And that Ladies and Gentlemen was Summer Of Sonic 2010. Over, done with and out. What I’m going to suggest to everyone in terms of the main staff is that they when they have the chance write down an overview of the event from their own perspective. I’ve a few things to address, many of you are probably wondering “FOR THE LOVE OF TIKAL AAUK, wtf are you doing even up right now?” All I can say is I actually got up at 8am – I have things to do. Perhaps we can say that my biggest achievement at SOS 10 was to actually make it home, make myself a drink, sit down and watch TV for a good half hour before taking myself to bed. Not having Echo Hawk having to physically drag me in a state of delerium up a flight of stairs like last year.
Discoponies just collared me on msn funnily enough about
this.
“I’m glad this year u seemed to think about ur own well
being too. U seemed less prone to a stroke.”
“You missed some s***.”
“Oh god.”
Firstly thanks to all the staff, too many to name here, for their hard work and their dedication to the cause. Whether you enjoyed the heck out of Summer of Sonic 2010 (the majority) or thought it was really boring and run by “nerds with egos” (Christ, what else do we have to put on to make you lot not “bored”?!?) the team worked like Trojans under some very difficult circumstances which I’ll get into in a sec. Anyone who thinks “oh its been organised really poorly” doesn’t know the whole story.
We actually had an absolute nightmare with the setup, as all of us arrived Friday to find that the venue had very kindly not yet been cleared out of all the other furniture which rather prevented us from doing much for many hours. Amazingly we did actually manage to get everything up and working, the net was a bit fragile but working, we had all the audio and video ready and set up, the furniture was in place, C40 had done their mini-rehersal and we left late on Friday night with myself, Blake, Echo and bmn being the last to go, ready to finalise making things pretty in the morning due to the lack of time for it with the clean out leaving venue staff to finalise the tidying.
When we came back in the morning… our tech kit was gone. The laptops, and HD camera which were left in the “secured” venue and belonging to Rory/Roareye had vanished without a trace. You can imagine how we felt at this point; Rory despite being devastated insisted the most important thing was we somehow got everything set up again. And it’s that kind of attitude that shows you what a cool guy he is – caring more about the greater good of the con. So how Ian/bmn, Jay/Discoponies (who created all the snazzy video idents and things) and a couple of others somehow managed to get things set up again with a borrowed computer that was frankly rubbish in the time we had I have no idea. Because of all this we didn’t have the opportunity to make the venue as pretty as we’d’ve liked. I had some awesome ASR wall banners that never saw the light of day and a bunch of posters that should’ve been out and around.
Speaking of The Pavilion itself…don’t get me started on air-con situation and trust me we were just as hot.
Regarding Sonic 4 and Colours – unfortunately those were all the machines we could get, S4 and Colours Wii were on special machines and those were all that were available, the fact that the sync button on the Wii apparently was broken facilitating an emergency Gamecube controller backup didn’t help matters but the vast majority of people I think that played it really enjoyed the experience.
So perhaps we can say that SOS was a triumph in the face of some
extreme advercity? For Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode I there was
certainly a BIG reaction to it, and hey that was the E3 build so
didn’t have the tweaks done to it. People were really
enjoying Colours, the shop did a very steady turn over – and
if you think I see a penny of that boy are you wrong! The art
corner was VERY busy as before, lots of the more serious artists
were very interested indeed in Nigel Dobbyn’s clinics. The
cosplay was off the hook this year, how many people did we
have in the end? 20-ish? Who’d’ve thought Shadow would
be the most cosplayed character?! And can people now drop last
years “you don’t know who Purge is” nonsense on
the basis I twigged Sketch Turner and Roadkill before you.
Incidentally there was an additional prize to
that which I shall have to get to the devious Dr. Eggman.
I think I won the battle of the t-shirts this year, though only because no one saw Jay’s sparkly Tails sprite t-shirt until the end.
The Tails Doll made a spectacular return of course, Vger/Wentos was surprised with his forfeit, the Buzzbombers quiz proved very entertaining: if proving that T-Bird and Dreadknux are dirty liars and that Johnny Gioeli doesn’t know as much about Jun Senoue as he should. The Wrecks Factor Live had some rather rousing performances, including Mini-T surprising everybody with a heck of a performance of the Sonic Underground theme. An All-Stars Racing World Champion was crowned and people enjoyed playing 8 player networked games, Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Unleashed and just generally interacting with other Sonic fans.
Okay, so the hermit crabs went up the spout. Yeah, considering
how much effort it took to actually get hold of those my heartfelt
thanks to you all for promptly nicking them all.
Oh yes, and HELLO – we had CRUSH FRIGGIN’
40? Jun and Johnny had a superb Q&A hosted by T-Bird,
which was actually very revealing. Jun treated everyone to some
“Afternoon Tea”, a 20 minute individual set with the
surprise addition of Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Japan Trip competition
entrants Freya and The Divas singing Escape From The City before
C40 TORE DOWN THE HOUSE with their set. Gotta say, as being partly
responsible for writing that set it sounded great. I say sounded as
I never got to see it. *Sob* Hey, someone had to start de-rigging
everything. So where’s the YouTube videos guys? Some of us
want to see. 
