The Sonic Merchandise Topic

*Grabs piggy bank full of pennies* :v:

 

The base is really nice, but the best thing about Super Sonic is how shiny he is.


Look at that gorgeous, glossy finish on his fur and the parts of his shoes.

 

He finally arrived! Feels like I ordered this years ago. Even my dog Tails is excited!

Looking really nice, even comes with 2 different hand poses. I'm scared as hell to move it though!

 

I got mine too! Absolutely gorgeous beast. I couldn't be happier with it. Only problem is he's so huge that I don't have any space at all to put him, but I knew that would be the case when he was first announced. He's back in the box now. Modern Super Sonic and the Tornado statue will be going the same when they come along too. No way I'm passing up a chance to buy any of these pieces. They're just that good, and one day I will have the means to display them all.

 

That's an acrylic painting I did a couple years ago. I've always loved Spring Yard Zone, I plan to retire there some day, if I only had the money...

From a distance it looks simple, but close up it's very detailed and all painstakingly hand painted. I kinda have this idea about "Sonic's World" appearing as though it's synthetic like a simulation but because it's on a different order of scale from our reality, which could possibly be a simulation itself. Things which are natural, or non-human artifacts, are almost exclusively based on fractal geometry. This becomes clearer at both higher and lower orders of magnitude. However, this is less clear from the order of our natural perspective, yet still observable. Hokusai may have been the first to convey this in art. Well, I sort of imagine Sonic's world on an order of magnitude in which its fractal composition if more obvious. That's why the painting cascades into simpler patters of construction as it descends, while still attempting to portray atmosphere (which the glare sort of disfigures). I dunno...

Anyway, I've thrown up a few closer images should anyone actually care (mind the glare, I've never gotten to applying a matte poly coat). This probably belong in "Creative Works" or whatever, but since you asked...

 

Dude, I'm sure people would pay for stuff like that. You have some serious talent.

 

I know I would, that's amazing. Also wow, the Robotnik statue is huge, and I really wish I could afford that Modern Super Sonic but there's no way I could, especially with my apprenticeship ending soon.

 

I must have a few of the old UK Sonic 1 posters somewhere, I did have one on my bedroom wall inc a Sonic 3 large poster from a magazine but my dad binned them about 3 years ago when redecorating the room(not bad though surviving over 15 years)

Not sure if he binned my old Sonic sweet holder, it was basically just something that had sweets inside, but I think the hands snapped off years ago.

I must have various Sonic the Comics somewhere too.

Shows how much I liked Sonic when I bought Sonic Jam, R and 3D on the Saturn despite having all the Mega Drive games(bar Spinball but didn't like that one much anyway)

 

I was browsing the Morikami museum today and noticed a Sonic pencil sharpener in a display case. My phone camera is kind of crappy, so sorry for the blurry image. I've never seen any merchandise with SegaSonic branding before, aside from a single mug. The sharpener has copyright dates of 1991, 1992, and 1994.

 

(Don't know if it needs its own topic. Modarators can delete or merge if there is a problem with it).

Through I like Sonic games, I'm a huge Sonic's plushes collector, collecting all of these toys and trying to get all Sonic characters. With time (and money), I get a pretty decent collection, through not as big as those crazy collections you can find on Deviantart (especially the hard to find and subject to speculation plushies like SA Japanese series)

So, I decide to expose my collection of plushes but I also provide information about it (in order to not be a dull "show my plushies") and how to get them.

Before getting started, here is some addresses where you can find some of those plushes :

Amazon : Amazon is only for the most common, recent plushes and only the western ones. Due to small choice and low quality, it's mostly a place to choose only if you're desperate to get a plush. But it's cheap and there is also the GE Entertainment plushes with characters rarely to nowhere to be seen in other series of plushes.

Ebay : The most obvious choice to get a plush. It have an incredible choice of plushies, from cheap but low quality to beautiful but very expensive soft toys. Due to speculation, greed and bidding nature of the site, less common plushes (such as Japanese ones) are very hard and expensive to get. Still, it's the best choice to start a collection.

