall lines are starting to really saturate stores by now, and should have some exciting stuff.

Jazwares Wrap Up Update

2010-09-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

I would imagine...
That this week wraps up Jazwares for a while. After several weeks worth of intense toy-releasing, they probably won't have anything else fresh for a while. That doesn't rule out early photos & prototype-teasers, but as for actually getting hands-on items, they've got to actually make more first. Gear now has completed photos for everyone they've done recently, except the 10 inch.

What has come out?
Radio, Walkie Talkies, Mp3 Player, Super 3 Pack, Espio/Vector Pack, Mini Racer 4-Pack, RC Racers, Digital Camera, Eggman/MS 2 Pack diorama, 10 inch Sonic big figure. If you count the Sonic / Amy pack in with this round, it's even more. There's def. a surge in stuff.

Chaos Emerald Chaos!
What's wrong with the emeralds in the super pack? Isn't that super strange? They got it right everywhere EXCEPT in the final product. Ever since the wide-release of the set everyone's been complaining. What happened in the 11th hour that made it go wrong? Did they think that the nit-picky-est fans on earth would fail to notice? You can't put anything past Sonic fans. The emeralds & their colors are so vital to the story.
Espio Horn:
IS Espio's horn too long? I've heard it compared to "A Banana is on his face" It seems to stack up ok to the stock art, maybe a little longer but maybe that's down to opinion.

Jazwares Jinx
AGAIN SonicGear ends up with nasty failing figures. Not only did Shadow have 2 of the same hand, but Super Sonic's head wasn't even attached. It was merely held in place inside the box, yeilding a nasty surprise upon de-boxing. Then, Espio's arms have NO STOPS at all on them...and this, of course, also got into the photos. I was too busy looking for paint flaws that I didn't catch SuperShadow's hand defect. Espio...well, you've got no way to tell. Jazwares can't be too happy that this keeps happening so publicly.

Floppy Sonic Attack:
Most people's super Sonic is super floppy. He SERIOUSLY suffers from loose joints. This isn't just a case of 'oh his head is so heavy'. Nobody else in the pack suffers from it, and mine is so bad that if you turn him upside-down (holding by the head) his legs swing freely flopping. This shouldn't be happening! He won't even stand up, and he's fresh out of the box!
Taaron theory:
They have churned out too many Sonics with the same mold, and the mold has gotten too old. Further issues will only make it worse. The only solution would be a new mold. But will they make one, or will Sonic be defective from now on?

Personally, I think the theory is right. It's been proven to happen on other (non-Sonic related) lines. Why shouldn't it apply here too? Only recognition and smart managment will solve it.

Update part 2?
Probably. This is another one of those updates that was A WHOLE LOT OF WORK but then only produced like 3 links. Tons of text, zillions of images and careful review all went into the update. Don't be foold into thinking it was skimping out on stuff.

Never-the-less, there should be a 2nd update for the week, with non-jazwares items, or at least non-action figures. Not everyone is a big figure fan, and really variety is important too. What will be on it? Likely a jumble of everything. No real theme has emerged.

Good news:
The chinese/japanese spammer bot thing has apparently given up trying to hassle the blog with its pr0nny comments. This makes things easier. It's wonderful to see they got the message that no one's interested in their spammy garbage.

Outside Irritability Update

2010-09-14T00:22:00.000-07:00

The week's update appears as normal...
However it is surrounded by annoyance. Skip this part if you only want to get to the actual Sonic related content! (See below...)

First, during the whole thing Silverlight (some microsoft item) has decided to update (or something) which raises the ire of the anti-virus (comodo) which then creates pop up windows in the corner that cover half the screen. You can't do anything until you hit 'allow' or 'deny' for the change.

It makes one for every .dll file that is to be altered.
There are 100s of .dll s.
You can't stop it.
I have been clicking 'ok' for an hour now. No sign of stoppin'.

Answer: I hate comodo

Elevator:
The elevator is malfunctioning. The entire structure is concrete block. The elevator motor housing is 3 ft away. There are 6 floors, and the elevator is substantial. So is the motor, which is heavy-bolted into the concrete foundation. SonicGear...is based on the foundation, and concrete carries sound fairly well. Especially 2-ton machine sound. Every time it activates, it yanks the foundation with a "GNNNN" sound. Every time it stops, it goes CH-ACK. The self-leveling mechanism is broken. Every 2-6 seconds, (intermittantly) it goes GNNNNN-CH-ACK! It is 328 am. It has been doing this since 900 pm. It will continue to do so all night long. There is no where to go where you cannot hear the noise, it is so loud. This is the 2nd time it has tried this.

Will it:
A. burn out and strand everyone?
B. be ignored until some gune stubs their toe on the gyrating elevator floor?
C. make someone come out to fix it, and then they fail to fix it, and it ends up doing something even crazier?
D. it is actually fueled by Satan, as in the Shyamalan movie?

It is actually "E" no one cares unless they must hear it.

REGULAR CONTENT
Everybody's least favorite time of year: back to school!
There's a surprisng lack of Sonic school stuff this year, only 1 real 'skool bag', which is certainly expensive! (60!) has turned up so far. Sure there are other bags like totes & messengers, but most people really want backpacks.

Jazwares steals the spotlight again, with out of box figure photos and more details on the much-desired super-pack. Reportedly, this thing is selling out as soon as it appears, so do have some patience, it appears to be really worth-while.

Expensiveness as a trend:
What is up with the expensive items? The 35.00 sweatshirt, the 60.00 backpack, and now the 40.00 CD player. Similar items are seen to cost half as much, and no one seems to know why the prices are hiked up like this on recent Sonic goods. There's also a rumor that JW will increase figure prices, but until they hit shelf-stickers it's not a sure thing. (Don't worry, it would only be by a dollar, if it does happen)

Next Week:
More variety, possibly with videos added into the mix. Had a batch of videos sitting in the update bin for quite a while, hopefully those will be gotten-to on the next update. Mid-week bonus update is HIGHLY unlikely.

Super Hedgehogs 3 Pack

2010-09-05T21:40:00.001-07:00

This week was the 3-hedgehogs super pack
There's no doubt this item headlines the update. LOADS of people sent it in (so lots of rejection happening too...) and it's bound to be super popular. Hopefully this stays on shelves a good long time to make sure everyone gets one.

Gamma Bendy Rumor-
Someone, somewhere has started a rumor that a E102 Gamma Bendy would show up in 2011.
Is it true or false?
It is unlikely to be true. In an older interview, JW specifically said they WERENT looking to get into bendy figures. BUT that they wouldn't rule them out. (they have to say 'anything is possible' because that keeps people's attention focused on them, they will never say something is impossible--it is what companies DO) However, that won't stop JW from making a Gamma SOMEthing as they've stated they want to have everybody ever on their 3.5 line. Omega would also be a good addition. So my prediction is that everyone will get a Gamma something, just that it won't be a bendy.

Prototype Gamma Bendy-
Yes, there was at least 1 made. Toy Island did it, and it didn't look very good. It never got sold. You can see it on SonicGear, and usually stuff that never came out is used to fuel rumors so do watch out for that photo.

Hopefully we DO see a Gamma SOMEthing, because ReSaurus proved he works wonderfully as a figure and there are indeed fans of both him and Omega, so it would be great to see a figure of him eventually.

The update turned out to (Randomly) be a USA update.
It will have a part 2, with more USA stuff and some other items as well. Probably will come on the following day.

Jazwares Figure Release Info (Colors/FreeR)

2010-08-30T23:24:00.000-07:00

The 2nd half of the update brings more pages of stuff...
And a fairly important release information for you to read:

It is confirmed by ToyNewsi that:
Jazwares WILL do figures for:
Sonic Colors
Sonic Free Riders

3 inch line & 5 inch line (!!) figures are expected for the games. Nothing specific (ie wisps, a 5 inch Tails, things people are looking for) has been confirmed yet. However, you can probably bet on wisps going to the 3in line.
--Info discovered by Hazard777

There WILL be a mini racer Knuckles
It isn't known how he'll be released, (since he wasn't on the multi-pak)
--Info by BlueBomber

PURE Speculation by me:
We'll get 5 inch line Tails & Knuckles. People want these.
We'll get some kind of wisp-pack with multiple wisps.
Knuckles mini racer will be single-card release

Update Notes:
I want to buy the 3-hedgehogs wallet. It's dark enough gray that it can actually be used. I don't know what they're thinking with pale and white wallets, those things will get dirty and look awful in 1 second no matter what you do. Plus, you know they're not pure quality leather where you can saddlesoap them. Collectible only...I guess.

It's kind of odd that the 2nd keychain to feature an emerald is also a clear emerald. Everyone's hoping to get multiple emerald colors, are they only going to release clear ones on everything?

