As you can see, there's Tails Knuckles Sonic and Shadow. But look, they've also included Missile Wrist, one of the first robots that Eggman sends against the heroes of Sonic X in the TV show.
However, why don't they know Missile Wrist's name? It is just listed as "Robot" on the box, which doesn't make sense because to get its design, SOMEONE had to see the show...and they only said it's name about a zillion times. Why is the box art incompetent THIS far into the game?
Note that it also says that the figures weapons light up . Each wep is in two pieces that you fit into the figure's hand. The light is actually a LED inside the hand which makes the weapon glow. From using the Sonic, I have discovered that the rod of blue pointy-ness tends to drop from his grip a bit too easily. Do the other figures share his problem? Yes! Except for Knuckles and Shadow.
These run on those little button-cell batteries, and they ARE replaceable. It comes with an instruction card on how to do it. The figures are jointed at the neck, hips, knees and the elbow of the NON-wep arm. Neither wrist is jointed, and they can't take off their helmets. Since Missile-Wrist doesn't have a wep, the 'eye' lights up instead.
If you want to grab these figures, go to Toys R Us stores right now! If they aren't in stock, ask for them.
This is a surprise new line, NOT what anyone was expecting. Apparently, they decided to release a "Space Fighters" series supposedly based on Sonic X. However, if you actually watch Sonic X, you can see that no one really had these umm...space sceptors or strange costumes and weapons. Is this some type of odd gimmic series? Remember Re-Saurus and their "Skiing Sonic" release? (he never actually skii'd in a game, he only snow-boards)
Toy Island Space Fighters Action Figures
This is a "gimmic line" plain and simple. These figures have nothing at all to do with the real plot of ANY Sonic video game or the Sonic X TV show. How did this line get approved? What is its inspiration? Who knows...but Toy Island made it, and it was released nearly simultaneously with their Figures & Chaos Emeralds and the Mega Bot lines. The lines started around April of 2006.
If you are going to get a new Toy Island line, and you don't mind the gimmic, I would say "Make it Space Fighters"
Why?
More articulation
They light up
Better faces
Better paint jobs
Articulation:
On all the Space Fighters, one arm is jointed at the elbow, and all have jointed knees and hips. The space suits do limit the shoulder/hip movement to just 1 direction...but then the Mega Bots wierdly ended limbs did the same thing, so there's not a whole lot to lose on the SF hip/shoulder problem. This actually makes them semi-poseable as well, rather than being stuck on 1 pose like the other guys. Of course, they'll mostly tip over except Tails, who has his tails to support him even if he only stands on 1 leg. The 2nd arm has to be un-jointed because the wire for the LED light in the fist is inside it. The batteries are replaceable! Don't worry about wearing them out, because if you remove their back pannel it's easy to change them.
The sculpt:
The heads seem to be a different but -really- similar sculpt on the MegaBot heads. If you look closely, you'll catch different nose sizes and some eye details that are mostly improved on the SFs. Tails is a GREAT example, as he comes across cute without those horrible key-hole-eyes that the MB line gave him. Sonic is still stuck 'looking up' but with his mouth shut, it seems more 'concentrating'. Also, by wearing the space suits and boots, this has re-proportioned the bodies to a small degree...that makes a difference! The feet are a little smaller and don't look as 'clownish' and the bodies are bigger but it does NOT cross over into "Big Body Syndrome" that Tails especially seems to get and look goofy with.
Comparison Photo
The Shadow is from the Mega Bot line. You can see that all the Space Fighters guys are a little bit bigger than their other line counter-parts. Missile Wrist is much smaller than the 'mega bot' (and also its Sonic X size is out of scale, or else it would be huge!)
Aside from wearing the wierd space gear, these figures have semi-translucent plastic rods. The rods are slightly soft, and snap into 2 pieces. The pieces then fit into the top and bottom of the figures' hand, and transfer the light from the LED in the fist, when you press a button on the figure. The helmets do not come off, nor do any suit-pieces. These are more well-constructed than the Mega Bot figures.
Space Fighters Sonic the Hedgehog
Space Sonic has a minorly different head than the other lines, but he's still a bit off. His hands don't have the same attention to detail as the Mega Bot Sonics, but naturally 1 must accomodate the LED. His 'weapon' or whatever is more a rod than a staff. Note that it has tiny versions of his spikes near the 'chaos emerald'-like top. The shoes are a bit odd with blunt fronts, but he's pretty poseable and the figure actually makes a good presentation if you can get past the odd space theme.
Drawbacks in General:
The rods needed to be better implemented. They ALWAYS fall out of the figures' hand, due to mis-sizing. They could have had a snap in, or a twist/screw in rod and it would be fine...but they're supposed to pop in and don't. The only way to keep Tails holding his, is to glue it permenently to his hand, which no one wants. Their joints can also be a tad loose, but they tend to keep the poses most of the time. The helmets are non-removable. Tails' isnt attached but his hair keeps it on. They could have had some kind of 'snap on' helmet or something, but I guess they thought everyone would lose it.
Their hands aren't as well crafted as some on the MegaBot line. They're simplistic, but still fairly nice, nothing outrageous either way. Of course, one hand is always a 'pre-made' simple fist of some kind to hold the light. Although it is similarly sized, it tends to be blocky, but with good reason.
This is what the box for the Space Fighters looked like. All of the boxes were pretty much the same for everybody, except the photo of the figure on the band in the front (bottom right). They're quite Sonic X branded, with the logo & forward/punch Sonic art that was pretty much exclusive to X there in the corner. The bottom has a photo of all the figures on the line so you know who else you can collect. (notice Missile Wrist down there on the left) The bullet points text up there says how they come with the accessory & the figure makes it 'glow' (the light in the fist shines into the semi-clear plastic of their magic space rod /scepter whatever that's supposed to be) to create the effect.
Discovered by Max6464
Discovered by Max6464
More MIB shots of the Space Fighters, here there's Sonic & Tails. Notice how Tails is packaged smartly, he's faced a bit off to one side, to avoid crush/rub of the front of the bubble hitting his bangs or nose, damaging the figure. The right photo is inside a KB Toys store, look at all those pegs full of figures! In this time, it was common to just be able to walk into a store & choose whatever figures you wanted since they were nicely stocked. It would be great to find something like that today.
Discovered by KarateKid1717