SOS '10 Videos Part 4: Crush 40 Live

So here we are at the last of the four SOS 2010 videos I will be uploading. Here we have some of the best bits from Crush 40's live performance at the end of this years Summer of Sonic. I didn't film the whole thing because I knew many others would be and with better camera and steadier hands, and I was right: just search for crush 40 on Youtube and you can watch the entire thing from more angles than you could possibly ever need.

SOS '10 Videos Part 3: The Cosplay Contest

There was just so many cosplayers this year that it was hard to include all the footage of them walking onto the stage to be judged into one video! Thanks Youtube for increasing your time limit to 15 minutes! I did have to cut out all the bits where people had to cheer for their favorites, as well as the part with the top 5 being voted down to 3. Still, you get to see every single cosplayer (bar the winning Rouge from last year who was there but didn't enter the contest) that attended the event here.

If this event was evidence of anything it's that there are a LOT of fans of Shadow, as more people dressed up as him than anyone else. We need more Sonics next year guys! Tomorrow will be our last video: the Crush 40 live performance!

SOS '10 Videos Part 2: Never Mind the Buzzbombers Quiz

Four our second video here is some highlights of the 'Never Mind the Buzzbombers' Quiz, a Sonic themed take on the BBC music quiz Never Mind the Buzzcocks, in case you wasn't aware. Like that show there was an intros round where one of the team had to imitate a Sonic tune and the others had to guess, and there were also some quick fire question rounds. It's not in the video but the winning prize was a rather spiffing Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics snowboard!

The highlight for me had to be when when one of the questions was about a comic I drew for Sumo Digital at last years SOS. You will hear my girlfriend shouting out about it! We have two more videos coming up this week of the cosplay contest and of course Crush 40's live performance!

SOS '10 Videos Part 1: Summary and Intro show

As promised I have a few videos of this years Summer of Sonic to treat you with. Of course there is already possibly hundreds of videos of the event online, many of which are most likely a whole lot less wobbly and covered in the backs of peoples noggins, but you may get some kind of enjoyment out of it with any luck.

We journey from the queue outside into the Pavillion where we check out the goodie bag, have a look around at what there is to check out at the booths and the like, then about 20 minutes after arriving inside the introduction show begins, featuring some guy doing the caramelldansen dance thing, which is a bit odd.

I also put together that artwork at the start of the video, which you can see in full below (click it)!

The second video will be online tomorrow!

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 Cosplayers

There was close to one thousand people attending Summer of Sonic this year. With a fanbase as huge as Sonic's you're going to get your bad eggs and sadly the whole lot often gets painted with the same brush, but when being amongst the awesome people that gathered together for this event the stereotype of Sonic fans being furrie sexual weridos just faded away. You couldn't meet a more friendly, talented and fun to hang out with lot. You can call them nerdy and eccentric all you like but they're having fun and doing no one any harm so there.

Case in point: the few fans that are so dedicated they came cosplaying as their favorite characters. There was a LOT more people dressed in their custom made outfits this year than previously, and there was a lot variety to the characters represented. Let's start with the first one that stood out and i had to grab a shot of pretty much minutes within entering the Pavilion..

Big the cat! She has a fishing rod, a froggy puppet and did an excellent impression of the pointless but lovable character! More after the jump!

Here we have a Maria (one of two!), a Shadow (one of...many!) Blaze (complete with a big old ring) and...I actually don't think taht girl in the red is cosplaying..

This lass came as Knuckles complete with matching red hair and dreadlocks! The Master Emerald, she wants it.

My mate Euan came once again as Robotnik, but this time he took it one step further...and shaved his poor hair off! He still had it when I last saw him a few weeks ago! Now that's dedication! I must say he also does an excellent impression of Robotnik, his voice is just spot on.

Ulala! No, I'm not flirting with her, it's actually a Ulala cosplayer! Who said Summer of Sonic had to just have Sonic characters? Especially when said cosplayer does such an amazing job of it! A guy last year was cosplaying as Purge, a bad guy from the same game and no one (myself included, until I got home when I trigged where I'd seen that hair before). said guy was hear again this year but as another misc' sega character..

Sketch Turner from Comix Zone! Sadly I didn't get a proper photo of him so here's one from the cosplay contest (he is 2nd from the right) which I'll talk about at the end of the article. Not sure why he has green hair, but he even has his pet rat! Not a real rat, of course, he would stink of piss.