In the mood for keychains?
The Gear Store: Keychains & Pins has been updated & fixed.
The Super Sonic stuff got in, and so did the Amy Key Cap. I fixed as many of the items as possible (they sell out fast! The links break all the time in there...) but I do fear some of them may end up getting retired. Something that's retired moves permenently out of the store (as no one sells it any more) and then it can only be seen on the regular Gear page.
*Also: the 'wireframe Sonic shirt' went onto the Clothing Store

Next week?
More store! More stuff has been released, so expect to see other sections update in the store. It'll be another mail grab-bag, so it's anything goes. Hopefully Jazwares stuff will get into better detail too...if I can buy it.

Jazwares MIB Photo update

2010-08-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

Headlining this week:
The single-card Metal Sonic & Vector Espio Comic pack. Probably got about 15 mails regarding these items, but only 2 could go on, so the 'you're late' dissapointment will be handed out, but it's all for the best because...everybody actually gets to SEE these guys.

MS Single Pack-
Will delight LOTS of fans. If you missed the 2-pak or didnt want to spend 13, this is your perfect chance. I'll also be buying this in hopes that this MS won't fall apart like the comic pak one did. One may argue that the Eggman Diorama thing renders this one obsolete, but if you wanted to leave that 2-pak mib, but still have a Metal Sonic, it's the way to go.

Vector Espio 2 Pack-
There isn't really a reason to not get this unless you hate the Chaotix. And I don't know of anyone who does. You'll notice that the comic is different too, it's 138, rather than being a next-to-current one. This, many people will likely feel is more worth-while, because if you are missing back issues it's a super way to fill it in without laying down money in a comic shop. You already know the figures look great from the JW photos already on-site, so this one is a non-decision.

Update will appear in 2 parts.
There's plenty of other items to go up for the week, just can't get them all on in 1 update. The 2nd half of the update SHOULD also see the store updated too. GE has let out some nice stuff, including a wallet (3 hedgehogs) which even I would like to collect. Since they're usually on Amazon, the store should have these things added to it shortly.

Info Update

2010-08-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

This week's update went...well!

It was easy enough to do, not flooded with stuff, still had a nice amount of interesting things (check out that Tails statue! Finally get to see the arms after like 3 years of having that broken one up there!) Plus, his origin!

Jazwares news:
There WILL BE
Micro all stars racer Knuckles

Yes, he's not in that mini racers 4-pak thing that is already on there, but their site HAS confirmed a mini version of him is going to get made. No you can't see it yet, they've subbed in their photo of the regular size 'figures & vehicles' Knuckles in hopes of having a place-holder.

Fan Items Bullitain! (that's pretty absurd)
WRECKED FIGURES (and merchandise) are NOT fan items!

Letting your dog chew up Sonic merchandise does NOT mean it's battle damaged
If you melted Knuckles, he is not 'melting version Knuckles'
If you covered Sonic figures with some kind of wierd goo or lumpy stuff and they look WORSE that's not customization.
If your little brother scribbled all over your Sonic tee, it's not a fan item, it's a stained up tee.
Breaking something and then "attempting to fix it" does not mean it's customized
Sonic in paint & old hairs you found stuck in the paint is not Werehog

You actually have to customize, improve, or make a marked difference that is GOOD in something for it to make it on. Tons of destroyed stuff has been coming in. Destructing Sonic goods is actually like...the opposite of 'fan item'. These are like...wierd/odd/abusrd examples but they keep turning up in the mail, even though it's kind of obvious that 'letting your dog eat your stuff' is bad and you should try to avoid that.

It may sound ranty, but if all the figures/items etc. that are here now get wrecked, how can new collectors get them some day? (when the originals are out of print) Much like the case of those "Joyride/gamepro bendies". They're worth a bundle now, but when they first appeared people were painting over them and chewing them up like they were a dime a dozen. That joyride Shadow goes around $99 all the time now.

2nd update?
Highly likely. A scattering of more stuff to help out the mail, more info (for sure) possibly some videos, and a store update. GE is releasing more cool stuff, and that usually shows up on Amazon first, so store links should be a snap to place. Look out for another blog post too, if a 2nd update happens.

UK 2nd Half Update

2010-08-16T23:23:00.000-07:00

So much mail rolled in, the update has to get a part 2.

***You may notice distortion, bad formatting, errors on new pages***
The new pages SHOULD still be read-able, and the photos able to be viewed. Newgolive demons are murdering these new pages. They must be let alone to break in a specific way so that I can fix them by deleting the bad code. Currently, the code appears on them in a bad area that I cannot remove it from.

This 2nd half is a lot of UK focused items, including more on the very intregueing Sticker Book Modern. It looks like a fantastic collectible for any fan, and the documentation on it just got better with the update. Though where's this "new stock art" it was boasting about?
Getting really in-depth with a detailed item like the sticker book is what SonicGear is all about. Going beyond what other websites may do, and taking a good look at a cool complex item really brings it back to the roots.

Finally seen:
The base to that Sonic lamp shade. It's a bore, but it's good to finally get a look at it. Sort of dissapointed it wasn't Sonic-ish in some way, but maybe that's why everyone always lost the lamp bit...hmm.

Bore of the week:
Sonic cozy robe. TOTALLY LAZY. They didn't even try to make this cool. Mystery manufacturer just bought a license and slapped the first graphic they could find on there. I can't imagine this selling well. It's nearly as lazy as that all black sweatshirt, but at least the 'cozy robe' is an item that's never been made before with Sonic on it...and it comes in a box.

New pages galore:
You'll notice that a lot of the stuff has gone onto new pages. These things take a lot more legwork and difficulty than they used to, so any time merch spills over onto a new page it's always time-consuming. There were quite a few of them this time, but best to spread out the hassle, I guess. There's no controlling it, but it does slow down updates and make them take longer. Yes, it's a 'feature' of newgolive. Ugh.

Spambot assult on the blog:
Thwarted, the chinese porn spammers are now sending multiple bots to spam the blog with stupid comments as they try a different tactic. However, Blogger has (helpfully) added 'mark as spam' option so rather than just deleting, you can delete AND flag it to blogger. Hopefully whoever is behind this gets shut down because nuisance comment removal eats update time.

The update was very difficult this time.
Newgolive making every page go wrong at every turn. Not all of the mail was cleared. Repair update may or may not happen this week. Next week: should see a review of 3in Eggman, and the repair of the pages.

Metal Sonic Eggman 2 Pack & Much More

2010-08-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

This week brings another huge update.
While the mail had been down to 166, it went up to 208 in just 1 week, higher than it had ever been. Mostly, I think it was due to the MS 2 pack Eggman release (rejection/scooped letters ahoy, unfortunately for everyone who sent it in but wasn't first)

Metal Sonic & Eggman 2 Pack Diorama Box Jazwares-
WOW. This is a MUST HAVE for ANY Sonic fan. Jazwares is apparently serious about stepping up their game. Instead of some stale Archie Comic everyone already owns, they've done a diorama out of their box. With removable clear pod for Metal Sonic (or trapping Amy!) and "Eggman Lair" look, this thing is fantastic if you want to open & play, or leave it MIB. The box itself is very stylish, with die-cuts, profiles & loads of art. Really pulling out all the stops and is highly reasonable at 12.99, who knew it'd be this good?

*The only thing that could ruin it is if the figures fall apart. But that doesn't matter to MIB'ers. So far, all reports on this are green.

Return of some sections:
Sections that have not seen updates in quite some time return this week, specifically calander of crud, mutant gear, and Magazines. It's quite refreshing to see stuff on them, rather than the endless parade of bootlegs that seemed to be dominating. For as horrible as the Calander is, it's still pretty darn funny, and Magazine covers are always nice to look at, as Sonic headlines again.

2 of the items- right to the store:
The DS accessories of the week also (luckily enough) get a Sonic Gear Store entry right away. It's great to be able to get an item so soon after release, especially when there's a color selection to choose from. Also, since I locate the store buttons, I can select only the ones that give the best prices! You'll notice that sugg. retail is 9.99, but I've found some 8 dollar buttons instead...press 'em fast if you want 'em, because I had a "low inventory" warning on all of them but 1. (re-stock is likely, buttons will be updated)

Interesting:
Keyhole Tails explained. A mis-interperated old art likely led to the Toy Island Tails having those really odd eyes. It was a mystery I didn't think would ever solve, but really that explanation that's there now really makes sense. See the Mega Bot page for it now.

2nd update:
Yes, there will be a second update, consisting mostly of UK items. There were far too many to fit on this update, so it's basically going up as a part2. A few of the remaining items will also go on to re-clear the mail back to 166. Another blog post should also occur.

Lotsa Work Update

2010-08-08T17:58:00.000-07:00

Finally, an on-time update.
Hopefully, the first of many that just stay on time. It just seemed that lately disaster seemed to strike at each one, on sunday night. (whether PC related, or not, bleh)

First 4 Figures got the buy link up on the 6 pack.
It's a nice enough price too, at 30 for the whole thing. FANTASTIC that it's on their site so that anyone in the world can get it.

