Summer of Sonic 2016 "Mr Yuji Naka is alright!"

[PickleBrows]

Currently sitting in the EasyHotel at Earl's Court, definitely not any example of luxury but hey it'll keep us snug for the weekend!

Looking forward to the early start tomorrow!

[BlueTidalGamer]

So hyped for tomorrow! These past 2 years have been weird not having an SOS but it looks like the wait till be worth it for sure! I'm hoping to do a bit of everything while i'm there.

I already have signatures by Iizuka and Naka from the last time they came to SOS so I might try and line up for Mike and Crush 40 this time. 

Might try and pick up some merchandise while i'm there for my nephew as he loves anything Sonic. Of course i'll be checking out Sonic Mania and Sonic Boom Fire & Ice too. Mania especially.

Can't the morning get here soon enough?! Sleeping tonight is gonna be hard when making sure I get up early around 7 to catch the train. I'm not that far off from London so the trip will be fine enough.  

 

If this Summer of Sonic is indeed the last one then here's hoping it's the best one yet   

[Southe]

Kind of gutted that this is my first and last SoS, glad I'll get to meet Naka tho can tick that off my bucket list, and seeing Crush40.

I'll be coming down on my tod, and since I'm not that active on here I don't know anyone, tomorrow should be fun ?

Taking the sleeper train from Edinburgh in a couple hours so should be walking the streets by 7am, woo for free train travel, boo for having to stay in a hotel ?

 

[ChikoLad]

Just met one of the SoS organisers when I was on my way up to my room with my friend, and we said hello. Seemed to be as anxious as he was excited for the thing!

I'm sure it will all work out and be a fantastic event, either way! Can't wait!

I don't really know anyone here but I will probably be wearing these, if anyone wants to say hi!

[TCB]

As an American who's only viewing/listening will be from the comfort of home via The Sonic Show/RadioSEGA I too feel the excitement even though I'm not there in person.

[Southe]

So I'm hoping I have a room available at the ibis ?

When I booked the room along with a room for Newcastle(which I went last week) I did it drunk, not my smartest move. I accidentally ordered it for that night and after an awkward 40 min phone call I was told I would be fine to come today but I have no reference number, hopefully I don't run into any problems ?

Here's a question, if I decide too buy some merch, is it cash only or can you pay with card?

[Covskin]

I'm currently standing on Platform 1 of Coventry Station, waiting for my train. A few yards away is a woman and her immensely excited son, with a Sonic plushie and Sonic Boom bag.

 

Today is going to be a good day.

 

EDIT - I'm in the queue now. A Perfect Chaos cosplay just walked past. Brilliant, watch out for that in the stream guys!

Edit 2 - Or have a pic instead :

 

[PickleBrows]

Didn't get a chance to take a photo but I'll be timing around in a short plain blue t shirt and red converse so feel free to come up and say hello too if you see me.

[PickleBrows]

Hate to double post but I did meet this mysterious figure...

 

[DarkRula]

Such a great event. Ever so good.

We both enjoyed it very much and would probably come again if there was another one.

Also congrats to the Perfect Chaos cosplay for winning.

[FriendBot]

I watched the entire stream, could've slept but nah fam; I'm dedicated to this. SO I stayed all night to watch this and man, what a fun event. Like no joke, the next time Summer of Sonic comes; expect your ol' boy Soni to grab a ticket and have a time of his goddamn life! XD

Just observing all these fans of various ages just hanging around, enjoying something they all have in common: a blue cartoony action hero rodent! And that's amazing!

Seriously, I was blown away by the Perfect Chaos cosplay. Though I did really like the Zeena, The Sonic Twins (Johnny plz) and the various other cosplay finalists as well! And seeing Jay, Poxxy and Matt host the stream in-between each event and just having fun with Twitch chat was just so endearing to me. 

So yeah, really glad to have backed this event and if they ever do so, expect me to back it again and this time, I will be there. And I'll make my presence known!

