More of my Sonic collection!

Another trip to my parents house meant another chance to rummage through boxes for more of my Sonic collection! Just like last time, it's a whole assortment of goodies from the early 90's through to today. Let's look, shall we?

Above you can see a collection of bubble gum containers. Sonic, in his classic pose, pops off the back of his head to reveal... nothing! He used to hold a bunch of little Chiclet-like bubble gum pieces, but I chewed those up years ago. The Game Gear bubble gum cases are very cool. Inside each container was a few sheets of pink gum (long gone) as well as an assortment of Game Gear and Genesis tricks and tips cards. From what I can tell, there were three sets: two collections of Game Gear tips and one collection of Sonic 3 and Knuckles tips.

More stuff after the break!

Next up are a bunch of pencil toppers, no clue where I got these but they're from 1993. The set contained 8 different toppers and I managed to find 6. My favorite would have to be Robotnik, and with three of them I won't feel bad using one. In the middle are two Sonic pogs featuring Sonic and Boba F- I mean, Fang aka Nack. What ever happened to that weasel?

This goofy thing was given to me by a friend who took a trip to Japan. It is exactly what it looks like: an inflatable Sonic head that you wear on your wrist. Only in Japan!

Inside the head in a jingle bell. I guess one could play Christmas carols while shaking Sonic's jingle-head. Spindashing through the snow, in Eggman's open sleigh!

Sonic was a popular McDonald's Happy Meal star! Between '93 and '04, Sonic appeared in four Happy Meal collections. The first of these was a promotion for Sonic 3. The Robotnik wind-up had a variant of the Eggman design for Japan. This variant can be seen in the Sonic 10th Birthday booklet. The TV in the back, featuring a Genesis atop it, was in an end of the year collection commemorating all the Happy Meals of the year. The pieces combined to become a train. Of course I only picked up the Sonic car. The screen spins to reveal Tails and an Asterix-style Robotnik.

Sonic's next Happy Meal appearance was in this 2003 set. The set included simple LCD mini-games featuring SEGA characters. There was a Monkey Ball one as well, but I failed to pick that up. Guess I wasn't an Aiai fan back then.

In 2004 Sonic returned with more LCD mini-games. These were a bit more fun and had leanings towards sports. Shadow played hockey years before the Winter Olympic Games.

This assortment includes the Hot Wheels Crash & Smash, as Gagaman detailed a few months back. I have no idea where or when I got the Sonic patch, I don't even know if it's official, but it looks pretty cool.

The blue and gold skateboarding Sonic figures are said to be the first Sonic figures ever released (whether that is to the world or just America is unknown to me). The figures were given away in boxes of Cookie Crisp back in 1991, the same year the first game was released, so these could very well be the first figures.

The watch was both a cereal promotion as well as a part of a line of watches that I wrote about not too long ago. I'd still wear it if my wrists weren't too big. The final piece of the above photo, the pin, was won in a 10th Anniversary contest held by the website SEGAdojo. I had created a Sonic Adventure 2 commercial for the chance to win something much cooler than a pin. Still, it's a nice consolation prize and goes well with the Birthday box.

Four items to go, stay with me! These Tiger handhelds are poor representations of Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic 2. If you have ever played a Tiger game, you know that they have about 5 minutes of fun in them before you regret buying the thing. Despite that, Sonic 2 is quite fun in that you play Oil Ocean Zone the entire time and can even go through loops. Also, the Japanese art of Sonic and Tails is very cool. 3D Blast is from the Pocket Arcade line, which I plan to detail next week. If you thought NiGHTS was a great game, wait til you see it get butchered by the wizards from Tiger Electronics!

Why buy five Sonic X cars individually when you can get them all at once? This set is not as cool as the Hot Wheels SEGA set, but the idea of an Eggman pedovan makes me laugh.

