For the last year or so, you may of noticed a bunch of retro style Sonic merchandise being sold in GameStation, including T-Shirts, key rings, wrist bands, badges etc. Well just a couple days ago I was browsing in my local GAME, which being so close to Christmas was naturally packed with people running around like headless chickens because they leave their shopping till the very last minute, and I came across these new retro Sonic plush toys, one of Sonic and one of Tails. According to the back of the box there is also Knuckles and Dr. Eggman ones, but they didn't have these in stock. Best thing was they were only a tenner each, which isn't bad because there not too small and look the part.
Anyway, the queue was about a mile long so I didn't buy them then, but this morning I had another look and most of them had already sold, they only had 2 Sonics and about 5 tails' left, so that convinced me to grab one of each. While I have barely touched any of the modern Sonic X style stuff they have made over the last few years, I'm a sucker for anything that looks like the Sonic I grew up with.More after the jump.
They're both about 12 inches tall and quite nicely designed despite using simple materials, far more appealing then any of those wonky ugly Sonic X plushes. The eyes on pupils on Sonic soft toys are normally plastic, but these ones are knitted in, which is nice as they don't stick out of the eyes and go wonky over time. Both even have cute buckles on on their shoes.
Sonic is a lighter blue than expected, but it's a nice shade of blue none the less.He's fluffier than the Tails toy, especially his nose and quite a smaller body than Tails. It's a decent likeness to the Mega Drive era Sonic we all know and love, before he went all freaky looking with lanky limbs and that menacing toothy grin.
Tails is, quite simply, adorable. He looks a lot like he did in the old Japanese artwork with a small mouth and shiny big pupils. His Tails (which you can't see in the photos) are much smaller than in older toys, and he more close to a shade of yellow than orange. Unlike Sonic's nose, Tails' nose is a piece of plastic. My only small niggle with the design is the bright yellow colour of his fringe, but it's not that big a deal when the design is a good as it is.Compare them to these older plush toys I still own:
These toys are developed by Impact Innovations, a toy company who also make all those Mario Kart toys you see about. According to their website, there are going to be many more toys in the "Classic Sonic the Hedgehog" in 2008, including beanies, radio control and track sets. Sadly they have no photos of any of this stuff yet. If you want to buy these Sonic plushes, the only place that seems to stock them so far is GAME. Sonic here and Tails here, they don't seem to have listing for the Knuckles and Eggman ones yet, which is a shame because these are the ones I'm most intrested in, as I don't own any soft toys of those characters at all (I refuse to own the ugly Sonic X ones). I'm going to make sure I find them , though, and when I do you'll be the first to see photos!