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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDMeCOueXCQ
Trekking on to Part 2, TitansCreed’s coverage on Sonic Wrecks continues for the newest episode of the Community Spotlight. Once again, TC is joined by AAUK, Blake Draco, Rabid-Noodles, Ram the Dragon, and TA Black of the Sonic Wrecks crew!
To listen to Part 1 of the Sonic Wrecks Community Spotlight, head on here!
Our good friend Kevin “ArchangelUK” Eva got up to quite a bit in his time at Sega UK, so it stands to reason he’s got his fair share of rare Sonic merch. Now the former Community Manager is raising funds with a load of his stuff seeing the light of eBay.
Now I’m no merch hog, but most of this stuff I didn’t even know existed, so if you like your collectables, you know what to do.
Continue reading eBay Watch: Little-seen Stuff Going Under the Hammer
Apparently I could post on The Sonic Stadium. Who knew? Continue reading Get Ready For Some 2P Action With An SA2:B Contest For SOS 11
Someone recently asked my why I picked on Kevin (best known as ArchangelUK) in one of our recent videos, as they found it a bit unfair. What they didn’t realise was that AAUK has been frequently popping up in this little podcast since the very beginning. I view AAUK as the lucky charm of The Sonic Show. Lets not forget that he was the first major Sonic site (Sonic Wrecks) to support the show, long before anyone else did! It’s his promotion that got SCD to see the show and begin its long journey to where it is today. Every so often we always feel it’s important we do a “Kev Kameo” (we spell it with a K intentionally okay?!?!) so while you may have only just noticed, lets take you through his many appearances (with and without his consent) in The Sonic Show’s timeline.
Back in 2007, The Sonic Show and Radio Redux merged into one big thing! Kevin hosted in his usual style and unsurprisingly The Sonic Show suddenly gained a ton of attention!
Hop along to early 2008 and we have our first “Kev Kameo”. Featured in season 2 of The Sonic Show, we for some reason got very bored.
We managed to catch AAUK for a chat during Summer Of Sonic 2009. Bless him he was completely fucked and the day had only begun (yes it got worse, can you blame him from retiring from organising this thing!) but managed to show such energy for the event in his brief natter. He also sent a message direct to you guys who watched at home through The Sonic Show live stream getting everyone to wave and shout for Crush 40 to come (which worked).
The Sonic Show site went offline for about a month while we did a whole site redo on a new server. In that time the site had one working video, our second “Kev Kameo”, in the form of AfroangelUK getting on the soul train.
In what is simply a bizarre and disturbing opening sequence to any episode we’ve done, AAUK discusses how much he loves the show. To the point that he will lay a trap and kidnap so he can take over my show. The next shot has me locked in an empty room tied and gagged by him… o_O
We announced we had an exclusive launch trailer on the show. Which we did…. of course it was fake. And it featured our favourite “Kev Kameo”. We imagine this is how he worked at SEGA.
We interviewed AAUK the next year for our big Summer Of Sonic blowout. His answer for “How is it going”, pretty much sums up how his “I may collapse and die” metre was at it’s max, even if his charm says otherwise. He must love the fact we come up in his face every year when he’s really busy to ask how busy he is. If you’re reading this Kev, <3 your efforts these 4 years! We will be bothering you on June 25th, sticking a microphone in your face as your being taken out on a stretcher.
The most recent “Kev Kameo” is the oddest one. If you know Nyan Cat then you know what this is. We stuck it in at the end to see if people watch all the way through. It would appear they did!
So that’s AAUK’s numerous times with the show (that we can recall) forgetting all the mentions of Wrecks on our news segments. Will we continue to do it, yes. Why do we do it, because we <3 him and even though we only shove his face in on average once a year, we feel it’s a stupid nod to what he’s done for us. Well that’s our excuse anyway.
Many of you who have set foot in a Summer of Sonic event will know Kevin “AAUK” Eva. If you’ve read the SEGA blogs or have dealt with SEGA, you will have no doubt dealt with him at some point along the way. Unfortunately, as of today Mr. Eva is hanging up his Sonic shoes and parting ways with SEGA.
Kevin has, amongst a plethora of feats spearheaded many of the community related events over the past four years, most notably creating the Summer of Sonic convention with TSS creator Dreadknux, which has gone from strength to strength over three years.