Electronics!
Lots of stuff in there this week. I do intend to own the Sonic MP3 player, because I do not have one of any sort. Yes, Sonic music will go onto it. I wonder if it has a plug for outputting to a stereo. I hope it does. Ear widgets are terrible. Interesting to see too that the RC racers are actually 1-uping Jazwares original racers. I wonder if they're larger? (clear windsheilds, better paint, more detail?)
Also good to see electronics getting into the like...century.
Massive anceint radios! Walkie Talkies! I kept wondering if a record player would show up with how oldy-moldy a lot of the stuff was. Not that record players are bad...it was just there were so many great opportunities with actual MODERN items that seemed to be getting passed over. Well, no more! More power to high tech+Sonic themes.

Shirts!
It is no secret that shirts are a fave thing around here. Easy to collect, cheap enough, easy enough to store, you can actually wear it...the list goes on and on. This week sees more great designs from Top Heavy. Honestly, I HAD been worrying about them due to no shirts locally for quite some time. Was BioWorld taking over? Had they lost their license? Apparently not, with more great designs. Even a new version (yes! with different art!) of the INCREDIBLY popular "Shadow Spade" appears...this time with more glitter flames.

*Spade & Celtic Cross
These 2 shirts are by far the most popular from the TH modern line. Loads of questions come in about them, mostly it's people desperate to own these designs. Both are indeed stylish, but I don't know why these 2 in particular draw everyone's eye. Celtic Cross was also released again on black, in 2010.

Personal fave has to be the run/profile with 2 panels. Fresh art always wins me over. Not only is the art fresh, it's nicely used and quite different from other releases. The shiny blue is nice...if you don't want to wear it, so that comes in 2nd. That ink is far too fragile. The Sonic Gang is good too, throwing Jet Hawk fans a bone (Storm Albatross got onto a shirt first, that'd make Jet mad) if there are any fans for him.

Oddity of the week:
They changed the bobble head/its packaging at the last minute. This prompted a photo switch on the page, and the old one landing on prototypes.

Mail IS going along well.
So, if you've been ignored, it may not be that much longer until something happens. All the stuff WILL go on eventually. Next week: could be anything. Nothing in particular planned.

Late update is large

2010-08-06T21:52:00.000-07:00

The update may be late, but that doesn't mean it's not a big one.
Taking place over most of this day, it cleared up quite a few mails, but the goal wasn't met. Mostly, due to a flood of new item photos showing up.

New electronics, Jazwares leaking photos onto their facebook, and more from First4Figures all appeared in one week. That's highly unusual. Anything that didn't make it on (that is current/breaking/relevant) will get on with sunday's upcoming update.

There actually WAS an update on sunday of last week.
It was a stealth-update. The only thing that changed around was information getting added to some entries. Since that doesn't list on the front page, it usually goes un-noticed. It is small improvements that help the site be the best it can, via info.

You'll notice the snowboard moved to France (it was USA) and is likely official.
The bobble head (even though it isnt even released!) will also be shifting around soon. Very odd.

First look at mini racers line 2
The box is VERY impressive! There will be strong incentive to keep this thing MIB for display with a box like that. Track diorama? Raised path? Yes please. It's a 4 pack, but HOPEFULLY there will be individual racers too. Why? Because this is yet another Sonic re-buy (if you got his mini, single-card style) AND they're foisting a non-Sonic guy onto you (Beat)

I know the fans were sort of wondering what would happen when Sega forced JW to produce EVERYbody from the game. Remember, it's Sega All Stars, not Sonic All Stars. So what'll become of the less popular people like Ryo, Aiai, and Amigo? Hopefully they won't pair them up with Sonic chars just to force the fans to buy characters they don't want. It's a low move that drains wallets and draws anger from the fans.

Mystery of the week:
It would be the poker chip of dubious origin, but Metal Sonic Mystery Box takes the cake. You can see it under the SS pack, but who else is in there? He was ALREADY on a 2 pack, what are they up to this time?

Sonic Soda Revealed-
It is pinkish brown. It's likely not only me, but I like to actually SEE the food substance that's inside the containers. This pic is very handy.

Do not send this week/trouble-saver:
RC Racers, Sonic CD player, or any of 3 recent Sears shirts. They're all already in the que for the upcoming update, but photos are flying around the web...this is just a notice to save yourself trouble if you find them. Other fans have sent them in.

Upcoming Update:
Lots of current stuff. Wanted Gear will also get a couple of things. The link for buying the F4F 6 pack should also go live. Anything else will likely be random, as once again the mail attempts to clear up somewhat.

2010-07-27T23:33:00.000-07:00

Well, the update may be on time...
But the blog post is technically late, coming along with the 2nd update for the week. However, hopefully the updates well stay on schedule better now.

The big news of the week is obviously the First 4 Figures 2nd series release.
Sega leaked their photos to Summer of Sonic to help hype the event, as they will be raffling off a the big Super Sonic as well as holding give-aways of the smaller figures for attendees of the convention. This is a great thing to do for the fans! It'll really help make the SoS a lot of fun. The Figure 6 Pack is also an excellent idea. If it's not outrageously priced, I'll be getting one.

Note:
Data on WHERE to buy and HOW MUCH the figure 6 pack will be is NOT YET released as of this blog posting. F4F should be adding the info to their site when it is ready.

You might notice:
All the pages updated this week are free of spelling errors. The way the pages are created/updated makes them VERY easy to commit spelling errors on, but VERY hard to catch or fix them. The spell checking process is long and arduous and cuts down on the amount of items able to be posted. So we'll see how long it goes on for. (is this caused by newgolive being rotten? Why YES IT IS. How did you guess.)

Pest of the week:
MSN's hotmail (And maybe msn itself) has decided to have some arbitrary update/upgrade to itself. Other than "making all the mail take really long to load" I'm not sure how this is helping anyone. So far it just seems like a nuisance.

Minor Announcement:
Bootleg shirt submissions CLOSED. (mostly)
Basically until further notice. An announcement was posted on Bootlegs 10, and any shirts sent in from this point on are likely to get rejected. There are literally INIFINITE art bits that can be ironed onto anything. 1,000s of shirts can be submitted, all fakes, so it had to be shut down or else bootlegs would be full of all the same item, just with a different picture.
There is 1 catch though, if some shirt is radically different/crazy/tricky etc. it can still make it on.

The purpose of bootlegs it to TEACH fans how to avoid fake items.
Basically anything that illustrates a NEW trick or a new way of faking is added in. All the avoidance tactics on shirts were already revealed through the many, many fake shirts already present on the 10 pages worth of fake items. So if something is totally outrageous (shirt-wise) it's got a chance, because it can still present a learning opportunity for the fans.

Item of the week:
It would be the snowboard, if it was known to be official or not. Sincerely, I hope that it IS. A Sonic snowboard would be very cool. Since it is unknown though, it can't be item of the week. So instead that goes to...
Toy Island "Better Sonic"
Items of the week are always interesting, but this one proves they can be frusterating too. The difference is SO GREAT between these figures...yet all they did was release that horribly ugly one. That nasty figure is indeed in my collection but it's shoved away out of sight because it is so rotten and non-Sonic-like. It makes me want to yell "How did this happen you fools!" to see that super one there next to it. It still has 'big body' but the head is just worlds apart.

Next week:
More grab-bag style anything goes update. Likely to also be a double.

Archie Holds A Contest

2010-07-23T00:23:00.000-07:00

Archie Sonic Comic is holding a contest.
There isn't really anywhere appropriate to post this news directly onto SonicGear, so here it goes. If you look in the first issue of the Tails Arc in Sonic Universe Comic, you'll see a Tails Fan Art Contest has been announced. You can win:

Sonic-plush backpack, a Sonic and Knuckles T-shirt, and a Sonic and Tails pin set, plus your art gets into an issue of the comic.

ALL of this stuff is already on SonicGear, so you can freely use it to get a better look at the prizes if you want to. It's not a bad bunch of swag at all, and it's pretty cool to see an actual contest in the comic giving away real merch. A nice boon for the fans!

Nag of the week:
PLEASE LOOK before sending in items to SonicGear. I have rejected the SEVENTEETH set of photos for the new Jazwares line. (Espio, Vector, SS's etc) because everyone keeps sending it in for some reason, it is getting crazy. It's really the only time this has happened, and it's all always the same set of photos. It's really strange.
These shots have been up for weeks and weeks on the JW page and also in the update block. It is eating into the update time to have to reject this photo set so many times. Only items which do not already appear on the site are able to be added.

Mini Nag-
Chinese porn bot commentor on this blog is turning up the heat by posting many more p0rn comments now that they're getting rejected as soon as they appear. Will it become more angry, or just go away?

Item/s of the week:
HAS to be the Sonic & Shadow throw pillows. Fantastic materials, great embroidery, stylish designs, well-done art. Everything about them seems totally fantastic. I will be aquiring these pillows. It's rare that I see an item that I just need to go and get, but these are really it. Hopefully some info on where to find them shows up soon. They are way too classy to pass up. Hopefully they're a nice size, too...not too big or too tiny.

Sonic Colors Pre Order Item:
It was recently announced that the freebie for either version (DS or Wii) if pre'd at GameStop would be the Spikes Only Sonic Hat. (seen on usa accessories) The hat itself is quite an interesting idea, and seems well executed. However, it's more geared toward cosplay or ginjika type use rather than something 'just anyone' would really want. The hat is already taking flak on the internet for this. I do wonder what the percentage of people who appriciate vs. shun the item really is. It is likely to be for regular retail later.

