Sonic the Hedgehog Theme Magazine Scans & Covers 7

Sonic Magazine Scans Page 7

These magazines can be from anywhere in the world.
Since Sonic's games are so popular, magazines everywhere love to add him to the cover and do stories when the games come out. Collecing magazines with Sonic on the cover is great to do, as it chronicals the release of the different games, and will show in the future what was going on at that time. Plus, it's always nice to stockpile cool Sonic art! With this page you can see modern and not-so-modern magazine scans from everywhere. Toy ads, toy reviews & unusual content but not game articles. (there are too many articles/reviews/etc that are normal, to be able to make a page for)

Sonic Magazine Scans Page 1 * Sonic Magazines Page 2 * Sonic Magazines 3 * Sonic Magazines 4 * Sonic Magazines 5 * Sonic Magazines 6 * Sonic Magazines 6 * Magazine Gallery SonicGear Main Page

Here's another issue of NGC magazine, this time, a later issue at 118. It's now no-longer headlining as "UK's best selling independent Nintendo magazine", but is now "Independent Nintendo Gaming". This cover is pretty cool featuring CG art for Riders Sonic & his board, a large version of the Riders logo & across the bottom a 'film strip' styled look at some of the characters from the game. Notice that while Sonic & Knuckles appear, they're looking to surprise readers with the new characters Jet Hawk & Storm. Discovered by Speendlex

Here are 2 more issues of NGC Magazine, but Sonic is a smaller feature for each than before. The first one has him in the corner with a mini headline, while the second has him among other Nintendo characters to advertise the Wii when it was new. This magazine is no longer in production, it ended shortly after the Wii actually released. Discovered by Speendlex

This book may be called "Complete A-Z of Dreamcast Cheats" but the cover & large interior section are dedicated to Sonic Adventure. It has a rather in-depth guide for the game, and came out near the release of the Dreamcast in the UK area. (As this is a UK only item) It has a walk through for the game, and the stories for each of the characters. However, it does live up to its name, by having codes and cheats for other games as well. Photo & owned by Lee

This is "Mean Machines Magazine", a UK based magazine covering lots of consoles that were available at the time. Their 8th issue came out in May of 1991, and its cover asked the question "Sonic The Hedgehog! Best Game Ever?"
Naturally, giant fully shaded finger-waving Sonic headlines the whole cover & gives it the title "The Super Sonic Consoles Mag!"
This magazine covered the 'Sega', the Megadrive, Super Nintendo, Nintendo NES, & the Gameboy. Because Sonic 1 was released along with the Genesis (Megadrive) this issue may have actually been breaking the news on it. This is interesting to see, and the article would likely make a good read, too. This magazine would likely be a collectible item, if you could find it today.

Here is an 'insider magazine' scan.
This is called "Chuck E Focus", and is a news letter made specifically for circulation only within Chuck E Cheese employees. It lets people know about upcoming promotions. In this case, it's their deal with 4 Kids TV, the group that brought Sonic X (and other shows) over from Japan. It writes about the Robots (the cg movie) tray liners (bottom right) & the booklet (seen left) that's a give-away to kids ad they're leaving the arcade. It's got Sonic with the X show logo front and center to help promote. It's an activity book (so, maybe there were Sonic activities inside? Like mazes or coloring art?) & the bottom text has the agreement of "4kids will show more Chuck E Cheese ads, so CEC will distribute books", so it was a type of trade. It is interesting to learn about in-industry things like this. Scan discovered by Crystal SonicFan

Here is "Spec" magazine, issue 8 from 1992.
It's a Japanese multi-console coverage magazine. Isn't the plain cover interesting? It has just Sonic, with no background, and no pop-in art from other games or anything else at all. A red headline goes down one side & 3 game titles are just mentioned in plain text (no logos) at the bottom over his shoes. Shining Force, King Colossus & Super Monaco GP1 would also be included with the Sonic coverage in the magazine. It stands out due to how plain & Sonic-focused it is.

A Mystery Magazine?
Not really, it's actually a comic. This was given away around the time of Sonic 1, and was in the Disney Adventures Magazine of the times as an extra/insert type item. Since Sonic wasn't really famous yet people didn't know to look for it/keep it.
The image here was originally published by the website I09, to illustrate an article about the "Sonic the Hedgehog" gene (it's a real sceince item that you can look up). So the site didn't know what the item was either & the article wasn't about media. It's the old poster art for Sonic 1, with a "comic book like" little stamp in the upper left, which just says "Fall Sonic the Hedgehog 1991 Sega" The little number at the bottom is "Issue 1", there are prices below it & the Genesis logo is in the middle.
What it actually is, is a mini-comic "origin story" for Sonic that they made up to 'Americanize' him. Which origin is it? The Ovi Kintobor / brown Sonic, Evil Emeralds one that was retconned away later as it didn't make sense in a mass of places.

