Sonic: Mega Drive

Sonic: Mega Drive
Publication Date: July 2016

2016 saw the 25th anniversary of the entire “Sonic the Hedgehog” franchise. It is pretty impressive “Sonic” was still a viable thing two and a half decades after its creation, considering the series never recaptured its early nineties peak popularity. Honestly, it’s nothing short of a miracle that “Sonic” has suffered so many indignities and failures and still survives. (Or refuses to die, depending on how you look at it.) Sega was obviously aware of this and treated the anniversary as a big deal.

Mainly, they commissioned a bunch of “Sonic” fan game programmers to create “Sonic Mania.” This was basically the game long-time “Sonic” fans had been begging Sega to make for years: A continuation of the 2D platformer style seen in the original Genesis games. The announcement of the game in July of 2016, and the accompanying teaser footage, sent ripples of massive excitement through the “Sonic” fandom and the wider video game world. It was the first time Sonic had been perceived as cool and interesting by regular humans since at least 1999, probably earlier. When “Sonic Mania” was finally released the next year, it was hailed as the first unequivocally good “Sonic” game in many, many years. Sega being Sega, they immediately squandered this good will by releasing another mediocre 3D title a few months later. (And some fans still hated “Mania” because the “Sonic” fandom is terrible.)

I suspect Ian Flynn and the other people working on Archie’s “Sonic” comics were aware of “Mania’s” development, or at least the decidedly retro direction Sega was taking the 25th anniversary in. The same month “Mania” was officially announced, they would release “Sonic: Mega Drive.” A one-shot done in the Genesis-era style, it would be drawn by Tyson Hesse, the closest Archie “Sonic” had to a super star artist. It was a fun idea to celebrate the 25th anniversary with. And as a long time comic reader, I got a kick out of Archie publishing another “Giant-Sized 48-Page Special” No. 1 issue. (The previous one was “Sonic Blast,” released exactly twenty years before “Mega Drive.”)

Chronologically, “Mega Drive” places itself after “Sonic & Knuckles” and “Sonic CD,” seemingly taking the place of the much-loathed “Sonic 4” in Archie continuity. After rescuing Tails from a giant crab robot, Sonic learns that Eggman is hunting a new MacGuffin called the Ancient Gears, in service of a new doomsday device called the Mega Drive. The Gears are located on Eastwatch Island. Sonic runs into a new friend on each island, teaming up with them to wreck Eggman’s latest weapons and grab the Gears first.

Flynn pitched “Mega Drive” as if it was an adaptation of a lost classic “Sonic” game. This is a fun idea, conceptually. Flynn certainly gives the reader an exact idea of what this game, that exist only in his imagination, would look like. We begin in the Green Seaside Zone, a classical “Sonic” starter zone but with a heavily-wooded Pacific Northwest look. Next is the Flower Park Zone, a colorful garden zone that seems comparable to bumper heavy acts like “Casino Nights” or “Carnival Nights.” We conclude in the Cascade Temple Zone, which seems similar to the Labyrinth Zone but with more of a mineshaft aesthetic. Flynn includes Badniks, mini-Bosses, and Eggman encounters too. Flower Park has the best ones, with its gardener revamp of ”Sonic & Knuckles’” Hei Hou and Eggman’s giant snake Egg-Mobile.

However, “Mega Drive’s” plot construction is also too beholden to that classic game structure. Things get repetitive almost immediately. The same thing happens three times in this book. Sonic enters a new zone, meets an old friend, and teams up with them to easily defeat Robotnik’s new gimmick. The thin plot, involving Eggman gathering more old and super-powerful plot devices, is hardly inspired. “Mega Drive” would probably be a fun video game to play. But we’re reading a comic book, not playing a video game. This book sometimes feels like someone describing a video game to us, which is considerably less fun than playing one.

