New Sonic Figures!

[JShedgehog]

Saw most of the Sonic Colors cutscenes, and I must say, I'm impressed. This was the first Sonic game in forever that the VA didn't bother me at all, and the script was well-written with very few (if any) cheesy lines. I'm seriously considering buying this game now.

[AgentH]

By the way has anyone seen or heard anything about the Free Riders toys? The game has been out for a week and there's been nothing.

[Aquaslash]

I imagine it's gonna take as long to come out as the ASR toys did.

[Omnichronus]

Maybe even faster, I imagine it'll be easier to produce the riders figures than making the vehicles for ASR.

 

And sonic colors seems to have turned out beautifully. Both versions. Their pretty much different games, but this may be the first time ive ever technically bought two versions of a game.

[jamaro]

Hey everyone!!!

Wow, it's been a long time, sorry about that.

I have been working hard for you fans!...Remember I am a fan too!

 

First off the Sonic Free Rider figures should be hitting stores very soon.

We took our time on these to improve the quality.

 

In fact I just got back from China, I was there for two weeks fixing things.

I can't say much (company policy) but I can say that we have made

some HUGE changes that WILL result in extremely better quality product!

 

Right now that is the #1 concern of the Sonic team!

 

We are working on press releases right now for all the new stuff we have coming out!

You guys are gonna be happy. Even though I don't post I do follow the thread and I read all the comments we get on our website.

Please continue to send us comments on our site, Our CEO reads those so it helps our cause when we want a figure like Rouge!

She is coming in 2011!

 

I also read all the letter you send, talking to you...Anthony in Staten Island, NY!

 

Back to work, but I wanted to take a break and check in with my fellow Sonic fans.

Thanks again for all your support!

 

-Joe

[SuperSonic1497]

Good to hear Joe. Thanks for listening.

[SuperSawnyc]

REALLY nice to hear about the improvement in quality, I can't wait for the new figures. Speaking of new...ROUGE is coming?! That's awesome that you guys are finally making her.

 

I hate to ask, but Joe, have you got the approval for 3-inch E-123 Omega yet?

[Aquaslash]

Eff yeah Rouge! Here's hoping the other three passed as well. I'd love to have Team Dark, as well as Mighty and Shade.

[AgentH]

Hooray! Better quality control! Now i wont have to fear every time i open a Sonic toy!

[LarryKoopa]

I love it when Joe steps in! It's like Superman flying his patrols around Metropolis. It's good just to know he's still out there.

And Rouge! We're one step closer to Team Dark!

[Raithos]

Oh wow my TRU finally stepped up, got my 3rd mint in box super pack, finally got my single card shadow, got my werehog, and reg silver

cant wait for rouge, that is going to be so epic. Damn I might buy 2 of her, lol

[prisy25]

I'm so glad to know about the Rouge figure! She's one of my favorite Sonic characters and I'd LOVE a figure of her. As for the huge changes in quality control, I gotta ask. Does the new change in quality control include the recent figures that came out? Espio, Vector, and the 3 super figures since those 5 figures were the ones I recall a lot of people complaining about in quality control. I'd like to have all new figures with new and better quality control but I'd also like to have the figures that already came out with better quality control too. Also will that orange Chaos Emerald be fixed into the proper Cyan color? That's what I'd really like to know...

[SuperChaos2585]

Haha! Thanks for checking in Joe, I think everyone else has made it clear how much we look forward to your visits!

[SSJJazhead51]

Great to hear that the quality control will be improved! My first 3 inch sonic came with really loose legs.

 

 

[Omnichronus]

EPIC news! Rouge eh? Sweet, i hope for blaze to be soon too. I believe shes been confirmed for a while.

[SuperSonic1497]

I'm really excited for Rouge, I still need Big and Froggy. The other figures that are coming out soon aswell

 

Off Topic:

 

Is anyone here able to do a good sonic voice impression. I need a VA for a series I am working on. It will be like 10 lines for you each episode we would do like 1 (at most 2) episode per month. If your available let me know ASAP!

[kf71189]

I'm really excited for Rouge, I still need Big and Froggy. The other figures that are coming out soon aswell

 

Off Topic:

 

Is anyone here able to do a good sonic voice impression. I need a VA for a series I am working on. It will be like 10 lines for you each episode we would do like 1 (at most 2) episode per month. If your available let me know ASAP!

 

 

I'm pretty decent at doing a Sonic voice. If you're interested, I could email some sample clips.

