Jason "SONIC" Griffith is voicing Sideswipe?!!!!!!

WAY PASSED COOL!!!

Wait, in the Sonic games or TV shows?

Both. Well, not at first. Actually, it's like this. In the old Sonic cartoons (AoStH, SatAM, and Underground), Sonic was voiced by Jaleel White (Family Matters' Steve Urkel). In the Sonic anime movie, Sonic was voiced by Martin Burke (Masami Kikuchi voiced him in the Japanese version). In the games starting with Sonic Adventure, Sonic was voiced by Ryan Drummond.

When the Sonic X anime was dubbed into English, 4Kids decided that, instead of using the current actors from the video games, they would use their own voice actors to voice the characters in Sonic X. And frankly, some of them sounded very identical to the game actors (while others not so much). In the Sonic X English dub, Sonic was voiced by Jason Griffith (and so was Shadow).

But later, the guy who voiced Dr. Eggman in the games, Deem Bristow, passed away. To solve this problem, Sega replaced him with the voice actor of Dr. Eggman in the 4Kids dub, Mike Pollock. In addition to this, Sega decided to replace ALL of the Sonic game voice actors with the Sonic X voice actors (this outraged a lot of fans at the time).

Beginning with the Shadow the Hedgehog game and the Sonic Rush game, Sonic (and Shadow) was now voice by Jason Griffith in both the games and the Sonic X anime, and has continued to voice Sonic and Shadow in the games till today.

So, that's the story.

Now all we need is for Junichi Kanemaru to voice Sideswipe in the Japanese ROTF dub. As he voices Sonic in the games and in Sonic X (the Japanese version of Sonic X used the game actors from the get-go, so there was no voice difference between the games and show).

Whoahoho! Sonic: A trip down memory lane! I remember watching SatAM on ABC for a while, that is until it got canceled in favor of Power Rangers(ugh). This makes 2 VA's that have died after voicing Robotnik/Eggman! At least Jim Cummings is still alive, he was my favorite Robotnik VA. I just don't think that anyone(aside from David Kaye) could capture the "creepy" that oozed out of Kintobor.

Not a fan of "you're too slow" Jason Griffith though. I prefer Ryan over his annoying voice. Still, it is kinda cool that he'll now be associated with Transformers.

To me, Drummond's Sonic and Griffith's Sonic sound too similar for me to tell the difference between them. I honestly can't tell them apart (aside from knowing who voiced him in what game). To me, they sound the same.

But it doesn't bother me much that they switched actors, because I saw Sonc X before I was reintroduced to the Sonic games. In fact, I prefer the the Sonic X voices over the old game ones. Except for Big and E-102 Gamma, their game voices were better than their Sonic X voices (Gamma's especially, his Sonic X voice was just terrible).

And speaking of Sonic voice actors in Transformers, did you guys know that Garry Chalk (BW Optimus Primal, Unicron Trilogy Optimus Prime) was the voice of Grounder in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and Dr. Robotnik in Sonic Underground? Not only that but Ian James Corlett (BW Cheetor) voiced Knuckles in Sonic Underground as well!

I guess the reason that I was upset about Drummond leaving was because the Sonic Adventure series ushered in the new era with total retakes on all of the classic characters and for 4kids not to include the original cast(besides Deem) it was inexcusable. I was a long-time Sonic fan up until it started to become pretencious and stale, starting with Shadow the Hedgehog(blech!).

I still am a closet Sonic fan but I just don't like where Sega has taken him. The 2D Sonic games are still great but I can't say the same for their 3D direction. I mean, come on! A Where-Hog?!?!?

I believe that Sega needs to pay more attention to their long-time Sonic fans and go back to their roots for more insperation. I'm sure that a well thought out remake of the original 4 games for the PS3(only)in a 3D invironment would work wonders for Sega's marketing, maybe even reastablish the long-time Sonic fans hope in Sega. Also, an actually articulate toy line for the original series would be nice! I'd LOVE to own an Egg-Robo, a Mecha Sonic with Master Emerald display base, an Eggman, an(S&K)Hatchet-bot and a Buzz-Bomber! I know it probably won't happen but one can dream!

Speaking of Grounder, does anyone know why Grounder's original colors(red) were dropped in favor of the green color he sported back in AoSTH?

Deem Bristow wasn't Eggman is Sonic X, Mike Pollock was. When Bristow died, Pollock replaced him in the games, not the other way 'round.

For me, Shadow's game was the last good Sonic game (seriously, I enjoy playing Shadow the Hedgehog). The only post Shadow game that I've of being any good is the DS game Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.