The similarly structured “Genesis” didn't have this problem. So what's different about “Mega Drive?” I would argue tone has a lot to do with it. While not without its goofy moments, “Genesis” was a relatively serious story. “Mega Drive,” on the other hand, represents the “Sonic” franchise in one of its aggressively wacky moods. Any time there's any sort of mildly serious moment – Tails gets attacked by a giant crab, a room slowly fills with water – Sonic and the other characters react with a quip. Including an obvious reference to the ancient “Giant enemy crab” meme. Or Sonic bitching about how traveling via bubble is too slow. Eggman is never a threat and is easily defeated by the heroes every time they encounter him, in increasingly goofy manners. The humor just drains the stakes.

Now, I'm not saying the jokes in “Mega Drive” aren't occasionally funny. There's a cute gag where, when trying to explain to Amy they don't need her around, Sonic runs right into a spike and looses some rings. (The book never tries to justify how the game mechanic of Sonic loosing rings when injured fits in with the comic's established lore, where that doesn't usually happen.) By far the best joke in the issue occurs when the gang meets Knuckles. Once again, as in the past, Knux has been fooled by Eggman. The echidna's highly biased memory of the events are depicted through scribbled crayon drawings, a hilarious touch that gives us a peek into Knuckles' slightly childish worldview.

That moment and other little background events, like Tails flailing in pain, heavily recalls Tyson Hesse's popular “Sonic” fan strips. Hesse's artwork is, naturally, excellent. Most of the jokes land strictly because of the artist's strength for goofy facial expressions. Like Sonic bouncing back from a blow, arms crossed sternly, face blank, big goose egg on his head. Hesse's panels are incredibly energetic. All the action scenes feature a lot of moving parts, debris spinning around Sonic as he tears apart his robotic foes. You can tell Hesse really relish the opportunity to draw these characters in the classic Sega style. What an asshole.

Still, for all its pluses, I was disappointed in “Mega Drive” when it was new. This was another moment where I felt really isolated from the rest of the Archie “Sonic” fandom, as this issue received unanimous praise from most readers. It's a fun idea but the script feels like it was written in ten minutes, overly reliant on humor and with a repetitive plot. And despite being advertised as a one-shot, “Mega Drive” ends on a cliffhanger and promises to be followed by a sequel, “Mega Drive – The Next Level,” in the fall. [6/10]

Top Ten Spookiest Sonic Moments!

I'm a pretty big horror fan. It's probably come up before. If you read my movie review blog, you know horror is easily my favorite cinematic genre. Right now, I'm on the penultimate day of a six week long marathon of horror movies and TV shows I do every September and October. I even wrote a book of horror stories. The points is: I like things that are scary, spooky, creepy, and weird.

My interest in horror and my “Sonic the Hedgehog” fandom don't cross over very often. As a franchise pitched at kids, the many incarnations of “Sonic” rarely have any reason to approach horrific topics. Occasionally though, something will emerge from the “Sonic” universe that nears creepiness. The series has never been scary, in my opinion, but every once in a while it is mildly spooky. In order to celebrate Halloween – objectively the only good holiday – I've compiled a list below of what I think are the spookiest “Sonic” moments, across as many medias as possible. Me being who I am, the bent here is towards the classic era. If there's anything you felt should've been included, let me know in the comments.

One disclaimer though: I'm sticking strictly to official, Sega-approved “Sonic” stuff. No fan fiction or fan art. And especially no “Sonic” creepypastas, all of which are stupid, un-scary bullshit.

10. Pumpkin Hill Zone

There's actually nothing scary about Pumpkin Hill Zone, one of Knuckles' levels from “Sonic Adventure 2.” However, there's no way I'm doing a Halloween-themed list of “Sonic” stuff without mentioning this level. It is, in fact, an entire Halloween themed stage. Mountains loom in the distance, their peaks carved into massive Jack O' Lanterns, that stare ominously. Tombstones litter the area, among industrial looking machinery and gothic bridges. The enemies, meanwhile, are primarily ghosts. There have been a few other haunted house themed “Sonic” stages over the years but this is the best one. It's a shame that rap soundtrack ruins the atmosphere. I'd recommend muting the stage music and putting on a spooky sounds tape instead.