Jauce : If you find western plushies ugly and seek best quality soft toys, you probably want to get those Japanese UFO Catcher plushes (the SEGASonic , the Sonic the Fighter, the SA and Sonic X brand). But they are rare and mostly expensive. Despite being sometimes affordable to EBay, they need dozen to thousand of $/€/£ to get them. The best idea is to ask Japanese sellers. But they are rare on EBay because they are on another auction site : Yahoo Auction Japan, which really don't like bidders outside the Archipelago. Here comes Jauce, a website not supported by Yahoo which can allow to bid on auctions on YAJ and bring back your won items to home but with commissions, fees and shipping costs. You can have access to plushes largely less costly compare to EBay due to the blue hedgehog being less popular there (and locals not aware of westerners bidding here) and sometimes plushes very rare to find (if you have patience). The problem is many westerners know this site and every time you will found an interesting plush, despite the price being low at first, prepare to have disillusion when some plushies reach hundred of thousand yens. Still, it remains the best choice as some plushes have little demand and are cheap (although lots of costs after won an item).

Hidden Palace Games : A fan shopping sit, found find totally randomly when seeking plushes on Google. It have a very nice collection of plushies but most (not to say all) of interesting plushes are extremely expensive (in fact, prices were lower until the last update). There are probably more affordable shopping fan site on the web with the same items but if you have money to waste (through the owner is open to bargaining).

So enough talk, let's see thoses plushes :


This one is a very common, not to say ubiquitous, Sonic plush, mainly made for European UFO catchers (and probably the Americans ones) and can be found in large quantities in Amazon or EBay. It's a decent plush, despite not being that great. It's cheap due to larges quantities available and medium quality but there are better plushes at the same price.


This good Sonic plush is , as you can imagine, Japanese. It's the last of SEGASonic brand, made in 1998 by Jumbo, the same company that will make the SA plush series. This plush is amazingly soft and seems to be made for young age children. This plush isn't very common : it's rare on EBay (and a bit expensive) but a little more common and cheap on Jauce (in fact, most of the plushes you can bought are Sonic ones. Other characters are rare).


Eggman/Robotnik plushes aren't that common, despite GE Entertainment solved this problem. This plush isn't GE one but was made by PMS for European UFO Catcher along with Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles. This plush seems to be good quality with details, although most of them are made of plastic which can be easily ripped off if being careless. The PMS version was once easy to found, sometimes sold by Italian sellers on EBay. Now they are rare but the GE version seems to be similar and common so you can easily get one.


This Tails plush belong to the same first Classic Sonic plush series. It have the same advantages and drawbacks : easy to found, cheap and decent but not great quality (in fact it's the worst of the series, due to its misplaced bang).


This Japanese Tails plush belong to the other Classic Sonic plush series (yes, I'm repeating myself). Like the Sonic one, it's an accurate, cute, soft plush, not very common (through it can surprisingly be found a little easier) but cheap on
Jauce and not requested by western bidders due to the huge iterations of the two tailed fox in plush toys. Note the plastic eyes (like most of Japanese plushes) which I found nicer than cloth sewn ones.


This Classic Amy was made by PMS in a series of five plushes (remember the Eggman one ?). It's good quality, accurate and cheap but like the Eggman plush, some of the details are made of fragile plastic so be careful. Once sold by Italians sellers on EBay, it's now rare but is surprisingly the same as the GE version, which is more common and still cheap.


This Knuckles plush comes from the same series as the Sonic and Tails one (it's in fact a series of three plushes) so it have the same characteristics like the two others.


Meet the modern style plushies ! This Sonic one comes probably from Joyopolis and is recent. While not being nice as SA versions, it's better due to not having those annoying pointing fingers or Soap shoes. It's rare on Ebay and not very common on Jauce but the second is better choice to find it. Or you can go to Tokyo and get one at Joyopolis (don't know if you can buy or have to won it).


This modern Tails was part of the Sonic X Brand. While the Japanese Sonic X plushes are small (around 8'/25cm), there were two big sized plush to be made, this plush being one of them (the other is of course Sonic). It's share some similarities with the SA version, the only difference is the mouth, open in the SA version. It's a good and accurate plush with plastic eyes and shoes (through the last isn't visible because being fragile and handled carelessly). It's rare on EBay and not common on Jauce. If you plan to get one, patience is the essence.