More individual stories from the event to follow, including a video from Frobman we were not able to show due to the kit theft – we’ll let you know more on what happens with that. In the future I’ll also be asking you guys what you want for Summer of Sonic 2011 – yes, 2011. As if you missed myself and Svend’s last announcement its going to be held on the first Saturday after Sonic’s 20th Birthday on June 25th 2011! Have a think of what you might want, keep an eye out for the post then when we ask tell us what you’re after (besides the obvious… bigger, cooler, refreshments) that’ll go up Monday I think.
For now… I’m off to have a lie down and rest the laundry list of injuries I picked up.
Tags: Sonic Wrecks
“For now… I’m off to have a lie down.”
…For your sake buddy this had better be true.
I got the opportunity and the privilage this year to hear exactly (to a certain degree) just how hard you guys had to work in the face of some pretty serious odds to pul this off, and I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out; I have to admit, a lot of this is pretty offset with how CONCERNED FOR YOUR HEALTH I am at this point in time, though. Crush 40′s set was amazing (videos at some point this evening/tomorrow), I got the chance to play Sonic 4 (which I wanted to play over Colours, there was no way I was going to queue for both with as much of the con as I wanted to experience) and just meeting and sharing stories and experiences with Sonic fans from all over the globe is something I’ve only ever imagined doing as a child. As every SoS goes by this dream only seems to be getting better and better. I loved every last moment, I’ve made some more friends- quite possibly for life- and I’ve got memories that I will cherish for some time to come. I’m totally behind next year’s event and I’m going to be keeping an SoS dA group this year so that the art community are just as in the loop- and possibly get some more prospective fans going for the big 2-0!
…To be honest? You KNOW my only suggestion is working air con. XD
Isn’t it 26th of July? never mind XD
Anyway, I had a great time there! enjoyed everything you guys had up, just a MASSIVE thank you from me!
And yeah, it got really hot in there, Johnny had a funny reaction to it
I seriously can’t wait until next year’s, I know it’s gonna be twice as awesome!
*my bad, it is 25th of July… doh!
It was realy awesome I enjoyed every moment of it thanks for the free swag I got to play Sonic 4 which was as awesome as I imagined but I didn’t get to play Sonic Colours because like many I couldn’t wait in another realy long line but playing Sonic 4 was good enough for me. All the onstage things where realy entertaining I enjoyed them not to mention the awesome music you guys had playing on the speakers and yes it was realy hot in there but hey we all were. But the highlight of the day was seeing Crush 40 play live that was the most awesome thing ever they rocked the place and I thank you guys alot for getting them to be there I can’t wait to Summer of Sonic 2011 I don’t wether I will be going to it but I can be sure it will be more awesome than Summer of Sonic 2010 if that was even possible thank you
Yeah it would’ve been June 26th THIS year… we got told the wrong date, lol.
So it would be June 25th 2011 accrding to my computer calendar.
Once again, all the staff managed an amazing effort, and not once did I hear someone complain about it being a shoddy organisation. Anyone that’s been there at all in the past, know that all of you put your blood, sweat (literally this year :D) and tears into making it happen.
It was an amazing event, truly difficult to even contemplate how it can be topped for the 20th anniversary. No doubt you’ll all manage something, and near on killing yourselves doing it too. But try not too.
Wow is all I can say.
What an awesome day, everyone deserves a pat on the back.
Loved every second Crush 40 ruled, take it different venue next year LOL with possible over night security and a refreshment stand? Nice to meet everyone involved and I’ll see you all next year.
Thankyou one and all.
Both myself and my girlfriend had been excited about attending the sonic convention since missing last years event. Arriving early there was a good atmosphere outside the event with fans jovially gathering outside the front of the venue. Unfortunately the first disappointment to the day came in the form of the total lack of a queuing system outside the event. This was a fault by the events security who should have been at the front of the venue several hours before the event began to ensure the planned entry system went smoothly. We both failed to see the point of having gained tickets as those without tickets were being allowed in to the venue simultaneously. The complaint to make is that when fans had arrived promptly before the start of the event, why then several hours later did security force those early comers back away from the front entrance, allowing those late comers to move to the start of the line and the early comers to have to walk up the side of a queue which had been mounting for the several hours before the event started. Only those at the front of the queue were involved when rings etc were thrown out, it caused bad feeling before entering the event and when later we realised we had missed out on some of the early items which had sold out at the shop.
On entry the goody bag was a real treat and the adrenalin of excitement we had arrived with returned on entry into the venue. Congratulations must be made to the effort to make the event look appealing. It was great to see so many fans, wonderful to watch the different costumes onstage and having the opportunity to play new games and to have personalised characters drawn right in front of you by an actual sonic artist was a fantastic opportunity. Many thanks for all the effort which went in to organising what was a free event. Unexpected incidents will always happen and the heat generated from being in an old building cannot be helped. The huge suggestion for another event would be two key factors. Firstly seating; their was a severe shortage which adding to the queuing time (totalling approximately 7 hours if you include pre-entry into the event) made for a physically uncomfortable time. Furthermore it meant it was difficult to interact and participate in what may have been going on stage.
