60s to 80s Sonic

Woo, im on a roll with these lol
This one was fun to do as I really got to experiment with making the 80s Sonic look like he'd been taken straight out of a tv screencapture. Tried to choose colours that I felt suited the era in which he existed. So pretty bright technicolours for the 60's and slightly desaturated for the 80s.

In the period spanning the 60's to 1978, Sonic began a slow decline in popularity. The cartoons seemed less fresh and children growing up in these times didn't seem to latch on to the character like their parents before them. Sonic seemed to be becoming old fashioned. However, the 60's saw yet more innovative changes to the Sonic universe.

Sonic's appearence was slightly tweaked. Bolder and bright colours were used and he'd begun to resemble the Sonic we know today much more. More detail had been put into his footwear, and general feaure and he'd lost his trademark bow tie. The 60's saw the introduction of the character Knuckles the Echidna, far different from the Knuckles we know today. The Knuckles of the 60's, it seems, was conceived to cater towards the hippy movement growing momentum in this time period. Knuckles was extremely laid back, slow to anger and constantly preaching a message of peace on the planet. Dr Ivo Robotnik became more insane and evil and his appearence continued to shift.

In 1978, the Sonic the Hedgehog series went off the air after years of slumped ratings. The cartoon having endured an incredible 50 year run, audiences were astonished when it went off the air. However, 6 years later they would have the chance to be reunited with the super speedy hedgehog. The company SEGA had become the new owners of the character and aimed to take him in a new direction. And so the great Sonic revitalization began. The 80's Sonic was just that, a spawn of the 80's. Sporting a mohawk, headphones, a walkman and a leather jacket, Sonic was perceived as a true icon of the 80's. Or at least, that was the intention. Whilst a new generation of children flocked to the character, old fans were not too impressed by the big departure from Sonic's roots. The story had also been tweaked. Robotnik was now the evil overlord of Planet Mobius, whose first act was to have rock music forbidden. Well this ticked off a certain blue, streamlined hedgehog who aimed to bring down the evil doctor and bring rock back to the planet. Much of the previous cast including Amy Rose and Miles Prower had been dropped in favour of an all new cast which consisted of punk pig Porkchop Lewis, the rockin rabbit Johnny Haredrix, the bandtastic bird Flickey and the sassy Sally Acorn. The only previous cast member to make the cut was Knuckles who changed from a high hippy to a hip-hop street echidna who guarded the magical Chaos Cassette on his home, the Hip-Hoppin Sky Scraper.

The series ran for 5 years before being scrapped after ratings had begun to slip. Not long after this, Sonic resurfaced with a whole new look once more...