GamesMaster Sonic 20th Anniversary Magazine Special

Well didn't this pop up out of the blue! To celebrate Sonic's 20th Anniversary (I suspect you'll be hearing that a lot in the next few months but especially this month), GamesMaster has just released a special 130 page magazine dedicated to nothing but Sonic! I only heard about it today via twitter and pretty much ran over to WHSmith to see if they had and sure enough they had a whole pile of copies. It's £8 but trust me it's worth it. Hit the jump to see more..

For starters, the mag comes with a bunch of nice freebies: a set of four badges, a sheet of stickers and a huge double sided poster. The stickers are all sprites from the first game, some even from the 8-bit version. The poster is one side Sonic generations, and on the other a collage of almost every rendition of Sonic from every game in his history!

As for the magazine itself, there are tons of articles, including my personal favorite that features loads of the early Sonic concept art. yes even the "Madonna" and sonic the rabbit art! I don't want to spoil too much but it really is a wonderful tribute to the series, I've been flicking through it all afternoon! This very much makes up for the lack of the chess collection mag, ta very much!

As I said the mag is £8 and out right now so if you're in the UK grab this while you can. Once again the Sonic fandom gods are glowing down on us Brits for some reason, haha. For you non UKers though, this website will let you order the magazine from anywhere in the world (for the most part) if you're willing to pay a little extra. Wouldn't be shocked if this sold out due to imports in fact! :P

Tiny Tomy Sonic Duel Toys

What's this mysterious purple box that I found recently in a retro toy store for a few quid, and what does it contain? Find out after the jump!

Well here you go. I have honestly never seen this toy before, but I looked it up and found one on Ebay and it turns out to be a Tomy set called 'Sonic Duel', released at the same time as toys i had as a kid such as the Mountain Quest, Pinball machine and many others. It's copyrighted 1987 on the back, presumably because like many of the other toys Tomy had just taken a toy they created back then and gave it a Sonic make over.

They are a pair of little spinning tops that you insert into the odd gun things, twist about and then shoot which should make them spin into each other. You get one of Sonic and one of Robotnik with their own designs on each gun.

The spinning tops themselves are absolutely tiny, and rather cute evn though they are a little beaten up from *shock* a kid and/or grown up saddo like me playing with them. Not sure if Sonic had a longer nose and it broke off or if the paint just came off, but the one on ebay is excatly the same so who knows.

Robotnik is particular seems to have scrapped the skin off of his knuckles from sliding on the concrete too much, the naughty scamp. Sonic has really gained weight too, possibly even passed Robotnik in the flab department. Maybe they were in an episode of Supersize vs Superskinny that I missed? Or perhaps by 'Sonic Duel' they mean 'Sumo Duel'?

Either way they are so tiny I think they might even be the smallest sculpts of the characters I have seen to date. Just look how the Sonic stacks up to the 2" First4figures Sonic, for example. If it wasn't for the gold spinning top part it wouldn't even be half it's height, as it measures at 1 inch.

Because this is the only other 'classic Sega' Robotnik toy I have (not counting the AOSTH cartoon Robotnik) here it is standing tall above the spinning top toy.

Finally to wrap things up, let's feed tiny Tomy Sonic to the badniks. Don't worry he'll do fine, Sonic has been in this situation before.

The Sonic 1994 Panini Sticker Album

You may recall me bringing up the 1993 Sonic sticker album when a new album was released some time last year. In that article I talked briefly about it but recently I've gone on a bit of a mission. You see as a kid I never managed to complete the album. I could of saved up to just order the  numbers I was missing back then but I guess I was putting my pocket money elsewhere. Either way I did get a good majority stuck in there.

A friend of mine had got much further along with only a select few (about 16) left to go. He had the shiny sticker poster pull out on his wall for some time so it got a bit torn in places, but after a while he didn't want the album anymore so gave it to me. Then just recently for a few quid a bought a third album from ebay which is in the best condition of the three but also had the least stickers, about half complete, maybe more.

Now I was determined to finish at least one of these albums off, so I got looking for the stickers themselves, which are obviously not as easy to get a hold of now. See how I did after the jump..