[kimplix]

Summer of Sonic was amazing today. Everything about it was fantastic as it is. I was going to give a shot onto Mania, but I couldn't pass down on a great chance than to take part in the Sonic Jump Fever contest. I want to thank Tyson Hesse, Hardlight and everyone else for what is to be the most fantastic third SoS convention I've ever been to.

Now I just got to figure out which size will fit the Spinball canvas

[TheOcelot]

Loved it. My first convention. The atmosphere was out of this world. Time seemed to fly by. I will definitely go next year if there is a SoS (and by the sounds of it they really want there to be). @Dreadknux, @T-Bird and the rest of the gang did an amazing job.

I was one of the lucky people to see the history of Summer of Sonic [presentation from Dreadknux, T-Bird and the former SEGA marketing guy (I forget his name). It was really interesting. Even @Roarey Raccoon was there.

Bought some stuff from the merch table.

Playing Sonic Mania was so enjoyable. I didn't play F&I, kind of wish I had. I also played a bit of Sonic CD & Sonic 3&K over on the Retro section. The guy looking after the Retro section was impressed with how he said I was "playing Sonic CD right" (going for the robot generator & time stones). I got all time stones by the end of Wacky Workbench and the game froze! Lol! I also got praise by a guy for collecting all Super Emeralds in S3&K. I guess I'm good at dem classics!

I didn't meet any SSMB members (probably passed within two inches of you guys without even realising) and would loved to have met you guys. I was the tall guy with the orange t-shirt. Will make a much better effort next time.

I highly recommend SoS it's such an enjoyable experience!

[Covskin]

On the train home, knackered but smiling.

First, I totally called that Perfect Chaos cosplay. Knew it'd be either that or the Manic, which I saw a few times and was incredibly detailed. Even had his drumsticks ready!

My first port of call was Richard Elson, always my favourite StC artist. Turned out he lives somewhat close to me, and Lew Stringer is even closer! We had a good chat, he also told me a story about how Nintendo tried to get them to make a comic before Sonic, but because the feedback took TWO YEARS to come through it never happened. And that's part of the reason we got the Marxio Brothers!

I hightailed it to the Naka / Iizuka signing, and stood in the worst possible spot to try and see the Vector Knickers. What I did see was good, I'll keep my eye out on YouTube...

Mike Pollock's Q&A was interesting, and BuzzBombers great as always. Then I made my way to Mike's signing, guy was so charismatic and chatted to everyone, brilliant stuff.

Jam with Jun, loved the set list! I was talking to one of the stage staff beforehand saying it was my most anticipated part of the day because he always chucks in some surprises, and didn't he just!

Sadly I didn't get to meet Crush 40, made it to the queue far too late. Listened to the Naka Q&A though. I took the chance to play Mania during the final signing, impressions to come in that thread!

Had time to kill, so met Deborah Tate and Richard Burton. They were stunned at the love us fans still have for StC, and Deborah even asked me for a photo!

Club Sonic was a laugh, and then Crush 40 rocked it! Kudos to Johnny for coming straight from Wacken, he was still all over the stage.

Last sight as I walked out? Mike Pollock still taking photos by the stage. Awesome guy.

Thanks to all staff for doing a great job, even the thankless tasks like queue management for signing tables. Loved the whole day.

[Speeps]

Sorry guys I'm a bit drunk rn but I LOVED sos. Here's what we all did while we were there.

I met a guy I've known online for years (Owner of Chao Island/Sonic Adventure website) and we had a really good time there. I came to London w/ my dad, but while I was there he went sightseeing around London.

He met Yuji Naka and had a good convo with him while I was waiting in the mania line wanting to know about his Chao stuff lmao. He also got to talk to Dreadknux (Thought he looked like PC principal lmao) and that was cool. I think I also saw Hogfather on stage.

I got two gens posters, the christmas sweater, two mini figure balls and a classic sonic figure. I also had another gens poster and a figure ball, but I already had them so I gave them to my fiend.