This Modern Amy plush is from Kelly and probably one of the ugliest series of Sonic plushes because it's disproportionate (tall but slim and long legs). Quality is a bit bellow average but is very cheap and can easily be found on Amazon. But you can buy way better plushes of her on EBay for a low price.


This SA plush was once the only official iteration of the big purple cat available, until GE release their own plush. Like SA plushes, it's good and accurate. Due to not being loved by the fanbase, he is third cheapest of SA plushes (over Sonic and Tails) and common to find on EBay but more rare on Jauce. He is easy to find and to buy so if you don't like GE version ...


Yes, a Shadow plush (I said I collect every characters, including not praised ones). He has, of course, tons of plushes in different quality and this one, a American Sonic X according to the tag, is decent and not very expensive. Because I found Shadow plushes to look like the same, you can easily get him no matter the version want. If you really want to find the best one, the SA2 version, you have to be patient and probably rich. The Sonic X version is more common and affordable.


This Rouge plush is a GE version. It's very ubiquitous on EBay but I found to be the worst of GE Sonic plushes, despite being petty decent. It's maybe because of cheap construction in some part of the plush. But if you're looking for decent and inexpensive Rouge plush, it's a good choice. If you're looking for quality, there are some Sonic X versions on EBay and still being a little affordable. The SA2 version is rare and probably the most expensive of the series.


Another ugly Kelly plush. It has the same problems as the Amy plush (through Cream being worse). I bought it only because it was tall and Cream plushes are never taller than 8'/25cm. But, if you're not like me, I recommend you to not buy it and instead seek the GE versions or Japanese Sonic X one (if you're lucky).


Last is this GE Silver plush, the best because of little iterations of him. He's decent and seems to be cheap. He's available on EBay and Amazon (I think) so if you want one ...

So, it's over for the moment. I'm trying to get other plushies, especially the GE rare characters, but due to having little money, I have to wait next month. Hope you loved it.

 

I always loved the First 4 Figures designs. I actually got Mega Man a few weeks ago. Proto Man should be arriving at my comic shop soon. I want one of the Sonic one's, but I'm not sure which one to get, in terms of how big it is for a shelf, how well it looks in person, and design wise. My choices are Modern Super Sonic. the Tornado, or the Sonic Generations one. I was wondering if any of you know how well the bigger ones like Tornado and the Generations one are usually like. Are they really sturdy? Like, if I touch it a bit too hard, it won't break. I don't want an extremely fragile one. I can't buy all 3 because that's a lot of money, so I think I'll stick with one. Also, are the exclusive editions worth it? I mean, I know it just makes the figure light up, but if it looks really cool and is worth the price, I might get the exclusive ones.

 

Let me first say that I have been collecting all the classic versions of the F4F statues. I think my favorite is a tie between Metal Sonic and Robotnik. But Robotnik is very large, so it may not be a contender for you if size is a constraint. I think the Tornado will become my new favorite when it arrives. If I were you, I would order the Tornado. It's 2 characters, a scene from the games, dynamic, highly detailed, etc.

The figures are very sturdy. They will not break from mere touching. My husband decided to move my Robotnik figure, he decided it had been on display in the dining room for too long, I told him to never touch my figures and that if he wanted it moved to ask me to do it. Well, he didn't listen to me, he picked it up off the 4’ cabinet, and the plinth fell off the bottom of the figure and landed on his big toe. Naturally, my initial concern was for the figure. Aside from an almost invisible paint abrasion, it was totally fine. His toenail will grow back (we think).

