So, over the past (almost) 25 years there has been a TON of Sonic the Hedgehog merchandise, from clothes, toys, bedsheets, even shot glasses, Sonic's face has been put on almost any kind of conceivable consumer good, but there is one aspect of the franchise that has received criminally little exposure, and that's the original cartoons from the 90's. Some of the old merch from that time resembled the cartoon appearances (such as the McDonalds promo toys made for Sonic 3,) but since Resaurus made the first real Sonic action figure line based on Sonic Adventure it has all bee focused on the video games. Even when they were packing issues of the comic in with the figures they didn't make any toys of the characters from the cartoon or comic series, which was a shame. So I figured now that Sonic is having his 25th anniversary we are long overdue for a toy line based on that nostalgic old series.
If I could make these figures they would be roughly 1:12 scale, (making Sonic about 4 inches tall to the top of his spine) a common scale for adult collectors that Sonic almost never uses (I think the Resaurus figures and the Nendroid are the only ones.) This is a concept for a theoretical wave 1, the next wave would have characters like Robotnik, Snively, a SWAT Bot, Uncle Chuck, Dulcey, and King Max; and still later Waves would include notable one shots like Naugus, Lupe, that cheetah robot, and I'd like to expand to the other cartoons so I could include Scratch, Grounder, Coconuts, Adventures Robotnik, Manik and Sonia, and even do these guys again but in their Comic book appearances, both pre and post Super Genesis Wave. I would love to pitch this to Sega and see if they can get Tomy to make the line, or perhaps another company like NECA or Funko could take it on since they do nostalgic adult collector stuff like this.
So let's talk about the figures themselves, I drew these to resemble their original cartoon appearance as closely as possible, back then Sonic only had a single row of spines going down his head and back like a mowhawk, aside from that the proportions are shockingly almost identical to the nendroid (though I plan for better articulation.) I also wanted to design the shoulders the way they're drawn in hopes of being able to include a backpack accessory, since he wore one in almost every episode. Tails looks really small, but I scaled him as best as I could according to the reference image I used, and if Sonic is 4 inches tall, Tails would barely be 2 and a quarter inches. The hip design for some of the characters would have to be different, Sonic, Tails, and Antoine can use the same basic pin disk design that the Jazwares figures used, but I think to preserve the look Sally, Bunnie, and Rotor would need ball joints, similar to series like Marvel Legends, Megabloks minifigures, and some of the World of Nintendo figures. Rotor is of course the biggest figure in this Wave, ideally he'd stand just shy of 5 inches.
Looks like an interesting idea. However, this kind of thing was brought up during the Jazwares era. The representative at the time said there were license and ownership issues with SatAM and Archie characters. SEGA didn't want to share profits with DIC so no non-game characters were made.
Looks like an interesting idea. However, this kind of thing was brought up during the Jazwares era.
hmm, that is a complication, but the Jazwares era was around 8 or so years ago, stuff has changed since then. Now Sega is a little more willing to share profit (after all, they signed Bayonetta and Sonic up for exclusive contracts with Nintendo) and the 25th anniversary is probably going to encourage them to take some of that sweet sweet nostalgia pie (just look at funko and neca's toy lines, you can get action figures from Clerks, CLERKS!) Anyway, if they're going to be super stubborn I can do the same thing as First Gokin's Cerebral (aka not-Kraang) or any of those 3rd party transformer companies and just make the line anyway but sell them under non-trademarked names. I'm sure tons of adult collectors would love to get their hands on the Freedom Battlers.
hmm, that is a complication, but the Jazwares era was around 8 or so years ago, stuff has changed si
Good luck. Might be even easier with the rise of 3D printing. If they look as good as your custom figures, should be awesome. Would like a "Forest Princess", "Metal Rabbit", and "VR Lynx" ;) someday myself.
Good luck. Might be even easier with the rise of 3D printing. If they look as good as your custom fi
yeah, that's how he was designed in the DIC cartoons, mostly because they were first animated before the 3-D special stage in Sonic 2 revealed the way that Sonic's spines were supposed to be arranged, but also because it was easier to draw from multiple angles.
yeah, that's how he was designed in the DIC cartoons, mostly because they were first animated before