From left to right he have that girl from Secret Rings, a Rouge (not the same one who won last year, she was here in the same costume but didn't enter the contest again), the genius addition of Charmy Bee (somehow making the character not seem annoying!), oddly enough the only Sonic cosplayer at the show (with green goggl...er, eyes) and finally it's ...oh it's her again. Stop gate crashing the cosplay photos!

Charmy Bee again because she was awesome and even did some sort of sing song on the stage which was unexpected. Also Blaze again, there was another girl as her though I didn't get a photo of her I don't think.

But the most ridiculous, ambitious and almost kind of frightening cosplay goes to..

..this Sally Acorn. I mean christ, just look at this costume! You will be happy to know that it wasn't a creepy furrie bloke inside it but rather a bubbly girl who seemed pretty normal to me. Major kudos for effort alone me thinks, plus this was the first time someone has come dressed as a SATAM character apparently. Now we need the Bunnie Rabbot, Snivley and Uncle Chuck me thinks! But don't worry, if you really don't like sally Acorn..

..she was later beheaded.

So onto the contest. Because there was so many cosplayers this year they were lined up onto the stage in rows of 6 and whichever two out of those got the most cheers went through to the final five who were Big the Cat, Charmy Bee, Ulala, Rouge, Euan's Robotnik and Sally Acorn. Charmy got third, Big got a very close second and Euan won first!

Last year he was in 2nd, so i guess the addition of shaving his hair, along with a brilliant speech or two about creating a Summer of Eggman, helped him this time. Sadly the prises weren't so hot this time around: Euan won a trophy but none of the runners up got anything unlike last year. For example in 2nd Euan got a bunch of goodies including an Outrun T-shirt which I'm still rather envious about. 

As a bonus here's two over awesome people I encountered while there:

This badass has pimped his wheelchair with Sega logos all over it! Rock on, dude.

There was lots of custom made T-shirt wearers about, and here's a highlight. Only avid ASOTH viewers will get it, and the front has a great Robotnik quote and picture from the same cartoon on it. Another highlight was a blue shirt simply with the words "strange, isn't it?" written on it, quoting the Sonic the Movie anime of all things!

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! :)

Summer of Sonic '09: Video of Introduction

Well a lot of the video footage I took was pretty pants but here's a bit of it showing what I filmed just as I entered the building, having a quick look about, and then it cuts to the introduction up on the stage, which continues into the second video. I just missed the very start of that animation in which a windows blue screen popped up (getting huge laughs as everyone presumed the computers set up to the telly's crashed) but then that tails Doll from Sonic R popped up all evil like. Otherwise very little is cut out.

Sega Nerds already has a great video of the Sumo Digital Q&A session as well as a interview they did with them, so I probably won't be uploading my filming of that, but I do also have the Q&A session with the S.T.C artists which i will be uploading soon.

Summer of Sonic '09: Meeting the S.T.C Artists

Dobbyn to the left, Kitching to the right. What a pair of Nigels!

One of the highlights of the event for me had to be meeting two of the artists/writers of Sonic the Comic, Nigel Kitching and Nigel Dobbyn. I grew up on these comics and they had a big influence on how I draw, in particular Kitching's artwork for the Decap Attack comic, who was also the writer for a majority of the entire comics lifespan, everything from the crazy Super Sonic all the way till the comic's last story ark where Johnny Lighfoot died and Robotnik lost his mind They did a Q&A session which I caught on (very wobbly) video, which I might upload later.

A whole folder full of painted goodness. There's nothing quite like seeing the originals.

This one was gone first I think. It was framed and used as a front cover.

For most of the day they were in one of the corners signing things for people and drawing them sketches too. Naturally this was one of the first things at the event I wanted to do, and while in the queue my eyes were drawn over to Dobbyn's portfolios laid out, all featuring the original paintings of the pages we illustrated for the comic. If that wasn't enough just seeing them in the flesh (er...ink?), they were for sale at £20 a page! Apparently he was selling them to fund a independent comic he wants to set up. When he drew you something/signed something, you could take a note, write your name on it and reserve the pages you want, so you could pick them up later in the day.

Take note the pages are much bigger than what they appeared in the comic, many A2 size and on card. Getting the thing home was a game of paranoia as I had nothing to carry it in, so i was holding it all the way home ready to murder anyone that would damage it. It's beautiful though, isn't it? This is one of many reasons why the British comics were much better than the American ones: hand painted art vs computer gradient coloring (well at least until the later years).