9. Perfect Chaos

The final boss battle in the majority of Sonic games are a fairly intense affair. The stomping, massive robot that Robotnik pilots in “Sonic and Knuckles” is certainly a runner-up for the title of “scariest final boss.” Yet Perfect Chaos gets the nod for a  couple of reason. First off, the cut scenes of the massive monster flooding Station Square was definitely one of “Sonic Adventure's” most suspenseful affairs. The monster's giant size and mad starring eyes bring some Lovecraftian abominations to mind. The wrecked cities are certainly a grimmer sight than you might expect too. It all adds up to make a pretty spooky affair.

8. "Sonic's Scream Test"

I'm not a huge fan of “Sonic X,” especially when it comes to the ear-splitting English dub. However, I will give some props to the nineteenth episode of the first season. The plot concerns Sonic and friends exploring a haunted castle, the filming location for Chris' Mom's latest movie. Soon, ghostly spectres begin to fuck everybody's shit up.

The ghosts drag people through doors and even possess living beings. This is foreshadowed when Chris' Mom's reflection turns weird on her, starring suddenly at the audience. Later, Amy gets possessed too. In probably the only example of a jump scare on this show, Amy Rose's eyelids clamp up like a machine, revealing demonic eyes and a ghoulish grin. She then floats a few inches above the ground, pursuing her friends.

This is still “Sonic X,” so the ghosts are easily defeated and have silly faces. However, I can imagine this really freaking out the five-to-seven crowd this show was designed for. If nothing else, I'll give the writers and animators points for going there. The Archie comic that followed on this episode was also pretty good.

7. Giant Robotno

The “Giant Robotno” story, which appeared in Sonic Super Special #12, is a fairly obscure bit of “Sonic” lore. It's also the only example of straight-up body horror I can think from a “Sonic” comic. Sonic visits an alternate universe where his friends and family have been transformed into giant monsters. The sight of Sonic's friends and family being mutated into giant, hideous monstrosity is certainly off-putting. The artwork is goofy but effectively gross too. That the story concludes with Sonic tearing out the heart of the kaiju version of his dad continues the grim, unsettling tone this tale has.

6. "Sonic's Nightmare"

“Sonic's Nightmare” is a pretty good episode of SatAM. The Freedom Fighters attempt to thwart a plan by Robotnik to create acid rain. In the process, Sally, Bunnie, and Antoine get captured, forcing Sonic to rescue them. That stuff is pretty cool but it's not what fans really remember about this one. As the title indicates, Sonic is haunted throughout the episode by a nightmare. In his dream, he races through a thunder storm, gets his feet stuck in mud, witnesses Sally getting shoved into a Robotocizer, and then falls to his death. All the way, Sally's mocking voice rings in his head.

That's mildly spooky, as far as Saturday morning is concerned. The second reprise of the nightmare is especially creepy. In that dream, we actually see Sally turned into machine. She watches in terror as her limbs are replaced by machinery. Lastly, her face and hair lurched in horror as she changes. Before totally becoming a robot, Kath Soucie gives us her best blood curdling scream. Chew on that, you fucking six-year-old.

5. Super Sonic in “Sonic the Comic”

Sonic fans are pathetically meek, I've found. Most of the shit listed on the franchise's TV Troupes Nightmare Fuel page is weak sauce to a hardened horror fan like myself. But I'll give the editors of that site bonus points for including one aspect. In the video games and American comics, Super Sonic is just Sonic's super-powered form, activated whenever he grabs enough rings or Chaos Emeralds.

In the U.K. published “Sonic the Comic,” Super Sonic is a psychotic alternate personality of the hero. It's Sonic without any self-control or morals. I would never call the character spooky but, for those used to Sonic's light-hearted and heroic antics, this Super Sonic is certainly a shocking sight. That he's topped off with mad, red spirals for eyes sells it for me.