Awhile back, I read an article that said, after Yuji Naka (the guy who created the whole Sonic series) left Sonicteam, the gamemakers have been trying to make the franchise die out and put an end to the sonic the Hedgehog games series so that it may rest in peace. Which is why they've been making several games with awful gimmicks, bad plots, and a new character(s) per game. However, one thing keeping the franchise from declining at a quicker pace is that the fans STILL continue to buy the games, despite the attempts made to make them unlikeable.

It's not "Mecha Sonic", it's "Metal Sonic" (unless you're referring to one of the other Sonic-lookalike bots aside from Metal Sonic). As for an articulate toyline, they've had one. There was one for Sonic Adventure that was later rereleased for Sonic X. The figures included, Sonic, Eggman, Tails, Knuckles, Big, and I think some others.

No no, I meant they didn't use Deem because of his unfortunate passing. Sorry about the confusion! :D

Shadow the Hedgehog left a bad taste in my mouth. Remember how I said I left the fandom after the series became pretencious and horribly written? This game was the main reason. I mean seriously, you are going to give an anthropomorphic Hedgehog a gun, incorporate an alien concept and call it a game? LAME! While they did create a pretty crappy game, I still can't get over how good the soundtrack was for the game. Sonic music has always been one strong point that Sega has managed to retain with each game. Unfortunately, sometimes this isn't enough to make a great game.

But yeah, we heard about Sega wanting to can the Sonic franchise which is really sad that they have to destroy it on the way out. It's been nearly 20 years since that series started off.

All right it's story time!

Metal/Hyper Metal/Mecha/Silver/Mecha2 are all different versions based off of Robotniks' Sonic replica concept.
Starting back at square one, Robotnik wanted to create the ultimate robot clone of Sonic. Before he could use Metal Sonic however, he required a sample of Sonic's DNA which he gained after leading Sonic to believe that the Robot Generator was going to detonate and take the rest of South Island with it. Even after Robotnik managed to replicate Sonic's DNA into Metal, Metal still had some major faults. While Metal did gain all of Sonic's strong points such as Super Speed, he also gained the negative traits which ultimately led to his undoing. Metal sacrificed himself claiming that there "is only one Sonic".

(cont.)
Robotniks next attempt at a perfect warrior was Mecha Sonic which appeared in the Archie comics. Robotnik decided that if he used the real Sonic instead of a copy, the robot would be more powerful than before. Robotnik managed to capture Sonic and was able to brainwash him with help from Nak the Weasle. Robotnik believed that the ultimate irony would come after Sonic realised what he had done to his friends and how he had enjoyed it(ala Beast Machines Jetstorm). Sonic managed to finally free himself from the mechanical exterior with some help from a power ring thus destroying the first Mecha Sonic.

Robotniks third attempt at a Sonic replica was Silver Sonic as seen in the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 video game. While being depicted as quite a bit more chunky than his metal/mecha ancestors, Silver Sonic was completely non-related to Sonic, leaving no chance of failure other than his clunky design which led to his failure.

(cont.)
Robotnik hadn't given up yet! There was one last attempt left in the Sonic Project. Combining the asthetics of the original Metal Sonic with the armor of Mecha Sonic and the bulk of Silver, Robotnik managed to pull off one last perfect warrior, Mecha Sonic 2. This version is known as the most powerful version and successful of the Sonic replicas, even if it did come back to haunt Robotnik in the long run. Mecha was(of course) defeated once again in Sonic and Knuckles as a pre-final boss for Sonic and a final boss for Knuckles. It would be nearly 10 gaming years before Mecha Sonic would ever see the light of day again. He reappered as the main antagonist of Sonic Heroes in a new upgraded form called "Neo Mecha Sonic" which gave him the ability to melt into a puddle of mercury-esque liquid and also mimic a few familiar faces along the way! Neo Mecha Sonic managed to upgrade himself further into Metal Overlord after merging himself with pieces of Eggmans' flagship. He resembled much of a giant Dragon-fly and was defeated by the combining forces of Sonic, Knuckles and Tails. At the end of the game, it is shown that Mecha had reverted back into a previous state however, he appears to be nothing more than a heavily upgraded Metal Sonic.

As for the articulate toyline, I meant that the previous Sonic toys left much to be desired as they included little to no articulation. Sonic Unleashed, however changed this. I just recently picked up a highly articulated Super Sonic and a normal Sonic from TRU. I was just hoping that instead of the newer characters they could go back and redo some of the older enemies like Mecha with a Master Emerald display base and a Robotnik fully articulated.

Sorry for the rediculously long comments, its just that its been a while since I had an intellegant conversation about the Sonic franchise. XD

WHAT. ON. EARTH. Are you talking about? You're blending stuff from the Sega games, the Archie Comics and the Anime Movie together as though they were connected or something. That's just wrong.