[JShedgehog]

I'm really excited for Rouge, I still need Big and Froggy. The other figures that are coming out soon aswell

 

Off Topic:

 

Is anyone here able to do a good sonic voice impression. I need a VA for a series I am working on. It will be like 10 lines for you each episode we would do like 1 (at most 2) episode per month. If your available let me know ASAP!

 

What kind of Sonic voice are you looking for?

[Tenks]

In regards to the new Sonic VAs. Some notes.

 

Sonic - Sounded better in responding to Amy in the first posted Free Riders clip, but is still struggling to not sound like an arrogant Cali-nightclub owner

 

Tails - Spot on, a bit of a change but comparable to Gohan's new VA in the DBK dub

 

Knuckles - Sounds ALOT like Dan Green, no problems

 

Shadow - Seriously, stop trying to sound like a vampire. I'm sorry, I'm having the same problem with Shadow as I do with Sonic, it's not so much the voice itself as the delivery. Now we have the Total Drama Island host VS. Count Bleck. Stop trying to fit a cartoony "persona" into the deliveries and just speak in the choosen voice normally.

 

Amy - It's a serious problem when Amy has a higher-pitched voice than Cream. When did Minnie Mouse get here?

 

Silver - There was a change? *sigh* When are they going to make him sound as cool as his Japanese VA? Shinn Asuka the Hedgehog FTW!

 

Blaze - There was a change? Works.

 

Rouge - Much better.

 

Cream - Still high-pitched, still a sign America hasn't found the english-equivalent of the Japanese Shojo voice. Otherwise, works.

 

Vector - Ugh.

 

Jet - Still needs work but at least he isn't practically squaking every line like he was beforehand. He's a HAWK, not a rooster. =P

 

Storm - Not even kidding, sounds like a voice Trey Parker and Matt Stone would use on South Park.

 

Wave - Works.

 

Omachao - Works.

 

 

Overall, a mixed bag. Alot of improvements in terms of base voices, but alot of poor choices regarding delivery. It's most likely the director, but the cartoony deliveries rear their heads again as they usually do with every new Sonic VA roster. Sonic and Shadow are the worst at this, Sonic I just find arrogant to a point of dissuation and Shadow I straight up CANNOT take seriously anymore (make way for Count Bleck the Hedgehog). Amy needs to either drop her pitch IMMENSELY or just get a new voice altogether. Everyone else is passable, if not exceptional, but when you have three primary characters with such awkward deliveries it makes the few errors stand out all the more. Tell the Sonic and Shadow VAs to calm down, not worry to much about dragging words, "creepifying" every sentence and just generally drop the "persona deliveries" and just deliver the lines with a smoother and more-natural approach. Tell Amy to drop her pitch significantly and you're fine.

 

What I seriously don't get is why the English VAs don't try to mirror their Japanese counterparts. Sonic, Shadow and Silver in particular are still tip-top in their Japanese VAs then almost any other casting out there. Griffith did so, playing off Sonic's Japanese VA, and it did WONDERS for his delivery. Makes sense, these are, obviously, Japanese characters with Japanese roles in mind which may not necessarily translate smoothly in English. Cream and Silver are good examples of this. However, as prooven with Griffith, it isn't impossible to mimick the JPN VAs, it's just difficult. What annoys me is that the directors seem to want to steer the cast toward "American cartoony" more often than "Japanese anime." Then again, we've also been told by the creators of Sonic Colors that we SHOULDN'T like their game if we're adults. Awesome. Guess I'm "swimming against the current" here. =P

[Raithos]

Then again, we've also been told by the creators of Sonic Colors that we SHOULDN'T like their game if we're adults. Awesome. Guess I'm "swimming against the current" here. =P

 

Well screw them, I'm pretty sure they realize a majority of Sonic fans are well into their 20's/adults, lol.

[SuperEV133]

What I seriously don't get is why the English VAs don't try to mirror their Japanese counterparts. Sonic, Shadow and Silver in particular are still tip-top in their Japanese VAs then almost any other casting out there.

 

You do realize they have a voice director that tells them how to sound, and once they've got that sound tell them if it's okay or not, correct?

 

Then again, we've also been told by the creators of Sonic Colors that we SHOULDN'T like their game if we're adults. Awesome. Guess I'm "swimming against the current" here. =P

 

At no time did they ever say that. If I remember corectly, they stated that they are marketing to a young audience, but have also said that the game has enough challenge to keep a veteran busy for a while. Sonic has always been a children's game anyway(don't deny it, it is. He's a cartoony blue talking hedgehog for Christ sakes), and people are only taking notice of it now because they said so.

[Aquaslash]

Hah, I couldn't take Shadow seriously when Griffith was at the helm. He was way too forced and unnatural sounding. Thornton's Shadow is reminiscent of David Humphrey's Shadow, and that is GLORIOUS.