Speaking of Eggman, lookie what I have:

An autograph of Mike Pollock, the current voice of Eggman! Coupled with my Milton Knight Robotnik painting and AoStH Robotnik cel, I've got quite a good Eggman collection going. I didn't meet Mike, instead I received this free autograph via his website. Do you want one? Request one here! Tell Mike that SEGA Memories says "Hello!".

That's all the Sonic items I have to show off for now! Hopefully I'll find more, including my old Sonic Genesis strategy guides and my Sonic the Hedgehog 2 plush toys. Until then, stay cool!

My Big Fat Sonic Comic Book Collection

Over the past week I had been on vacation in my home state of Minnesota. Whilst there I did a lot of things that are unrelated to this blog, however I did make it a point to find as many of my Sonic and SEGA collectibles that I could. I found a lot of goodies, and will be featuring them here at SEGA Memories over the next week. The first of these many posts will be of my Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Adventure Series) comic book collection. Let's have a look at these suckers!

While the UK had Sonic the Comic, the US had Sonic the Hedgehog published by Archie Publications. The US comic series began with a 4 issue mini-series, with issue 0 kicking the seires off and issues 1-3. Following the success of the mini-series, a continuing series began with another number 1.

The mini-series and issues 1 to 36.

I got into the series at the very beginning, picking up the premiere issue while on vacation. When I reutrned home I searched out the next issue and found issue number 1 of the continuing series, completely missing the mini-series issues 1-3. Thankfully, I was able to order the issues through Archie and I also started a subscription for the series. I had that subscription all the way up to issue 110. I'll explain why I stopped collecting, but first lets look at the rest of the Sonic series.

Issues 37 to 76, you can find my name printed in issue 76. 

Issues 77 to 110

I began to lose interest at issue 99 and stopped collecting at issue 110. It wasn't so much that I was growing out of the comics, it was more that I didn't like the direction that the series was taking. When the series began things were lighthearted, with a dash of drama, and the comic's universe was a blend of the AoStH cartoon series, the SatAM cartoon series and the Genesis games. While the blend wasn't perfect, I wasn't much of a SatAM fan, I liked the occasional video game adaptation as well as original plots featuring characters such as the badniks, Metal Sonic, Mecha Sonic and Nack/Fang. The Sonic Adventure adaptation was a real fun read. Not the perfect adaptation, but they did a good job fitting it into the comic storyline.

I was especially looking forward to the now deeper video game universe to impact the comic universe. When Sonic Adventure 2 was announced, I eagerly awaited another epic adaptation. Issue 98 was to be, I had thought, to be a multi-part epic concluding with issue 100. Instead, Archie gave SA2 a F.U. and featured an odd adaptation of the City Escape level followed by a "Hey kids, buy the game for the rest of the story!" Cheap. The next issue returned to the ho-hum SatAM plots and Archie had lost me as a reader. SatAM had been off the air for 5 years, and yet Archie was still putting the characters of the show at the forefront of their comics. Meanwhile, Sonic Team had introduced a far deeper Sonic universe with the Dreamcast games and Archie was basically ignoring it. After issue 100, I let my subscription run out and I was done with the comics. But that doesn't mean we're done looking at my collection!

Knuckles appeared in a rather successful series of his own:

The mini-series and the main series, issues 1-32.

Outside of the main Sonic series, there was a slew of spin-off mini-series and special issues. Most cover adaptations of Genesis games while others feature bizarre crossovers (Sabrina the Teenage Witch meets Sonic!?). The best of these special issues have to be the Death Egg Saga trilogy, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic Vs. Knuckles and Mecha Madness. After so many special issues labeled #1, they decided to simply number the specials and title them "Sonic Super Specials".

The Sally and Tails mini-series, the Death Egg Saga trilogy, many stand alone specials, the numbered Super Specials and a promo version of issue 0 numbered issue 1/4 (one fourth).

Of all my Sonic comics, my favorite would have to be the issue 50 that I had series inkers Rich Koslowski and Andrew Pepoy autograph. Nice guys! They even sold me some original art from issues 48 and 50 of Sonic and issue 25 of Knuckles. I have yet to find those pages, but when I do I'll share them here.

