Okay I just saw the new place on the net to get your Sonic merch… at least if your a UK fan that is. sonicmerchandise.com/ has launched to little or no fanfare or promotion at least from what I can see and I can understand why.

Looking around the site it seems okay enough except it seems to be lacking in content they have sections for Figures and plushies which have nothing in which seems to me to be just teasing.

I will admit the few items they have on there they have some things I’ve not seen in the UK until now, and then they have things they are charging £9.98 for which have been given away at special events. Just a little cheeky don’t you think?

Now if you want to actually buy something be prepared to be stung as they seem to have got a bit confused on there adding system when it comes to VAT, come on it’s just a bit of simple math.

Oh but it gets better with each buy you get rings which can be redeemed for more merch… one assumes as it’s never explained no help page or anything.

And to round it all off the customer service page is in Latin… and even then translating it does not give you the customer service.

So overall it’s a bit of a shoddy launch… I can only hope that the site launch was an accident at this stage as it seems incomplete.

More fail can be found over in this SSMB topic.

Now I’ll admit the picture is not the best in the world, but there again, the figures themselves are rather pants, not something I’d really recommend buying.

Especially when you consider these are more expensive than the last set £3.49 each! Yeah a bit of a rip off. Oh and have a quick size comparison.

As you can see I wasn’t kidding when I said these figures were small, still if anyone wants one I have an Amy going spare.

I only got Sonic Knuckles and Super Sonic, but that’s pretty good I think, also included in the set is Metal Sonic, Shadow and the Werehog.

The figures are pretty simple to put together some more so than others, the Sonic one slotted together with no trouble, while the super sonic one required a little more brute force.

Overall the figures look respectable enough, not the best looking figures I’ve seen but not the worst certainly for the price they are good. Although I do have my niggles, Sonic’s shoe buckles are not painted, and Super Sonic has a little difficulty standing up… otherwise pretty happy with them.

The figures come to about 2 and a half inches tall once assembled, or for comparisons sake about 1/5th of a Stig shampoo bottle.

These figures can be bought now from Forbidden Planet for £2.99.

Myself and The Tall Ghey Guy hosted the event, and we had the likes of Nemain, Vger, AAUK, Dreadknux, Siriku, SonicYoda, Shadow5talker and Urtheart down for the weekend, or a specific day they could make.

While the main bulk of the fun was on Saturday, with some sightseeing in Portsmouth and a BBQ to finish, unbeknownst to Nemain, myself and Tall-Guy had got her a birthday present of a plushie made of her own original character Akhmin for Emerald Coast.

The plushie was made by Donna M Evans, who was more then happy to take on the comission for us, and you can find a spotlight interview I performed with her here.

Our ever beloved emperor, however, managed to catch a video of the gift being presented. It goes without saying, that Nemain’s reaction to it, was priceless, and you can see this for yourself…

Among the sites we saw on the Saturday was Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower (Space Pingas!), and then moved onto the arcade for some Pirate Boat Wars and Pirate Mini-Golf,

On the Sunday, we made a detour to Southsea Castle, then we moved onto the on site cafe for something to eat and said goodbyes to those on their long travels back.

It was a great weekend, and I hope to do it again, although possibly in an area more localised to everyone else next time.

Vger Edit: I really enjoyed this weekend, more so than any other previous meet, purely for the fact that we didn’t have anything Sonic going on in the background, just us guys and gal relaxing drinking, and burning meat. Life can’t get much better.

Nemain Edit: T-Bird will attest that Nemains are very rarely speechless. This is of much annoyance, especially when he wishes to watch a film and she won’t shut up. However, the production of an Akhmin plushie was enough to completely stun the Nemain into silence! The whole weekend was most excellent – Just a like minded group of Sonic fans having fun and antics and terrorizing the locals! The feel good factor will be riding high for a long while after this one. Thanks to everyone for making the past few days the community highlight of my year, and a special thanks to the chief gheys Pete and Andy for my Akhmin plushie. Can’t believe the lengths you went to for me!

Urtheart Edit: Great chance to catch up with the guys, much fun, randomness and japes had by all, along with mine and Nemain’s plans to conquer the local area. This is the kind of meets we all enjoy and probably our highlights as part of the community.

In my local Game store today I noticed several boxes promoting free DLC if you pre-order and purchase Sonic Generations, see picture below.

Whether this is the same DLC pack as the one Gamestop has remains to be seen but it seems likely considering the artwork in the background, but the real question is, will this turn out to be a repeat of last years Argos fiasco offering a free Sonic Colours figure with every pre-order and then going back on it… hmm I’m getting cynical in my old age.

Up for grabs are 3 Sonic Free Riders Posters, linked here, here and here.

The interesting thing is it depicts and dead arm on the floor, who’s arm could it be? Will one of the cast be kicking the bucket? Let the wild speculation commence! (in the comments section)

My money is on Sally, yes she’s died before so it’s a little cliché but I’m still thinking it.
Character I’d like it to be but know it will never happen in a million years: Cream!

The Package

The soundtrack is a three,CD set all shoved into a normal CD jewel case so anyone expecting the same excess that we saw with the Sonic Unleashed soundtracks packaging will be disappointed. It does however come with a very arty sleeve and a shiny obi (spine card) which really makes it stand out. The usual booklet with lyrics for the vocal songs is included with a background theme of the different wisps. Overall, the package is very well put together and fits into a normal CD tower slot, which has been the one gripe with the bigger soundtrack collections.

The Music

I’d recommend listening to the soundtrack from start to finish in order to best appreciate it as the tracks follow the story of the game and a lot of the music, particularly the grand orchestral cut scene music captures the emotion and flow of the what’s happening very well so I ended up feeling like I was reliving the game.

The stage tracks have a more techno feel to then but also manages to seize the feel of each stage as well, for example the Terminal Velocity stages imparts a sense of urgency with the pacing of the track which when you consider the level itself is a great match.

One or two tracks have been recycled from earlier games, Eggmans theme springs to mind as it’s the same as his theme in Sonic Unleashed but they fit well with the new music so if you haven’t listened to earlier soundtracks you won’t notice.

The only thing I didn’t like about this soundtrack is Reach for the Stars and Speak With your Heart tracks, the only vocal tracks, I’ll admit they fit the game very well but I find them too cheery and kiddy, this may be just me longing for the Sonic Adventure days of Crush 40 tunes.

Conclusion

I’ve enjoyed listening to this soundtrack immensity, it has taken the ground work laid with the new direction taken in the Sonic Unleashed soundtrack and refined it to the point of blinding brilliance… and blinding packaging.

A must have for any Sonic soundtrack collector, or the more casual fan looking to add a bit of merch, and with it now available rather surprisingly for download from itunes pretty much everywhere you have no excuse to not go out and get this!

CD available from CD Japan for 4000yen + postage
Download from itunes.

Well I know I’m drooling already, of course there is the usual issue of it only being released in Japan but that’s never stopped me before.

For more information have a look at the Video Games Music database.