First4figures Knuckles officially revealed! Here we go again!

It's that time again! First4Figures has opened pre-orders for the forth in their series of highly luxurious and highly expensive Sonic statues, this time of Knuckles punching into the ground of the lava reef zone!

Much like the Super Sonic and still as yet to be released Metal Sonic statues, this one comes in both a standard run of 1,500 for $170 and a limited edition light-up version that is exclusive to their website with only a run of 500 that will sell for $190! These are available to pre-order now and the estimated release date is "Q2 2012" though I would bet on that slipping to "Q4 2012" as the same happened with all of the previous statues.

Personally? I think I may pass on the limited edition this time around. I think I will hold out until shops like Forbidden Planet have the regular edition. I don't think I can justify three of these statues for that kind of money in a row. They have yet to even take the money for the Metal Sonic one and to be fair I'd be happy with having two special ones of my favorite characters (Metal and Super) and two regulars for Sonic and Knuckles, as much as that lava effect is nice. So once this one is out who's next? Tails would be my guess and I know they've stated they are going to start a line of modern statues as well including Shadow, but I could live without those myself.

Knuckles statue from First4figures is next!

They released a pixellated image of this statue a while ago, and now it's revealed that Knuckles will be the next in First4figures line of massive (and expensive) Sonic statues! So far it doesn't look as though there will be a additional light-up limited edition like there was for Super Sonic and Metal, so this one will just be a regular slightly cheaper statue like the first Sonic one. Pre-orders for this one start in just a couple of days.

Speaking of the Metal Sonic statue, it's still not yet! It's due this month sometime however, though an exact date is not confirmed yet.

F4F Reveals Sonic 20th Anniversary Statue, And Now the Bad News...

... it looks to be a contest giveaway prize, to be handed out by SEGA of Europe. Per the F4F website: "These are incredibly limited and will not be available for purchase so if you manage to snag one, you’ll be very lucky! He stands at about 10 inches tall." Hey SEGA, why not send us two? One for us to keep, and one for us to give away? Heh heh.

You can see more views of the statue here. F4F has also announced that they have renewed the Sonic license worldwide, so those in Europe and in the States will have little problem ordering statues and figures. F4F is also teasing a new statue, the teaser pic can be seen on their facebook wall and it looks to be Knuckles punching/digging rock.

Super Sonic Statue Unboxing Video!

Will post some more photos and impressions soon!

Super Sonic Arrived!

Nuff.

Said.

Unboxing video coming up tonight!

First4Figures Statues: good news and bad news.

I'm aware I forgot to post the full set of new Metal Sonic statue photos here but if you haven't seen them yet you can check them out at First4Figures website. meanwhile, there's been some news about it. Some good, some bad. See after the jump.

May as well get the bad news out of the way first. I was e-mailed by First4Figures recently with news that there may be issues with metal Sonic statues being ordered from anywhere outside of the USA and Canada. To quote what they said:

"Thank you for your order for the Metal Sonic collectible statue. Unfortunately our license for Sonic the Hedgehog has expired in Europe and the rest of the world apart from USA and Canada. We wish to extend our resin license with SEGA so that we can fulfill your Metal Sonic order and we should get a reply from SEGA in early January. Please kindly bear with us until we have further information, we will keep you posted.

In the meantime, we have your order on file and will keep your product number/statue secure until we have an update from SEGA. If we can extend our license, your order will be fulfilled. If not, we will have to cancel your order. Please note, we have not charged your card and that your order is under pending status for now."

Well poop. The exclusive light-up Metal Sonic statue is only limited to 350 so the chances of me getting one of those now might be slim, but maybe I'll be lucky and they'll hold on to my order with an iron grip. I guess at the worst I could order the cheaper non-light-up one if they let me or if a shop like Forbidden Planet ends up stocking it (where I got the first Sonic one).

The good news this will not affect orders for the Super Sonic statues as they have finished production and will start shipping between the end of January or sometime in February. Of course we know the Super Sonic's have been produced because they posted lots of photos of them over at their facebook account. If you haven't seen these pics yet go have a look: it's a whole army of Super Sonics!

Oh christ, another Sonic staute from First4Figures..

First4Figures have just revealed on facebook that they have another large Sonic statue in the works which will be ready for pre-order on the 28th of December, and it's none other than Metal Sonic, with glowing eyes! We haven't seen what level the stand will be based on, Now hold on guys, what about the Super Sonic? They still haven't even charged me for it yet let alone sent it out. The wait is becoming unbearable. With that in mind expect this new statue to be shipped out by 2015. Maybe.