AAUK talks a bit about what he hoped he would achieve at his time at SEGA:
My initial goals of being here have been realised; SEGA is now very much aware of the Community and has a great deal of respect for it, other matters I’ve been fighting for over the years have been realised too and I think it would be fair to say the direction Sonic is going is most assuredly upwards. I’m stopping as I’d like to try my hand at some other things, so it’s hardly that I hate that hedgehog, what exactly I’ve yet to really decide on but things that don’t involve hedgehogs 24/7 would probably be nice(!) You’ll not be completely rid of me within the community, I’m still the main organiser behind Summer Of Sonic for this year anyway and I’ll probably still be active on Sonic Wrecks and other places. This, is who I Am.
You can read the full sign-off on the SEGA blognik. I for one would like to thank Kevin on behalf of the community for going above and beyond the call of duty, and for the many sleepless nights involved in mobilising Summer of Sonic. SEGA has surely lost a valuable asset.
If you have any farewells or messages of thanks for AAUK, please do post them in the comments.
Welcome to my pictorial roundup of Summer of Sonic 2010! Here are a collection of photos from the day, taken by my sister, who was there as official Summer of Sonic photographer (do go check out her website!) If you stopped and posed for a photo thank you; being busy on stage meant I didn’t get an opportunity to take photos for myself, so these are all fantastic captured moments of what was a fantastic day for all.
Over breakfast the day before, Johnny Gioeli leaned over the table and asked me how many people were coming to this little shindig he would be performing at tomorrow. I proceeded to explain that we were expecting between eight-hundred and a thousand people to show up, travelling from all corners of the world, and he was simply staggered. Although I knew the numbers myself, the reality of it all didn’t sink in until the countdown began on stage, and looked down onto the vast throng of people. It still seems like another lifetime to me when Dreaknux, AAUK and myself were huddled around a little table in a Nottingham café fantasising about the prospect of a Sonic convention, yet not four years later we have accomplished a third successful Sonic event.
First off I want to thank all of you guys; you all showed up for starters, supported the event, and behaved impeccably. I didn’t hear one complaint on the day that you had to wait an extra half an hour outside of the venue (an unfortunate setback because of the thefts of electronics), You all waited patiently in queues for Sonic 4, Sonic Colours and the Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing tournament, in some cases for over an hour. Although we managed to get over twelve pods on the day, more than twice the number we had last year, we could have done with more – the popularity of the games available was incredible! I also didn’t hear one moan about the heat during the Crush 40 performance either, even from those of you who aren’t used to attending hot and sweaty rock gigs; everyone was far too busy enjoying the rare opportunity to watch Jun and Johnny perform live. I also want to thank you all for treating our guests with respect and politeness throughout the day.
Although I was pretty much running from point to point for the entirety of the event, what really made my day was the brief pauses I had in between my dashes, chatting to you guys. Even if it was only for a few minutes it was awesome to catch up with you lot, have my photo taken with you…or even signing things! I had a few minutes to catch up with Aaron “RubyEclipse” Webber, the community manager at SEGA of America, who is a fantastic and pleasant fellow, and is probably just as busy when he’s away from his (now Green Hill Zone themed!) desk. It was also marvellous to catch up with folks from the SSMB, Junsenoue.com, SonicWrecks.com, NiGHTSintoDreams.com and EmeraldCoast.co.uk amongst many sites, and to finally put some names to faces! Thanks to everyone who has sent the staff and I a thank you via PM, email or facebook, and a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who bought me a drink or a bottle of my favourite poison – my whiskey cabinet is now well stocked!
I want to also convey my heartfelt thanks to our guests Nigel Dobbyn, Jun Senoue and Johnny Gioeli. For starters these guys are incredibly busy folk, and yet they took time out to come along and perform, draw, talk and sign items for you, for free. I’m always stunned that at the end of every event our guests always ask if they can come back next year, sometimes with their kids because they love coming out to meet you lot, and because the atmosphere is always so friendly. A huge cheer for the guys and gals at Archie Comics and First4Figures too for their extremely kind donation of literally hundreds of comics and action figures! I must also extend my thanks to Richard Elson of STC fame for donating some fantastic artwork to give away as well – all very much appreciated!
I think I speak for the majority of attendees when I say the Crush 40 performance totally blew everyone away. Organising all of the pieces that went towards creating the performance involved many sleepless nights on my behalf – I had nightmares of cabs blowing and microphones failing, but yet in the end it all came together miraculously. I give my infinite gratitude to AAUK, Dreadknux, Jun Senoue and SEGA for assisting me in putting it all together. I don’t think even in my wildest dreams I’d ever imagined introducing Crush 40 on stage…so Summer of Sonic really has become a place in which even my dreams have become reality.