First off I picked up a bundle of about 30 random stickers for a few quid but then soon after I found a buy it now or best offer for 20 unopened packets. I put in an offer and got them, but then the seller e-mailed me saying they had another 79 packets for sale. In the end i made an offer for the lot. Each packet has six stickers so in the end I had around 600 stickers to rummage through. Eep.

They all came in one of the original boxes they'd have in shops, though the box is rather beaten up which is understandable considering it's age I guess.

The back of the box says 100 packets, so one packet must of gone missing or was taken out at some point.

Yet another photo of mass sticker packets just before I worked on ripping them all open.

...and its done.

So after ripping open every single one of these packets, putting them in order and seeing excatly what i ended up with, did I manage to complete any of my three albums?

Nope!

One of the albums (the one my friend gave me) is now only missing ONE sticker. My own childhood one is now missing just six and the other album I bought recently needs 17.

 See that missing Tails? That one is missing from all three albums! Bah!

The reason I didn't end up completing any of the albums is because a very small few of the stickers numbers did not show up once, while most showed up three times and others showed up four or five times. The collection has three types of stickers..

The regular ones: Mostly consist of Sonic 3 screenshots, some scenes from an episode of AOSTH, a few Sonic CD screenshots, and a couple random cartoon ones at the end. These are all naturally the common ones that show up a lot.

The shiny ones: These ones all feature random promo art on shiny sliver patterns. Most of them go in the very middle of the book in a fold out poster though some others go in random places in the book. there are only 24 of these and as you might of gussed, they rarely show up in packets at all.

Finally, the vinyl 'complete the scene' ones: This lot also consisting of 24 are shaped and go on the four pages somewhere near the middle of the book. Most of these are of badniks from Sonic 1 and 2, with a couple of tails and Robotnik too. These show even less often than the shiny ones.

Despite not finishing any books, I have ended up with a huge pile of spares left over. So here's where you hopefully come in! I know this is probably very unlikely, but is anyone else out there trying to complete a set of these and also has some spare? Because I only have a small amount to find and they are all shiny and vinyl ones, I would be willing to trade 3 of the more common stickers for any one of those. Here's a list of what I'm after:

Shiny: 106, 109 (X2), 112, 113, 118, 120, 121, 125

Vinyl: 90 (X3), 92, 93, 130 (X2), 131, 133 (X2), 136, 138, 140

As for what I have to trade, I have a select few shiny and vinyl ones but mostly common ones. If i have any here you need but don't have any I need just send me some you don't need if you have them in exchange. At the moment I'm not willing to sell any until I get the ones I'm after, because even if I did take money for them the chance of even finding more to buy is pretty silm.

So here's what I have. Highlighted in blue are Shiny ones and red are Vinyl. This is gonna take a while..

1 (X4), 2, 3 (X4), 4 (X3), 5 (X2), 6, 7 (X2), 8 (X4), 9 (X3), 10 (X4)

12, 13 (X3), 14 (X2), 15, 16 (X3), 17 (X2), 18 (X2), 19 (X3), 20, 21 (X2)

22 (X3) 23, 24 (X3), 25 (X2),  26 (X4), 27 (X2), 28, 29 (X2) 31 (X2) 32 (X3)

33 (X2), 34 (X4), 35, 36, 37 (X2), 38 (X4), 39 (X3), 40, 41 (X3), 42 (X2)

43 (X3), 44 (X2), 45 (X2), 46 (X3), 47 (X3), 49 (X2), 50, 51 (X4), 52, 53 (X4)

54, 55 (X3), 56 (X2), 57 (X4), 59 (X3), 60, 61, 62, 63 (X3), 64, 65 (X3), 66 (X3)

67 (X2), 68 (X2), 69 (X3), 70, 71, 72 (X3), 73, 74 (X2), 76 (X5), 77 (X3)

78, 79 (X3), 80, 81 (X3), 82 (X4), 83 (X2), 84 (X2), 86 (X2), 88 (X2) 92

97 (X3), 98, 99 (X2), 100, 101 (X2) 102 (X3), 103, 107 (X2), 110 (X2), 119 (X2)