4. Ghosts in Sandopolis Zone

If Pumpkin Hill Zone is the first explicitly Halloween-themed “Sonic” stage, “Sandopolis Zone” from “Sonic and Knuckles” is the first explicitly spooky Sonic stage. I'm talking about the second half of the zone. After Sonic enters a giant pyramid, the player discovers that the lights in the zone will dim if you don't periodically activate a lantern. Once the lights go out, white sheet ghosts will appear above you. If the stage grows entirely dark, the ghosts grow devil horns and attack you. This shit was pretty freaky to me as a kid. The ghosts certainly make a stage that is already maze-like and difficult to navigate even more nerve wracking.

3. Creepy Faces in Sonic CD

“Sonic CD” was a game that included a number of secrets and hidden pictures. Buried within the game was a very peculiar image. The black and blue background shows repeated images of Sonic with the distorted, grinning face of mustachioed old man. In the forefront of the image is some Japanese text, undecipherable to most of us. Some fans have translated this message as being signed with the phrase “Majin,” a Japanese word for demon. In other words: This is a personal message from the devil himself.

What really makes this Easter egg especially spooky is the music. The genuinely eerie “Sonic CD” boss theme plays over this secret screen. That music includes throbbing low synth, discordant chimes, and a reverberating evil laugh. Imagine being a kid and stumbling upon this shit! The odd image, when paired with the creepy music, easily makes this one of the spookiest Sonic moments.

2. Sally's Death in “Endgame”

Let's do some role playing. It's March of 1997. You're nine years old. You're a devoted reader of Archie's “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic book, which continues the story that began on the Saturday morning cartoon show you fell in love with a few years earlier. Princess Sally has awoken strange feelings that aren't entirely understood inside readers all around the world.

Anyway, you open up issue 47 of the series and, within a few pages, you're greeted to the image of your beloved princess falling to her death. The artwork lingers on her descent, on her impact with the ground. Her body goes limp. Later in the book, the other characters weep at her apparent death. Yes, “Endgame” is a story line with considerable baggage, with Sally's seeming death being undone before it was over. But that page devoted to her fall? Pretty startling stuff for a “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic book.

1. The Drowning Music and the Advancing Wall of Doom

As the title of this blog indicates, Sonic the Hedgehog can't swim, at least not in the Sega video games. The original trilogy for the Sega Genesis made this fact especially evident by peppering the games with underwater stages. As Sonic sank towards the ground, moving slowly in the water, chimes occasionally pinged in the background. If enough passed, the most terrifying fucking music in the history of video games would began playing. A countdown flashed on screen, the soundtrack frantically pounding away at your ears. The message was clear: Get your ass to an air bubble poste hast or fucking die, shithead. You didn't always make it.

The only thing that could make Sonic drowning to death more upsetting is when underwater stages were paired with the advancing wall of doom. I'm thinking of stuff like the boss portion of Labyrinth Zone or the beginning of Hydro City: Act 2. Now you have to deal with utter death coming at you from one direction while the threat of drowning hangs over your head. I swear to God, this is the reason why I developed anxiety problems as a kid.


This is my favorite time of year, faithful Hedgehogs Can't Swim readers. Tomorrow, watch as many damn horror movies as you can, dress up, eat shit tons of candy, and embrace the spookiest day of the year. It only comes once a year so make the Devil proud! From my morbid heart to yours: Happy Halloween!

MEMORIES: Sega Genesis

(Today, I'm trying something a little different here at Hedgehogs Can't Swim. Some of you are probably aware of my other blog. Film Thoughts, devoted to movie reviews and film related essays, recently crossed 1000 posts. Over there, I have a reoccurring feature called Memories. They're long, nostalgic essays about something vaguely film-related. Today's Memories essay is about the Sega Genesis. Considering the crossover between these two blogs, I decided to post it here as well. The comic reviews will be back on Friday.)

