Image: Youtube (Since Spacies)
SEGA World hasn’t been kicking for almost two decades now, but that doesn’t mean fans won’t go to extreme lengths to preserve what was left.
Brian Costelloe is a long-running SEGA fan and former Hyper contributor, and he’s been running the Since Spacies YouTube channel for almost two years.
He recently caught wind of an abandoned Sonic and Sally statue, which were previously part of the spectacle that was SEGA World in Sydney’s Darling Harbour. The park was cracking fun, and a great part of local gaming history, but it was too expensive. After opening in 1997, the park shut down in November 2000 and the owners sold off the assets in short order thereafter.
Costelloe got a tip recently that a Western Sydney junkyard was housing some SEGA relics, and so he hopped in a car to check them out. Documenting the process on Youtube, Costelloe eventually discovered Sonic sans arm, and a pretty beaten up Sally lying in the field.
Costelloe tried to acquire the statues, but the owner had “no intention” of selling the statues. The YouTuber noted that there was something awry about the statue, later revealing that the Sonic and Sally statues were smaller-scale models (likely displayed indoors). That leaves the possibility open that the original Sonic and Sally statues displayed outside of SEGA World are still kicking around somewhere.
Kotaku Australia reached out to Costelloe to ask about his efforts, but did not hear back by publication. As for the former games writer, former SEGA employee and life-long fan, he still has a small sliver of hope that the owner of the dilapidated Sonic and Sally could be saved. He left his business card with the owners, and hopes that the owners will consider parting ways with the relics.
“At this point in time, it is in limbo,” he said on the YouTube video. “At the moment, it’s just exposed to the weather, and it’s just going to deteriorate even further, which is a damn shame.”
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