Aside from Sonic, Archie Comics tried to kick off a NiGHTS series. It only lasted 6 issues, but it's a good read. Artist Patrick "Spaz" Spaziante, who also did many of the awesome Sonic covers, did the pencils for NiGHTS. I also found a Shinobi comic published by Dark Horse.

And there you have it, my Sonic comic book collection! Hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed seeing them again. :)

Notes: Following my leaving the comics, the Sonic series has continued to publish issues, with issue 213 being the most recent. The specials and Knuckles series had ceased to be published while I had still been collecting. So despite having been out of it for ten years, I still have a complete collection in that regard. The only issues I have yet to own are the now canceled Sonic X series, the recently debuted Sonic Universe series and Sonic issues 111 onwards. Conveniently, back issues of nearly all the issues I missed are only a click away, should I feel the need.

Shenmonth: Shenhua Promo Figure

For those who don't follow all of the Sega Network blogs (you should, they're all awesome!), I recently kicked off a month long celebration of 'Shenmue' called Shenmonth. Catchy or stupid name: you be the judge. As a part of Shenmonth, I wanted to show off a recent aquisition of mine. The Shenmue Shenhua promo figure!

The statue was a promotional item to celebrate the release of 'Shenmue' in Japan, though I know very little outside of that. How one got the item and why it is copyrighted "1998" while 'Shenmue' was released in December 1999 are two things I do not know. Perhaps a reader or the Grand Gagaman himself could shed some light on the figure's history.

I shall come from a far eastern land, shipped airmail

Like the recently released Ryo Hazuki forklift figure, the paint job isn't the figure's strong suit. Then again, it was a freebie so beggars can't be choosers. I picked the figure up for $10 so I'm not going to complain. The material is a very light, hollow vinyl. One flick and the figure could tumble over.

I assume this says "Shenhua" or "Shen Hua" or "Shen Fa".

An interesting note: the only two 'Shenmue' figures made available were promo items and are difficult to come by. Perhaps Sega needs to get on the ball and give us our Comb-My-Hair Goro with Harbor Playset™.

 All the 'Shenmue' goodies I own (the XBOX 'Shenmue II' not pictured)

To complete this post, I present an EXCLUSIVE screenshot from 'Shenmue III'!!!

Ryo: Are you certain this is what I do to defeat Lan Di?

Shenhua: Yes Ryo, the prophesy clearly states that this is how it is done.

Ryo: I see.

Sonic Classic Collection SE Aussie/Spain Unboxing

The emulation may not be up to par for the recent re-re-re-release of Sonic's classic Mega Drive games, but the special edition treatment is impressive! A photo gallery, courtesy of Sega Europe, shows off the collectors box exclusive to Australia and Spain.

The set features the game, a collection of art cards and a mini Sonic figurine all housed in a tin box.



The cards, while not all representing the games included, are pretty awesome. Both American and Japanese art feature from games such as Sonic 3, Sonic the Screensaver and the Game Gear's Sonic & Tails aka Sonic Chaos.

The mini figure is a near match with the recently released Sonic vinyl figure, looking to be roughly half the size. While not as cool as the vinyl version, the Sonic-ness is well done and it would make for the perfect mini-me to the vinyl Sonic.

Check out the full photostream here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/segaeurope/4422421928/in/photostream/
And if you have the collection, let us know in the comments section!

Meanwhile at the Junkyards..

As you may now I write for a few other blogs other than this one. Ive been writing for the Dreamcast Junkyard for a good few years now and recently I joined the team other at the Saturn Junkyard too. This is nothing more than a plug for some articles I wrote recently at both of those in case you missed them, as they do relate to collecting Sega stuff too.

Firstly at the Saturn Junkyard as my first article for the blog, here's a whole bunch of photos of my Saturn collection. I've been buying a lot for this system lately since i got myself a white Japanese Saturn and the 4MB RAM cart that lets you play all those brillaint Capcom fighters. It far more up to date than this photo from a while back, anyway.

