USA Sonic Fan Events or Places 5

Sometimes Sonic Fan Events turn normal places into Sonic Places. There are some good examples of both here, so if you couldn't make it to a cool event, or to see a Sonic place, check out the photos and descriptions here--reported by Sonic fans! (most of the time) This page is only for modern events or places. See page 1 for some older / classic ones! They're all fun & interesting.

Sonic Gear Main Page * Sonic Fan Events 2 * Sonic Fan Events 1 * Sonic Fan Events 3 * Sonic Fan Events 4 *

Kura Sushi, a sushi restaurant franchise in the west of the USA held a Sonic event in 2020! They used Sonic in advertising, had banners in the restaurants and gave away Sonic merchandise as part of the promotion. When ordering enough / the right type of sushi or food, you could get a Sonic prize. What you got though, was a random draw (so, normally like a meal-prize then)

The ad has Sonic & the "60th Sega" logo there, and the upper ad shows their art/rendering of the items you could get. What's interesting, is that they use Eggman in his Egg o Matic as the main character feature in the ad, instead of Sonic. It's a fun thing to see & makes it stand out more, maybe. You could get the rarest item, a nylon smooth lanyard, a 'badge reel' with Tails, Eggman, Amy or Sonic, or a roll of masking tape (but it might actually be Washi Tape) with 5 different random themes. The first has character portraits in squares, the next has front facing characters & logos, the 3rd has an Eggman only theme with his face, red checkers and "The World Is Mine!" slogans, the next has each character running/profile on blue with their slogan Gotta Go Fast, Have No Fear Amy & Time To Fly Tails.

The last tape has portrait squares for Sonic, a ring, and then different types of sushi on a white with blue squares background. What is a Badge Reel? It's a spring-loaded self-winding wire in a disk that has a snap attachment for ID badges. You clip the reel to your clothes, then pull the badge to extend the wire/string to use the badge, then when you let go it snaps back up close to the reel. The lanyard, being the largest item was the rarest to get, but a lucky fan has obtained it. The art on the little pamphlet you see there is the art from the lanyard itself but large, so you can see it better. This is a fun set of prizes that anyone could use or collect! Certainly, they'd be a reason to keep returning to the shop. *The black square on the tape isn't Eggman, it's the sushi mascot * Shadow only appears on the lanyard, and nothing else *Is this the first use of Profile-Running Amy Rose? (Maybe) Photo & owned by:

Here are what the actual badge reels look like. They're seen above, but that was just basically art of them. When you recieve the reels, this is how they'll be. They're color coordinated to the character, with Tails on yellow, Sonic on blue, Amy on pink and Eggman on red. Each one has the character name on the edge, and the Kura Sushi logo, plus the Sonic logo toward the bottom. The clip & reel string dispenser is at the bottom. They seem to be in some kind of plastic packaging with a metal snap closure? That's a bit of an oddly fancy and re-use-able packaging for what is basically a meal toy, even though it is not particularly 'fast food' category. These look nice, with good bright full color art on the simple disk in the middle. These would probably be pretty useful for ID Badge situations. Photo & owned by PerfectChaos007

An actual photo of the tape is important too, because with this, you can see how much tape you get & the different sides/designs for the rolls. There are 5 different rolls (as per the photo/art above) and each one does seem to have a nice amount of tape on it. Tape like this they're calling 'masking tape' but it may also be like 'washi tape', which is decorative on purpose & used for scrap-booking and craft projects to make borders or hold down art/photos. This photo reveals the last phrase from the tape which is Shadow's "Unleash the ultimate power", which was not shown in the art above. What's interesting is that Eggman got his own roll of tape all to himself. These are very fun, a unique prize, and nicely designed. Really, the whole promotion seems quite well put together & want-worthy. Photo & owned by: PerfectChaos007

Here is a photo by Just Funky, a company that got the Sonic license in probably early 2020. This is their booth at an event...but what event? Maybe a home goods or accessories show? Their section is called "Team Up Gear Up", as they're teaming up with Sonic to produce cool stuff. You'll notice that several of these things are already on other pages of Gear like Housewares--but not everything has yet been found. The white bottle is not Sonic related, it appears to be an anime type character portrait on there/probably another license.

The round thing is the Sonic head shape mug, the small is a shot glass (unknown), the shrugging Sonic is a travel plastic cup that did appear, as did the Tails head cookie jar. The 'waiting Sonic' is a water bottle with yellow re-use-re-freeze ring shaped ice pieces. The flat things below it are classic faces coasters but those weren't found yet in fall 2020. There is a normal looking blue mug, but then a seemingly short "Sonic Speed" white mug with a car tire shaped base of some sort? The last thing is a fleecy blanket (was released) The shiny face item on the far right is likely the last coaster in the set. The tilted object under the speed mug is a metal/enamel item which might be a Sonic shape belt buckle? Or a whopper of a pin. Entry will be updated if the unknown things get determined.

A contest is a fan event...and this poster is here to announce it. At some point in the 1990s, "Shoe Mart" stores had a Sonic footwear sweepstakes. This was a USA item, but the year is unknown. It had a Grand Prize of a trip to Epcot (which had video game consoles you could play as part of the display, which of course, had Sonic games on them) First Prize was the Sega Genesis, and 2nd prize was that 'portable arcade' LCD game (Seen on Sonic LCD here on Gear) You entered by filling in a free entry form in the store. It was 'no purchase necessary', but to tenter you did have to go in to get the slip. The headline says "Be way-y-y cool & enter my red hot sweepstakes". This is, of course, from Sat Am Sonic phrasing--which is interesting to see because it didn't get onto a lot of physical items in the USA. Photo by: Sonic Guinness World Record Holder 2022

Here's a hotel room with an all-over Sonic theme and a secret drawer? It's unknown where this room is, but it appears fairly official. If it looks a little strange, it's because the ceiling is a bit lower than normal, and most rooms have windows in them, but this one does not. The bunk beds also emphasize the ceiling height, as does the dark blue paint (it's supposed to look like Sonic Adventure sky). The plaque on the wall states that you have to do certain things to find the 'hidden drawer' in the room. The rest of the sign is illegible due to the resolution and angle of the photo. Sonic details include rings on the carpet,

GHZ checkering and sunflowers on the wall behind the bed, Sonic wall scroll, rings on the wall, gold ring themed padded head board, framed...something up there on the wall, and of course video game consoles and a TV built into the wall. The white thing in the slot there is an Xbox, so you can tell when the room was active. An interesting space...more info will be added if it is discovered

Lego appears to be going all-in on Sonic, as evidenced by their booth here at SDCC 2023. In their usual style (for whatever they choose) they get a Lego Master Builder to make a really big version of something relevent to the event. In this case, it's a giant 'mini figure' Sonic, with the expression changed to winking. It is constructed completely out of Lego bricks and then set up on the platform to attract attention. (Which it does, this is a nice accurate item for the look of the minifig) You can see them introducing their new sets and figures/accessories there to the right as well.