The second suggestion would be to organise events such as game play so that there is shorter game play and a time slot to different ticket groups. This would ensure everyone has opportunity to have a go, minimise the unpleasantness of queues and structure the day so all that you want to bring on stage and in other areas can be appreciated.
Also a couple of other complaints were the lack of items at the shop, there wasent any action figures. toys or many goodies to buy, just comics which was dissapointing. The shop was also quite expensive with the books and comics selling for £5-10 each which was much more expensive than what you can find on Amazon or Ebay.
Additionly we was queing with 4 other people for the Crush 40 signing and we were told we couldnt get one as they had to perform. I understand time slots but it would of only taken a couple of minutes for him to quickly sign 6 autographs.The band were outstanding, just ashame we couldnt get their autographs.
What can I say? The whole thing was just perfect (well except for the lack of oxygen) How you managed it after your kit went missing is just astonishing, so on behalf of me and the rest of my party (small dude on the stage and large dude with blue spiked hair) THANK YOU! The lack of oxygen killed us off at the end im afraid, but everything else was spot on. Cant wait for next year, The Tails Doll will returneth!
The event was great, the activities were awesome and the C40 performance, well that speaks for itself, the new games looked awesome. Also could someone tell me who supplied the Shadow plushies unfortunatly I wasn’t able to get one at the event so getting one from the supplier seems the next best thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ5WJieFfPs
Thank you chaps i enjoyed it !
especially Crush 40 !!!!
And for those asking about youtube videos please go to http://www.youtube.com/rossk and go to “all uploads” to see the Crush 40′s vids going up
Also i won a comic book print of STC online YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
NO idea how you manage to organize something liek that and get the pods and c40 and the items and everything
it rocked .
no one can complain really ; sure there was no air con.. but hey..Jonyy promised to sell his children to get us some for next time
@Crazy Sam10 That would be Ciara T. aka Nemain, and those Shadow plushies in particular I overheard were selling faster than anything else that day.
As for all others, complaints are welcome if just given reasonable reason. Anyone declaring the event boring clearly was just looking for something with fireworks/explosions/tigers/franchise changing news.. (we do try to give pleanty of outlets, and acts and entertainment but we’re not an amusement park, it isn’t like we could just borrow Sonic Spinball.. and don’t a single one of you even think of pestering the staff about that idea..)
The doors were not sealed and you were free to leave if you didn’t like it. But in any case.
We all as a group of staff do apologize for the heat of the situation, we were having to scramble for fluids and sustinence ourselves.
Next time we will try to make it more apparent that if you need to step outside the front of sos for some air, that’s fine up until near closing time (which was 5:30pm yesterday) you only needed your ticket for a more or less seemless re-entry.
I’ll be writing my own rendition of ‘behind the madness: sos 2010′ a bit later on.
“When we came back in the morning… our tech kit was gone. The laptops, and HD camera which were left in the “secured†venue and belonging to Rory/Roareye had vanished without a trace. You can imagine how we felt at this point.”
Oh dear Lord, facing something like that would make me want to cry! Did you manage to find the equipment in the end or is it gone – GONE? I can imagine you guys running around like headless chickens. To pull yourself back up and battle on like that – well done.
Each year you live and learn literally! I dressed up as Charmy Bee this year and got a right buzz (sorry pun was intended!) It was my first time for cosplay and it was so much fun!
As well as a hats off to Svend and Kevin who worked their butts off. A big thank you to all the lads and lasses who worked behind the scenes and supported the event. These quiet heroes should be equally proud of their part and deserve praise.
PS – I never did find those ten hermit crabs. Have I failed the mission? Vector’s gonna kill meeeee!
I did enjoy it this year and I was curious about why there wasn’t any flash videos up until now. But, it was nice cosplaying Shadow with the chaos emerald. But I was dispointed with Sonic Colours though as I didn’t get to play it. While Crush 40 were signing stuff, I waited a queue (sp?) for over a hour. The wii broke as well, I think it the white screen of death or some kind of glitch. People were playing 2 acts and beating the boss. But… while it was good, it was taking too long. Plus, over in Sonic 4, you were only allowed to play one act. I don’t see why it didn’t happen over here too so that everyone could get a turn…
After only spending half of the day at SOS, I feel that the time I spent there was good. For a free event you provided everything a paid event would provide and for that I congratulate you on pulling it off. Having said that though, there we’re quite a few problems that need to be addressed for 2011.
Although the outside queueing was rather last minute, next year there needs to be a dedicated queue to enter the venue in place at all times. Now I know that this is a community run event and that community staff would have to provided some support for this for it to work, there is no need not to have it.
Goody bag wise, you guys provided more than I expected and thus, NOTHING NEEDS TO BE CHANGED <3
The venue. I needn't go into this. The venue can hold 1000, no aircon for that amount of people is unbelievable. You guys know about this so it should be covered for next year.
Console line-up. Again you have commented on this and so I don't really need to talk about it. All I can say is, line organisation needs to be in place. S4 and Colours was dire to line up for. Having 1 console for both versions of colours and 2 for S4 between a possible 1000 people didn't really work. Hopefully this event size will show Sega how beneficial events like this are, so they adequately provide dev/retail consoles to properly promote their new game.
