Tag Archives: sonic the hedgehog

Jun 14 2024

Sonic The Hedgehog: SoftB Sonic Figure by Bellfine

It’s been a little while since I checked out any Sonic the Hedgehog collectibles here. I’ve enjoyed the JAKKS Pacific line, but that has kind of dried up, or at least I haven’t seen any new sets turning up at Target. Nonetheless, The Blue Hog’s 33rd Anniversary is coming up FAST and I’ve been playing some Sonic on the SEGA Genesis this week, so… let’s dig into my backlog to look at something plastic, blue, and hedgehog shaped. And that brings us to the SoftB Sonic Vinyl figure by Bellfine, and I don’t know what most of that means. I thought Bellfine was some kind of trashy E-girl who sells her bathwater to simps, but apparently it’s a company that seems to produce mostly anime-related scaled figures. And SoftB appears to be their line of large vinyl video game figures. Sonic is the only one of these I knew about, but when I was researching it, I found out they did a Pac-Man SoftB vinyl, and I really wish I didn’t know that, because I can’t not buy it, so expect to see that show up here sometime soon.

This is a large figure, measuring in at about 12-inches tall, so it’s only natural that he that comes in an appropriately large box! And what a beautiful box it is! The front has a large window showing off the figure inside with a smaller window on top to let some light in. There’s a piece of diecut character art on the bottom right corner and some beautiful photos of the figure on the back and side panels. It’s an import, so a lot of the lettering is in Japanese, but you do get some smatterings of English here and there. There’s a thin cardboard insert behind the figure with some illustrations of the Green Hills Zone and blue checkering, which makes for an excellent backdrop if you want to display the figure with it on the shelf.

Wow, this figure feels great in hand, with a decent amount of heft for what is largely a hollow vinyl. I also can’t help but appreciate how amazing this character design works as a vinyl sculpt. I’m not always the biggest fan of this type of figure, but pairing it with retro game character designs is clearly a match made in heaven. In a pose ripped directly from the title screen of the first game, Sonic stands triumphantly, a vinyl god among hedgehogs, with his right hand on his non-existent hip, and his other scolding you with his pointy finger. It was an age of ‘Tude, and Sonic had it in spades. He chastised you just for loading up his cartridge and thinking you had the blue balls to challenge his game. This figure captures everything about Sonic perfectly, right down to the bizarre spiky back which still gives me a laugh to this day. It’s like an angle of the character that was never meant to be seen, but eventually the onset of 3D graphics and merchandising demanded it and the artists did their best. As a vinyl figure, this is decidedly a statue, with the only real points of articulation being swivels in his ankles so you can angle his feet. I’m not sure if that was intentional to help him stand, but he does that just fine without any tweaking.

The coloring here is excellent, from the royal blue of his smooth plastic fur to the pop of his giant red sneakers and yellow side buckles. His mouth, arms, and tummy are all flesh toned and you get plenty of clean white on his giant gloved hands, sock cuffs, and the bands on his shoes. The paint lines are overall pretty clean, but there are a few that could have been a bit sharper considering the price of the figure and the rather large canvas they had to work with, but it’s all still pretty good.

The portrait is a total slam dunk of ‘tudy spunk. His green eyes are perfectly printed on those vast fields of white, his black nose juts out between them, and his shallow line of a mouth forms a cocky smirk against his left cheek. The only blemish on the head is the seam that runs across behind the ears separating his face from the spikey back hemisphere. It doesn’t really detract from the figure much and I’m guessing it’s a necessary evil of working with such a big vinyl hedgehog noggin.

And if you’re looking for scale, here is SoftB Sonic towering over one of JAKKS’ 2.5-inch Sonic figures. SoftB Sonic could literally crush him under his foot like a hedgehog kaiju.

He also displays really well with the JAKKS posable Mario plush if you don’t mind putting rivals on the shelf together! Why can’t we all just get along and enjoy great games?