Next week:
Could be anything. More mail-bag for sure, and if any news shows up at comic-con (remember, that's going on this weekend) it'll appear...though, it isn't likely anything Sonic related will occur there.

Odd Day Post & Fingers

2010-07-13T23:02:00.000-07:00

Post appears on an odd day of the week.
No real reason for it, it's just the way the timing worked out. Have not been able to have a 'Japan Update' in quite a while. It's nice and refreshing to see another one, as usually the items from there manage to be very interesting to see/unique/uncommon.

Item of the week:
Sonic Salt Shaker. Hands down. Salt shaker collecting (Salt & Pepper, really) is a big deal at least in the USA, but usually isn't character specific. Shakers (in hindsight) are an absolutely wonderful thing to have in Sonic theme. If there was a "Pepper Tails" it would be even better, as then it could be a pair. It even seems surprising that something like that didn't turn up EARLIER because really on the list of 'whimsical containers' shampoos and bubblegum dots are a bit lower on the bright idea list than a shaker. Also, it's likely got to be one of the few ceramic Sonic items which exist. Very nice to see, very hard to collect. (coming out of Japan and all, also being classic and yet managing to never even turn up in any photo till 2010...hmm)

Good Detail:
The werehog fan plush. One word: FINGERS!
Why does it take a fan item for something to finally get real fingers! The fingers look good on the doll too, not those 'paws with threads' that everything always has. Are fingers super expensive? Is it cost-prohibitive to have fingered dolls? Are all patterns for them super stupid? Do people think fingered plush always look bad? There are so many questions without answers regarding the seldom-thought-of topic.

Would it be ok to just buy tons of cheap white gloves and stuff those? (if the plush patterns stunk) Surely that would be better than paws or that pesky "Big Finger Sonic" (you know the one, where he's supposed to have the 1 pointing finger out but for some reason it's like triple the size of all his other fingers...Japan used that on A LOT)

My conclusion is confused. I don't know why we don't have more things with fingers, but I DO think they'd look great on Sonic dolls in general. I wish some company would do it (right), and this fan item has reminded everyone that certainly, it is possible to do it.

Another item claiming to be 'the first Sonic item' appears too, it's the JP PVC that went in Display Figures. Will this thing get dethroned like the Cookie Crisp widget? Only time will tell. I wonder even, if Sega itself knows what Sonic item was REALLY produced first.

It is HIGHLY likely there will be a 2nd update this week, even though this one appears on an odd day. What will be on it? 2 items that I am highly likely to try and buy.

July 4th Update

2010-07-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

Not really.
Update was actually delayed 1 day due to the holiday. But, it's up in full-force with a nice selection of things.

Headline News:It doesn't change much, but it DOES pay to watch it. This week a live link was added to an online store for UK people to buy JW figures at something close to 'regular retail'. (I am so tired of stores trying to fleece the fans just because limited availability is on their side...ugh)

Item of the week:
Wierd official Sega Crew leather jacket. "Employees Only" stuff is notoriously rare to see (yeah, why DONT the employees take a picture of it? Certainly it can't be forbidden to photo your own shirt. Or are employees non-fans because they're 'sick of working there'?) and this jacket is no exception. It looks quite quality, as it's real leather and seems thick. So then...why is the Sonic design so BAD?
I've seen less-shifty stock art on bootlegs. The letters and everything are beautifully embroidered but then you get to Sonic and it's just....why didn't they fix him up first? From a distance he looks fine, but the over-done brow, missing eye-shine-dot, and sort of odd eye placement is strange. Then, what's up with the joker/pirate/skull thing on the front? That only adds to the mystery. Hopefully someone will know what it's all about.

WTH of the week: Sonic 'sound effects' shirt. "Yeah, we'll make a Sonic tee, classic style, with that 'worn out design' look that everyone can't get enough of, then we'll write BONG BONG on it for no apparent reason!" Really now? Is THAT how that happened? Is that even a sound effect in ANY Sonic game? Some things we may never know.

NOTE:
Youtube is NOT a reliable way to contact SonicGear! They're iffy with their messages, and sometimes their interface breaks. MSN doesn't always agree with their notifications. I don't always get an email notification that a youtube message was sent. They can sit in there for AGES because I'm not on it much, and especially so if it doesn't alert me. If you have news, photos, videos, links...anything DO use email to send it, and don't rely on youtube communication. It works sometimes but it's not the best.

(just uncovered some seriously ancient notes people must be wondering "Well what happened to..." that they sent in) If I respond to them, what'll happen?

The mail continues to decrease.
Next update: MAY be another 'bonus time update'. Those don't get a date header, but they do appear in the update roster, so keep on the look out. Starting to dig into some of the older-older mails now, dating from around the start of the mess back in feb/jan where things began to go awry. Progress is great to see!

Sonic Birthday Wrap Up

2010-07-02T19:53:00.001-07:00

Well the wrap up post is kind of out of sync...
But better late than not one. Over-all the bday week went quite well. The site didn't really try too hard to wreck, and a LOT of mail was cleared out. Do note though, that there's a ton of it left, so if you sent something in...it's likely still in that pile.

Miss, scoop & 'it went' notices are going out better than they were (ie nothing as much getting lost in the shuffle) so that's decent as well.

The week itself was packed with interesting news as well, everything from JW figure photos to a light up statue. If there was ever a great week for Sonic stuff to release, the b-day week is certainly it. With daily updates, all the news got out fresh and fast.

Upcoming:
1. There may be a poll soon, which you can vote in.
2. Updates may appear more frequently. More along the line of 2 of them in a week in a further attempt to un-do the whole mail disaster the site caused and get everything back in control. They WILL be announced on the 'updates' section of the front page, just as usual so no one misses anything. The 2nd update may be lighter, or the same as a normal one. It would usually have a blog post with it as well.

Jazwares Answer Results

2010-06-25T00:12:00.000-07:00

So that it will be pretty much permenent...
These are the 'quick answers' to that Jazwares Interview at the SegaBlogs. Who knows if they pull down their old content after a while, so this is just a fast run-down of everything they said. With some comments/speculation added in. All the ambiguous, question-dodge, unclear and already-known items have been skipped. The original should still be here: Sega Blogs vs Jazwares 2

1. ALL the AllStars Racers should be getting figures
2. They'll do a Blaze the Cat figure (Likely on the small line)
3. They'll do Super Silver (Small line, I bet)
4. Chaos emeralds confirmed to come with Super Sonic Super Shadow Pack
5. No more forced re-buying of Sonic
(Paying 13.99 for 1 small-line figure was getting old. Everyone's got like 4 Sonics now because they had to keep buying him to get stuff. It's a good thing they recognized this.)
6. Playsets are NOT in the cards (yet)
7. Charmy Bee, Big & Froggy, Eggman ARE coming to the small line
They don't have rights to non-Sega-JP chars, so Sonic R stuff is out. (IE no Tails Doll or Metal Knuckles which were exclusive to that game unless they somehow get the rights)
8. Fang- Who has the rights to this guy?
9. 10 Inch Sonic IS GOING to get made (same size as the big MS)
10. They don't consider bendies yet (I do wonder about them doing bendies. As the asker jabbed at them about breakage within the question...it was a rightfully done jab. They'd likely do a good job with bendies, but 'bendy' has a stigma of being 'low end junk' EVEN after Joyride produced the awesome Shadow who everyone wants. I hold nothing against well done bendies and have no predjudice)
11. They WILL BE making more 5 inch line figures
12. WHERE can you buy the figures?
Transworld, Amazon, Hot Topic, specialty shops and local Comic Book stores
13. There WILL be a Super Poser Tails (this was announced before, but it bears repeating)
14. Direct ordering from a 'Jazwares Store' is NOT in the cards now
15. They don't have an Archie license
16. There WILL BE Tails, Knuckles & Silver plushes in a 2nd plush line

Comment Zone:
More 5-inch is absolutely going to please the fans. Everyone LOVES these, and so do I. I don't care about paying more for the larger size, they do such a good job, they're great to have. I would 100% buy anybody they make at this size.

Lack of JW direct store is painful
JW can't control the X TREEEEME markup$ that online $tores are grubbing from de$perate fan$. It's totally unfair to tell little Billy or Suzy "No you can't have that Sonic figure because it's $39.99, when JW want it to retail at $4.99" but it happens all the time. These scalpers get away with it because there's no reliable source to just GO GET FIGURES AT SUGGESTED PRICE. (TRU isn't in the area, you live non-usa, TRU is out of them online/offline, your hot topic doesn't have them, there are no comic book stores at all within 25 miles, etc etc on and on)

Lack of Archie is awesome
Yes, I collect all the Archie Sonic books monthly, and read them. But do I think that their chars deserve figures? NO NO NO. Archie is a huge swamp that is sure to only anger the fans. Finish this sentance "I hate____" everyone will fill it in with a different archie-exclusive char then do nothing but scream about it and create bad news all over the web if it is produced as a figure. The other half who love ____ will then start a war.
Retail does not need more contraversy, and humpteen billion irrelevent characters regardless of their level of being derivitive, boring, ill-concieved, forgotten about, poorly written, plot-hole driven, killed-off, loose-ended, obscure, continuity-dumped, or sheer plot-device'd will not help. Screeching like a rabid monkey and punching out anyone who disagrees with eternal undying love of Archie Char X is commonplace. Please, keep this out of my figures and never get the license.

