Early 90's Japanese Sonic Puzzle

This rather nice ebay purchase from Japan showed up this weekend. It was one of those "heck, why not" moments as I've wanted to get some stuff to hang up on my wall, and the puzzle was already built and framed, though the frame doesn't have glass in it but it is sealed up like so much stuff bought from Japan tends to be so that was a bonus. A couple more photos after the jump.

It had no box so I don't know when exactly this was released but judging by the artwork I would say it was an early 1991 or 92 piece. The animals and Robotnik are just like those on the PAL box art for the first game except in colour, and the art of Sonic is not one I have seen that often. I'm not exactly sure what he is doing other than a rather awkward looking pose and they forgot to colour in his shoe buckle but it's about as retro as Sonic merchandise can get, really.

It wasn't particularly cheap but it didn't break the (Paypal) bank and it's defiantly a nice piece to have in my collection. The seller also had some other Japanese Sonic bits including a Yoyo and a Mug but those were far too expensive for my taste and not as neat as this. I have not seen pictures of this puzzle before anywhere like Sonic Gear so there you go. Exciting stuff!

Stuff things into Sonic's Stomach and Carry Him About!

During my Birthday in late November and Christmas I was given a lot of Sonic gifts, many brought back from America. Of course being known for collecting just about anything with Sonic on it (within reason) does help in that case. One of my Xmas presents this time around was this rather large Sonic plush back-pack. Apparently these cost a small fortune in Sega's Gameworks park in Las Vegas (around $70!) but this one was found for a much less insulting $25 at a Fye's store. More photos after the jump.

This is made by the same manufacturer who made those Classic Sonic plush dolls including the rather neat Amy Rose one that I posted about a while back, and this back pack is a lot like the Sonic from that set, only much bigger of course and with more details. Unlike the plush toy the hands are not stitched to it's body in a waggling finger pose; instead they are quite thick and a bit bendy so it can give you a big hug, if you're into that sort of thing.

Here's some size comparing with the plush toy and one of those 3" figures to give you a gist of how big it really is. Of course it needs to be this big if it's supposed to be a back pack, and his belly is also quite big so stuff can be stored into it. As Stacey put it, this Sonic needs to lay off the chilli dogs, though I've seen fatter Sonic plushies funnily enough.

"Find the Computer Room!"

But that's the thing; you just can't store much in this. The storage is only the stomach part so you'd be lucky to even get a small book in here let alone your whole school supplies or something. Everything else is stuffed with fluff like Winnie the Pooh so his arms can't be used as pencil cases etc. As far as actually carrying anything around in it goes it's pretty useless.

Then again this was purchased for me knowing that'll it'll be sitting on a shelf with the other Plush toys as it is. So if you're after a large Sonic plush that just so happened to have a zipper on his belly and doesn't look like a lanky abomination like this one then you can do worse. As for storing stuff to carry around in a classic Sonic themed thing, you would do much better with one of these messenger bags which you may only look a bit of a tit carrying around instead of a complete tit. One thing I did notice with that bag however is at Summer of Sonic everybody had one. Yep...

Sonic Colours Pre-Order Figure...with Wisps!

If you are reading this blog, own a Wii and have not played Sonic Colours yet, why are you reading this blog? Go grab this game because it's actually rather good. Not even just rather good but rather brilliant. I know, I was shocked too. I haven't enjoyed a Sonic game this much from beginning to end since probably Sonic & Knuckles, and somehow even the writing and voice acting is light years ahead of "Watch out you're going to crash ahh!" of the Dreamcast days. Blimey.

As many may recall there was a pre-order bonus for this game in America was that now infamous Sonic hat (so much so that there was a whole ice rink of Sonic mad hatters tripping about for the games' launch), but elsewhere in the world we got this figure (above) instead. In Australia and possible some other countries the game came in a special edition box of the game with the figure, but here in the UK it was given in a little bag stapled together by some cardboard and was only available from the catalog store Argos. More after the bump..

 
Argos have also been selling the figure separately for £15, and I presume because of this the figures were not in stock until a week after the game release. Still, I did get the figure in the end, and for what is technically a freebie with the game it's not too bad, though there have been better Sonic figures recently.

 It's very similar to many of the Jazware figures with articulation in a lot of the same places, but it has chunkier arms, huge hands, slightly odd looking pupils and no mouth.

 

The hands also have little holes in them. All this is so the figure can hold the Wisp toys that come with it. You get a orange (ROCKET!), Cyan (LAZER!) and white (erm...boost?) wisp so one of the toys has to be a loner from Sonics' grasp. I tend to just balance the Cyan wisp on Sonics' head, that seems to do the trick.

 Not much to say about the wisp toys: the characters are simple so there was no way they were going to mess these up. They look enough like them so they do their job. It kinda makes me wish there was a set of the rest of the wisps now mind, especially that cube one. Still, these are the first lumps of plastic based on these characters so who knows maybe we'll see more in the future.