 
Video games are huge business these days and I do not care. The most recent game system I own is an X-Box 360, which I bought exclusively to play “Marvel vs. Capcom III.” I haven’t turned on the system in probably over a year, to the point I unplugged it from my TV, wrapped it up in its cords, and hid it away somewhere. But it wasn’t always that way. As a kid in the early nineties, I saw video game systems as the ultimate status symbol. When I was very young, there was an NES in the house. However, it was designated as belonging to the family and was mostly played by my older sister. (That is until a pet cat chew through one of the cords, rendering the system unplayable.) A friend of mine owned a Super Nintendo, which I coveted greatly. However, there was one game system which I desired more then any other: The Sega Genesis, known overseas as the Megadrive.

The reasons why I lusted after the Genesis so much are easy to determine. Sega’s advertisements positioned the Genesis as a hipper, edgier console over its competition. In truth, the Super Nintendo had a stronger graphics card, more memory, better sound, and a library of games filled with genuine classics. That didn’t matter to five year old Zack Clopton back in 1993. I totally bought every line about Blast Processing, every promise that Sega does what Nintendon’t. The goal of these commercials was to make the Genesis seem like the badass of the home console world. Nintendo, meanwhile, was for babies. It worked, at least on me.

Yet even that wasn’t the real reason why I desired a Genesis. Last week, the internet celebrated the 25th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. As a kid, I was obsessed with Sega’s blue mascot with ‘tube. The comic book and cartoon shows fostered such a love for the character and his world, one that shamefully continues to this day, that I had to start a whole other blog to figure out why. I happily consumed the comics and loved the Saturday morning series but knew Sonic began his life as a video game character. For years, I only played the games at a friend's home or in store display room. Finally, in 1995 at the age of seven, I received a Genesis for Christmas. Afterwards, I spent hours playing many of the “Sonic” games, with the second one quickly emerging as my favorite.

You’ll notice that this blog isn’t called “Video Game Thoughts.” Back in the mid-nineties, I didn’t read reviews. Magazines and probably even some early websites existed devoted to parsing out which video games were good and which were crap. Nowadays, I know that video games based off of movies or television shows are not traditionally well regarded. When I was a kid, I was drawn to games inspired by film. What young cinema fan wouldn’t be? Who wouldn’t love a chance to play through their favorite movies or shows?  Naturally, I wound up with quite a few digital adaptations of cinematic creations. Some of these games, I would later realize, weren’t very good. Back then, I would play them over and over again, mining hours of entertainment from products of sometimes questionable quality.

Such as, for example, the video game based off “The Pagemaster.” The film, which I’m a fan of, was a box office flop in its day. I don’t think the video game was much more widely seen. As a kid, I liked the opening level, which took place in a spooky castle, featuring lots of ghosts and skulls. Playing the game as an adult, I realize the controls are slippery, the game mechanics are sometimes confusing, and the level designs are non-intuitive. Not everything you enjoyed as a kid will stand up to scrutiny as an adult. This is the sort of lesson you have to learn when you’re a nostalgia addict.

Some of those Sega games, on the other hand, hold up alright. The Disney Animated Features of the day were often accompanied by video game adaptations. While these rarely stand as crowning achievements for the art form, a few of them weren’t too bad. “Aladdin” is actually one of the best selling games for the Genesis. The game play is often repetitive but the artwork is vibrant and the action is exciting enough. Mostly, I just loved revisiting the film’s world and being able to see more of it. The same could be said of “The Lion King” game, also developed by Virgin Interactive. By switching between Simba as a cab and an adult, the game provided some variety. The stages, which included the elephant graveyard and the wildebeest stampede, could become very intense. Even the weaker levels did their best to recreate the film’s gorgeous artwork.

Of course, not all of the Sega games with the Disney brand were that good. “The Jungle Book” is a solid enough platformer. It’s also has colorful, faithful graphics. However, the difficulty level was a bit too steep for me as a kid. There are so many enemies that your health meter is quickly drained. At least Mogwli’s 16 bit adventure was more memorable then “The Little Mermaid” game. I mostly recall the confusingly laid out stage and lack of weapons in that game. “The Beauty and the Beast” game, meanwhile, only sticks with me because I could never make it pass the first level. I’ve never had especially admirable gaming skills but I don’t feel the need to revisit these cartridges too often.