These things cost so much, but really: if I was only allowed to own a few pieces of Sonic merchandise, a set of these statues would be them. Plus Metal Sonic is personally my all time favorite character from the series so resisting this will be very difficult. My poor wallet!

10" Sonic and the Sonic PVC 6-pack!

 As 2010 comes to an end, so too does a great year for Sonic toys! This year we saw toymaker Jazwares make a huge step up in quality and number of new figures. Meanwhile, First 4 Figures covered the collectible side of things with an awesome Super Sonic statue and a great collection of PVC figures. Today I thought I'd highlight two recent acquisitions: Jazware's 10" Sonic and First 4 Figures PVC 6-pack!

The 10" Sonic the Hedgehog figure is relatively new, having hit online stores within the past month. The coolest thing about this figure, aside from the impressive likeness, is that it is of the same line as last year's 10" Metal Sonic.

The figure shares the same dimensions as 10" Metal and resembles the most recent Sonic design, as seen in Unleashed and Colors. Personally, I really love this iteration! Not as lankly as what we saw in Sonic '06, and not as freaky as what we saw in the Sonic Adventure artwork.

As you can see, the figure is very articulated. The box touts over 12 points, with everything from joints to even wrists and ankles receiving joints. The one weak point is the figure's hands. While I really like the thumbs up and fist pairing, others may not like how this limits Sonic to giving a thumbs up, thumbs down and a punch. Still, for under $15 this is a great figure!

Sonic and Metal decide to relive old memories and pose in front of the Sonic CD box art

Classic and modern

My only complains about the figure is that they oddly chose to have the circle on Sonic's chest cut off just below the pivot point of his waist. Also, my figure had a small space between where Sonic's left eye met his muzzle. But those are two minor complains, overall this figure is a must have. Especially if one already owns the 10" Metal.

Next up is First 4 Figures PVC 6-pack! The pack collects series 1 and 2 of the individually released Sonic figurines, featuring the classic Genesis era designs. From my knowledge, this is the only way for Americans to acquire the set, as I don't think the individual figures were sold here in stores. Gagaman already covered Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Metal, so I'll show off Super Sonic and Amy Rose.

I never thought I'd say this, but Amy Rose is my favorite of the set! Why? Because it's the classic Amy as seen in Sonic CD! I always thought it was a shame that classic Amy never carried over to the Dreamcast games, as the tennis shoes and tutu combo are the bomb. I secretly dream of a world where big black sunglasses, tutus and big bulky tennis shoes make a return.

 Super Sonic is pretty cool, though I prefer the levitating screaming Super Saiyan powering up pose to this. It's almost like Sonic is shaking his fist at those kids who won't stay off his lawn. Or maybe he is vowing revenge on Metal Sonic after catching him in the act with Amy Rose. Must have been Stockholm syndrome:

DRAMA!

The Sonic PVC 6-pack can be found on First 4 Figures website for the reasonable price of $30. When you figure that each figure sells for $5 each and that the Super Sonic and Metal Sonic are quite hard to find individually, it's a good price. These definitely get the "Buy it!" recommendation from me.

Stay tuned to SEGA Memories, I have a very cool item on the way from Japan that I can't wait to write about!

Bonus photos:

SOS '10: The Merchindise in the Glass Box!

Just like last year there was a 'No Merch Zone' present, which consists of a large glass cabinet of Sonic related treasures. There was some of the same stuff from last year but mostly completely new stuff, so here's a bunch of photos. Apologies the photos are not quite so good this time but you'll get the idea. Check them out after the jump..

The whole top shelf was dedicated to First4Figures amazing range of classic-style Sonic figures and the two statues. This included all six of the 3" toys in and out of a box set. The Metal Sonic as you all know was given away on the day and the Amy Rose and Super Sonic are on sale soon! Speaking of Super Sonic..

..he wonderful upcoming Super Sonic statue was there! It was the limited edition one with the light-up sparks on his feet too, which even flicker as if he is rocketing about! 

The statue actually looks a lot taller than the Sonic one: this is because the base is taller and also because even though Super is the same scale as the other Sonic, he is on his tippy toes! You just KNOW I need one of these now!

The second shelf had that Metal Sonic comic con exclusive again,as well as that Sonic & Knuckles jacket again (I still bet it's one i got outbid on too!). They also had a plush toy of Bokkun from Sonic X which I haven't seen before, and oh look something I actually own: the 2nd Sonic Annual. I suspect they're not rare in slightest mind.

Now here's an oddity and I'm not really sure if it can be considered a collectable or not unless you consider artwork by a Internet celebrity collectable. These are sketches of Sonic drawn by 'That Guy with the Glassies' for a video he did about Sonic which I'll link to later.It even had a document confirming that is officialy by him...ok. There was also some pre-order bonus toy sword from Black Knight.