A Mystery:
Where is Rouge the Bat? Why is Blaze (A DS only char, pretty much) getting a figure first? Rouge is a fan fave appearing in multiple titles. Everything with her sells like hotcakes. Certainly more people like her than do Big the Cat...yet he is getting a figure first? What's up with that?

Mystery 2:
Gamma or Omega or Mecha Sonic. The 'good guy robots' have their fans too, and (S&K Mecha Sonic) does look cool. These should get on the roster at some point. But I can understand not feeling any need to front-line them. JW is not going to 'run out of' people to make figures of any time soon.

Plushes:
Here's where _I_ get contraversial. I hate their current line. The 'improvements' failed. I still think the dolls are ugly and over priced. I would never buy them. I don't see why they're adding more characters, I DO see these warming shelves in local stores. I'm not going to dump on the 2nd line because I have not seen it, but it had better be 50% or more better than the first.

"Go bigger or get out."

Plush is a VERY HARD thing to make, and harder still to get right. I know, I have tried. Working small (or huge) only makes it harder. But GE is easily trumping anything they've done, on a larger scale. Their 'big werehog' beats JW hands-down and is at least twice as big, retailing at 14.99. (JW are about 7 inches, and 9.99 each) The high price and bad look combine to make the first line look sad indeed. This is an opinion. If you love the first line that's fine, but you havn't seen the sold for 800 dollars Rouge the bat or the 725 dollar Shadow. THOSE are nice dolls.

Bottom line:
In all, it's good news. They sound like they're really connected to the fans, listening to who is in demand, then actually making them. With the way the figures fly off shelves, one can only agree that this stance is working like gold. The future also has great promise with more good choices and cool surprises. (Chaos emerald pack!) The fact that they keep doing interviews like this and directly answer fan questions is also wonderful. The more connected a company is to it's buyers, the better it tends to do. By far, Jazwares is the best company yet for Sonic figures, and it looks like they'll stay on top for good, with how great they are acting.
Also: I predict we get wisps.

Birthday- Sonic Video Contest!

2010-06-23T23:56:00.000-07:00

Today's the big day!
Happy Birthday Sonic!

And this time, it's Sega who brings the surprise, in the form of a really cool contest. If you can make a great enough video about Sonic and post it on youtube, you'll win a trip to Tokyo and great prizes too! It may be Sonic's birthday, but with that kind of contest around, the fans are getting the present! Plus, Sonic Rivals as well as various data packs (for your games, like extra levels and stuff) are also on sale now as a part of the birthday celebration. If you don't own any of these things yet, but want to, NOW is your chance to save!

This is a fantastic contest, which I think will benefit both the fans AND Sonic too, by raising his popularity and hopefully getting people out of 'psycho hate mode' which has really been going around the internet lately, if the articles are true.

Meanwhile...
The Golive is once again up to no good. This time figuring out a whole NEW way to ruin the update, which is by adding "The mysterious code block" to new pages before they get content. Since they're fresh, and not saved yet, most of the time deleting the code block RUINS the entire thing...and forces it to shut, thus losing all that was there. But that's not all...

Shenannigans list:
Pasting in images SUPER TINY for no reason
Pasting an image causes the page to stretch miles wide, for no reason, at random
Upon save, converting all text boxes to miles high, but only a single letter wide!

It's totally baffling. HOW is it doing any of this? It's like the thing is smart! How is it this inventive? It's never done that before, and nothing's different! Pages are all made in the same way, placing images and writing in text boxes. It's not like there's flash or java or anything fancy being introduced. So how, when doing the same thing every time, does it magically produce a different (and horribly destructive) result SOMEtimes?

A few things did make it on though, despite the trouble,
Neat keychains, a nice Knuckles patch and several Dreamcast themed commercials. It is a total shame that this had to go wrong on Sonic's Bday itself. I'd wanted a big, good update for it, and all golive did was waste all the time trying to ruin pages instead.

Figure-lover's update

2010-06-22T23:31:00.000-07:00

This update is great!
It sure is super that this is the week of Sonic's birthday because some AWESOME figures are arriving in the news. Finally, photos appear for the Jazwares Small Line 3: which has Super Sonic, Super Shadow & Espio & Vector (PLUS news that the supers will come with a full set of Chaos Emeralds!) As usual, the figures look great.

Then, First4Figures unleashes photos for their CLASSIC Super Sonic statue...and it even has...a Light Up Base! Normally, one might consider that gimmickry, but they did an amazing job with the light up effect. It's like a 'speed blast' on the base and the glow is really appropriate here. It just sets the tone for the whole statue. And it's only a bit more money too...that one is my pick for sure! Not that the non-lighting one is bad...this statue is still wonderful in classic style, and the base is reminiscent of the final boss battle in Sonic 1's piston-trap thing...though it is actually representing Chemical Plant Zone.

First4Figures took some really great photos to show off both versions, this is def. going to be quite the collector's item, especially with numbered editions and everything. They are really maximizing their sculptors, and the addition of light effects only makes the statue better. Even though it's expensive, I figure fans will fight over the light up version because of the low numbers being made.

That doesn't mean the rest of the update is slacking off, there's still plenty of other items to see like wall scrolls and another Shadow plush-but by far the figures stand out.

Sonic Birthday Kickoff 2010

2010-06-22T00:12:00.000-07:00

Sonic's Birthday Week 2010!
As is the tradition with celebrating here on Gear, there will be updates throughout the week. So, if you need to look at the weekly update bits on the index...better look at them now as they all get pushed away quickly each time this happens.

The star of the show started it off, which was the 15th Anniversary cake. Yes, this was 'sat on' for about 2 weeks so it could kick off the bday week in style. The cake topper is curiously off-model, which you'd think they'd of solved by year 15, but...I guess not. Those photos could have gone into any of 3 categories, events, mascot suits OR Food, which is rather unusual for just one thing.

A theme is unlikely (but, you never know) to show up during the week due to clearing out much of the mail. A Store Update is likely, as there are lots of great products to be found that should be added. Plus, with stores running out of items, their links still do need replacing.

Item highlight of the day: Knuckles lolly pop coating/shell.
It's a rare thing that a food from the USA can show up that absolutely no one knew about before. This Knuckles figural lolly is certainly one of them. It's likely also especially collectible because early merchandise hardly ever featured Knuckles alone.

Robotnik fans- yes, there are these, and they've got a treat this time. The Robotnik-exclusive slide viewer fast food toy. The slides inside are also likely rare (or rare-er) art, and again, it's great to see an item that features him. The Tails & Sonic viewers should show up eventually because they were added to wanted gear. (The problem being that Carls Jr restaurants are not as 'everywhere' as McDonalds or BK)

Item Half of Update

2010-06-15T23:45:00.000-07:00

As promised, the item half is going up.
The latest brick Golive is trying to throw this week seems to be breaking the UTTER HECK out of the copy/paste function. However, that's easy enough to get around...for now...so long as it goes away by next time. If that's all it wrecks, the update should be quite solid.

Several Australia things go up this week, along with (finally) the picture of single-card Knuckles. Single-card Knuckles had sat around for far too long, he just kept getting buried by so many other things. Some people may not like the single-carding of already-released figures, but I really do appriciate it. It's going to fight 'rarity' by allowing everyone to have every figure they want. Which, really is the ideal situation.

Jazwares also apparently released the Sonic Black Knight plush, and since they couldn't wreck his joints...they wet his pants! Talk about an unfortunate place to have a rather large glue stain on a plush. That is likely an unfair jab, as probably 99.9% of all the other SBK plushes will be just fine, and glue-free. However (its personal opinion time!) I STILL HATE his face. I think those dolls are ugly and will never buy one. The eyes are all wrong (too vertical) and it screws up the expression. The "Fixed" plushes are only a LITTLE better than the abysmal first ones. At ten bucks a piece they're steep for the small size and lousy construction of the face. Either go big and be expensive but well done, or seriously rethink your small structure.

Australia Items 4 is actually a new page this week, though it wasn't mentioned.

Next week:
That week starts the Sonic Birthday Celebration. It'll be the same as it was last year, with loads of fun updates. Hopefully one of them will be the videos that were supposed to be this week. Only 1 cameo video made it up this time. This also ought to really clear out the mail and get the site caught up, provided there are no disasters.

SonicGear Store Update

2010-06-13T23:39:00.000-07:00

Well Golive crashed for the first time on gear on this update...
I guess kudos to it for not actually having done this earlier. Another tool in its arsenal of creative ways to try and mess up the updates? I don't know! What did it do? Well, it crashed while trying to update the SonicGear Store (2 sections) which is unfortunate because that whole section is difficult. I can't actually SEE anything I'm working on, on that page (it is all code boxes) which is a hinderance. However, the page should still appear anyway.

