Ahhh, Fridays… the last day of the work week, followed only by a glorious, open weekend. Fridays are always nice here at the SEGA offices, and today they’ll be even nicer – I’ve pooled together all the remaining merch in the Box of Awesome for a grand finale with more merch than any of the other days. Let’s get to it!

First up is something that speaks to me personally. Back before I started at SEGA, I played a game called Shenmue on the Dreamcast. I didn’t own an Xbox at the time, but I loved the story so much that when I heard Shenmue II was coming to the Xbox, I knew I’d be getting one at some point. While myself and all the other Shenmue fans haven’t heard anything relating to a Shenmue III, I still regard it as a fantastic game and one of SEGA’s truly groundbreaking works in the Dreamcast Era. Anything Shenmue and Limited Edition is well worth hanging onto in my book.

Dreamcast fans can also tell you this: The Nintendo Wii was not the first console to push motion controls. The Dreamcast pioneered things with both the motion-sensitive Fishing Rod and the original Samba De Amigo, which was ahead of the curve for both music/rhythm games and even featured a pair of Maracas you could buy to really get into it. Near the bottom of the box I found a group of small promo Maracas from the first Samba, all dating back to 2000 – almost nine years ago. Has it really been that long?

The Dreamcast era also marked Sonic’s 10th Anniversary (1991-2001), which coincided with the release of Sonic Adventure 2. They gave out a neat pre-order gift to the fans: a fold-out collectible package with shiny gold logos on the front, a limited run gold CD Soundtrack with music from Sonic games, a coin in the middle and a booklet on the right. I remember picking this up on launch, so it brought back some good memories.

The coin was missing, but the booklet and CD were untouched. I imagine some people want to see what it looks like, so I called up my plush buddy Sonic to hold the book open.

The book contains a list of every Sonic game ever made (up to SA2 release), two pages of big landmarks for Sonic (shown above), a mention about how his story began, merchandise shots and some sketches at the end. Way past cool.

As I neared the last of the merch, I ran across the following…

Hmm… what could this be?

A green… bouncy ball? Wait, that logo is-

Oh snap.

I went from curious to ecstatic as I realized this was bona fide PSO Dreamcast merch I was looking at. Not only that, but the ball also lights up and makes noises when you bounce it. (This is one of the few pieces that has since mysteriously disappeared from the box and reappeared on my desk.)

Finally, there is one last piece of merch I want to show you guys, following just after the Dreamcast era. Check it out:

A collector’s box from Shinobi, along with a long red scarf and a key to lock and unlock it. Ninjas don’t just store their satin scarves anywhere unsafe, you know. (Those that do tend to lose them to their looting brethren, the pirates.)

And that wraps up our full week of vintage SEGA Merchandise. I hope you guys got as much enjoyment out of this stuff as I certainly did – now, for a little surprise:

Nobody loves SEGA merch more than SEGA fans. Your community team realizes this – that’s why [surprise] we’re happy to announce that we’re going to be giving out a lot of the stuff you’ve seen this week to people just like you in the community. [/surprise] Some of it will go out to the dedicated SEGA fans and posters here on blog, some to people on the official SEGA forums, and some may even be showing up on community sites for you guys to win. The Box of Awesome is going to spread its Awesome all around, and we hope you guys will appreciate it.

Oh, and these arrived at my desk this morning too – they are brand new and you can actually buy them online, but we’re also going to give out a set free:

There’s a shot of my Sonic plush alongside them for size reference – these Sonic gloves are HUGE, and they’ll be among the goods we’re giving out.

So, which parts of this week’s series were your favorite? What kind of merch did you think was the coolest?

Hope you guys enjoyed the series – have a great weekend everyone!