122 (X2), 123, 124 (X3), 126 (X2), 127, 128 (X2), 132, 137, 142 (X2), 143

144 (X3), 145 (X3), 146 (X2), 147 (X4), 148 (X2), 149 (X3), 151, 152 (X3), 153 (X3), 154 (X4)
155 (X2), 156, 157 (X3), 158 (X3), 159 (X2), 160 (X2), 161 (X4), 163 (X3), 164 (X3), 165 (X2)
166 (X2), 167 (X3), 168 (X2), 169 (X2), 170, 171 (X2), 172 (X3), 173 (X3), 174 (X2), 175 (X3)
176 (X3), 177 (X3), 178 (X3), 179 (X4), 180 (X2), 181 (X2), 182 (X2), 183 (X5), 184 (X3), 185
186 (X2), 187 (X2), 188 (X3), 189 (X2), 190 (X3), 191 (X3), 192 (X4), 193 (X3), 194 (X3), 195 (X4)
197 (X2), 198 (X3), 199, 200 (X2), 202 (X4), 203 (X2), 205 (X2), 206, 207 (X2), 208 (X3)
209 (X2), 210, 211, 212 (X2), 213 (X2), 214 (X2), 215 (X4), 216, 217 (X2), 218 (x2)
219 (X2), 220, 221 (X3), 222 (X4), 223 (X2), 224 (X2), 225, 226 (X4), 227 (X3), 228 (X3)

Phew! So yeah, if anyone can help out let me know in the comments! Otherwise that was a lot of time spent typing all that up for nothing...heh heh.

Ebay Hunt: Sonic & Knuckles Camera

Just a quick post about something I stumbled across on Ebay. I didn't buy it as it went a bit high for my liking but it did bring a small dose of nostalgia flooding back as i had forgotten all about this little disposable camera I once had. The seller says they reckon it was given away as prizes and I'm pretty sure Sonic the Comic gave these away but I recall my one being bought from a shop.

I obviously now don't own it now due to it being a disposable camera and being a kid at the time but I do recall hoping to get my hands on a second one when mine ran out only for them to have already vanished from shops. i think it came from somewhere like Boots and was released in 1994 or 95, when Sonic & Knuckles was being plugged.

Got a longer and more interesting article on the way!

Sonic Chess Set magazine in the UK!

Sometimes it is rather awesome being a UK based Sonic fan. In the last few years especially, what with Summer of Sonic, the Sonic Spinball ride at Alton Towers amongst other things. Now not long after we got a new sticker collection, we have one of those subscription based collectors magazines of Sonic, of a new chess set not to be confused with the chess set released some time ago, in fact I would say this set looks more interesting! See more after the jump!

While this is modern style Sonic characters as opposed to classic ones in that £35 set, you get a lot more characters here when the set is over. In the classic set you get Sonic, Tails, Knuckles Amy and a bunch of rings and emeralds. I mean they are nice sculpts and that but at least put some bad guys on the other side or something!

The new set, judging by this image above showing the whole collection in card form, is far more characters including a whole bunch of unique badniks and chaos! You also get a Super Sonic, Metal Sonic, Robotnik, Rouge and Shadow. The badniks appear to be their Sonic 4 looks which makes sense. The more badniks the better if you ask me!

Of course the snag is you cannot just buy this collection, you need to buy each piece one by one with the magazine. As with these kinds of magazines the first issue is cheap but the rest are about £7 each which means this will finish at quite a bit more money than what the classic set will cost you. Still, with each piece you are getting a magazine with some Archie Sonic comic strips and other info plus on the website you get some freebies with your subscription including a keychain, a clock and a shoulder bag.

This is currently a UK and Ireland only offer, sorry other Sonic fans! We got lucky once again bahaha! Safe to say I've subscribed and will post photos of the first delivery once it shows up! You know, to ind you non-UKers up a bit.

So, there's a new Sonic Sticker Book out in the UK..