Collection Care goes up-
This section was actually blogged about a couple of weeks back but did not finish until this week. For its explanation, see the old blog post. The delay was caused by wanting to add convenience-links to SpaceBags. These bags are what the SonicGear shirts collection is stored in (currently) It's an extensive one, so anything to shrink the required space down is quite a boon. So now, anyone who cant find a space bag locally (really, who wants to pay shipping) is just a click away. *It is very important for SonicGear to be as convenient as possible for the fans/users.

The update at least is going out on time!
That's saying something for lately. It became only half an update, because the store had gone into a serious state of dis-repair. See, the links there can be broken by Amazon (making the item vanish) on their own. So, eventually as things sell out, the links become no-good and must be re-searched and re-established. It is quite a chore with the way it's set up--especially due to some nefarious bootlegger stuffing up the search results with garbage. Not everything is fixed (or if it can't fix, replaced) yet, but that'll be another update.

The rest of the update should appear shortly, and it'll have all the 'stuff' on it that's planned for this week. (videos, cameos, AUS items, etc) Everything's prepared so it should be a success.

Battle of Wills

2010-06-06T22:57:00.000-07:00

Unknown to me...
Some evil spammer had been using SonicGear's blog as a hotbed for their nefarious link posting. These Japanese language links would appear at the comments of every single SonicGear posting. Totally irrelevent and leading to nothing but pr0n, spam and malware sites they have no business being ANYwhere, let alone a site that's meant for everyone. (as in little kids can look at it too)

Well, they messed with the wrong writer.
"Gee, no one would be so determined as to go thru EVERY SINGLE POST EVER WRITTEN and BY HAND remove EVERY spam comment we make..." well they need to think again because that's exactly what was just done. And also, the settings are now changed so that only relevent items can get posted. This means it won't affect Sonic fans at all, it'll just keep spam away.

Did that delay the update?
You bet it did. There were hundreds of posts, many with several items that had to be cleared off of them. The only way to do it is by hand, but Sonic content is once again victorious. The blog is now clean and should stay that way.

So...the actual update?
Is actually pretty much mostly done. A few straggling items to be added the next day, but most of what was intended, went on. Interestingly, it worked out so that almost every page (the hat is a lie...) had more than 1 thing added to it. Nothing of ultra-remarkable-ness this time...maybe the Super Sonic phone strap thing. They've only got 1 art of him, so it's going to get run into the ground no matter what, but it's STILL great to see SS getting the attention he deserves.

3.75 inch Amy went on as well, and she's the last of the Jazwares Line 2 figures. Anyone else will default to line 3. She looks decent! I actually own this figure as well (contributor beat me to the punch and got photos in, mine aren't used) and she's decent in person. Some people are upset by the "Center Smile" but it IS something Amy CAN have, and it looks all right, though doesn't match her box art. Is it just me or does it look like someone photoshopped OUT her mallet in that art? It looks like she should be holding something there...but she isn't. It should also be noted that she can have some breakage issues (boots fall off) but mine does not. Perhaps JW lucked out this time...

Upcoming:
It's getting to be that time of year again...! Yes this is Sonic's birthday month (actual day Jun 23) The usual Sonic Gear celebration WILL take place!

Next week:
Will hopefully star a MESS of videos. Video linking is more difficult on this set up, so they've been piling up. You should find a batch to watch with the next update. There will also be a grab-bag of stuff to see as well, but 'video' will def. be a major theme.

Collection Care Update

2010-05-30T23:02:00.000-07:00

First, the news!
Some interesting news on upcoming merchandise to be on the look out for in the upcoming months/summer. This is why it's a good idea to watch the blog as well...

Jazwares is set to make plush versions of:
Tails, Knuckles & Silver
(News discovered by Sonic Ruler)

There should be a...
Sonic 1 gig MP3 player, a boom box, another (modern) walkie talkie set, a digital camera
(news discovered by Berzerker)

Jazwares wants to make
Super Poser Tails, Mini Racer Knuckles, Tails & Eggman

The new page for the week is Collection Care
After having something unfortunate happen with several shirts in my own collection, it was def. time to add this page. It's more of an instructions/utility page, but really, caring for a collection is important too, if you want to preserve it for well...basically forever.

This page was refreshing to do.
It seems very in the spirit of what SonicGear is supposed to be all about. Collecting items, and caring for them is important to any fan. It's very fitting for SonicGear to have a page like this to help out with preservation. The photos there are all of my own things, which did indeed get drawer rot. It's Florida so it's very easy for something like that to happen in the climate. I hope to be able to do more pages like that one in the future. It just seems like everything is such a whirl-wind of throwing stuff everywhere that there's no time to slow down and add true instructional content.

Good new idea of the week:
Has to be the new Shadow keychain with added acrylic chaos emerald. There isn't nearly enough official stuff featuring these important stones. Plus, clear plastic sparkly emerealds are always cool. To me, it makes a nice and fun addition to the keychain. I would def. not mind seeing more characters done this way, each with different colored stones to collect!

Update will occur in 2 parts.

Double Update- Double the Stuff! EGM News Too

2010-05-10T00:45:00.000-07:00

Everyone's least favorite 2 words (technical difficulties) stopped the update last week. It was partially up, but nothing announced on the index, making stuff impossible to find.

This week solves the problem, and brings double the stuff: everything that should have gone last week (and more!) plus more for this week. It's mostly USA and UK items, but there's really quite a diversity of them. For more site news, read past the EGM news below.

The news:
EGM reports that "A character no one has seen in a long time will appear at the end of Sonic 4". It is also something that fans have demanded for a long time, to see once again.

THIS is why I have always liked/subscribed to this magazine.
It can sometimes get news that no one else knows and then publish it, sometimes even before the internet. Since it's "Electronic" games it isn't beholden to any 1 company, which also helps. When the magazine closed/went away many people were upset. Now that it is back, it should be good once more.

SPECULATION!
This is a blog, of course it's going to speculate. Well as was said 1zillion times Sonic is the only char playable in this, and that's great. A lot of people wanted it that way and it should be fun. So at the end you know you will at least see a photo of Metal Sonic. He is the only thing no one's seen in a long time because recently all Sega seemed to do is spam in every char they've ever made except Mighty & Ray. Including throwing in the extra-dimensional cat Blaze into SBK, because hey, it's a fairytale and they can put in everyone they can think of. It isn't a complaint vs 'other chars' it's just a statement of elimination on who this 'big surprise' is going to be.

They're not going to activate the internet-infamous "Sonic Cycle" at this stage, and a villain/boss fits beautifully into what EGM has said without invoking the cycle/breaking what they said they'd do as they publicised the game. Also, no one can deny that MS is a fan fave/would be in demand.

Site Errors Possible:
With the pile up of mail it is TOTALLY POSSIBLE I missed a credit or two on some of the photos, or a 'this got added' mail that didn't get out. With this much mail madness things are totally able to slip through cracks and get missed. If it did, just write in and it'll be fixed.

Item of the week:
Sonic Speed Energy Drinks. For some reason, I find Sonic food to be especially interesting/eccentric/entertaining. The energy drink is no exception, infact, it may be right in line with a lot of the odd foods they've made for him over the years. If you recall, the original Japanese Sonic Soda was grapefruit flavored, and reportedly quite awful. (Really, grapefruit is a poor choice if you're trying for broad appeal, as would be expected for something like this)
This stuff doesn't even SAY THE FLAVOR on the can, which, cannot possibly be a good sign. If something is delicious, you announce it as loudly and as often as possible. That does not bode well for the content of the can. Then, the fact that it literally says "NOT FOR KIDS" on the side of the can is bizzarre because really everything Sonic is marketed "For kids". (whether anyone wants it to be or not) That also makes you wonder about what exactly is in there, and what it's going to do to you if you happen to drink it rather than just collecting it.

Anticipating:
Someone actually drinking this stuff and sending in a review.

Next Week:
Mail bag. May have made progress this time. Maybe not. Mid week update still possible.

Clothing Update

2010-04-26T00:32:00.000-07:00

Havn't had one of these in a while!
A real big update, where the focus is clothes. It's good to see, because Sonic clothes are really something for anyone. You can choose to wear or display, and either way they're enjoyable. It's a good mix too, UK, USA and classic and modern all getting in on the fun.

*Though I do have to say if someone wore the new boxerbriefs AND the new pajama bottoms together, the universe couldn't be held responsible for the chaos that may ensue with that many loud clashing busy terrible colors all put together. "What! Can't hear you over the loudness of my outfit" Why do they do this?

Jazwares:
Everybody wants news on these guys even when there isn't much. More info going up on their 3.5 line page, but most of it is bad. Chronicaling of more flaws showing up and other nuisances. Hopefully they can rein this in before they get badlisted. Also, to re-state (its important)

BOX BACK CHECK
LOOK at the box back to your 3.5 figure before you buy. If it shows their other figures, chances are it's a 'good' version figure. (ie, 'fixed' Tails, etc) AND ALSO you can expect bases/feet holes with them, even on the older ones who didn't previously have this as a feature. (SBK Sonic, etc) They're so inexpensive that a re-buy may be justified here, but it's up to you. At least now there's an easy way to spot them.

