Classic Eggman's changing specs

[andrewtuell1991]

 

It's something that's been bugging me about the classic games for a while now.  They seem to constantly alternate between blue glasses and black glasses for Classic Eggman.

 

Blue Glasses: Sonic 1 (8 and 16-bit), Sonic 2 8-bit, SegaSonic, Sonic CD, Sonic Triple Trouble, both Sonic Drifts, Sonic Gameworld, Sonic the Fighters, and Sonic R.

 

Black Glasses: Sonic 2 16-bit, Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Sonic Labyrinth, Sonic 3D Flickies Island, and Sonic Blast.

 

I like them both but I'm just curious as to why them kept switching it?  Palette limitations?  Indecisiveness?  Any thoughts?

[PickleBrows]

Bloody hell you're a genius! People were debating Sonic's eyes for Sonic 4 when Eggman was pulling the same stunt all along!

 

I think it's just a bit of flip-flopping on the developers part. Palette issues aside I think it just depends on who made the sprite. 

[iDEATH]

*shrugs* he has two sets of glasses?

 

That said, I suppose it's possible (though not very likely) that they changed them to black to match with the U.S. "black eyes" eggman...

 

[Blue Blood]

Artist's discretion.

 

The now standardised Classic design (that's as of Sonic Jam, the same design used in all current merchandise and in Generations) shows them as blue. There is really nothing to discuss here.

[Tara]

I always thought the blue tint was just the light reflecting off of them.  The 8-bit games probably use blue glasses as a means of giving them definition since just having black dots where his eyes should be would probably look a little weird and disconcerting.  I'm not sure what excuse the more fluorescent games like Sonic R have, but I think it's pretty akin to the various redesigns Bowser had before they finally settled on a roughly standard design in Super Mario World.  Sega was probably unsure as to which better suited the character and as such decided to test the waters with both.

 

Also, as an interesting observation that is probably just me looking far too much into it, Sonic has always sort of fluctuated in terms of the overall tone of the series.  Some of the classic games have a more wacky and slapstick-centered tone, as in Sonic R and Sonic the Fighters, while others had a more adventurous tone.  While some obvious exceptions occur, it seems that (bar most of the 8-bit games for the reasons I've already stated above) most of the games that fall under the former tone feature the "blue" glasses while those that fall under the latter feature him with the solid black glasses.  They probably adjusted his eyewear to coincide with the tone of each game, since the blue specs tend to give him a more zany look, while the black ones tend to give him a more evil and menacing expression.

 

Just my thoughts anyway.

[andrewtuell1991]

*shrugs* he has two sets of glasses?

 

That said, I suppose it's possible (though not very likely) that they changed them to black to match with the U.S. "black eyes" eggman...

 

Yeah, I thought about that being a possibility.  I guess that way the sprite could match either design.  Although I'll never understand why anyone would like Black-Eyed Ivo's design.  That thing screams trying to hard to look evil even more than the SatAM/Underground/early Archie design.

 

 

Artist's discretion.

 

The now standardised Classic design (that's as of Sonic Jam, the same design used in all current merchandise and in Generations) shows them as blue. There is really nothing to discuss here.

It's still something that genuinely interests me.  Come to think of it, that top picture is from S3&K which uses black glasses in its sprite, while the special stage is from Sonic CD which uses blue glasses.  They couldn't even keep them consistent in a single game. XD

[SchemingMinor]

There is really nothing special to note of Eggman's fluctuating lens coloration, just like Knuckles sock color. Though how the Western audience translated the dark specs as eyes still baffles me - mainly if Milton Knight did so at his own discretion when designing the basis for most Western incarnations of Eggman.

 

Now Eggman's moustache color is another story. He fluctuates between being a redhead, a brunette, then a ginger.

[Amomynous]

I guess he has different specs?

 

Such slight differences are really common, it doesn't seem to be down to any deliberate decision but a matter of

who made the sprite, promo, model, etc, as long as it's not noticeably 'off model' it's accepted.