Before I conclude, I think thanks are in order to all the members of staff this year, some of whom have, for a third year running, have given up their time to provide a fun-filled day for everyone. Not only that, some of these folks have donated substantial quantities of money towards the running of these events, and so I’d like to end with a few words of thanks to a few of them:
The DJs; FastFeet, Turbo, BlitzChris and Gavvie: The boys kept the turntables hot all day. This was the first year I haven’t commanded the DJ booth, so I tip my hat to Mr. Graham “FastFeet” Seward who took up the reigns and kept the wheels turning, and who also provided a spot-on job with backing tracks for Jun and Johnny’s performances – simply amazing dude.
The Store Staff: Flyboy, WayPastCool, Speedknux, Char & Nemain – My NiGHTS in shining armour! These guys manned the stores selling all those of wonderful bits of merchandise that no doubt grace many of your shelves and wardrobes. From Jun, Johnny, Tracey Yardley and myself, thank you all so much! A special thanks to Nemain who is probably the person responsible for propping me up the past few months!
The Tech Guys: B’man, Discoponies & Roareye – Even with a massive blow to their arsenal with the theft of equipment the night before, they provided excellent on stage support with feeds and visual magic for the third year running. I honestly don’t think there are any limits to what these guys can achieve on the day!
The Doors and the Games: Urtheart, Vger, Jay Zeach, Shadzter & Blake Draco – The ever present Urtheart once again resided over the doors flanked by his cronies, allowing us all to have another safe day at Summer of Sonic, while Shadz and Blake both kept the crowds moving on the pods. Cheers guys!
Sonic the Hedgehog: He always shows up year in year out with no complaint. And year in year out SonicYoda is nowhere to be seen…we thank him for staying in touch with him and getting him along every year!
…and the Rest: SoA, bcdcdude, Iceman, Rachael, ENVY, Gnasher & SonicMark – I still maintain Iceman is the coolest bloke on the Earth, doubly so as he jumped in when the going got tough and was a huge help setting up the day before. I also tip my hat to the dudes from junsenoue.com who also pitched in, especially in bringing me much needed sustenance in the form of a cheese burger. Rach was also running around much like my sis taking loads of snaps during the day as well. ENVY is the very tallented young chap who provided the fantastic art for the Buzzbombers quiz, and Gnasher for once again running the show. SonicMark has become affectionately known as my caddy as he ends up lugging my stuff around – I just need to find him an appropriate hat. Thanks loads fellas, you all helped make my life easier throughout the organisation of the event.
The Dynamic Duo: AAUK & Dreadknux – Let’s face it, Summer of Sonic only happens because these two guys have the drive to propel it forward. Kevin has once again gone so far beyond the call of duty that we’ve had to send out a search party for him. Svend somehow manages to coordinate a fantastic website every year and continues to be our shining standard bearer. Even though this event is nothing short of an organisational nightmare, they keep coming back year after year to entertain you lot, and I hope your remember that.
So, Summer of Sonic is done for another year, but we’ve already got a date in our diaries for 2011 (25th of June, folks!). Who knows what will be going down on the day, but with it Sonic’s 20th birthday racing towards us, anything could happen!
Thank you all for an awesome SoS ’10.
T
For those of you old enough to remember, it’s ten years to the day since SEGA launched their Dreamcast console on the 9th of September 1999, and to celebrate AAUK and Sonic Wrecks is giving away ten fantastic prizes to those who are floating around on Twitter at 09:09:09am GMT! All you need to do is follow SonicWrecks on Twitter and be around to ReTweet (RT) a specific phrase – ten lucky hedgehogs will snag themselves one of these goody bags, which include some rare items like a Sonic Unleashed hoodie and the Megadrive Ultimate Collection Vinyl.
If that wasn’t enough, each winner gets themselves one of the exclusive artbooks that were given away at Summer of Sonic! One VERY lucky hedgehog will win themselves a signed Sonic and the Secret Rings poster signed by Yojiro Ogawa and the SatSR gang.
For more details, Terms & Conditions, as well as the full prize breakdown, head over to Sonic Wrecks.
You guys are certainly getting your fix of prizes at the moment!