Super Poser Plans:
Yes, it's still rumored they want to add Tails. Credibility on this is rising.

Racers Plans
Eggman, Tails, AiAi, Beat and Amigo are being added to the Racers. They want to add Tails & Knuckles to the mini-racers set. Credibility rising here too.

Not particularly any one stand-out item this time...maybe the Carl's Jr simply because it's been existing so long, you know there had to be thousands of them, and yet only now it gets discovered.

Odd Activity-
Fan Items. A barrage of these continues to threaten to squeeze out updates of any other type. Many things were neglected this week to bring the update that did appear.

Next Week?
Likely will have still more clothes & accessories IF they don't get onto a mid-week. Otherwise, probably more mail-bag as the mail is not yet back under-control. So yes if you sent something it's likely still pending.

3.5 Inch Jazwares Metal Sonic

2010-04-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

This is more of a warning than a regular blog post.
It's also relevent WHEN you read it, vs when it appears. (April 19, 2010) So use the date and judge the info that way.

The early (read, released mid april) release of the Metal Sonic / Comic 2-pak figures are terrible. Reports are pouring in that the Metal Sonic figure of the pack is full of problems. The Sonic that's in there though, is just fine. The comic is also bound to be in good shape.

The bottom line fast:
IF you plan to DE BOX do NOT buy these figures right away. If you're an MIB Collector, just go for it. It's not going to make any difference to you, the packing is secure, quality and looks good on the shelf. The figures are easily visible, you'll be happy. But if you want to use the figure SKIP IT! And wait till later, when they fix it.

What's the problem?
The figure is very nice looking, but it's riddled with flaws. In every case I've heard, including my own, the head simply drops off when you remove from the package. There are also problems where he splits at the waist. These aren't particularly fix-able either there seems to be some kind of smooth rod in there that doesn't do anything. Also frozen joints (stuck that way via paint or something else) lead to people breaking the figure left and right, when trying to pose him. The wrists (which SHOULD spin) tend to snap rather than spin.

Why is this such bad news?
Because if you want another one, you have to spend $12.99 to get it. Because he's part of the 2pack, you're being forced to buy another Sonic & comic book, when all you want is a fixed figure. It's not like the 5 buck figures where you could just grab another one on a whim. That is NOT cool for de-box collectors.

Also, everything has that 'safety tested' sticker. Safety tested? By who, great white sharks? If picking up your figure causes it to splinter into a billion little bits like this one does, how is that safe? Not that I think ANY item short of chemicals could be unsafe, really if anyone is so dumb as to try to eat plastic, well they get what's coming to them, and I don't care if it's a lego or Barbie's shoe, or a piece of a figure that they dropped, safety is in the hand of the holder! However, having Metal's arm put the brakes on your vac is no good either.

What is the solution?
WAIT. History has shown that JW DOES fix their figures on subsequent releases. Let the MIB collectors buy up all these EZ-Break Oven figures and then try to pick him up later. Even current figures like Sonic have been improved, you'll notice that he comes with a base now! So chances are they're going to fix this guy. But don't waste any money now!

Best Case Scenario:
They release him again, in a solo pack for 4.99. This will let unfortunate folks who got an achy breakey one re-buy with minimal money. It will build confidence because it'll show they can make him right. It will help collectors in general because it's not like ANYthing MS won't sell like hotcakes.

2nd part of update...go!

2010-04-13T22:45:00.000-07:00

Finally, a second update where one was promised.
This one has the Super Poser Knuckles review as it's highlight item. Fortunately, it showed up here faster than anywhere else, saving everyone from sending in photos. I'm happy enough with the figure (on a personal note, that doesn't get into the actual review) but the arms to me are a big pest, because I want to be able to use these guys to do more "shows" (a'la Sonic Gear Commercial) and floppy figures just won't work.

Also, 3in Metal Sonic's head simply plopping off the minute I got him out of the package is rather discouraging. Yes you can CRAM on it to get it to go back but it never does really 'stay' well. Hedgehog help anyone who tries to play with him. Hopefully, I just got a dud. But then again, why me--the WORST person to get a failing figure in their hands? It's like if a car company gives a car to the NBC news station to test and all 4 wheels drop off--who are they going to tell? Everybody. Do that for some random Joe in Ohio, and the town'll find out but...is it some kind of bad karma for this good-sculpting company?

More detail on Impact Int vs. Eggman:
They basically say they never got the lic. for plush or beanies and so will never do them. Yeah ok, that's fine, but then why did they put him on their tags of all the other figures? Did it fail at the last minute? I can't think of any other logical scenario. And why WOULD it? It's not like they were doing a horrible job on the others.

May be a 3rd update for the week, depending how things go.
It's mostly prepared, so if new shenannigins (now it wants all photos uploaded twice, to get them to stay!) don't wreck it, it may just appear with more stuff.

License & Exlusivity Loss (good & bad)

2010-04-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

This week brings another regular-style update.
Hopefully, it's the first of 2 or more for the week, to finally catch the site up. The news for the update though, is the loss of exclusivity, and the loss of a license for you to read about. First:

Odd/Sad news:
Impact International makers of the 'classic line' Sonic plushes found in the GAME stores of the UK, apparently lost their license in 2010. What this means: well obviously, no more classic plushes from them, and also that classic Eggman is never going to get made. For some reason, they didn't produce him along with the 3 others, and because of this delay, he'll never come out. Their dolls were pretty good, (certainly better than toynetwork etc) so why this sudden end, is unknown. It's too bad Eggman was a casualty of it, as he's rare (merch wise) to begin with.

The Exclusivity loss is the good news:
TRU losing their JW exclusive will likely only benefit the fans. So far, figures have been spotted at WalMart (yes, the only place with a worse attitude toward customers than TRU, the 'biggest big box retailer' there is) and also Hot Topic (which will no doubt raise their price for them, unless mandated to keep it the same as what TRU charges) as HT is known for charging the most out of retail groups. You can likely expect to see more places soon, and hopefully ones with actual international shipping: EVERYONE would like some of these figures.

Jazwares Subtly Improving:
Since it was mostly an info update, some may have missed it. But this is important!

LOOK at the BACK of your 3in Figures boxes.
If you have one that shows all the other 3in figs they made, you've got a recent one which will include a base (YES even for the base-less earlier figures, like Knuckles & etc) and it's also a guarentee that the Tails in there will have rotating Tails/glove details corrected. So now you finally have a way to ensure buying a GOOD Tails, so this is a major development for people with a broken/wrong one. (Like me) The base will be hidden behind the front-label, but it is the different box-back that's the give-away.

This is also a very good move, in my opinion because it's worlds better than having generic art everyone's already seen, and is the best "ad" for the rest of the line. Nothing inspires people to collect (ESPECIALLY non-internet ones) like a pic of everything else they don't own.

Actual update/details bit blog post to follow this one.

Personal poobah- where's the update?

2010-03-31T17:25:00.000-07:00

Where is the update?
Blame Sega. A place that I like to go, is ending in a stupid and terrible manner. It is ending tonight. I've been kept super busy trying to clear out all the content for my other website. The update will appear (likely on THURS) of this week. It's still going to go up, and it'll have some cool stuff on it, but just not timely. *watch for Vector too!

If you only care about Gear, stop here <--
What's ending is one of Sonic Team's other games, Phantasy Star Universe for pc/ps2. The game had been defunct for a while due to their neglect. It's like as if they published a magazine you could subscribe to for 10$/month and sent out the first maybe year worth of the publication. Then, some months it wouldn't come, even though you paid. Others, it would come to some people, but not you. Later, they'd just crumple a page or two and throw it at you. Then, it got to where you'd pay but never get anything at all. Sure they'd make excuses but...

And then...they shut it down. "well, that's not so bad" you might say "they weren't giving anyone anything anyway, at least that's honest". But they didn't stop there. They sent ninjas to your house to steal every back issue to ensure you could never enjoy it again. And then...they BLAMED THE FANS. They said "not enough people liked our magazine" and "we're going to close it down, it's the fans fault, for not supporting us!"

This is where my mess-up comes in:
The game, being an RPG has a pretty big plot. Lotsa quests, etc. The other site has all the plot write ups that are also bits of gameplay guide/speculation/multi paths etc. Its like an all-in-1. I made it because I didn't see anything else all-in-1 ish that way and I was really interested in the story too, but everyone just seemed to want to gloss that over to get at "THE RARZ". (rare items) So my site is still the only place (that I know of) to get all of it all at once. Well, the plot *branches* at one point to dish out more content/encourage replay value etc.

I skroo'd up because I figured the branches couldn't be that big. Well BSBBQ was I ever wrong on that one. Text-walls abound, zillions of scenes and forced-replay. Plus a mission that's mysteriously super hard (it makes all final bosses look like push-overs and basically nullifies any so called 'challenge' that had been on any other mission) wasted even more time. Now on the final day it's down to the wire, and I've cut out everything possible (clearly, even the update) to try and get through it all so other people can still experience the interesting, even once it's unjustly shut down.