I wasn't there for the C40 performance, and I'm a bit reluctant to say that until this event I hadn't even heard of them. I know that this may not count me as a "real sonic fan" in some people's eyes but for me this isn't true. By the sounds of it, the gig went a blast so all I can say is well done for such a good performance and hopefully I will see them next year.
All in all, the event was great, if a little sparse in areas that were major parts to the event. I feel that it was a success. Was nice meeting people too, who I will know doubt meet again next year (under aircon!).
I think the major thing we’ve learned this year is triumpth in the face of adversity. I tip my collective hat to everybody that was involved with the setting up this year. I can tell you that Jun and Johnny had a BLAST playing, and I doubt you’ll meet two nicer guys. Seriously I gave Jun a copy of Victory Goal ’96 OST for him to sign and he said “next time, i’ll play a victory goal song and dedicate it to you” which made me feel real special haha! The look on Johnny’s face when he saw what I wore (I was the guy wearing bright pink Sonic pyjamas) was absolutely priceless haha!
Yes, the air conditioning was a nightmare (thank god I bought 3 t-shirts with me! I only had them in case I wanted to wear something different for the afterparty), but all in all it was just a great time. That was out of everybody’s hands, so that couldn’t be helped.
At 2:30am this morning over a drink (it was a loooooooooong afterparty), Svend told me that for him, the point of SoS was a place for fans of Sonic to meet and to make friends; everything else is a bonus. I agreed with him 100%.
I support everything you guys have done and will continue to do so. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
:U I loves my time there, sad to be back home now D:
SOS was awesome, i had a great time, a bit hot in there but still it was good, i enjoyed doing the cosplay i thought shadow wasn’t going to be that populer :C, but next year i bet ill be the only one dressed up as……. you know what im saving it till next year dont want everyone else dressed up as it ;l, i will say this crush 40 was awsome, i was waiting all the time (thinking…. put crush 40 on please………) i got a high-five from both of them never washing my hand again…. never…….ever…. again,i didnt play sonic the hedgehog 4, or sonic colours because i dont want to miss the exsitment for when they comes out.
all together 9000/10 (its over 9000)
hi there,
i had a great time at the event and made lots of queue friends. it amazes me how you guys manage to put it all together every year (i’ve been to summer of sonic since 2008).
crush 40 were amazingly epic, and i loved every minute, and they were well worht the wait. the gift bags were equally as brilliant, and although by the time i got in there wasn’t much at the store I was impressed by the stall…maybe next year i’ll get in earlier and be able to get more stuff…like the plushies.
the only issue i had was with the quese (not the entry one as that wasn’t within any of your control with everything concerned) but the queues for colours and sonic 4 were nuts, and made it hard to navigate as you had to go through the queues to get anywhere.
i didn’t manage to get to play sonic 4 as my legs could barely walk/stand any more after queuing for colours (i think i waited after opening ceremony to just after crush 40 Q&A).
its was really bad there as we had the cameraman kncoking people out with his camera, queue jumpers (there were 10 people in front of us at one point, which when we looked back turned into 15), and people were having multiple goes on wii sonic colors which made the queue longer (one person had about 3 goes on the machine going through the demo 3 times) and people were standing over the DS filming everything on their phones. the queue also got muddled very badly into the stage area as well which made it hard to find any where to just sit and relax.
On the other hand, i did meet some incredibly nice people while queuing, and i’ve now dubbed them my queue buddies even if i didn’t get their names.
everything else though, considering, was amazing….we found a cool spot in the hall and sat there for about an hour randomly chatting. while waiting for friends in queues and resting up, if my legs hadn’t died i probably would’ve wondered around more and seen everything to offer…but considering my legs died they were magically better when crush 40 got on stage….hmmm
welll, thanks again so much for the epic time and i can’t wait until next year’s summer of sonic, and everyone involved, thanks again for doing so much for us sonic
Thanks for the awesome convention, I will have to attend next year, no doubt! It was totally worth getting up early to fly over for
And I’m very sorry to hear you guys were having many difficulties in getting everything set up and organised on the morning, better luck with it next year.
But it was a spectacular event regardless and I cannot sum up how epic the Crush 40 performance was! The only issue was the air con, it was stifling hot in the room, but whatever.
I recommend anyone who is a Sonic fan, who hasn’t gone yet to try and attend the next one.
I think criticising people for finding some of the day boring is a bit silly really.. The day definitely had it’s high points. Crush 40 performance was absolutely awesome, getting to play Sonic 4 was awesome too. But there was no way I could’ve stayed in there all day! In 5 minutes of being there I’d pretty much seen everything that was there to do and the intro went straight over mine and some of my friends heads (and I thought I was a over the top fan! Guess not. lmao)
Not trying to say the event was bad though, it was really cool.. Specially seeing as your stuff was stolen and it appears the venue wasn’t much help. I’m just sort of hoping there will be more space and things to keep me occupied so I can stay in there longer. Sega could also make a lot of money out of the event… No idea why there was no refreshments or non Crush 40 items at the store.