First, you're right that there have been several Sonic knock-off robots, but you're looking at it from the wrong angle. The most prominent of all Sonic-based robots is Metal Sonic. His first appearance was in the game Sonic CD. He would then make reccuring appearances and cameos in Knuckles' Chaotix, Sonic Triple Trouble, Sonic Drift 2, Sonic R, Sonic the Fighters, Sonic Adventure/DX, Sonic Adventure 2/Battle, Sonic Pinball Party, Sonic Heroes (as the main protagonist, Neo Metal Sonic --> Metal Madness --> Metal Overlord), Sonic Rivals, Sonic Rivals 2, Sega Superstars Tennis, and Super Smnash Bros. Brawl (as a sticker).

As for the other Sonic robots this is who they are. In the 8-bit Sonic 2 game, there was a Sonic robot that looked just like Sonic, except it was white with blue eyes, whereas Sonic was blue with white eyes. This robot was called "Silver Sonic" in the game manual and "Mecha Sonic" in the Japanese version. In the 16-bit Sonic 2 game was another Sonic robot that was very bulky and slow. It too was called "Mecha Sonic" in the Japan, but unnamed outside Japan. Fans have unofficially called this one "Silver Sonic" due to its appearance in the Archie Comics as such. This same Mecha Sonic robot returned in the game Sonic Pocket Adventure. In the game Sonic & Knuckles, another robot named "Mecha Sonic" (in Japan, it too was unnamed elsewhere) appeared three times and even went into a Super Form. In Sonic the Fighters, not only did Metal Sonic himself appear, but so did another Sonic robot called "Mecha Sonic Model No.29" and he appears in the games opening sequence. However, he can be playable via hacking. But when he's being played, his name is "Rocketmetal".

In addition, there were other Sonic robots who weren't named "Mecha Sonic". In the Knuckles' Chaotix game, once Metal Sonic is defeated by the player, he is taken away and another, gigantic red Sonic robot appears to fight. This one is huge, red, and has his legs detached from his body. This robot has been referred to as "Metal Sonic Kai" in some places.

Thee Sonic R games fetures a "Metal Knuckles" and a "Tails Doll" as artificial counterparts to Knuckles and Tails, as well as Metal Sonic himself.

In Sonic Adventure/DX, not only does Metal Sonic make a cameo appearance, but so does another Sonic robot. This one appears floating inside a green tube (as does Metal Sonic) in Dr. Eggman's base in the Mystic Ruins. The design for this robot was used for the Silver Sonic II character in the Archie Sonic comics.

In Sonic Rivals 2, Eggman Nega has his own personal copy of Metal Sonic called "Metal Sonic version 3.0". It looks exactly like the real Metal Sonic, except that he has a black and yellow color scheme instead of the regular Metal's blue color scheme.

As for fictional appearances, Metal Sonic and other Sonic robots (either named Silver Sonic or Mecha Sonic) have appeared in things such as the Sonic Anime movie (where he was called "Hyper Metal Sonic", or just "Metal" for short), the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon (one episode fetured a "Pseudo-Sonic" robot), the Archie Sonic comics (Psuedo-Sonic, Metal Sonic, a Silver Sonic, a Silver Sonic II, and a Sonic-roboticized Mecha Sonic all appeared), and the UK Sonic the Comic (a Silver Sonic, and the Brotherhood of Metallix).

The Brotherhood of Metallix was a group of identical Metal Sonic-looking robots who formed their own organization against Sonic. The orginal robot of these was called "Metallix: The Metal Sonic". After the defeat of the first Metallix, a new Metallix model (based on the Sonic & Knuckles Mecha Sonic design) showed up and the brotherhood themselves were eventually revealed.
The story arc with thsi antagonist group was of epic proportions, with the original unit becoming the "Emperor Metallix". In the aftermath of the final battle with the brotherhood, one more Metallix appeared with almost-godlike powers (who was defeated eventually like all bad guys are). The final Metallix to appear in the comic was based off the Metal Knuckles design from Sonic R.

All these stories are in their only canon and do not go together with each other. There are the games with their own canon, the four TV series each have their own four canons, the two comics have their two canons, and the movie is on its own as well.

Ah, I see. I was just going by what I remembered. It's been a while since I was a fan of the series so a lot has probably changed since. I wonder how difficult it would be to make an Eggsterminator(I believe thats it's name)custom figure from Sonic 2. I'd like to see that done but as we know that will never happen.

The Eggstirminator was the giant mecha from Sonic X that was the final boss from its first season (the story arc right before the the Chaos arc).

If you're referring to the giant mecha at the end of the Death Egg Zone that resembles Dr. Eggman (http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/File:Deathegg_Final_boss_sonic_2.gif), I don't think it had a name.