Upcoming Sonic merch – History of Sonic Collector’s Edition and SEGA teams with Sambro to create board games and puzzles

SEGA’s longtime mascot has some cool new pieces of merchandise for 2013. First up is a Collector’s Edition of Pix’n Love’s The History of Sonic book. The History of Sonic has had a long and interesting history (well, interesting to Sonic nerds). The book began as a Collector’s Edition exclusive to France and in the French language. Soon, fans found that even if they didn’t speak a lick of French they could still order the book. Then, Pix’n Love announced an English version was to be made for the UK with international shipping available. Fans cancelled their French orders, awaited an English release and… nothing happened. That is, until Canadian publisher Udon picked up the book, refined the English translation and released it just this past December.

Just a month after the book’s release in North America, Pix’n Love’s English site has announced a Collector’s Edition of the book, which features an alternate cover, and each is individually numbered out of a total of 1,000. Aside from that, it looks to be the same book as the standard Udon edition. The price is £29.99 plus shipping, and the book is available to order now. Keep in mind, however, that the Amazon price is only $31 and the Collector’s Edition is over $47 plus tax. After the break, a bit of board game news.

RUMOR: SEGA to announce new Sonic game very soon

While we don’t normally post rumors very often, today seems to be the exception. Earlier today, The Sonic Stadium reported that an inside source has revealed some details on the next Sonic game. The game is due this fall on pretty much all current gen systems including portables (not smartphones/tablets as of yet), PC and “Next Gen” systems. The reveal may be as early as “Hedgehog Day” Febuary 2nd. Normally I’d say take this with a grain of salt, but Sonic Stadium rarely reports any rumors unless they have a really good source behind them. Read on for more details.

Sonic franchise pack available for 77% off on Steam

Steam is having their holiday sales, which means all PC gamers will be broke by new years. If you want to join in on the sale, but where waiting for some SEGA stuff to hit discount then you are in luck. The Sonic franchise pack is 77% off, giving you 15 Sonic items (not games, since some of it is DLC). You’ll even get newer stuff like Generations and All-Stars Racing (not Transformed).

But hey, a big pack isn’t for you? Single items are being discounted up to 50%. Check it out. There is also the SEGA publisher pack for $70 (sadly low on the Sonic).

Tee Fury: “Super Sonic Bros” shirt available only for today


If you haven’t heard of Tee Fury, its basically a site that sells ‘geeky’ themed shirts (may it deal with comics, movies or video games) for a limited time. How long? 24 hours. After a day they put up a new design to sell. Meaning that you can collect shirts and you won’t have to worry about having the same shirt as everyone else. How much do they cost? Only $10 bucks.

Today they have up a shirt titled “Super Sonic Bros”, check out the design above. What do you think? Blasphemous ?

First 4 Figures teases Shadow the Hedgehog statue

First 4 Figures are at it again, teasing another of their Sonic the Hedgehog statues. This time, the company are adding Shadow to their line of modern era statues, which began with Sonic the Hedgehog. The Sonic statue as well as the Shadow statue have yet to release. Both are available for pre-order, with Sonic slated for a Q1 2013 release, and Shadow slated for an unspecified date. First 4 Figures, however, has revealed the pre-order date, which begins November 11th. Personally, I find these statues to be incredibly cool but far outside my price range. It’s a shame First 4 Figures never expanded their awesome, and affordable, classic Sonic vinyl figures. Still, those who have been collecting all of these statues as well as the Shadow fans out there should be very happy to hear the news.

SEGA Five: A Salute to the SEGA All-Stars Part 4

I can’t believe that four weeks have passed since we began this salute to the SEGA All-Stars appearing in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed! Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 can be viewed at those handy links. If you’re all caught up with us, let me introduce you to our five All-Stars for this week: Ulala of Space Channel 5, Shadow of Shadow the Hedgehog (oh, and some franchise called Sonic the Hedgehog), Sonic’s not-quite girlfriend Amy Rose, Aiai’s wife MeeMee and our flagman of the game Ristar.