I wish I could've gotten a signing from the GREATEST VA mike pollock but I got signs from Naka/Iizuka. The lines actually weren't that bad (AAnyone that's been to london before should know they were much shoter than the london eye lines at least, haha). and they killed a lot of time. They were supposed to stop at 515 but they were still signing an hour later, so good on them.

The cosplays were cool too. My friend took a picture with the Chaos 0/Tikal cosplays, and I also noticed the Manic cosplay when I was streaming on skype to my friends, haha. I loved the Perfect Chaos cosplay, also the Blaze Black Knight cosplay, the Tails Doll cosplay and the Amys that were roaming around.

Got to play Sonic mania (got told to turn my phone off when playing, but no big deal!) and it was GREAT. THere were no peelout, but I played studiopolis (I overheard a staff member telling a kid that it was better to play the newer level rather than the familiar one) and I loved the level desig. It was exactly like the old sonic games. I have to be completely honest, I laughed when I saw how short the Sonic Boom line was compared to the mania line. There were about 9 people in the boom line, compared to about 100 in the mania one.

The staff were all friendly and I think they did a good job managing the convention, by the way. Props to them. They were actively engaging in conversations with the fans throughout the entire event.

Johnny Gioeli was GREAT this time. I really have the urge to buy some crush 40 stuff now. Open your Heart was first, then Live and Learn was last then with What I'm Made of as a bonus song. I can't beleive I actually got to see Jun Senoue's guitar when I was moving through the line for signing, that was GOLD, man.

I didn't really pay any attention to the STC stuff since I don't read STC, but they looked like they were getting a fair amount of attention there. They (and some other artists) were doing comissions, but the time I noticed I'd already spent the £50 I had on me.

After I got out I met my dad and we went to a pub because we were both tired from the stuff we did lmao.

I noticed in the tweets that the stream cut out during one of Naka's questions about why Sonic was made agaisnt mario. The answer was Sonic was designed with the fact that he was made so that he could beat mario to the goal lmao

So yeah, loved the entire event. It was greaaat.

[TomatoGhost]

Recovering after Crush 40 concert (Knight of the Wind killed my voice!) but had an amazing time. First SoS where I actually got to meet the guests and get signatures. This is the one I felt most involved in compared to previous years. Mike Pollock and Johnny Gioeli were great to mingle with and good sports throughout the entire convention (got photos too :D). Of course Sonic Mania was a load of fun (was worried the level design was too Sonic CD at first but it got better) and hell, even Sonic Dash Arcade was fun. Good games, good music, good people. It's all good!

...please say there will be more in the future. Been going since 2009!

[FriendBot]

Now, now we couldn't have a Summer of Sonic without a minute long intro with some sort of gimmick to it, that's the Sonic way after all? XD

This year's theme is about the main people of the community; from your news reporters like Donnie, to news channels like Tails' Channel, to Sega Scourge's (sometimes ridiculous) game theories, to your typical Sonic channels that expresses their opinions like SPD64/Nerdworld, to major players in the franchise like Bill Freiberger/Ian Flynn and the Yoshmaster Mike Pollock, your artists/animators like SonicpoX or Nibroc and 50 others to fill in those 50 seconds of course.

 

 

[Covskin]

The BBC have done an article on the event!

[Chili Dog]

I am so gutted that I missed this event! I had seen it all over instagram and for some reason I assumed it was in America lol It's the first time I've seen this.

Looked really cool, hopefully I'll be at the next one! 

[kimplix]

I am so gutted that I missed this event! I had seen it all over instagram and for some reason I assumed it was in America lol It's the first time I've seen this.

Looked really cool, hopefully I'll be at the next one! 

The event was taken place in the UK. Although Sonic Boom does happen within the US, SoS is mostly UK exclusive

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[kimplix]

From my point of view, here's what happened for the event when I was there.