Finally they had a soundtrack album for SegaSonic the Arcade game of all things, and Knuckles Chaotix for the 32X which belive it or not is a stupidly hard to find and expensive game now a days, probably because no one bought a 32X back in the day. Now I actually own a 32X I would like to find a copy of that..

3rd shelf down and we have a Japanese copy of Sega Superstars on PS2 (for some reason, I didn't really look at it), the signed Sonic Heroes from last year, an issue of Mean Machines Sega featuring Sonic CD, that signed Secret Rings art again, and the two CoroCoro manga books, which look kind of hideous to be honest. 

Onto the third shelf down and it was filled with clothing and plush toys including that Sonic 2 patch I have memories of for both owning the big blue jacket with it on and also for winning one of them from Sonic the Comic for sending in drawings I did (that were not published in the comic like that other one that won me a watch). I also have that Rivals hat, which I got when someone at a bootsale had a whole job lot of Sonic promo goodies.

The plushes consisted of Chao's (inlcuing a NiGHTS one) and two of the imfamously rare Nack/Fang ones from when Sonic the Fighters was released. There was a guy last year carrying one of thee about in his bag, I wonder if it's his. t's so collectable that sadly there have been bootlegs of this toy on Ebay from time to time.

own the bottom shelf they had sketches and character art from Sonic X, and I think these are different to the ones they showed last year. Just above these is that Sonic 15th Anniversary statue, and the Sonic Adventure 2 Battle figures (I have the grey one they had in the middle and that statue yay). They also had some stuff related to the Shadow game in the other corner but to be honest the photo for those came out rubbish and none it it was all that interesting to me anyway.

So that's your lot for this year! As always, I attempted to steal it to no avail..

SOS '10: The Swag

Instead of making a couple huge articles like last year, I'm going to be posting a bunch of shorter articles about last Saturday's brilliant Summer of Sonic convention. Safe to say they really outdid themselves this year. To kick off, here's what I brought back from there. A bit silly that I'm starting my coverage with the last photo I took but never mind!

So a bulk of it is from the goodie bag that was given away to the first few hundred entrants with tickets (people without tickets couldn't even get in until an hour or two after it opened! Sucks to be them I guess :E). My girlfriend also got a ticket just before the registration ended because she wanted to tag along even though she's not that big into Sonic (she enjoyed it though, so that's a relief lol) and when we entered from the HUGE queue we got the last bag! However they did have hundreds more of the highlight of the bag; the Metal Sonic figure, to give away to people that entered (tickets or not I believe) right through till about 4pm. More after the jump..



The goodie bag also had a Sega All-Stars door tag, an Archie 'Free Comic Book day' comic (there was two different ones randomly given out, the one i got has the story from the very first issue of the long running comic in it, which is neat), a strap thing with the SOS logo on it, and some leaflets. The other free stuff I got that day was a bunch of Sonic X trading cards that one of the stores were giving away and we both also won a Sonic PC game each (not pictured) for bumping into SEGASHIRO's DarrenIndeed and shouting a quote for him that only listeners of their first podcast would know to say to him! He even uploaded them to YouTube! You can check out the article here.

(Check out that majestic mustached guy behind me! Was he casting damnation on my soul for doing that silly impersonation?)

So over than the stuff that i got for nothing what did I buy? Well there was a lot to buy but i didn't actually grab all that much this year, though I'm still pleased with what a brought back. Nigel Dobbyn was selling 3 large prints of some new artwork he has done of Knuckles and some of the other S.T.C characters. I brought two of them: one of Knuckles and Dr.Zackay having a scrap and another that Dobbyn coloured up bout Nigel Kitching illustrated of the cast of Decap Attack! I couldn't NOT come home with that! He was also selling the remainder of his beautiful original pages from the comics (I can imagine they sold out completely this time), but I will get back to talking about Nigel in another article!

Other things for sale across the convention included original pages from recent issues of the Archie comics, a whole bunch of Sonic the Comics which were selling like hot cakes at £2-3 a pop, more Archie comics both old and new, and even some Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cels (though to be fair they weren't as impressive as the ones Barry owns). There was also Crush 40 merchandise like shirts and CDs.

Stay tuned as i have a LOT more to write about! If you want to check out all my photos in advance though they are already up at this Flickr set.

Summer of Sonic is imminent!

Summer of Sonic kicks off in The Pavilion, Shepherd's Bush, London this Saturday and you can expect to see coverage of the event throughout next week (providing I get time as I'm currently rather busy for this and next week) including plenty of photos and videos. For those not in the know, here's some of the excellent stuff to expect:

 Free Metal Sonic Toy!