It feels like Sonic’s 10th Anniversary was just a short while ago, which means I’m getting old and the years are just flying by. I’ll likely pose this figure alongside the coin and soundtrack portfolio that I got way back when. These SoftB figures seem to sell at around $100 a pop. Honestly, the only reason I bought this one was because it went up for half-price around Christmas time, and I was in full-on retail-therapy mode to get me through the crushing Holiday depression. And let’s face it, $50 for a full 12-inches of vinyl hedgehog is a lot cheaper than an hour at the therapist. It probably made me a lot happier too. So, yeah, this one has been sitting around here for a while, and I decided it was well past his time in the spotlight. A very nice figure indeed, and even nicer at half the price! Even with a fair bit of plastic Sonic representation on my shelves, this one is the stand out piece in every way.

Jun 24 2022

Sonic The Hedgehog 2: The Tornado by Jakks Pacific

If you hadn’t noticed, I skipped Wednesday this week. It was partly because I went really long on my Monday review, and partly because I was being lazy and opted for floating in the pool all afternoon and playing video games all night. But, I’m back to wrap up the week today with a look at some Sonic the Hedgehog toys! I have a lot of Sonic toys, but the zippy hedgehog has only graced FFZ once before when I looked at Jakks’ Greenhill Zone playset. Eventually I hope to get to all the Sonic toys, but this time I’m having a look at some toys from the second Sonic movie!

When the first Sonic movie went streaming, I originally put it on to hate watch it, but I fell in love about twenty minutes in. It was unbearably charming and I felt that it did my blue boi proud. The second film doubled down and while there were some decidedly odd choices for sub-plots, I still loved it. When I first saw this set with the Tornado biplane scaled for the 2.5-inch figures, I was really excited to get it. And then I couldn’t find it outside of scalpers on Ebay and Mecari. And wouldn’t you know it, just when I stopped looking it turned up on a Walmart clearance endcap! Plus, that Walmart was right across the street from a Sonic restaurant, allowing me to celebrate my good fortune with a chili and cheese dog! The Tornado requires a bit of assembly, but nothing too crazy, but let’s check out the figures first!

As already mentioned, these figures are part of the 2.5-inch line, which means they’re pretty small, but they do scale with the above mentioned Green Zone Playset (which I used as a backdrop!) and the other accessories. The articulation is pretty decent for figures this size, with rotating hinges in the hips and shoulders, ball jointed heads, and Tails has his tails on a ball joint as well.

As much as I loved Sonic’s look in the movie, I don’t think it translated all that well to this figure. It’s not bad, but there’s just something off about it. There’s a bit of a furry texture to him, which is at odds with the familiar smooth and cartoony look of the game figures. I do like the head sculpt, so in the end I’ll chalk it up to the proportions. The paint may look a bit sloppy in some areas, but keep in mind just how small these little guys are.

While, I may be a bit iffy on Sonic, the Tails figure is a home run! He still has the furry texturing, but I think this little guy still works just fine as a game-based figure. Plus, he has the flight helmet and goggles, which ties him directly to The Tornado. The only downside to this little fella is that he cannot stand on his own unless you turn his tails down and use them as a tripod to support him being upright.

And then there’s The Tornado, which was obviously inspired by The Sky Chase Zone in the Sonic 2 game, and the big reason why I was after this toy in the first place. Sure, the colors and markings aren’t a perfect match for the game version, but it’s close enough for me! It’s a pretty simple toy, but like the movie, it’s just oozing charm and it’s a lot of fun. The plastic used for the wing supports is pretty soft, but once its assembled it’s a solid enough toy. There’s even a play gimmick where you can pump the back wheel like a trigger to make the propeller spin.

The cockpit is designed with a shelf behind the seat, so Tails can sit in it and still have room to rest his large, bushy tails, and he looks absolutely fantastic in it! When I first saw the solicitation pictures of the toy, I kind of assumed that Tails would be permanently attached to the plane, so it was a pleasant surprise to later find out he was an actual figure that could sit in it.

