I wonder. I feel like they probably didn't get past the discussion phase. Butttt one thing kinda throws a wrench into the situation. Ray's blue shoes. The 1st instance of that was in the Archie series, but Ray had some initial appearances in the comic with his original red shoes. Eventually Ray's blue shoes became a part of his character, and even found their way into Mania. I'm all for the blue shoes because there are enough red sneakers in the series but still, what an oddly specific change, and it's not like Archie ever significantly altered the established character designs (save for green jesus Knuckles but that's it's own mess). Maybe Archie received some Ray art we've never seen?
Do we know when the blue shoes first appeared in the comics? Also I think Mighty got some design changes for the comics as well, might be worth investigating when those were introduced.
Mighty did, but much later on. Ray's blue shoes were introduced years earlier than Mighty's altered designs (Mighty's initial modern era design was mostly just a literal translation, taller with colored eyes). Ray had a lot of redesigns but the common theme was always a lot of blue. Also something I find amazing, Ray's 1st appearance in the Archie series was Knuckles 26. That means Ken Penders was responsible for bringing Ray back from his SegaSonic grave. ... thanks Penders? Normally that's a sarcastic statement lol but Penders did stick Ray with an unnecessary stutter so that was annoying to deal with until the reboot
Discussion about Ray's design compelled me to look at every Archie issue where Ray appeared for a look at how his design evolved over time. Apologies for the size of the images, this was done rather hastily. Let's start with Ray's first few issues, Knuckles the Echidna #26 to #28. His first storyline appearance depicted him with a collar, which I suppose is a sort of plot device in his story as that's how Mighty gets to remember his disappearance. This collar only appears in some pannels, it's not visible in most of #26 and #27, and it flat out doesn't appear in #28. It's also red, instead of blue. After Knuckles #28, Ray is no longer seen wearing the collar. So much for getting it back. Despite his design in SEGASonic and the shoddy lighting of these scans (and Mighty's confusingly yellow muzzle color...), Ray is depicted with a white muzzle throughout these issues, something which would carry on to most of his pre-reboot appearances. His tuft of hair isn't present, his wide mouth and big nose weren't carried over (making him look like Sonic with his quills edited out...), and his tail is curly, something often seen in cartoon squirrels (and maybe real squirrels?). The design of his shoes is also notably different to SEGASonic, although they're still red. We'll be getting closer to the elusive blue shoes in a minute. Ray wouldn't see an appearance until (if I'm not mistaken, at least) issue #125 of the main comic series. Mourning Sonic, no less. His design is mostly the same as in Knuckles #28; curly tail, no tuft, no collar. He gets his hairdo back in #134! Or an approximation, at least. Design is still mostly the same, but his shoes were changed again. Still not blue. This design would stick in the main series issues where he has a prominent role, being from #138 to #141. After that issue he stops appearing for a while. As for the addition of the color blue to his character, we wouldn't begin to see that until... Issue #163, giving him a dark blue leather jacket and yet another design change to his shoes. This design would be used from #163 to #169. Nice. Now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've been waiting for. The moment it finally clicked on someone "what if this yellow character wore blue instead of red?", Ray would finally get his BLUE shoes in... Issue #174, United. To celebrate a wedding, Ray is dorned with a suit and a pair of blue shoes with a vertical stripe on them. Fancy! He would also be seen wearing blue shoes in the Sonic the Hedgehog Free Comic Book Day 2007 issue, a side-story made for the Free Comic Book Day event of 2007. Ray's most ubiquitious Archie design wouldn't be seen until the next main series issue, #175. His jacket was simplified and it now matches the color of his shoes, the design being an overall refinement of that seen in Free Comic Book Day 2007. This would be Ray's design in all of his Archie comic appearances going forward, until more than 5 years later in issue #48 of the Sonic Universe side series. As Ray is forced to join a gang of misfits in the middle of a desert, his appearance begins to change rather drastically: And my, what a change! He's just knock-off Rocky from Rocky & Bullwinkle now. To justify the switch to his original muzzle color, he was apparently exposed to a harsh life in the desert. The jacket was ditched for a pair of goggles and a scarf, and his shoes got one last redesign. This redesign would carry on to all of his further appearances in the Archie comic, even in the reboot. And as we all know, elements of his design would be lifted for Sonic Mania Plus! Excluding the goggles and scarf. Fine by me. I sure hope this wasn't too overbearing, I don't really believe this topic is big enough to warrant its own thread. It's a bit weird even posting this, as of writing my total posts will amount to 3 with this introspective into some yellow squirrel. Regardless, I'm happy to contribute to this thread and to obscure Sonic knowledge.
Thank you for your efforts, that was informative. However, what I really would like to know is how Archie somehow missed the fact that Ray the Flying Squirrel is supposed to be a flying squirrel You can see he had no membranes in any of his pre-goggles designs.
If even ST, at that time, was THAT divided, how the heck could they keep the fandom from getting divided? Such sad revelation you presented me just now... xD
There is much to process. https://archive.org/details/mega-action-10/page/22/mode/2up A Sonic 3 preview in Mega Action. I think it was presumed that only the Offical Sega Magazine printed those prototype shots - here's another (which could suggest they came straight from Sega). (or given that one screenshot is in monochrome, they just printed whatever they could get their hands on)
OMG this is adorable! https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/131267 Totally preordered one. Mods, I wasn't sure where to put this, so feel free to move it elsewhere.
What a time to be alive - we've got some new scans of photographs of a VHS video showing Sonic Spinball. https://info.sonicretro.org/File:SSB_Title.jpg https://info.sonicretro.org/File:SSB_Mountain1.jpg https://info.sonicretro.org/File:SSB-CES1993-5.jpg https://info.sonicretro.org/File:SSB-CES1993-6.jpg (currently the wiki is displaying stretched versions of the old thumbnails but the new ones aren't much better tbh) This video, specifically (3:15): from Summer CES 1993 - a wonky demo reel of Sonic Spinball was on show. Nothing playable, just a vision of things to come, complete with unused platforms and stretchy animations. I think the clip before then is pre-release SatAM footage. Waaay too much for one person to analyse.
5:25, Game Gear footage of Sonic Spinball and Sonic Triple Trouble. I can't see any info about this on our wiki or TCRF, but there's a bit where Sonic lands on an invincible monitor (a ring monitor in the final game) turns his head to the left and starts running on air and through a wall (why did they show a glitch??) and another part where Sonic uses a Jet Board to cross the water in Great Turquoise Zone.
That looks like the player entered debug/free movement mode, actually. Sonic's animation seems to freeze as if the game was paused.
An interesting video on the Harmonic Rhythm in Sonic the Hedgehog's Music (apologies if it's been shared before)
Sonic is going to appear in Netflix's High Score. Not sure if it's just a segment or a whole episode but it should be interesting. Edit: Glad that they were able to get Ohshima for this. Hopefully other past Sonic Team members make the cut.
In today's episode of "idk if I should make a new topic for this so I'm gonna post it in the Supreme Topic of Other Knowledge instead", Aaron finally revealed his new position at Sega: Director of Strategy, Studio & Community Relations at Sega of Japan. ...I have no idea what it means. But I'm happy for him! Seems like he's moving up in the world.
