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!

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.