[Tenks]

What I seriously don't get is why the English VAs don't try to mirror their Japanese counterparts. Sonic, Shadow and Silver in particular are still tip-top in their Japanese VAs then almost any other casting out there.

 

You do realize they have a voice director that tells them how to sound, and once they've got that sound tell them if it's okay or not, correct?

 

Then again, we've also been told by the creators of Sonic Colors that we SHOULDN'T like their game if we're adults. Awesome. Guess I'm "swimming against the current" here. =P

 

At no time did they ever say that. If I remember corectly, they stated that they are marketing to a young audience, but have also said that the game has enough challenge to keep a veteran busy for a while. Sonic has always been a children's game anyway(don't deny it, it is. He's a cartoony blue talking hedgehog for Christ sakes), and people are only taking notice of it now because they said so.

 

 

Senator Literal,

 

Yes, obviously VA work is not a black-and-white as "it's all the Voice Actor's fault." I realize that. My point was, and still is, whoever is actually in charge of moderating the VAs OR the director of the game OR the casting director OR the script writers who collaborate with the voicework department OR WHOEVER or WHATEVER is, at the end of the day, responsible for determining the direction the voices go in should focus more on the original (Japanese) VA work for the characters in order to (IMHO) improve the voicework on the whole.

 

Secondly,

 

"We know there are sometimes opinions about control from core gamers, but we're intending Sonic Colors to be played by children of probably between six and twelve years-old"

 

Yes, Sonic is "family-friendly" but the idea that his games are strictly targetted at children is somewhat flawed. Franchises with the legacy Sonic has in the gaming industry may be "family friendly" and E-Rated, such as Mario, Zelda, Megaman etc., but "family-friendly" doesn't necessarily dictate "for children, period." It's simply unnecessary for SEGA, or really anybody for that matter, to state an age-cap for a game, or even suggest the target audience beyond the concept of the content-rating. Now, I'm not exactly spazzing over this news myself (I'll play everything from L4D to Pokemon TBH. Quality is top priority for me.), but I can understand why this annoucement would be news-worthy and upset some of the fanbase. It offputs some people to be told "this thing you were interested in is not meant for you," especially when (as Raithos put it) alot of Sonic's fanbase is 20+ years old. It's not so much the literal message of Sonic Colors being aimed at children, I think, so much as it is another sign that SEGA really doesn't care about the older, true-blue Sonic fans AS MUCH AS IT DOES the younger demographic. I.e. unlike, say, Mario, SEGA seems bent of strictly targetting the kids rather than making a game everyone of all ages can enjoy. I feel this is reflected in the new VA work, there's this perpetual cartoony persona/tonage being used in the dubbing which makes it potentially difficult for anyone above the age of 9 to take the characters seriously. For me, at least, switching to Japanese voices with English subtitles makes the games feel much more universal, much more "for everyone", and generally just a better experience. And yeah, I've seen Japanese "kid VA" work, and can tell the difference. My point is, it'd be nice if SEGA decided to target Sonic as a more universally appealing character in America, as he is in Japan, instead of feeling like all the voices need to be silly and over the top.

[kf71189]

The way I see it, I think Sega doesn't direct them to sound exactly like the japanese because they cast them because they feel he or she fits the character in their own voice for the character. As for the direction, I think they just give them general direction on what to say. I think Roger Craig Smith's performance in Free Riders was much more spot on and his voice was better than in Sonic Colors but still could use improvement. I like Jason Griffith's Shadow voice because it sounded very dark, twisted and in the later games he voiced in, he sounded all mighty and powerful. Kirk Thornton I do believe is taking the direction of David Humphrey but the way he brings out the lines is a bit too over the top. Besides, I don't think he's trying to imitate David Humphrey, I think the direction was similar to what David Humphrey was most likely given. The voice works and I think he's an EXCELLENT choice for Shadow, it's just his delivery sounds too over the top that he has this slow, seductive tone like the way Rouge speaks. Although it's not all about acting like the last actor or the japanese. It's usually about finding a voice and the acting performance that just fits. I think there is hope for all the actors....unsure about Amy though as she's the only voice I really REALLY wish the 4kids actor kept doing. Still though, the 4kids actors grew on me in which most of them I started to like just as much as the actors before them. I'm gonna give these guys the hope that they'll get better within time.

[Tenks]

Yeah, I keep saying the voicework isn't TERRIBLE, and I'm sure they'll improve with time. I'm more calling out the annoying trend of whoever is directing the voice actors making them sound way too exaggerated.