"Frictionless Shoes" (yes...can't get traction and never run again) & that they thought the name "Eggman" was too wierd so instead they had a regular guy spilling a drink while eating an egg and becoming egg-shaped because that's somehow less wierd & more acceptable to kids than a guy with a strange name. However, this is also thought to be the item that gave the Fleetway Comic the names of some of the supporting cast like Johnny Lightfoot the rabbit. Want to read the comic & know more? Read at Sonic Retro's Sonic Mini Comic Origin . Info from Sonic Retro & mystery solved by Chey TheHuman & Misteryt1

What exactly is this "tv card"?
The word "TV Card" was the only word associcated with describing it. It's thought that it was like some kind of ad-card or something, likely dispensed in a magazine, a booklet, or some kind of leaflet-thing (as in, an ad card inside a video sleeve or something)
The logo at the bottom of the TV says "Amazin' Adventures" over a kind of squashed globe shape. Its clearly advertising the weekday Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon, with cartoony running Sonic & Robotnick chasing him with the spike ball in the 'egg o matic'. This was made back when it seems they were trying to still be convincing that the show might have a tiny something to do with any of the games/familiar imagry. Whatever this item is, it's interesting to see the early ad efforts.

Here is a rare look at something called "Harmony Magazine". It's a rare magazine published in Japan that's still sort of unclear on details. It was either an 'in house' publication, meaning it only circulated with empolyees or something, or it was only available

in one place, not like normal magazines with a subscription or something. Either way, it contributed to the uncommon-ness. Now, why is this picture so small? It's a scan of a magazine, that scanned ANOTHER magazine, that had the original scans of the old magazine covers. But, they did a good job, so you can clearly tell what the covers are, which is the "Sonic Screen Saver" art that was all done by one person. What were they about? How many in total were made? There are still several mysteries about this magazine, but it is fun to see.

Do you remember the "Sonic AllStars" arcade machines?
You can see them over on SonicGear Arcade pages right here. The company that makes them is updating them for 2018 with a new look. They choose to announce the look at a trade show (Booth 1606) with this ad or flyer that was likely run in a trade publication of some kind. You could go to the booth to demo the games, naturally. The updated air hocky includes the 'character portrait' colorful confetti look all around the edge, big CG Sonic graphic for the table & AllStars branding. The basketball hoops game now lights up blue along its front net-edge barriers, has the same sprinkle portraits edging & now as a thicker ticket dispensing/etc front piece with added graphics. (So, they're both a bit flashier)
But Amy Rose fans! Look at this good news as Amy's face is included! What a nice touch they're including more characters to engange more people. The updated designs are nice & fun here.

This is "Hyper Magazine" from Australia.
This is issue #73 from November of 1999. Naturally in this year, the Dreamcast was all the hype! So, magazines around the globe were putting Sonic on the cover & talking all about SA 1. You can see he's headlining there in the blurb & they even add the little SA arts for the other characters across the top. Remember: this was debuting everyone's new look, so it was a big deal to have them there. Photo & owned by:

What is a figure doing on the Magazines page?
These are here because they weren't sold, they were made by a sega employee in the 1990s. It was Yukifumi Makino who sculpted these Sonic figures. They were made to create the cover art for SPEC magazine. There are 6 in total. But what happened to them? Clearly they were kept after the photo shoot ended. You can tell they were hand-done too, look at the tiny almost rudimentry hand on the far right side figure. These are interesting to see all in one place. Photo discovered by Sonic Connect , Lee

Sometimes magazines would have a spotlight on merchandise...
And often that'd mean: Sonic!
To fans' delight in the 90s before the internet, game magazines were a great place to find out about Sonic stuff you could own. In this case, it's the UK magazine Sega Pro, issue 15 from 1992 that has this page about Sonic merchandise in Japan. What do they have to say?
"We all know that Sonic is the best, cutest, and most famous character in the whole console world, but the Japanese have, like always, taken things a bit too far. There are currently over 60 different kinds of Sonic goods, ranging from fizzy drinks to pajamas. Other items include lunch boxes, plates, stationary, boxer shorts, (now you have a hedgehog in your trousers and are pleased to see me!) and even Sonic bubble gum."

Isn't it funny that this magazine thinks that 60 Sonic things are somehow 'too far'? The magazine would melt if it were exposed to Sonic Gear! It is a curious look into an opinion from the past. Photo by: Lee

A piece of history!
It's the very FIRST ISSUE of Game Informer Magazine. This came out in 1991, and at the time it was seasonal, this happens to be the Fall when they did their first issue (before it went to monthly)
And who headlines the cover on the very first try? Why, it is Sonic the Hedgehog. This is signifigant (for Sonic) because for a magazine, the first issue is really a make-or-break type of thing. You NEED it to sell well as printed media. The first impression is key, and they chose Sonic to do it. It promises "Tips and tricks throughout the issue" for him there at the bottom.
With topics like pre-release info, cleaning your stuff tips, buying ideas (Funcoland), and thought-type articles on Game Genie, it's an interesting portrait of the times and what people were looking for then.

Weekly Famitsu Magazine Sonic Superstars

There aren't many magazines left printing in the USA in 2023...
But Weekly Famitsu Japan is apparently still going strong--and that's great, because in October, they did this very nice CG cover featuring Sonic Superstars' whole cast. (Yes Fang Knack is in there, he's squashed at the bottom) The text at the bottom says you can read the magazine for a look, review, and more Superstars content.
It's wonderful to see Sonic headlining on magazine covers still in 2023.