Looking forward to next year.
I can’t believe anyone would dare say it was boring or dis-organised. You guys pull off the most amazing events, three years in the running now, getting bigger and better all the time. I am so very grateful.
I’m also sorry that Rory’s stuff was stolen, that’s awful D:
I was one of the first to arrive outside, there were about five of us there early and at the start there was somewhat of a queue, but maybe we should have actually have enforced one.. We will next year >_>
The merchandise was great. Can’t complain about a lack of it, since this is the first year we’ve had it! I didn’t get to play on the games, didn’t have enough time ^_^
The lack of air conditioning was the only problem for me. Yeah, it was hot for you guys, I was in a bloody fursuit
Thanks for bringing the cosplay contest forward,
that helped haha.
Having refreshments may be an idea, but after people were allowed outside, there were plenty of shops nearby for people. Considering the problems, will you guys be sticking with the Pavilion? It was a good location anyway, but you need a place that will work for you as the organisers.
Crush 40 were amazing and even though they had to leave signings, Jun came back and was really dedicated, he is a legend.
Big thanks again to all the staff. I love you guys!
Two words: professional videography. Sounds like you guys got screwed out of some serious equipment this year, but especially for concert coverage, us folks in America would absolutely love to have a crisp, clean, properly mixed 2-camera video of the event. Hell, if I can afford to fly out someday, I’d love to volunteer my services…
Actually, no, providing refreshments for 800 people is way too much and you guys should not be required to provide anything like that. There were loads of places to get food and drink outside. Yeah, the heat didn’t help, but as long as you bought drinks you would have been all right.
Although I admit I miss the open area outside at last years convention
I spent £70+ on merch. My family are appalled. I am very happy! To me, the merch was priced fairly and well worth it. I would have gladly paid £70 just to go to SoS again! Seriously.
“And can people now drop last years “you don’t know who Purge is†nonsense on the basis I twigged Sketch Turner and Roadkill before you. ”
The fact that you recognized who I was made the whole thing worth it considering I threw that costume together the night before on a whim and ended up with green hair and eyebrows instead of blond ^^’
This post also really made my day, thanks Kevin. If you didn’t twig it then, I was the same one who played Purge as well as Sketch, though to be honest, Purge would have been more appropriate this year what with Ulala hanging around. [I so wanted to start a dance battle in any case]
I’m going to TRY to actually cosplay a Sonic related character in ’11 provided I get the costume done in time…I kind of paled when it was announced in June instead of August, but hey, it’ll force me to concentrate on it more to get it done in time.
As for who it is well…let’s just say Eggman will be having a serious run for his money.
I knew…
Yeh well everyone may have stole the hermit crabs, but i found 9 Locations! And you only counted 8 before the event
. The 10th Hermit Crab is a lie
@David Neighbour: That did suck, hard. There needs to be better queuing systems for the games, signings etc etc. The one act per person was necessary, It is annoying to be so close to the front of a line and have 1 family hog both machines. Signing would need to be quicker and more regulated so that everyone can get a autograph. Air con is necessary.
Other than that the event was awesome. Crush 40 were amazing and the various stage events were very good. I will be coming back next year.
You all did great consider it was a free event, but you should definately get your money back from the pavilion staff. I guess none of you guys had the delights of seeing some very dangerous lighting fixtures that had fallen from teh ceilings in the girl’s toilets. Also the guys on the door – you were lame at keeping out the drunks! They stank up the place real bad!
Also forgot to say – Suggestion for next year
PLEASE let us know how late the event will be going on for – my last train was at 6 and considering the failings of the underground I couldnt stay for much
BUT if you let us know how late n stuff next year
I’ll know to book a hotel or something.
BEST. CONVENTION. EVER.
That is all.
Also here’s my photo upload batch on my facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074447&id=1303210762&l=bad4ac9186
This was my first summer of sonic and it was absolutely mind blowing! I’m definitely going back next year! If i could also make a few suggestions for improvement:
1. Air Conditioning
2. A much bigger venue (so there is plenty of space for everyone and way more stalls for much more sonic merchandise such as clothing, cds, toys, dvds, games etc. to be sold) maybe an outdoor venue next year?
3. More time for Crush 40 to sign merchandise because I didn’t have a chance to get their signature this year
4. Were there any rings hidden round this year, because i thought that was a great idea?
5. Let everyone who organised the event remain their entertaining and awesome selves for next year’s summer of sonic
Overall, I had a great time, I just want to be guaranteed to get Crush 40′s signatures next year.
Hi everyone I want to apologise for all of my complaints to you all especially to the show runners. My mood suddenly dropped very low after a couple of hours and I suddenly felt very sad during the event and have done all weekend. I don’t know whether I am just feeling down or even maybe a little depressed.
It is so frustrating as it was my first convention and was hoping to have a really happy day.
I will list what I enjoyed and hopefully cheer myself up.
1) Seeing all the fans was fantastic! great atmosphere and nice seeing people there of all ages.
2) The goody bag, metal sonic figure now on my shelf with my figures, comic and door hanger are all ace.