Last year the freebie as we got in the door was a neat little Sonic art book, but this year they have really outdone themselves. The first 750 entrees with a ticket will be getting this yet to be released mini Metal Sonic figure from First4Figures! This is one of the three new 3" toys they will be releasing later this year to sit along side the Sonic, Knuckles and Tails ones they made last year. There will also be a box set of all six in the near future if you have not picked up the others yet. The other two new figurines consist of Super Sonic and Amy Rose!

Sonic 4 and Sonic Colours (Wii and DS) Playable!

Yep, not one but all three of the currently known upcoming Sonic releases will be there to test out! This includes the much awaited (and debated) Sonic 4 and both the DS and Wii versions of Sonic Colours, the next in the main line 3D Sonic games. I'm personally looking forward to trying both out: Colours looks like it's taking everything that worked in Unleashed and ditching all the annoying stuff to give us a simple fun new Sonic with no werehogs, no medal collecting and no need to endlessly boost everywhere! The DS version appears so far to be essentially Sonic Rush 3. Sonic 4 is well, Sonic the Hedgehog Number 4.

All-Stars Racing Tournament!

All-Stars was playable in an early form last year at SOS and since then the game has been released (and was awesome btw) and this year you can see if you can be hailed the All-Stars racing champion! I bet most people will be playing Alex Kidd, Ryo, Shadow....bascilly anyone on bikes. We shall see!

Crush 40 Performing!

Jun Senoue and his band are one of the major players in Sonic's musical history, producing the soundtracks to a large portion of the franchises existence, and at SOS this year we will get to hear them live, ask them questions in an interview and even a instrumental jam session with Jun at tea time! For me at least this sure beats seeing that Bentley Jones guy performing, who I'm not a fan of by any means (I'm trying to be polite here lol).

Nigel Dobbyn returns!

One of the leading artists from the UK Sonic the Comic, Dobbyn was at SOS last year selling many of his original artwork. Unsurprisingly most if not all of it sold out, so this year he will be selling newly drawn prints like this little beauty here (above)! He will be there like last year for a chat and to get whatever you like signed. The guy is a mega talented artist so even if you never read the comic you should check him out!

That (in my opinion) the highlights for this year, and there is bound to be more surprises too so if you're going to be there I might see you there (just look for this git on the left, above) and if not look forward to checking out our coverage! :)

First 4 Figures jump on the Super Sonic bandwagon

Remember First 4 Figures? Of course you do, they do those lovely Classic Sonic styled models that generally completely outclass most of the modern figures. As well as that, they do highly elaborate (and expensive) statues of characters, not least including one of Sonic. Well, now they're planning to release another large statue. No prizes for guessing who!

It looks rather fantastic really - the base is an especially nice touch (I'm assuming it's meant to represent Sonic 2's Death Egg). But unless you have $140 dollars spare, this is the epitome of a luxury purchase. For an extra $20, you can also get something a bit... brighter.

Whilst the price might be outrageous (these are rather high-end statues, after all), it's nice to see Super Sonic finally getting some merchandise based acknowledgement. Perhaps the next range of smaller models from F4F will include Super Sonic as well?

More information here and here.

The First4Figures Statue is out!

Well it only took over a year but the 12" Sonic statue starting shipping out last week from all online shops that sell it (Forbidden Planet, Play.com, Play-Asia I presume, and a few others). Only 1500 have been made, so wherever or not pre orders gobbled all of those up or not is unknown but I've got mine and it's numbered 693, either that means they've been sent out at random or they're almost (or already) gone! Who knows!



Not really gonna take many photos of it seeing as First4Figures provided plenty themselves on their website, including a 360 degree spinny picture thingy, unlike the vinyl toys which we only saw one or two photos of until they came out. Mind you while those figures were around £10 each, this resin statue comes in at at least £65. Ouch, my poor wallet!

It comes with this card that let's you reserve 'the next statue in the series' with a code. Gulp! Another one?

Still it's quite nice, though I wouldn't say £65 nice for most people to splash out on. I'm not sure why they changed the eyes from the early version, but oh well. I do like the Green hill stand though, gives it a unique touch and it's hand numbered at the bottom of the stand too.

I have so many Sonic statue/figure type things now I've had to give them their own little shelf area now. Some will say I've tainted this image by throwing the Werehog figure in there, but he might get thrown aside from this lot when the new Metal Sonic figure come sout in a month or so (I'll post a promo photo of that later if you haven't seen it yet). I also have that Comic Con metal Sonic on it's way from America thanks to Barry getting me one. :)

"...shite."