Metal Sonic's silent upgrade

[Aquaslash]

Righto, from the get to this topic's gonna be image heavy. Gonna try to use as many thumbnails/links as I can.

Ok, so let's take a look at some renders art of Metal Sonic. (The first two and last one are thumbnails, click for larger images)

These are from Sonic Rivals 2 and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter games. The third one was reused in Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing and Sonic 4. The last one is a reference of the model, that was provided to Jazwares to make the ten inch Metal Sonic. We're gonna pay attention to several key parts here. The silver portion of the arms/legs, the shoes, the joints in the shoes, and the hands. These are the things we're noticing.

• Shoes: underneath the stripe, there's no extra detail. Just solid red to the soles
• Shoe joint (the silver bolt thing): on the top of it, there's just a thin line/indentation in the middle.
• Hands: at the part where the fingers connect to the main hand, there is what appears to be a ball joint
• Hands: this is a bit harder to see, but on the palms (the black portion) there is just a smooth surface
• Hands: on the backside (the yellow portion) there are two dents/slits on each hand.
  
• Limbs: at the section that's nearly right under the shoulder pads, there is a shiny silver ring. This is also on the thighs.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  These are from Sonic Free Riders. (couldn't put them next to each other. Formatting kept acting up.) At first you think, "oh hey, Metal Sonic has no glasses/new shoes or whatever". But the observant notice that:
  
  • Shoes: underneath the stripe, there is now an additional black line.
    
  • Shoe joint (the silver bolt thing): on the top of it, there's a whole bunch of stuff now, most noticeably another black line, and some more detailing. There's also added detail so the black part in the middle
    
  • Hands: at the part where the fingers connect to the main hand, the ball joints are now more dials/hinges/joints like in between the fingers and shoes.
    
  • Hands: the smooth surface on the palms now has two indentations
    
  • Hands: the slits on the backside of the hand are now tabs that stick out instead of point inwards
    
  • Limbs: at the section that's nearly right under the shoulder pads, there is extra black detailing above the shiny silver ring. This is also on the thighs. Additionally, there is a silver connector on the shins that connects to the shoes. This wasn't there at first.

Enough differences to say "oh hey, he got upgrades for the Riders games after all!" Plus, the gang gets new gloves and shoes anyway right? That's what I thought and let it go at that. But then this happened:

Nice and clear innit. Looks to be the Free Riders model. But wait, amongst a sea of previously unseen, Sonic Channel Calendar, and ASR images, why the heck is Metal Sonic using a random spinoff model? Shouldn't he have the other model (the one in the outset of this post)? Well, I'm generally interested in these things, so I had a look at all my Metal Sonic pictures. Among them was this little gem (I'm totally gonna hit the image limit):

This is from ASR, and as such predates all the Free Riders pics by a good margin. Yet, take a look at all the mentioned areas. As it turns out, this is the Free Riders model. Way before the kinect was even announced! The strange thing is, this is the only art from the game to use this model. The main pic is one from the Olympics, and the game model itself still used the standard model. Maybe it was made while the game was in development? I guess.

Now I was a bit weirded that even after all this time, Sonic Team still hasn't finalized its character designs, and I'm even more weirded out by the fact that the standard design got two figures made out of it. Anyway, I took a look at my Metal Sonics (I got the very first ten inch with the bad shoe stripe, and the 3 inch)

Page of pics I just took of my Metal Sonics (cause this WILL go over the image limit). You'll have to excuse my dark room.

What in the name of the All Spark?! The toys are based on the Free Riders model. I think the ten inch Metal Sonic was out while ASR and Olympics were in development! I had a look at the prototype pic of this Metal Sonic. It too, is based on the same model.

And now we're at the end of this post. What have we learned? Apparently some time just after unleashed, Sonic Team saw fit to silently update Metal Sonic's look by adding even MORE details. The first to use this new look was Jazwares. Now somehow, it took a whole three games before the new Metal Sonic was actually used IN a game. I personally wonder why it took that long. If they had this ready as early as the Winter Olympics, surely it could have been used then? A model swap of this magnitude seems to be mere child's play. Don't even need an animation tweak. In any case, I can understand that game being in development, but what's ASR's excuse?

Oh, and evidently Metal Sonic does NOT have a Riders upgrade. Oh well. Anywho, all five of us art/model freaks can have a fine time discussing this, and maybe other tweaks that have been noticed.

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

Love this topic, but most people won't see any difference in the model even when you point it out, and that's probably why SEGA never mentioned it.

[Aquaslash]

I'm well aware of that. People actually don't see any difference between classic and modern Metal Sonic. This totally blows my mind cause they'll be the first to bitch about green eyes. :|

But I figure it someone took the time to craft out all of these details, it at least deserves a mention. It's gonna make for some...interesting Metallix art for me int eh future.

[-Mark-]

I thought the most blatant change between classic and modern Metal Sonic was his pelvis area. They've added that little waist join, and his legs are now attached, rather than simply sticking into slits in the base of his body.

In all honesty that's the only real change I noticed before you mentioned all the others.

Oh, and the base of his shoes went from being plain red (classic) to complex gubbins.

[batson]

So, exactly how many times have Metal Sonic been redesigned altogether now? From what i can tell:

First there was the classic design.

Then there was the Sonic Adventure design with the longer spikes.

Then there was the Sonic Adventure 2: Battle design which was virtually identical to the classic design except he now had oval irises instead of round (a design change i STILL cant get over. The old round-eyed Metal Sonic looked awesomely insane!)

Then there was his first truly modern redesign where he got a lot more details and a very different body than his old self. I cant remember when this design first appeared, but i think it was on artwork on Sonic Channel, yes no?

And then finally, the minor redesign that this thread concerns.

[ArtFenix]

I noticed the changes too. I never noticed some minor changes, but there's one thing I clearly noticed when I first saw it: the arms..The fingers to be precise. I believe it's the most noticeable change.

I think the last time we saw the old style arms in the first rivals.

Compare this rivals art with one of the earliest new style ones. I find that kinda amusing that they changed the style between the first and the second rivals games.

I also noticed when the quills became much more smooth. MS had much sharper quills till M&Satwog. I liked more sharper quills..

Edited March 10, 2011 by ArtFenix

[RDNexus]

Hey, ArtFenix, how did you find that Rivals' Metal Sonic Card in HQ?

All places I check have them in LQ...

[Core]

Hey, ArtFenix, how did you find that Rivals' Metal Sonic Card in HQ?

All places I check have them in LQ...

[RDNexus]

Tch... What a damn...

[SonikkuForever]

Hey, ArtFenix, how did you find that Rivals' Metal Sonic Card in HQ?

All places I check have them in LQ...

Sonic Scene has several cards ripped in HQ for you to download.

[RDNexus]

Thanks.

Too bad it's not much...

[ArtFenix]

Yeah, it was released by Sega themselves, but there weren't many of those.

I wish I could find this baby in HQ.

[Aquaslash]

I want the Mephiles one from Rivals 2 in HQ. Or at least that art.