Then at the Dreamcast Junkyard I've displayed a bunch of photos of the Segagaga box set I recently got in the post, which contains a nice pin set of all the console logos and a rather sweet t-shirt design. The game is about as much Sega fan service as you'll ever see in one place. I'll be writing more about the game there soon.

Now you know why most posts around here end up being about Sonic merchandise!

More Sonic related collections

What is it about Sonic fans that seems to inspire this all powerful urge to buy lots of stuff with the hedgehog's mug / general image plastered on it? I don't know, but it sure does lead to owning a glorious amount of spectacular and random goods.

So far we've seen Gagaman's, mine and Rhia's collections of Sega / Sonic spending results. All 3 of us are clearly rather deeply disturbed. However, that's not all we have in common. Thus far, all the collections have been British Sonic ones. So let's mix things up now and check out an American collection. Truth be told, they consist of rather similar things as the other collections but that's not important. Spazz gave me one ginormous composite picture of his collection.


Look at all those Japanese plushes, all those Resaurus figures etc. Of special notice is that 10th Anniversary Sonic statue, which looks rather nice, even though it's trapped in a box. I don't really know what more to write, it's all rather self explanatory. Just scour the photo and revel in Spazz's mighty collection.

A final point though, the majority of this blog now seems to be about the acquisition of Sonic goods. I suggest a rename to 'Sonic Consumer Whores Anonymous'.

...no? Aw.

Rhia's Sonic Collection is cuddly (and expensive)!

When Smindas posted his collection of Sonic bits and bobs a couple weeks back, the blog managed to catch the eye of Rhia, who has a rather large collection of her own to show off! 'Large' is probably a bit of an underestimate, 'colossal' would be a better term. She has a whole room dedicated to her collection, with shelves filled with Sonic toys, and walls covered with posters that range from original game promotion posters, to Sonic the Comic pull outs. It really is quite a sight to behold, with blue hedgehogs spilling from every corner.I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. She has been collecting seriously for roughly 2 and a half years. That's a lot of stuff to find in such a short period of time! get ready for a mass of photos of a mass of Sonic stuff after the jump!



Rhia favorite Sonic stuff is clearly the plush toys, which come from from just about everywhere and any time you can imagine. Scoring Ebay regularly, these in total have apparently cost around £1000 to collect alone! For example: that Super Sonic plush sitting in the middle of this row below?

"Yeah, he was £220. I've spent £300 on a Sonic Adventure Amy plush before! £200 on SA2 Rouge plush, £155 for SA2 Sonic plush, £180 for SA2 Hero Chao plush, £100 for Sonic the Fighters Amy plush, £100 for Sonic the Fighters Bean plush, etc. and that's just plushies! and not including shipping costs. I can't imagine how much I've spent on all my Sonic items."

Wow, I don't think I could personally ever spend that kind of money on Sonic merchandise, but each to their own! This is probably one of the most complete collections of Sonic cuddly toys anywhere, even featuring needle-in-a-haystack items such as the Australian Sega World toys of Sally Acorn and a Japanese albino Sonic (see below).

Action figures! A whole ton load. hey look, it's that 15th Anniversary statue I have in the post! Those little figures in the bottom left corner seem to be in slightly different poses to mine..

Pins, so many pins! I lost every pin I have ever owned, including all those Sonic ones I got while I was on holiday in Spain. I think they were fake anyway. Hang on, is that Sonic endorsing another Olympic event? (see bottom left).

So much stuff I once ago had, like that Mountain Quest thing and the skateboard, which I never used and ended up exchanging it in Argos for Sonic & Knuckles. There's that Coca Cola cap that goes with my jacket! I have no idea what has happened to my one, but it's up in the loft somewhere, I just know it.

If anyone else reading has a neat collection of Sega related stuff like this (In other words, anything outside of the usual games and consoles), E-mail me the photos and I'll showcase them here!