3) The countdown gave me goosebumps and the animation was funny.
4) Sonic 4 and Colours on DS were fun, I really enjoyed Sonic Colours on Wii a lot.
5) My signed Knucles print from Nigel Dobbyn is fantastic and I will have it framed. Nigel was a great guy.
6) All the costumes were fantastic, so much work into them. My favourites were Robotnik and Rouge I think.
7) Crush 40 was awesome.
Sorry again for sounding like a right miserable so and so and thanks for the day. I hope I start feeling happier again soon and will be at full spirits next year.
My dream next year would be for you guys to reveal exclusive news of a Sonic movie for his 20th Anniversary.
The queuing really ruined the experience for me and the fact the place was very hot too didnt help i was sweating lol but the overall the place was fun, shame i didnt get to try out sonic colours for Wii I blame the selfish fans that just wanted to hog it for ages, I got to play sonic 4 but i had to wait 2 hours in line to try a level that only lasted a few seconds…
I also got to play sonic colours for DS twice but i wasnt happy with colours for DS all honesty.
problem with the event was it wasnt organised properly it was more all over the place , hopefully next year you guys will pick a much cooler place that isn’t to hot and organise it so we all get to try out the games without waiting in a line that takes like 2 to 4 hours plus i didnt know when the sega racing tournament was happening so i missed out on that too and because the queuing wasn’t organised/fast enough I missed getting a autograph from crush40 too.
highlights for me was getting a free metal sonic which is amazingly detailed and meeting Nigel Dobbyn who drew me a evil super sonic vs sonic picture ^^
i might attend next years event only if its organised and its in a cooler area with abit more things going on.
Also I think you should include a shop that sells sonic action figures and rare merchandise like that fang the sniper plush, oh and I think you should keep secret surprises for the day that people didn’t know about like have ryan Drummond or something announce on the day when everyone’s there or maybe sega could surprise us with a new sonic game that’s never been announced yet and then have it exclusively shown at the event to make it more fun and exciting.
The entire con was epic and this was my second SOS, only five (Minor!) complaints 1. Sort out the queue! 2.Make sure there’s enough time for autographs to be frank I was disappointed at not getting Crush 40′s autograph but there performance was unforgettable so its not that bad. 3. Try and getmore machines especially if your previewing something as awesome as Sonic 4 i know this isn’t your fault but hopefully now Sega have seen all this for themselves they’ll be willing to give a bit more. Now all that’s already been said. But fourth can we not have wentos giving out wii games? Lets tap has only a tenuous link to Sonic now, again i’m looking at you sega… come on something small but that’s worth the immense luck and effort needed to get a ring.
And one thing …. can we get something like a track list that was played by the DJ’s throughout sos some of the sonic I heard were new to me and some of the remixes wee fantastic that id not heard before. One “Soft sounding” song about shadow I heard is driving me nuts tying to find it!
Though SOS was again epic and I can only try and contain my imagination was to what will be done for an SOS held on sonic’s 20th anniversary!
Considering the amount of misfortunes that were happening behind the scenes I was really glad to see the event still going in full swing and just about everyone enjoying they’re day at this ever-growing event!
A minor comment on what ‘David Neighbour’ was saying about queueing in his first post. I think it’s because the whole event started off as a small and tight-knit group that people were just flocking to their ‘circle of friends’ and weren’t too fussed as to which order they entered the building. Of course, as next year is going to be rather high-profile, it MIGHT be a suggestion to formalise that a little…just a little though. I’m not a great fan of the MCM Expo’s strict policing for queueing, for example. That kind of thing would feel like entering jail XD. And also yeah, earlycomers should’ve been given priority…I thought someone came out to check on that though :S
In any case, I feel for the staff as I’ve known quite a number of them since before SoS began, and knowing how this event expands exponentially and gets more and more media attention makes everyone sweat to get everything ‘perfect’.
But my opinion? You’ve pulled it off juuuuuust fine
Anyway, as I’ve taken well over 100 pictures of the event itself (not including the after-party!) you may have ended up in one of my snaps, so take a browse at my archive of pics to relive Summer of Sonic 2010! (PS: Help me tag people I haven’t done yet, if you know them!)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=472830&id=550500703&l=21ed7540dd
I have to say guys who created this you were spectacular at the Convention. I mean when my friend was having his ashtma attack you were so helpful for us and I really appreciate the help and cooperation. Honestly you peopple were brilliant and your hospitalble nature will be memorable to me for a very long time. I’m just glad he felt better and we definetly enjoy the rest of SoS. Also I really wanna thank you for giving us those signed shirts by Crush 40 I almost Spazzed out my skin when I heard it but you guys are soo kind and I can’t wait to see you next year.
As for the convention AWESOME!!! Especially under the pressure you were in. I could understand why you opened late Im suprised it didn’t take you longer thats terrible how they left it but you guys did a wonderful job. You know I loved seeing all those fantastic artists and fans and their work. And it was so nice seeing other Sonic fans everyone was just really nice. And Crush 40 out of this world performance I was at front jumping my heart out to every song.