Are the exclusives worth it? Well, that's subjective. If the few extra bucks mean nothing to you, then yes. If finances are tight, I would say no. Here's why: I like the look of the clear pieces, and the integrated lights and effects, but the quality is shoddy. For instance, one of the eyes on my Metal Sonic does not work after only a few uses. The base on my Tails exclusive only worked twice and then stopped working (although they did send me a replacement after about 2 years). Note that I never leave them turned on. Additionally, the light up effects are really cool when they work, but if you really care about your figures you won't want to leave batteries in them all the time because as we all know batteries can leak over time. So then you're in a situation where if you want to observe the light effects, presuming they still work, you'd have to lift up the figure and put the batteries inside, and risk dropping your expensive figure (toes be damned), observe the magic, then lift the thing up again and remove the batteries, and place the figure back onto its solid onyx column as one does. Also, I may be wrong but as I recall the button which activates is also located on the bottom, so even if you have batteries inside, you will have to lift it up to activate.

Hope that helps.

 

Here's an old picture of my collection, with a bunch of other items on the shelves for scale: (spoilered for size)

Spoiler

Modern Super I believe is about the same height as Shadow, if not slightly taller. And that includes the base, despite the fact that Modern Super's base is actually considerably smaller for some reason.

If you're just going to get one... Well fuck, either of those three are really good choices. The first one to count out would be Generations. As lovely a piece as it is, the lack of any one "best" angle has always bugged me about it. No matter which way you look at it, some particularly nice aspect of the statue will always be obscured. But if it's a beautiful piece regardless. If you weren't also considering Modern Super or the Tornado, I'd recommend to you in a heart beat. As for the other two, it's just a case of which you prefer. The Tornado statue is awesome for simply being what it is and includes a really sexy pivot. The EX version is a bit negligible as the only difference is the jet exhaust lighting up. Modern Super on the other hand looks amazing, but perhaps isn't such a striking piece if you already have other statues. The paint-work is super glossy and the light-up water on the EX really completely the statue.

I've got all the EX versions so far. Generally they look nicer (the jury is out on Knuckles' base, which looks great either way), but the lights themselves rarely get used. They're all sturdy though, as much as you would expect from giant statues.

Oh and don't forget that there's this one too. They said they're gunning for a release to coincide with the 25th anniversary, but as yet it's not been officially announced. This was just the fan-created idea that they were going to to submit to SEGA.


'C' won the public vote, even though the brown tiles are clashy and noisy as fuck.

 

It kind of looks like Sonic is giving the old "come hither" look there...


+ - Would bang.  

 

Oh, a little word of warning by the way. The Regular Tornado statue and Exclusive Modern Super Sonic have both tentatively sold out on pre-orders, so if you pre-order either of them then you'll be put on the wait list in hopes that someone rise cancels or doesn't pay up. The Exclusive Tornado and Regular Modern Super Sonic are still available, as are both editions of the Generations statue.

 

Being a Sonic fan since 1993, I have managed to collect various bits of merchandise and clothing. Most of it was boxed away after I left home, but after coming back I am going to go through it and share it with everyone here - as well as adding the Sonic books to the wiki when I can.

I grew up in Australia so I'm not sure if some of my items were only available here, as I can't find some of it elsewhere on the internet (the SEGA world shirt is Australian obviously). Looking back at older merchandise from my collection and what other people have posted, I think as a whole, Sonic merchandise and clothing was a lot better in the 90's (clothing especially). Now that I work in fashion and product design, it surprises me sometimes in regards to the missed clothing and merchandise opportunities. There is some definite potential for SEGA to make some great merchandise, without having to license it out elsewhere.

Anyway, this is what I have found in one box so far... More to come later. I know I have photos and merchandise from SEGA World Sydney as well as bunch of books somewhere.


This would have been purchased around 1996 I am pretty sure. I used to wear it all the time, great quality cotton and a nice Sonic embroidery kicking a football (Which is funny as it is a rugby union jersey in style)





Both would have been purchased in 1997. Sonic X-treme merchandise was everywhere at the time in Australia. I also remember the Sonic X-treme icy-poles around the same time, didn't save any of the packaging unfortunately.





One of my favourites as a kid. Great crossover of Sonic and Football, which Sonic patterns throughout.





One of my pieces from my Sydney SEGA World trip in 2000. Interesting to note how Sonic's arms are normal colour here, when a lot of SEGA World artwork depicted them blue.





Probably the best boxer shorts I ever owned. Unsure on the year I would have got these, possibly around 94/95