• Australian Sonic puppet
    Australian Sonic puppet
    Is this the only Sonic puppet ever to be made?This is a rare plush Sonic hand puppet. He's got a plush/stuffed head, and no legs. You can use fingers to move the head and arms. His hands are simplified, but the 'belly dot' is sort of mis-shaped, in that it's…
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2020's first set of figures are Sports Ball figures line.
This line features the same figures as released on the first line from Jakks Pacific (minus Eggman) but with a sports theme jersey that's removable & a sport ball instead of the roller wheel character extra.

Basketball theme Knuckles leads the way, with this mint on card view of the figure. He has an appropriately sized basketball toy in there and a removable plastic / rubbery jersey with "Angel Island" as the team name, which is appropriate.

The box backs will all feature that 'stats' area there on the right. It has strength, speed & agility ratings for each character represented by the blue rectangles. (more=better) So, you can see that Knuckles isn't that fast at basketball but he is very strong. This is also pretty appropriate. Look how angry he looks on the box back dribbling the ball. (Kind of funny / they never changed his expression)

Knuckles Basketball bendable turnaroundDiscovered by SonicHedgehog11

This turn-around look at the figure reveals they've done a great job with the bendies!
The bendable limbs reduce the amount/accuracy of poses but they do eliminate th elook of bulky joints & reduce breakability on the figures. His head/face sculpt is nice, all proportions seem good & the fists are really large. The basketball has the texture lines in it and seems a normal enough color also. You can see how frowny/angry he is there from the side view.

Knuckles Basketball bendable boxDiscovered by SonicHedgehog11

 

Shadow is ready for Soccer Football!
The mint on card view shows he has a soccer ball that's mostly white, but has a symbol on one side, themed a bit for the ball's traditional hexagon panels. His jersey is for "Studiopolis" zone, which is ok? Because Shadow sort of isn't 'from' anywhere unlike say Sonic or Knuckles, so you could put almost anything on his jersey.
His stats are very high for speed & agility at soccer football but he is less strong at it by a small margin. In the box his hands are posed quite outward, maybe in a bit more of a goalie type stance.

Out of the box you can see how his head can turn, the size of the ball & that the symbol is on both sides & the design of the jersey is such that it goes around the back spikes which is nice. He seems a bit upset, but that's generally his expression for most toys.

Shadow Soccer bendable turnaroundDiscovered by SonicHedgehog11

It's a good likeness for him, with nice paint, a good head sculpt and decent proportions. They've got all the glove/shoe cuff & arm/leg red details in there too as well as the red at the eye edges. Jakks Pacific is dong a good job with these figures.

Shadow Soccer bendable box

Tails is ready for Volleyball! The shortest character chosen for a bit of a tall sport? Maybe he can fly... With this out of the box view you can see he looks cheerful in his expression & his proportions are good as well but...

his tails likely aren't able to be moved or posed. Unlike other figures JP did not put the tails on a rotating stem type joint which is slightly unfortunate because they're such a key feature of the character. Also the joint type wouldn't interfere with bendy-ness, it would be the same thing the head has and would just let the statically posed tails to be rotated for poses.
His jersey is red & says "Starlight" on it for...the StarLight zone?
But that was in Sonic 1, a game in which Tails never appeared, so why choose it? The other jerseys make sense but putting him there in a mostly Eggman-ruled zone in a game he wasn't even in seems an odd choice.

 

Tails Volleyball bendable turnaroundDiscovered by SonicHedgehog11

Sonic is ready for Soccer Football with this figure.
He's on the usual bubble card, and the back photo shows him kicking the ball. This version of the bendable has both hands open & he's posed in a bit of a goalie-type arms out stance inside the package. His stats show max speed (appropriate) but the agility stat is lower than it should (probably) be, & strength is the lowest one. Really...it's Sonic--speed and agility at pretty much anything including soccer football should be maxed. His jersey is for Green Hill zone and is also green.

Out of the box photo turn arounds show that it's quite a decent figure, just like the rest. The face sculpt, proportions and paint are all good. His soccer football is traditional looking in black and white.

Sonic Soccer bendable turnaroundDiscovered by SonicHedgehog11

His jersey is the same as Shadow's, with the construction allowing for the tail/spikes in the back. His expression is more cheeful but determined, which is usual for sports.


The Rundown:
A decent set! REMOVABLE jersies help this one earn its place in the good list. It's a perfect set just in case you missed a figure or there was a character who was hard to get in the area previously. Just get the sport one and take the shirt off and now it's a normal figure. The ball doesn't matter too much just like how the disk kind of doesn't. It' an all right extra but it doesn't interfere with anything. The sport theme here could attract more kids & seems LIKELY to go with the Olympics in 2020, even though the box doesn't mention "Sonic Mario Olympic Games". The price is the same, the packages are the same, so it's a perfect chance to get anyone you missed and punish scalpers for scalping off characters like Shadow with too high prices online. Also, they're not a multi-pack, the sport thing isn't so different that nobody's going to feel forced to re-buy anything here so no collector frusteration anywhere. A good thing all around.


"Go Sega"
Look in the upper right corner on the box. There's an icon that says "GO SEGA". But what does it mean? It's new, as in it hasn't appeared on anything else. But searching that word online brings up nothing relevent. It likely means something is planned. This description will change if new information is discovered.

Sonic Soccer bendable boxDiscovered by SonicHedgehog11

 

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