The Tornado also has a bunch of pegs and grab bars so that Sonic can interact with it, making for a lot of fun display options.

If Walmart’s original listing can be believed, this thing sold for $60 originally. Now, I’m not saying I wouldn’t have paid that if I found it, but I’m crazy, and that price tag seems ridiculously high for what you’re getting. Thirty bucks would have seemed like a reasonable price, and I was happy to find it for $20 on clearance. Considering I’ve wanted a toy of The Sky Chase biplane since the 90’s, this release scratches a very old itch, and I’m thrilled to have it to display in my Game Room on the shelf above my Genesis and Master System games, but I imagine it’s a pretty cool toy for any kids who were just a big fan of the film, providing such a demographic actually exists!

Jan 21 2022

Sonic The Hedgehog: Green Hill Zone Playset and Diorama Set by Jakks Pacific

If you’ve kicked around FFZ a while, you may already know that I was a SEGA kid. I had the Master System and the Genesis, and I still have both and play them regularly. Sonic’s legacy hasn’t fared all that well over the years, I cannot deny that, but whenever I sit down to play some Sonic on the Genesis, I am in 16-bit heaven. I have a number of Sonic toys that I wanted to look at for the 30th Anniversary and I got sidetracked, but picking up a couple more this past week gave me the push I needed to get cracking on reviewing some of this stuff. Time to get serious!!!

Today I’m checking out the Green Hill Zone Playset and a Diorama Set, both in the 2.5-inch scale by Jakks Pacific. I was originally just going to get the Playset because it was on sale, but the Diorama set looked like it would work well with the Playset, so I grabbed it too. Let’s start with the Playset!

Green Hill Zone requires just a quick bit of assembly, and once that’s done you get a pretty cool little slice of Sonic’s very first romping ground. It includes a modern styled Sonic figure, a spring platform, and three rings. There are some pegs scattered across the set, which can be used to peg on figures or the three rings that come with it. The base and grassy bits are nicely textured, and I really dig the checkered rock printed on the sides of the cliffs.

Up until now, I’ve just been collecting the 4-inch Sonic figures, but I have to say this little guy is pretty cool. He has the appropriate level of attitude and with rotating hinges at the shoulders and hips, you get some decent articulation for such a small and stylized figure. The paint could be a little sharper in some areas, but you have to zoom in pretty close to see any of that.

As far as play gimmicks go, the biggest attraction in Green Hill Zone is the loop. There’s a platform on a track with a foot peg so you can plug a figure onto it and there’s a lever on the back so you can whip him around the loop! There are even pegs to place the rings around the loop. I was surprised to see that the platform will even hold the figure steady at pretty much any angle. FUN!

But as fun as that is for a while, the only other play gimmick is the spring platform, which doesn’t do much. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think this is a cool setup, but it’s probably best regarded as a place to display figures than an actual playset. Of course, the other set I’m looking at today makes for some great additions, so let’s bust that open.

The core of this set is the pair of figures! You get Sonic and Tails in a very classic style, which I love! These are great little figures with the same level of articulation as the modern Sonic. The paint on these is a lot cleaner too. Plus, Sonic’s got a bitch-slapping hand!

The rest of the set consists of some “furniture” for the Playset. And yeah, the yellow spring platform is in there, so I’ve got stuck with two of those! Still, worth it! You get two check points, one tall and one short; An item box TV with the forcefield bubble on the screen; and a Spike Trap! All of these are cool items, and they can each attach to the Playset, or you can just put them anywhere. It really spruces things up and offers more display options. I do, however, wish this set included more rings. Heck, I would have rather had just three more rings instead of another spring platform.

The Green Hill Zone Playset was on sale for $12 (down from $20) so that was a great pick up. I rolled the money I saved into the Diorama set, which paid for almost half of it. Both are really fun packages, and I’m going to enjoy displaying them in my Game Room as I get it set up over the coming weeks. I’ll definitely pick up more of these sets if they come my way, and it’s actually got me wanting to grab some of the Mario sets as well.