When “Toy Story” came out in 1995, it naturally was accompanied by a video game adaptation. The Sega port did an okay job of copying the film’s computer graphics, to the best of the Genesis’ ability. The game often changed format, including a first person perspective on one level and a driving level with terrible controls. Despite that, I still wanted the “Toy Story” video game so much. That December, it was on all the Christmas wish lists sent out to each family member. On the 25th, my dear grandmother happily handed me a wrapped gift shaped like a Genesis box. I unwrapped the package to find… The Sega Genesis game “Toys,” based off the Robin Williams’ movie of the same name. As debatable as the film’s merits are, the game is far worst. That Christmas represents one of the earliest times I can recall being forced to swallow my disappointment and smile at a gift I didn't want.

I frequently played two Sega Genesis games that were based off at-the-time popular cartoon shows that were, nevertheless, built around film references. This made perfect sense for “Animaniacs,” as the show usually parodied both new and classic movies. That video game, by the way, is alright. Being able to switch between the three Warner siblings, each one with a different ability, is mildly innovative. The artwork, meanwhile, is colorful and memorable. I especially loved the horror movie inspired stage. “Garfield: Caught in the Act” also featured a horror stage. The graphics weren’t as bold but they still featured a handful of amusing sights. That game wasn’t nearly as interesting, being a far more standard platformer. I was never able to beat it due to a glitch in the third stage, where the boss just leaves the game.

As I’ve mentioned before, sometimes just browsing the video game section at a video rental place was an experience unto itself. I usually stuck to titles I was familiar with. My local video store had a fairly small Sega Genesis selection and rarely got in new games. This meant I would often rent the same titles over and over again. This was how I was able to master “Dynamite Headdy” before I even owned a couple. Occasionally, my hand would hover over a movie-related game repeatedly without ever renting it. “Moonwalker” intrigued me but I wasn’t a big enough Michael Jackson fan to ever take that plunge. “Toxic Crusaders,” meanwhile, mildly interested me. Even as a kid though, I kind of suspected that video game sucked. When I played the game years later, that assumption was proven correct. “Moonwalker,” meanwhile, is a mildly entertaining game, worth playing if only for its bizarre novelty value.

I still have my original Sega Genesis, by the way. It’s a model two that still functions perfectly. Today, you can take a brand new video game system out of the box and it’ll die immediately. Back in the nineties, you could throw one down the stairs and you’d still be able to plug it in and play it. Occasionally, I even acquire a game I never had as a kid. “Splatterhouse 2” was probably too explicitly gory and creepy for my childhood eyes. As an adult, I love the way it mashes up different eighties horror flicks, essentially creating a video game where Jason Voorhees fights the Evil Dead. “RoboCop vs. Terminator,” meanwhile, I didn’t even knew existed back then. That game is fun too, though far from perfect. Again, there’s something to be said about getting to see RoboCop blast away legions of T-800s. It’s certainly something you’ll never see in a movie.

I know this wasn’t the most insightful Memories essay. Much like playing them, writing about video games is a tricky art form. The truth is, outside of the titles I mentioned here, I didn’t play that many other Genesis games. I didn’t play classics of the system like “Gunstar Heroes” or “Castlevania: Bloodlines” until I was much older. (Sorry, I couldn’t find a way to connect childhood favorites like “Battletoads & Double Dragon” or “Eternal Champions” to this blog’s theme.) The quality of the games wasn’t always sterling but the Genesis and its many titles remain a source of nostalgia for me. While many people love “Dark Souls” or “Overwatch,” I wouldn’t even know what to do with those. A bit of the ol’ Blast Processing and that simple black box were always enough for me.

Sonic Action Figures: They Exist.

If it isn’t glaringly obvious yet, I’m a huge fucking nerd. In addition to reading comic books, watching cartoons, and living with my mother, I also collect toys.