And finally just for comparison here it is next to the Black Knight toy and the regular 3" Sonic (or rather the one that came with the All-Stars Racing car), as height wise it stands somewhere between them. he stands a lot better than the Black Knight toy and it's lanky legs despite having the weight of the wisps in it's hands.

So I'm not sure if I'd say it's worth the £15 asking price on its own but included with the game it's a nice addition to the over abundance of blue hedgehogs gathering dust on my shelves, especially when said game was such a pleasant surprise. They even found a way to make the underwater levels FUN. What is this witchcraft Sonic Team have been dabbling in?

SOS '10: The Merchindise in the Glass Box!

Just like last year there was a 'No Merch Zone' present, which consists of a large glass cabinet of Sonic related treasures. There was some of the same stuff from last year but mostly completely new stuff, so here's a bunch of photos. Apologies the photos are not quite so good this time but you'll get the idea. Check them out after the jump..

The whole top shelf was dedicated to First4Figures amazing range of classic-style Sonic figures and the two statues. This included all six of the 3" toys in and out of a box set. The Metal Sonic as you all know was given away on the day and the Amy Rose and Super Sonic are on sale soon! Speaking of Super Sonic..

..he wonderful upcoming Super Sonic statue was there! It was the limited edition one with the light-up sparks on his feet too, which even flicker as if he is rocketing about! 

The statue actually looks a lot taller than the Sonic one: this is because the base is taller and also because even though Super is the same scale as the other Sonic, he is on his tippy toes! You just KNOW I need one of these now!

The second shelf had that Metal Sonic comic con exclusive again,as well as that Sonic & Knuckles jacket again (I still bet it's one i got outbid on too!). They also had a plush toy of Bokkun from Sonic X which I haven't seen before, and oh look something I actually own: the 2nd Sonic Annual. I suspect they're not rare in slightest mind.

Now here's an oddity and I'm not really sure if it can be considered a collectable or not unless you consider artwork by a Internet celebrity collectable. These are sketches of Sonic drawn by 'That Guy with the Glassies' for a video he did about Sonic which I'll link to later.It even had a document confirming that is officialy by him...ok. There was also some pre-order bonus toy sword from Black Knight.

Finally they had a soundtrack album for SegaSonic the Arcade game of all things, and Knuckles Chaotix for the 32X which belive it or not is a stupidly hard to find and expensive game now a days, probably because no one bought a 32X back in the day. Now I actually own a 32X I would like to find a copy of that..

3rd shelf down and we have a Japanese copy of Sega Superstars on PS2 (for some reason, I didn't really look at it), the signed Sonic Heroes from last year, an issue of Mean Machines Sega featuring Sonic CD, that signed Secret Rings art again, and the two CoroCoro manga books, which look kind of hideous to be honest. 

Onto the third shelf down and it was filled with clothing and plush toys including that Sonic 2 patch I have memories of for both owning the big blue jacket with it on and also for winning one of them from Sonic the Comic for sending in drawings I did (that were not published in the comic like that other one that won me a watch). I also have that Rivals hat, which I got when someone at a bootsale had a whole job lot of Sonic promo goodies.

The plushes consisted of Chao's (inlcuing a NiGHTS one) and two of the imfamously rare Nack/Fang ones from when Sonic the Fighters was released. There was a guy last year carrying one of thee about in his bag, I wonder if it's his. t's so collectable that sadly there have been bootlegs of this toy on Ebay from time to time.

own the bottom shelf they had sketches and character art from Sonic X, and I think these are different to the ones they showed last year. Just above these is that Sonic 15th Anniversary statue, and the Sonic Adventure 2 Battle figures (I have the grey one they had in the middle and that statue yay). They also had some stuff related to the Shadow game in the other corner but to be honest the photo for those came out rubbish and none it it was all that interesting to me anyway.

So that's your lot for this year! As always, I attempted to steal it to no avail..

Sonic and the most uncomfortable bike ever (and other hot wheels toys)

Title almost sounds like the next Wii exclusive Sonic game.

Man, I have truck loads of sonic junk that is stored in the loft that I have never got around to posting about, best at least have a go at showing some of it.

So let's start off with this one off oddity of a toy. Hot Wheels did this set of 'Crash & Smash' toys and amongst the Sewer Sharks and whatever other franchises represented was this Sonic figure on a motorbike. More after the jump..

For those interested in the back of the box and what the other toys were (probably nobody).

I have two of these toys, one boxed up all new because I'm sad like that and one not which is a little bit wreaked from *shock* being played as a toy when I was a kid. They were bought back when they were released sometime in...1995, I think? All I can remember is being surprised finding this in a shop as it was a little while after everyone had moved on from making Sonic toys. Time for some photos!

It's a rather angry attitude-y looking Sonic holding two rings (and the arms can rotate for some reason) and the motorbike has a seat that can spring up to launch the poor hedgehog flying as well as a road the bike clips to that you can pull it back and shoot forward. This thing chucks itself across the room bloody fast, so at it's definitely Sonic fast. In fact the only way I could show you how fast it is I took a quick video.