So my overview, best day EVER!!! How you are gonna top this I don’t know but if you do I will be unbelievably impressed! Staff were amazing, Venue Great, Services and shops reasonable and polite, Art area was great, spacious and lovely people to chat to, and Crush 40 perfect finale. Giving Summer of Sonic 2010 7 Chaos Emeraldds and a whopping Master Emerald!
SPECTACULARIOUS!
@Crazy Sam10 – I have a few Shadow and Amy plushies in reserve. If you would like to buy one, send me a private message on the SSMB boards – http://board.sonicstadium.org/user/1218-nemain/
Let me just clarify here as well as on the SSMB boards about the merch available on the day… This is a repaste of what I wrote there.
“A few of you have complained at the lack of merch available on the day. As one of the people selling said merch, allow me to explain why this was. Unfortunately we only had very limited supplies and it really was first come, first serve. The merch on sale was all merch we had sourced for the event and had to transport to the venue ourselves – As you can imagine transporting the merch was no easy feat for a huge box of 30-odd plushies coming from 150 miles away! We also had to gauge the type of demand there would be for these things as transporting the stuff there was hard enough let alone lugging it back again! I brought a few random Japanese items on the off chance there would be interest and they were gone in minutes. Now that we know there IS a significant demand for merch, there will be a lot more available next year. Promise you that!
As for the merch being expensive, and the pricing of the comics being £5-10? None of the comics I was selling on behalf of T-Bird were more than £4 each (most were £2-3), and some of those comics have gone for more than three times what they were priced for at the event on Ebay. There was not one price there on any of the merch that exceeded what you would pay on Ebay. Sure, the plushies were £20 each, but that is NOT expensive for them. They have sold for £30 each on Ebay before postage and they go in a flash. Those plushies were never available in any shops as they were prize plushies only. Once Alton Towers runs out of them (and that’s the only place I know left that still has them), THAT IS IT. They will certainly appreciate in value due to being European exclusive releases. They are also no longer being shipped by Sega (they stopped in March). The last set of Sega Prize plushies that were released in that size was in 2001… And we all know how much the SA2 plush set fetches these days, don’t we? ;)”
ANYWAY!
A fabulous day that went excellently despite the setbacks prior to opening. Rory is a friggin’ trooper for just getting up and on with it and deserves total respect for his dedication to the cause. All the hard work the staff put in was well worth it to see the spirit of the community gathered at the event. SoS has come a long way since its humble roots and seeing people smile and laugh together united by the same love for one blue hedgehog… It’s amazing. Thanks, everyone, for making SoS epic!
That was my first SOS, I wanted to enjoy it but I couldn’t, please get a better venue next year, that place was no good, it was no good for my pushchair, too hot, too crowded and had some steps to try and get the pushchair up and down, I had to feed my baby in the entrance to the place and had to leave within half an hour as it was just not a good place for a 3 month old to be in.
Please get a better more accessible place next year, I wasn’t the only one with a pushchair and there was a guy in a wheelchair.
I had a wonderful time!
Thankyou so much to everyone who made it happen.
Anyone who said it was boring must be clinically insane! There was so much going on my head was spinning.
I made friends in the que, the goodie bag was a real treat and the countdown/intro gave me shivers. All the new games looked awesome- though I didn’t get the chance to actually play any of them. I met soooooo many lovely people in the artists corner and the cosplay contest.
The one and only problem I had was the lack of air con. I was melting on my Rouge cosplay, and I know I wasn’t as hot as some of the other Cosplayers.
I knew the venue had been having issues, but I didn’t realise it had been that bad! You guys did an absolutely superb job under difficult conditions and I salute you heartily.
The con was awesome and amazing. My first SoS and it totally blew me away. It was awesome (despite the heat!) My calendar is already cleared for next years’ event.
Good job, guys! You deserve a rest.
Skyblaze (aka Blaze the Cat #1)
@Christabel – May I direct you to the left hand side of the hall, where you’ll find a ramp!
Hi there
Was awesome being at Summer of Sonic. Once I put that Eggman costume on, I became a celebraty XD Had heard there was a prize I was supposed to have got, but somehow never recieved it. Hope to get in contact with the organizers soon to sort it out.
But still, was a awesome experience and… SUMMER OF EGGMAN WILL BE COMING NEXT YEAR!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!… (coughs) sorry bout that ^^;
Euan
Christabel: There was a ramp down one side, steps down the other side. If there hadn’t been a ramp we would not have considered the venue at all without it being sorted. Sorry you had trouble but the facility was there.
SK72: We do try and arrange surprises, however something as you suggest wouldn’t be really possible and if we did those who didn’t attend would be complaining we should’ve announced it. And thank you but the event WAS organised and organised very well considering everything that happened.
Mark: If you had looked to your left you’d’ve seen a load of Archie original comic drawings by Tracy Yardley!, which were nothing to do with Crush 40. It IS rather difficult to get things in for a shop as it results in a lot of extra work and there are some thigns you cannot sell. We’d not be able to “sell” SOS branded merchandise for instance. A couple of others have asked why we weren’t selling the rare merch… umm…. because its ours? There was a bazarre of sorts opposite it with all sorts of other things which I never even got a chance to see.
SoS ’10 was incredible, I cannot thank everyone involved enough for all the effort and hard work you all put in to make it all possible. Considering what you had to work with and all the trouble you went through, thank you just doesn’t seem to cut it but, THANK YOU!
Crush 40 were awesome, Sonic Colours really surprised me with how good it was and Sonic 4 was good though the controls just felt wrong somehow. Here’s looking forward to SoS ’11, well after I’ve finally come down from all the excitement of this years anyway!
That was an awesome day. Crush 40 being pushed to the end of the day turned out to be the perfect ending to the event. Shame the queue for Colours was so insane, but I managed to grab a go on Sonic 4 ^_^
This event was fantastic. I was sweating with the heat after only 50 mins but it was worth it. I loved playing Sonic 4 and Sonic Colours. Crush 40 seem like really decent guys and their performance was amazing. The whole event was good fun and thank you to all the staff for their effort to make this possible. You are great guys and I can’t wait to see what you come up with for Sonic’s 20th next year.
I think it was a fantastic event and the best day all year. The event was crammed full with so many things I didn’t have the time to experience them all (Sonic Colours for example) but all the things I did get to enjoy were top class. Meeting Nigel Dobbyn again was the highlight to me because I got to talk to him more and he had so much more stuff for sale. Not to mention I got a free Sonic sketch off of him.
I’ve said this in several other places but as a member of STC-O I just want to know how it’s possible for us to sell prints/comics as seeing Dobbyn and Elson Wong sell their works beside our table made (me at least) feel rather jealous. True, I’m just a STC-O rookie but I’d still love to be get our work out to the community. Maybe next year?
I actually had no questions on delays as I would imagine setting up such a huge event (not to mention the set backs you faced) would prove an enourmaously challenging task.
Anyway apart from lack of air-con I will defiently can’t wait for how you’ll top this next year.
I think you guys made 7/08/2010 the best day of my life! well worth the 7 hour bus journey at 1am and the same return at 11pm.
The only things I can suggest you could maybe improve on (I really dug deep for some critisism, everything else was perfect despite all the issues you guys put up with and never let on.) Are perhaps announcing/notifying the crowd of the times of events (Other than only those on stage) a little more, I missed the SASAS Racing contest because I didnt know when it would start and when it did I had been in the sonic colours queue for over an hour and didnt want to give up my place in line. This could be done on the same backdrop as the stage show schedule or a printed rough full schedule of the day could be handed out to attendees in goodie bags maybe.
Other than that, as you guys already know the format of the queues to play Sonic Colours and Sonic 4 wasn’t the greatest and maybe having a staff member at each console would promote fair usage, one line for those who want to play one act only and another line for those who want to play the full demo could speed up lines and then people can expect to wait forever if they allow others to play as long as they expect to play, and those who only want a short game will not have to wait as long is another suggestion.
The whole day as utterly amazing, I don’t know how you guys pulled it off all things considered. I really don’t know how you can beat this year, besides more attendees (I’ll definately be bringing a few more friends) I know a performance by crush 40 would make me even more excited now knowing how great they are live! But maybe it’s a little too early to start hoping for a demo of “Sonic 4: Episode 2″
All in all, you guys made a lot of people happy, I speak as a 20yr old who was almost reduced to tears of joy at Jun’s afternoon tea session. but all of the on stage events were AWESOME! Thanks guys! Summer of Sonic Rules!
Best. Day. EVAR!!! XD. I heard about SoS from my mate after seeing an inconspicuous little post on the Sonic 4 facebook page, but even so, first words out of my mouth were “We’re going”. I’ve been a Sonic Fan since the days of my 5th birthday when I got my dear Mega Drive and the publishing days of STC were still strong, but it did make me think… what could there really be to fill a whole day with about one Mascot? Oh how you proved me wrong! Me and my mate were in there from the moment you opened the door to the minute that Crush 40 walked off stage (not including our 10 minute jaunt to Sainsburys for Sushi and a replenishment of drinks :p) and LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT!!! XD. We’ve made new friends, experienced new things and been blown away by Crush 40 (Literally. I was the guy with his head up against the stage speaker waving at the techies when it went off…. before having my ear drums burst when you got it back on :p). All in all we were incredibly impressed at the quality of something that started with such humble beginnings and I can only say THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU to you and all the staff who have gone to the trouble and hard work of organising something that will stay a real memory for me and i’m sure everyone who attended. Plus, I think it’s testament to the fans, that in a time where Mascots are fading away and memorable characters are hard to come by anymore, Sonic still stands strong after nearly 20 years ^_^.
And on the suggestion side of things, This year, I didn’t even realise that Nigel Dobbyn was doing an art surgery! I’m not much of a drawer yet but i’d have loved to have given that a go, but I missed out cause I never heard mention of it :/. I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for it next year though! Lastly, if you guys plan another tournament next year, I think it might be cool to rig a 360 up to the projector and have the finals up on stage for everyone to see :D. Never know, I might make it past the knockout stages and be up there myself next year :p.
Thanks again everyone and keep up the good work. We all appreciate it ^_^!