I saw and met a few people I knew such as Tanner, Jason, Jamie and so forth. Once in the event hall, the first thing I did was to go towards the merch table and see what they had on offer. I bought a few things such as the Spinball canvas, a bag (there's more to this later), a t-shirt and a sonic 25th anniversary sketch. After that, I went over to the Hardlight table and asked for a signed poster. I thought that I would need to buy it, but they were free which made me happy.

I decided to take to Tyson Hesse to get my Mega Drive comic signed, buy a few bits from him and request a drawing. But at the time I got there, he had to go to the community panel which I went to (hard decision if it was to see either Mike's Q&A or that). Not a lot of people were there to start with, but as time passed it packed up a bit. My question was to be said for Tyson himself, but that was already answered. Was going to question him about if they could get Arin to ever complete Sonic 06. After the panel.

After, I went back to Tyson's Table and did the same. Once got there, I finally bought his posters, Sonic’s Big Fat Adventure and requested him a drawing of Knuckles in a top hat (was originally going to be a fedora, but I like to keep it classy).

A lot happened on the day, picked up a few things and so forth. But what I was going to go for was to play Sonic Mania. That changed when the Jump Fever event was coming up. I thought it was going to be a new character added, but turned out to be Apple accessories for the Macbook and iPad.

I gave a shot of that and got a total of 340,431 points which I was declared the winner of.

In couldn't write everything down, but even if I missed a few and never got my signed copy of Sonic Heroes from Iizuka, Yuji and Jun, I loved the event so much. Everything and everyone there were amazing and I can't wait to see and meet you all again.

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[Chili Dog]

3 hours ago, kimplix said:

The event was taken place in the UK. Although Sonic Boom does happen within the US, SoS is mostly UK exclusive

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Thanks for the info, how often does SoS happen and is it in London every time? I live in Earls Court so you can imagine the feeling of missing this lol im a huge sonic fan!

[kimplix]

The event was taken place in the UK. Although Sonic Boom does happen within the US, SoS is mostly UK exclusive

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Thanks for the info, how often does SoS happen and is it in London every time? I live in Earls Court so you can imagine the feeling of missing this lol im a huge sonic fan!

It's usually early August that it happens. Always in London, but different venues for each year depending on what's available at the time.

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[Kevin]

What. A. Day!

i can't even begin to describe he incredible SoS was! You guys truly have outdone yourselves and it was so great see to everyone there again! Getting the opportunity to play Sonic Mania was a real treat and from what I've played of it, I'm really looking forward to it now and can't wait to get the full game when it comes out!

 Getting to meet both Mr. Naka and Iizuka was the highlight of my day (I'm still laughing at how Mr. Naka wrote the title of "Pope" in his autograph) and I also got the chance to meet both Mike Pollock and Crush 40 as well. Speaking of Crush 40, they gave an amazing concert towards the end of SoS! 

Thank you so much to all the crew wh out this together! I'm glad to have been able t attend and if there's another SoS in the future, I'll be sure to come back again!

[ChikoLad]

15 minutes ago, Kevin said:

What. A. Day!

i can't even begin to describe he incredible SoS was! You guys truly have outdone yourselves and it was so great see to everyone there again! Getting the opportunity to play Sonic Mania was a real treat and from what I've played of it, I'm really looking forward to it now and can't wait to get the full game when it comes out!

 Getting to meet both Mr. Naka and Iizuka was the highlight of my day (I'm still laughing at how Mr. Naka wrote the title of "Pope" in his autograph) and I also got the chance to meet both Mike Pollock and Crush 40 as well. Speaking of Crush 40, they gave an amazing concert towards the end of SoS! 

Thank you so much to all the crew wh out this together! I'm glad to have been able t attend and if there's another SoS in the future, I'll be sure to come back again!

Unless he misspelled it on your merchandise, he was actually writing "Prope", which is the name of the indie games development studio he currently runs.

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I will be doing a big write up recounting my thoughts for another forum some time this week. I'll paste it here when it's done.

For now, I'll just share my favourite piece of signed merchandise I came out with. I'm so glad the base of this statue was detachable so I could bring it abroad with ease.