There have been lots and lots of Sonic action figures over the years, and I’ve never been particularly happy with any of them. Because I’m that kind of nerd.


ReSaurus' Sonic Adventure line are by-far the best Sonic figures ever released. They had great sculpts and wonderful paint and articulation. Sadly, this line was limited only to the first “Sonic Adventure” game, which meant that characters like Big the Cat got figures, but not classic Robotnik. Moreover, the second wave was extremely hard to find. Complete sets go for ridiculous amounts of money on eBay these days. The first series included Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails while series two was composed of a skiing Sonic (?), E102 Gamma, Big the Cat, and Amy Rose. Apparently, there were plans for ReSaurus to do "Sonic Adventure 2" toys, but the company folded before those could be released.


Toy Island also released a series of Sonic Adventure figures around the same time. While ReSaurus' stuff was targeted towards collectors, Toy Island’s line was obviously more targeted towards young kids. Their toys were less detailed and had a more “plastic” look to them. The sculpts were definitely more cartoonier and less game accurate. However, seemingly to make up for that, each figure was packaged with a butt load of accessories. Moreover, a Robotnik figure was actually created for this line. These toys were rereleased a few years ago with slightly improved sculpts but no accessories.



Joy Ride Toys, the toy subdivision of Game Pro Magazine (remember them? Me neither.) went on to release Shadow and Sonic figures around the time of “Sonic Adventure 2.” Though the arms and legs were simple bendy rubber instead of proper articulated plastic, these still managed to be well sculpted, beautifully painted toys.


Toy Island later went on to make a number of Sonic X figures. While this did get us some above average sculpts and a wider selection of characters, including Shadow, Rouge, Cream, and (shudders) Chris Thorndike, the sculpts were heavily posed and the figures themselves quite rubbery looking. Later on, a wave of gimmicky “Space Fighters” and “Metal Gear” figures were released for seemingly no reason. However, if you are looking for a Rouge figure, this would probably be your best bet.




Jazwares has had the Sonic license for the last few years. Their product has been tied to the latest game releases and has been mostly a disappointment. They have released six inch scale figures, as well as larger collectables, smaller 3 inch scale figures, and stylized “Vinyl” type toys. Jazware did release a large scale Metal Sonic figure that was pretty cool as well as a nicely sculpted Werehog six-inch figure. (Nice as it looked… It was still the Werehog. Come on.) Though their six and three inch line feature a decent selection of modern characters and some pretty decent sculpts, all the toys have extremely ugly articulation. While Jazwares has promised to release Espio, Vector, and a few other C-list character, they seem mostly committed to pumping out recolors of Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow and fucking Silver. Recently, a set of toys tied into the "Sega All-Star Racing" game have been released, because what the fandom is demanding are toys of Shadow on a fucking motorcycle. All sarcasm aside, If you're looking for a decent selection of Sonic characters with okay sculpts and in the same scale, Jazwares' 3-inch line is probably your best bet.

And now this brings to First 4 Figures, the only company to do Sonic collectibles that I can honestly say I’m not disappointed in. First 4 Figures is committed to releasing fantastic products devoted to the golden age of Sonic. So far, they’re released two twelve inch, highly detailed resin statues, one of classic Sonic, the other of Super Sonic. A varient of Super Sonic with a light-up base has also been released. Granted, these are higher-end collectables and will cost you some money. However, I feel both statues are worth every penny. These are beautifully created pieces of art.

And now First 4 Figures is expanding their line with a series of six 2-inch figurines, pictured above. These toys look phenomenal and are much more fairly priced then the large-scale statues. I will own them, yes I will.

While First 4 Figures has the hardcore fans covered, I suppose Jazware’s stuff is fine for more casual collector. Granted, my ideal vision of a Sonic figure lines, six inch scale figures with detailed beautiful sculpts that cover the entire history of Sonic, from the early video games, to SatAM, to Archie Comics, down to the latter-day game incarnations, will probably never happen. But a man can dream, can’t he? A man can dream and a nerd can bitch.