When I met Kitching I gave him a piece of artwork of Chuck D.Head I did, and he drew me a sketch, on which I requested an afro on Head noggin for some reason, just to make it unique! What surprised me when I was talking to him was finding out that he is currently illustrating pages for a Decap Attack story on Sonic the Comic online! He had a piece of art of it on his table. Sweet!

When I met Dobbyn he signed a page from one of the comics i brought with me, and I bought a page from his portfolio. I probably should have bought two now I think about, but that would have involved leaving the building to find a ATM and draw more money out. I wasn't expecting there to be anything to buy here, to be honest! One thing that made me squeal like a school girl in my mind was when talking to the pair of them: they both mentioned that they belive they've seen my artwork online before! Gleee! :D

Summer of Sonic '09: Summary

Summer of Sonic '09 was a shock to me. Why? Because it was far beyond my expectations. It was almost a little overwhelming that such an event for Sonic the Hedgehog could exist. Arriving at Liverpool Street at about 10:30am a bunch of Sonic fans were waiting up near the exit calling over anyone they could find who had Sonic related things on them (I was wearing that white Secret Rings shirt I showed you a while back).

This is when it started, before half the people sat down to draw together.

So many Sonic fans in one place is pretty surreal. 

Getting there at about 11 there was a big queue already waiting at the door of the Truman Brewery (well, part of it, It's a big old place that's quite often used for collage shows). Once it opened the queue was very speedily sorted out, it split up inside for people who reserved tickets and those who didn't. Not really sure what difference that made, but there were plenty of those art books to go around. The artbook is the same size and shape as a mega Drive manual and has a small collection of assorted artwork from both old and new games. It's very nice, especially for a freebie.

Even the DJ had dyed blue hair and Sonic ears! What kind of alternate dimension is this?

The stage screening one of the many fan animations.

There was little touches like this everywhere. Neat.

The huge room had various areas dedicated to games, artwork, merchandise and comics, as well as a stage with a DJ playing every Sonic song you can think of, even scraping the bottom of the barrel with Right said Fred's Wonderman (which had a Pirate Sega themed music video) and SuperSonic dance Attack! On the stage they had events every hour or so including two performances by some guy Bentley Jones (don't ask me) who sang a lot of things in Japanese for some reason, and got a few laughs when he sand 'My name is Sonic'.

Two of the few cosplayers that were about (the Robotnik is a mate of mine). take a wild guess which one won a Xbox 360 for their costume.

They also had competitions for a fan art (and there was a LOT of people at tables drawing for most of the day), cosplay and a quiz show type thing, all of which won various Sega bits and pieces and consoles for the top winners in some cases. A couple of times they also screened fan animations that got a lot of laughs too. maybe I should cook something up if I get time by next year's event. Apparently this venue is a lot bigger than last years event which I missed, and while it was busy it was never overcrowded to the point where you couldn't move (manily because so many were sitting down drawing).

Whoever that is playing Dynamite Headdy (and pretty far into it): you are awesome.

People weren't allowed to video footage of All-Star racing, but I presume photos are ok, not that I got a good one or anything.

The gaming area had a row of Xbox-360's running a Ultimate Mega Drive Collection as well as some of the newer games like Unleashed and Superstars Tennis. Two guys from Sumo Digital were there with a Playstation 3 running a recent build of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and there was a Wii and DS in the corner set up to Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics. I didn't get time to play any of these because every time I got in the queue for a few minutes something would happen up on the stage and if I had to choose playing a game that will eventually be out and a one off event I'll pick the one off.

I did however give the Sumo Digital guys Steve Lycett and Travis Ryan this doodle I did on the train journey there that they had a good laugh about. We had a quick chat about anal fanboys and growing up with Sega games. I did watch others play in two player, though. A lot of people were picking Alex kidd, good on 'em He's spacial attack is jumping into his old helicopter! When the Q&A session asked the audience who they'd like to see in the game, I suggested Opa Opa. Who wouldn't want to drop 16 ton weights on characters' heads?

The merchandise cabinet. I'll have a whole article about it's contents later.

I have a few articles planned to write up over the next day or two about the event, including hopefully some videos I took, and of course lots and lots of photos!