Regular Update 2- Disaster Avoided

2010-03-22T23:13:00.000-07:00

On the surface, it just looked like a regular update this week.
Plenty of stuff, including a quite decent selection of England shirts. Everyone should be good and entertained, which is a refreshing change against the trouble of late. Likely more the same niceness next week, providing all keeps going well. It's def. a good thing that it looked regular.

Remember the whole 'unedit-able page' thing?
It struck the INDEX this time. The one dreaded thing, it finally lashed out at. If the fix hadn't been discovered the week before, it would have sent Gear grinding to a halt for...well...a damm long time. The index is what links to every other page. Going un-editable is what breaks every single link on any given page. Fixing it would have been a HUGE feat that would have cancelled any update. It was a serious bullet-dodge that it only happened once a fix had been proven. And it's apparently not 100% out of the woods yet, as this mystery garbage (Apparently self-inserting CSS with a mind of its own) can put itself back in WHILE a clean/good page is being uploaded and break the heck out of it. It can also jump onto a page and do absolutely nothing/be harmless. It can remain a mystery all it wants, so long as the fix is fast and easy.

Item of the week:
Has to be the Harry Potter Obama Sonic schoolbag. This was actually sent in WAY earlier, but due to all the crazy crud newgolive threw around it was mired in delays. This also caused several well meaning people to send it in and get turned down because the original guy was so early. This hilarious bag has mis-colored Sonic, random flowers and "Harry Potter Obama" written on it for no apparent reason. Were they going for the 'personalized bag' look? Like...the user's name SHOULD be Harry Potter? Was it meant for Obama? How much attention do kids not in the USA pay to some other country president? How many grade-schoolers of the USA know the name of the president of random other countries? (and then would want their name on a school bag) It's just SO MUCH nonsense all crammed into 1 item that it's super funny.

The selection of new UK shirts was also really encouraging, with some real new art and cool concepts. (not from the diecut tag people of mystery, either) It's great to see they're not stuck with retro stuff like what Hot Topic had been churning out in the US. However, HT seems to be branching a little with this week's new shirt and wallet. (Really white wallets are a disaster of dirt waiting to happen, nice to see they threw in a blue one. I suppose the chain is mandatory, with it being HT and all)

The next big news prediction:
With all the 'junk' of newgolive and general technical (aka boring) difficulties, it's been wondered what the next big Sonic stuff news will be. The general opinion is that it's likely going to be Jazwares doing more Racers stuff, or the Metal Sonic 2 pak/comic thing dropping to stores in an unexpected/unannounced manner. They did that with clear blue Sonic poser, so it can happen again. Also Tails/Vehicle is conspicuous by its absence from the scene. They're going to want to remedy that, the only question is 'when?'.

Personal note:
I'm also REALLY HOPING for an Eggman in his monster truck like thing. Eggman does not get nearly enough 'face time' especially if you want a villain in your collection/show/shelf/whatever. They make plenty of Darth Vaders and you can always buy the badguy out of almost everything else, but where's the bad Egg? Having a gizmo with him would only make it more appealing. Just look at the prices on Toy Island's 6in line Eggman, they're sky high! (plus, he was like the best figure they did on that line anyway) I also know there are Eggman fans, and really he plays such a big part whether or not he's the main villain, that he totally deserves a figure.

Next Week-
More clean up on aisle 'mail'. So, probably theme-free random stuff going up everywhere I can sling a photo. Down from 180, there's still around 160 mails, each with some interesting thing/s inside waiting to be added. All exterior projects (ie. Silver Fix Up) & new pages still on hold.

Golive Uneditable Page: Solved!

2010-03-18T22:06:00.000-07:00

Is the heck that this program has given finally ended?
The un-editable pages it kept creating...they were the main thing stalling up the updates. Every page was a potential risk for this supreme time wasting condition. (Skip this post if you want directly Sonic related content! It only refers to the site-background operation) But now, there's a way to take care of them. If anyone uses golive 9 (aka newgolive) this method may work!

Open the un-editable page
go to the "source view" (of the html it has been making)
Look near the top of the page. Around the HEAD or BODY tag. There should be a whole clump of strange letters/words things. Many lines of it. Sometimes they're yellowish orange. You won't recognize them because you didn't put them. DELETE all of them! Every line in that big odd block. (this grouping of lines is clearly distinguished from the other long sparse lines around it) Do it by highlighting and pushing backspace. Switch back to 'normal editing view' where you have your layout grid imgs/texts and whatever else. It will all be editable now. Save the page!

I don't know what they are. I don't know why they come. But when those letters come, the page becomes uneditable. It's cured by erasing them. It's ok to try it because the uneditable page was broken anyway, and you would have had to re-do it no matter what. Each uneditable page may have a different amount of lines of them, but they're always near the top and deleting them has cured all uneditable pages of gear, every time.

So with the condition cure-able, the fact that the new pc might not ever be able to run oldgolive...may not even matter. The transition can then progress smoothly!

Expect another normal update at the normal time on the weekend!
w00t!

Regular Update!

2010-03-15T00:06:00.000-07:00

Wow, a regular update!
What used to be the norm, now may impress as it's been so long since one was able to happen. It's not that everything's back to 'all good', it's more like that the bad has stablized and been worked around hard enough that stuff can still go on mostly as normal. Only 1 page broke down/became un-editable, which was USA School Supplies 2, so only SOME time was wasted, unlike last week.

Quite a variety going on this time with no real theme as I'm still attempting to clear up all the mail. However, lots of different pages with a scattering of items is much better than the mini updates its had so far.

Email Guideline Changed:
Under the 'boring' headline, an Email guideline was added this week. It's the last one on the page, regarding fan items. Due to fans stumbling upon their own things they didn't send in, it needed to be added. PLUS a secret reason was to stop fan item flooding which has become popular. It's too easy to raid fan-centric areas and throw everything at Gear, hoping it'll stay--never mind the people who made the items first. Fan items are easy to find but mass-mailings for credit were choking out every other type of item in the inbox. Hopefully 'creator credit only' will help hold back the tide.

Why?
Because only 1 type of item can't satisfy all the fans all the time! No one would like it if only the "modern shirts" section updated every week. It would get boring, no matter how cool or uncool the shirts were. The same with any section. Different fans love different types of stuff, and everyone deserves to have a chance to see it all! No single section can be allowed to take over all updates, or to take over the site.

Pesty Thing:
The clock change (spring foreward) was this weekend. This is a bogus thing to do. Polls reveal no one likes it, and it messes up the schedule. Most countries don't do it. The USA should quit changing the time. Just select one style, and keep with it all year. Then switch all clocks to 24-hr time no more AM PM. It would all be much easier.

Item of the week:
Has to be the mini bed set. Sonic bed sets are always amazingly popular, yet somehow companies BARELY think to capitalize on this. The instant any of them go off the shelf, prices skyrocket. The original Sonic X theme bed set was NEVER FOUND at retail, that's how strong-arm the ebay scalpers got with the thing. Some store HAD to be selling it, no manufacturer ever says 'we will only sell this item on ebay and never advertise it to the public'. The new set is by NEXT so it's more generally available and reasonably priced. It's a bit plain, just Sonic & Shadow only, with no cool group shots or anything, but it's still stylish with coordinating colors and cropped-art pillow case. The reversable-ness of it is also a cool touch that'll make people happy. The only downfall is it seems to be single-bed only (not a double, which most people have)

Archie Annoyance:
Fan item came in this week for Rob o the Hedge. I don't grudge anyone fandom of any character (Though I will still make fun of big the cat) and I certainly don't grudge anyone making all kinds of Sonic-related anything, because really that's the business of fans. If a char exists it's 100% to be a fan of it, no matter who agrees or doesn't with liking it.

HOWEVER I don't like this guy personally. Archie's effort there just seemed waaaaay too feeble. Make a Sonic clone, name him after robin hood, (and give him a hood! to rob in! You know!) then do the most paltry robin hood story adaptation possible, acting like everyone thinks robin hood is fresh and new. He even got a girlfriend named Maid Mari Ann. Doing homages is one thing but ripping stuff off because you can't think of anything is something else...and I feel it's the something that they're up to. It's stunts like that which keep fans divided over the merit of the only running remaining Sonic comic/s. (Universe & Archie) It's like something/character that could have been cool had they put forth some effort at it regardless of origin.

Next week:
If all goes well more variety. There isn't really anything on the horizon currently (like a major JW release, a new game, or someone coming out with a wave of something) which is decent enough because really, there's tons of interesting things in the inbox for everyone to see--it just needs to be able to be put up when programs aren't getting in the way.

The index should also see better linkage, as it has dropped behind in direct links to many of the sub pages/numbered pages amongst the catagories (those huge lists at the bottom of the home page) This may be done without regard toward it mid-week as well...as really it's a convenience/maint. thing which needs no announcement.