If you regular any of the Sonic fan sites you will have heard about this. It actually took me a while to track one down from a WHSmith because it turns out the stores all keep them behind the till because they reckon kids will steal them. Doesn't explain the piles and piles of football stickers all over the stores, but whatever. Basically if you're in the UK still looking for one ask at the till. Not in the UK? Ebay's your best bet.

(Left) 1994 Album (Right) 2010 Album. Like you needed to be told that.

But is the album even any good? I've only just bought one and some stickers today but we'll have a quick look, and unfairly compare it to an almost complete 1994 Sonic sticker book after the jump.

 

Well inflation has certainly made a difference which is no surprise. The old album cost a mere 60p whereas the newer, smaller and thinner new album is £2. The packs of 5 stickers are 50p so it'd cost about £14 to fill up the album if you got no doubles (hahaha, like that would ever happen). Out of the 10 packs i bought I only got 4 doubles though and they do have an order service to buy specific stickers you're after so that's something.

To be fair this new album isn't made for cranky Sonic 90's fans like a lot of us here. If you're not a fan of modern Sonic and his 'shitty friends' this won't be you're cup of tea. The entire collection consists of artwork and renders of all the characters, who get a page or two dedicated to them each. Yes, even those Sonic Riders bird things get a page, and Big the Cat gets a whole page of stickers whereas metal Sonic has.... 1 sticker. Booo!

I'll never get my head around who thought it was a good idea to name a character 'Eggman Nega'

Every character has their own little bio, some with pointless info like their age height and weight, and some of the writing is enough to make me wanna hurl. "Amy adores Sonic but seems to be more in love with love itself"? "Deep down Eggman feels admiration and respect for Sonic"? Oh please. They do mention 'Sonic Adventure for the Sega Dreamcast' in one bit though.

I can't help but feel while kids will be happy collecting this and some fans are going nuts over the fact that some of the art and renders are brand new, they could of done a lot more with this when you compare it to the old book. Sure the old album is mostly full of Sonic 3 screenshots and it's probably mostly nostalgia speaking here, but it just has a more colourful and fun layout and there's a bit more variety. It's bigger, and has a fold out poster to fill with shiny stickers, and there was even some daft puzzle stuff at the back.

Look! Even a few pages dedicated to a AOSTH cartoon!

What I'm saying is along with the character art, why not some screenshots from some of the games, or animation frames from Night of the Werehog? Would of made it a bit more interesting in my opinion. Still, I'm just picking this apart, it's not a bad album by any means, and Sonic collectors will get a kick out of it. Hell, I'm probably gonna have a go at filling this album up just for the dumb pleasure of collecting stickers again for the first time in...16 years? Wow, that's crazy.

One last thing: at the back of the album there's an advert for all the Jazware Sonic toys from America launching in the UK via Tomy (who have grabbed the Sonic license for the first time again since back in the early 90s) sometime in June. The more you know!

Oh yeah and a new Sonic game was announced today. How about that?

Sonic Spinball @ Alton Towers in February

I'm sure many of you have probably already heard about this by now, but it couldn't be more appropriate to mention here, what with all our nostalgia fueled posts about London's old SegaWorld park and the reveal of Sega Republic in Dubai. While it's hardly the same as having a new Sega park here in the UK again, it's about as close as we're gonna get at this point: a Sonic Ride at Alton Towers!


Apparently this ride has been here for years already under the name 'Spinball Wizard', so naming it after the Mega Drive pinball game makes perfect sense. No photos of how it will look after the re-theme are out yet, so we don't know to what extent it'll be Sonic themed though the press release does mention the ride will contain 'Sonic's favorite music' so with any luck Green Hill Zone tunes will be blasting out of it rather than say...Bentley Jones. Ugh.

A Sonic themed room in the Alton Towers hotel is also planned, which again we have nothing but this cheesy photos of the derp-derp-derp Sonic costume guy above. The deal with Sega is set for three years and the lanuch of all this is the 13th of Feb. The logo of the ride is a nice touch: it's a sort of re-make of the original Mega Drive game logo. Kind of.

More news on this when it pops up, including photos with any luck!