 

For example

Shadow's eyes are very noticeably orange in Sonic Generations.

Werehog Sonic's bottom lip is black in promotional images but not in Sonic Unleashed.

From SA1 to Sonic 06 male characters' in-game models had eyelashes (not visible when eyes fully open), CGI didn't.

Sonic's CGI model in Heroes had had more 'sea green' (blue-ish) coloured eyes

Characters with amber-ish eyes seem particularly prone to their eyes colour changing noticeably (between yellow, orange or brown).

 

It just kind of happens.

[Vertekins]

Why am I now tempted to make a topic regarding the ways in which character design aspects have fluctuated over the course of the series?

 

...Not that I feel eager to make topics anymore *mumble mumble*

 

Makes sense that Eggman has more than one set of specs

[Indigo Rush]

Switching between pure black and pure blue, honestly, kind of bugged me. Not much, but the inconsistency was a bit frustrating. I think dark blue is a good compromise, but blue is the official color I suppose.

[t0ms0nic]

Well, they kind of had their hands tied in the cases of Sonic 2 and Sonic 3; since his specs would normally have to be using the same palette choices as Sonic's fur, and they were working on limited and shared palettes (like Sonic's darkest skin colour being used for Tails' darkest fur colour), I'm sure everyone can connect the dots and guess what happens when Sonic goes Super Sonic if they were to keep sharing Sonic's fur.

 

Of course, no hands tied for the rest, so a big hand to SEGA for being lazy since forever ago.

[Dr. Mechano]

Ah yes, it's definitely confirmed that Eggman has more than one pair of glasses. Most of his glasses are of the pince-nez variety, which clasp over his nose and have no side rims that rest upon the ears. However...

 

In 2K6, he ditches the pince-nez in favor of more traditional glasses. These include a Chaos Emerald radar scanner, though I personally like to think Eggman's other pairs of glasses come with this feature as well. (Above image is from Concept Mobius, by the way.)

 

It's possible the black glasses led to Eggman's eyeless western design, and that they were confused for empty holes instead of lenses. I say this because the first art to depict Eggman without eyes was Sonic 2, which incidentally, featured black-glasses Eggman in its in-game sprites.

 

Sonic 1 (Blue glasses):

 

Sonic 2 (Black glasses):

 

Thus, the artists for the western boxart probably just looked at the sprites for this game, misinterpreted the glasses as empty eye sockets, and created the creepy dead-eyed Eggman we're all familiar with. Since Sonic 1 didn't have any western art for Eggman, this is a likely explanation - especially since even the U.S. writers' bible described Robotnik as having glasses, not black empty eyes.

 

In short, it was almost certainly a mistake rather than an intentional design choice.

[azoo]

They're officially blue. Palette issues caused them to be black before, since they shared the same blue as Sonic did in S1/CD; but in S2/3K it'd look weird since Sonic's blue in those games is much more bold and "blue"-y.

[iDEATH]

Well, they kind of had their hands tied in the cases of Sonic 2 and Sonic 3; since his specs would normally have to be using the same palette choices as Sonic's fur, and they were working on limited and shared palettes (like Sonic's darkest skin colour being used for Tails' darkest fur colour), I'm sure everyone can connect the dots and guess what happens when Sonic goes Super Sonic if they were to keep sharing Sonic's fur.

 

Of course, no hands tied for the rest, so a big hand to SEGA for being lazy since forever ago.

 

So it is a deliberate change then? That's really interesting. 

 

That said, I'm surprised anyone even noticed After playing these games for 20 years, this is the first time I've ever really thought about it Let alone thinking about it so much that I was actually annoyed by it.

[Salamander]

I literally only just realised, because of this topic, that Eggman was wearing black glasses in S3&K.  I'd always just assumed they were eyes without thinking about it too much.  I'll tell you why, too: Because they were tall and narrow.