SEGA Five: A Salute to the SEGA All-Stars Part 2

Our Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed celebration continues with part 2 of our salute to the SEGA all-stars who will hit the track this November. In part 1 we featured Sonic, Vyse, NiGHTS, Gum and Amigo. This week, we take a look at more characters from the Sonic and Jet Set Radio franchises, keep the ball rolling with the star of Super Monkey Ball and we see the return of a certain iconic ninja. After the break, it’s an all out all-star salute!

SEGA Five: A Salute to the SEGA All-Stars Part 1

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is only a month away! In anticipation of the game’s release, we here at SEGAbits want to highlight the many All-Stars appearing in SEGA’s racing title. To do this, we’re kicking off a four week salute to the characters appearing in the game. Each week will focus on five SEGA All-Stars. We’ll share why we think these characters are important to SEGA’s history, and why we’re looking forward to racing as them. Let’s kick off part one with the first five, can you guess who they are?

A look at Mobius: The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia

Archie has been publishing Sonic the Hedgehog comics since way back in 1992, making it the longest running video-game based comic ever. Now, to celebrate they will be releasing a complete Sonic comic encyclopedia entitled Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia.

The book will be feature 192 pages of content in a 6×9 trade paperback book. This book will include exclusive information not yet revealed in comics as well as character and location information and much more about Sonic’s comic universe. The book will be out October 30th and will retail for $16.99. After the break, two sample pages from the book.

Archie giving away $50,000 dollars worth of stuff at NYCC

If you are a fan of Sonic’s Archie comic book series run, you will want to attend two panels they are having later this week at the New York Comic Con. The first panel is on Friday and the second one will be on Saturday. There is limited seating, so make sure you show up early if you want one of the cool gift bags.

How limited? Friday’s panel will seat 200 people and Saturday will seat only 100. Check out the source link for more information.

Just what are Stampii’s Sonic the Hedgehog digital trading cards?

Yesterday the SEGA Blog announced a series of Sonic the Hedgehog digital trading cards to be distributed by Stampii, a Madrid based digital trading card company. Per SEGA, the cards are digital trading cards that can be collected and viewed on a number of platforms including Mac, PC, iPhone, Android, Facebook and iPad. Social networking comes into play via referrals and card trading. SEGA also promises “challenges and promotions designed specifically for users as well as the chance to win new digital cards and official merchandise”. What SEGA does not mention is that only the first four packs are free, after that users will have to trade or spend money on new packs in order to complete their collection. Now before you cry foul at SEGA for making us spend money on digital things (the horror!), hear me out. In a day and a half I was able to complete a collection of cards at no cost. How? I’ll tell you after the break.

Today Reddit learned that the “SE-GA” voice at the start of the Sonic the Hedgehog took up 1/8 of the cartridge space

Did you know that the intro “SE-GA” chime that we all love took 1/8th of the cartridge space? If you are a regular here, you probably already knew this. If you visit Reddit’s /r/TIL subreddit you probably saw this post and now you are seeing my blog posts regarding that blog post. Inception.

So 1/8th of the space? Totally worth it.

The SEGA Five: Revisiting Green Hill Act 1

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In the Sonic universe there is nothing more iconic than the zone that started it all: Green Hill. Any and every SEGA and Sonic fan should know the look and layout of this zone, specifically the first act and even more specifically the first few moments experienced by players. I’m talking about the line of rings, followed by the platform with an item box above and a Motobug below, a Buzz Bomber enters from the right of the screen, passing a palm tree with a spring hidden inside. For many fans, this was their introduction to Sonic as a character and as a franchise. Sonic Team knew the importance of the first zone, as (according to the Sonic Jam strategy guide) it took the team six months to perfect the look and design of Green Hill. In the years that followed, the opening layout of Green Hill reappeared a number of times. In this week’s SEGA Five, I’ll look back on those times, noting the strengths, weaknesses and possible reasons for referencing the classic layout.

San-ei reveals new Sonic the Hedgehog plushes

Japanese company San-ei has revealed a new line of Sonic the Hedgehog plush dolls. They showed off 5 characters scaling from the blue blur himself to Knuckles, Amy, Tails, and SEGAbits favorite Shadow the Hedgehog.

A few years back the company put out similar plush dolls, but they say these will have improved patterns. According to the source San-ei is high quality when it comes to plush dolls. I wouldn’t know, I personally don’t own plush toys. Check out the product page here.