..and while we're at it here's another vid of Sonic being flung back into the loft box of doom (hitting the mug in there by the sounds of it) via the seat chucking button which just so happens to be the front wheel. Good times!







While we're having a good chuckle at the hogs' misery: just have a look at how the Sonic sits on the bike..

..via a rather nasty and deep looking butt plug. Ouch.

I've also got photos of a much more recent and non-Sonic related set of Hot Wheels cars, released around 2002 when Sega was making that at-first-very-promising-but-still-heart-breaking move to making games for every console out there. These are standard hot Wheels cars except for one obvious motif: they have sega games scribbled all over them!

To be exact the set of five features Shinobi (the PS2 game), Space Channel 5, Super Monkey Ball, The House of the Dead III and Jet Set Radio Future. Rather spiffy! I thought I had the Shinobi one but I seem to have mis placed it. These pop up on ebay from time to time and can be picked up quite cheap. The older Sonic toy however is a bit more elusive though.

EDIT: Found the Shinobi one, so here's a photo of it!

The Sonic Chess set and other bits and bobs

So we finally have some photos of the Gaya Entertainment range of classic Sonic stuff as seen over at the German website Spin Dash (thank Barry for finding these). Nice to finally see a classic Amy and Robotnik show up somewhere in all this stuff!

Squeeze toys for crushing in your hand over the many disappointments and frustrations that come in hand with being a Sonic fan!

Smaller squeezie keychains! The same deal but obviously smaller and with key chains attached to their noggins!

But best of all the Sonic Chess set (or '3D chess' as it says on the box just in case you've only ever played chess under a steamroller before). Notable for being the first classic Amy merchandise outside of Japan EVER, I believe.

A shame most of the pieces are just rings rather than say, badniks or something of that ilk. The rings aren't even gold painted! Oh well, you could always yank the rings out of their stand and chuck them all over the place if someone bumps into you, if you're odd like that.

So far I'm not aware if, where and when these are being released, but I'm pretty sure they won't just stay in Germany, or at least I hope not.

Sonic race track revisions, or just better paint jobs?

Just over a year ago I posted probably way too much text and too many photos of the 'Super Sonic Racing System' set and it's broken Sonic and tails slot cars. Well Debenhams were having a 75% off sale and still had some sets left over so I picked one up for a measly £4.50 to replace my broken set. Seems the pain jobs on the cars of this set are much better than my previous set. Either it's a luck of the draw how good the set you get is or they sacked however gave Sonic bags under his eyes and the colours all sloppy and not quite matching the artwork.

Have a look for yourself (new one on left, old on right):

There are some other subtle differences too, like the pole holding the two back wheels are longer and the characters seem to be more up right (espcially the Tails of which the old is practically facing the floor) but that's just me going into autistic levels of comparison. I haven't tried the set to see how many minutes it will actually work, but to be honest I probably won't bother. Now if the track had a loop and rings likethe original concept art that;d be a different story...

New Classic Sonic 2" figures

Just spotted these on play.com, with a pre-order date of the 20th of this month. Classic styled and just 2 inches tall (still bigger than the Sonic & Knuckles set I have) , they cost £4 each at the moment though I should imagine a box set of all three will show up at some point too. Wouldn't it be nice if they made a whole collection of these with Robotnik, Amy, Metal Sonic etc? For now though we just have the usual Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. Still, they look nice enough, decent Christmas gifts at least.

They also have the RC Racers and Track set that I showed you before up on the site for under a tenner. I wouldn't really recommended the track set unless you really must have the little figures that come with it: I got my set for much cheaper as it was faulty, the track is nothing special. The RC Racers however are quite nice.

Oh, and the 12" statue? Good luck getting that now, it's price is shooting upwards!

New First4Figures Sneak Peek

It hasn't even been six months since series 1 of the Sonic the Hedgehog vinyl toys hit stores, and yet First4Figures (F4F for the sake of brevity) is now revealing what may come next! The F4F Facebook group has revealed sneak peeks at an upcoming figure, and all signs point to Metal Sonic... again!

While F4F has yet to dip their toes in the evil robotic hedgehog waters, Jazwares has already released the awesome 10" Metal Sonic as well as the chibi-kawaii Juvi Metal Sonic. Is too much Metal a bad thing? Of course not! The F4F Metal Sonic could be one of two things: a large $100+ statue, or one of thee figures to appear in series 2 of the vinyl series. My hopes go towards series 2, as that would also mean two more figures. A Sonic CD reunion perhaps, complete with pink tutu Amy and a jolly Eggman. The figure would also have to be unique, in a dynamic pose, possibly sporting purple-pink flames shooting out from his behind.

Wouldn't this pose make an awesome vinyl toy?

I, and the fans, could also be completely wrong and we are in fact getting the little known Hyper Metal Piggy: