A look at the new Sonic the Hedgehog minifigures
Posted by Huw,
A minifigure version of Sonic the Hedgehog debuted in 2016 in a level-pack of the ill-fated Dimensions theme. It would then take the approval of an Ideas project for him to be resurrected 6 years later in 21331 Sonic the Hedgehog - Green Hill Zone.
Now, following the presumed success of that set and further negotiations with Sega, the blue anthropomorphic video game character has his own theme, with five sets being released on August 1st.
Today is the day we can publish our reviews of them, but I've been busy preparing to move the site to a new server next week (more on that later) so have not had a chance to build them.
So, rather than not publish anything I thought I'd take a look at the minifigures that appear in all five sets given that they are likely the reason many people will be buying them.
Sonic
The hedgehog's torso print and head mould are the same as the two previous versions ot him. The new sets contain two different head prints: a winking/smiling one in 76991 Tails' Workshop & Tornado Plane and 76994 Sonic's Green Hill Zone Loop Challenge, and an open eyes version in 76990 Sonic's Speed Sphere Challenge and 76993 Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot.
Both are an improvement on earlier prints, particularly shape and colouring of the eyes.
I don't have the previous versions, and I've not been able to find pictures of the back his torso, so I don't know if this print is new or not. The dual-moulded legs with gold buckle print on the side, however, are reused from last year's Ideas set version of him.
His spiny head looks excellent when viewed from the side and back.
Tails
Sonic's friend Miles "Tails" Prower comes in 76991 Tails' Workshop &Tornado Plane and 76992 Amy's Animal Rescue Island, and it's the first time the character has appeared in minifigure form. The two-tailed fox, who debuted in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, looks fabulous. The head and, obviously, the tail element have been created specially for the character, which also features dual-moulded short legs.
The torso print is basic, but adequately conveys his fluffiness.
Amy
Amy Rose, too, is making her debut in these sets. She comes in 76992 Amy's Animal Rescue Island and 76994 Sonic's Green Hill Zone Loop Challenge.
Sonic's self-proclaimed love interest also has a new head sculpt which, like Sonic's and Tails, is dual moulded. This, coupled with the crisp printing of her face and headband, has resulted in a particularly delightful minifigure.
Dr. Eggman
Dr. Robotnik, aka, Dr. Eggman, is Sonic's nemesis in the video games. Last year's Ideas set contained a brick-built version of the antagonist but here's he's been rendered in pseudo-minifigure form, which is a definite improvement.
His torso and head are a single piece into which arms with Technic pin connectors are attached, and his legs are the long variety used for Toy Story's Woody, among others.
The moustachioed character has accurate printing on both sides of his obese torso and looks suitably grotesque! You'll find him in 76993 Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot and 76994 Sonic's Green Hill Zone Loop Challenge.
While we're here let's take a look the other significant new part in the sets, the pod into which Sonic is positioned for gameplay.
It consists of two identical parts held together with Technic pins. There's also a red printed version of the piece used in the 'slammer'.
Sonic simply rests between the internal framework and rattles about a bit when the assembly is rolled. Unlike in the game, though, he does not stay upright when the pod rotates, unfortunately.
The pod comes in three of the sets and gameplay consists of positioning it in the launcher then slamming down hard on the top to fling it through the course. You'll have to wait for my review of 76994 Sonic's Green Hill Zone Loop Challenge to find out how easy or otherwise that is!
What did you think of this approach, of looking at the minifigures across a range of sets? It's something we could do for other themes when the sets themselves are of little interest and AFOLs are likely only going to be buying them for the figures.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the sets for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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47 comments on this article
Cool, nice figs. The dual-molding is sharp.
Giving us just all dessert, no veg, eh Huw? Love it!
oh now i like these.
The more I see of the Dr Robotnik figure, the more I think that style, but with shorter legs, would have been better for the Disney Series 3 CMF Baymax instead of the normal minifig torso.
Those figs are great! It's a bit of a shame Eggman's head is connected to his torso, but I feel like just the figure itself is a treat.
Something something paint it yellow for Sonichu.
The Sonic and Tails figs look great, but I'm not entirely sold on the Eggman one. It is better than the one in the Ideas set but it still isn't great.
Personally, this is how would have liked the Mario sets to have been. I get the increased play factor with Mario but as an adult collector I feel these new Sonic sets offer collectibility as well as playability
Very Excellent!
If you drill down on Bricklink and look at the individual torso parts (973pb4539c01 for Ideas, 973pb2528c01 for Dimensions) it shows both sides. I also confirmed looking at my own figs.
The prints are pretty different. The Dimensions torso does not have the white highlighting and the spines are much thinner. The Ideas fig looks better over all, but I like the Dimensions back printing a little better. The newer printing looks too much like a face, lol.
Eggman head looks bad.
Isn't the printing on the Tails toros supposed to be white?
I'd say Dr. Robotnik is the best of the bunch.
@Ridgeheart said:
"The colour-printing on Robotnik's head is surprisingly rough. "
I did wonder about mentioning that but it's only really noticeable when seen larger-than-life in these images.
I am the egg man
They are the egg men
I am the walrus
Goo goo g'joob
(We need a Walrus character in Sonic ASAP!)
Concentrating on just the minifigures is probably a good approach for sets that have little relevance other than the minifigures.
It would also be good if such articles could be tagged as something other than 'set review', so those, like myself, who have about as much interest in minifigures as they do in Duplo can customise their news preferences appropriately.
Eggman's glasses feel like they needed black outlines, because the head feels totally out of tone with the rendering of the rest of the figure.
I like this idea @Huw of just reviewing the figures for certain sets. Cheers for taking the time!
"What did you think of this approach, of looking at the minifigures across a range of sets? It's something we could do for other themes...."
Yes please
@james_sparham said:
"Personally, this is how would have liked the Mario sets to have been. I get the increased play factor with Mario but as an adult collector I feel these new Sonic sets offer collectibility as well as playability"
Supposedly all Mario sets will retire on July 31st,so on August 1st other sets can be released. Maybe something is in the works...
Why do they make me think of Seattle?
The head sculpts for Tails and Amy look surprisingly... wrong, in a way that Sonic's isn't. I think it's the shaping of the face - Sonic character heads follow a very spherical core shape, and for some reason it looks like they pinched Tails' eyes, pulled his skull, and messed with the flow of Amy's "hair" (quills/spines). Considering how much licensed Sonic merch has been made over the past decades and how standardized their game models have been for the past fifteen years or so, the little changes feel particularly uncanny. Maybe they'll look less weird in person.
@Murdoch17 said:
"I am the egg man
They are the egg men
I am the walrus
Goo goo g'joob
(We need a Walrus character in Sonic ASAP!)"
Eggman's classic design is based on a walrus. ;)
And there are a few minor walrus characters in different versions of the series.
Amy's a weird case; proportionally, she's too tall to use the mid-legs, but the skirt makes her slightly taller than Sonic, which doesn't work, either.
I hope this theme can continue and give us some of the many other characters in the series, particularly some more from adventure 1/2, especially some Chao! I'm only reminded of it cause of Eggman's long toothpick legs.
Also, for a couple of the Animals, their bodies look the exact right shape for a Worms figure.
@Murdoch17 (and @Berrus_Brickus):
Well...there was...then there wasn't
https://info.sonicretro.org/Rotor_Walrus
Hope that worked, loved that show; I'd argue it was the best animated version of Sonic and Co. (and Co...). Great "backstory", story and character development...good times:)
I so can't wait to get these sets. I need these figs so bad.
Thank you for highlighting these! I've been really excited about these sets. Glad to get more Sonic figures to add to the collection!
@Huw : I just noticed a strange bug on the website.
When I follow the link to the two older versions of Sonic provided in the article, it shows me that I own zero of each (which is wrong), but when I follow the links to the sets they appeared in, it shows me that I own both sets (which is correct).
Normally figures from sets I own are also shown as owned. Strange.
@AustinPowers said:
" @Huw : I just noticed a strange bug on the website.
When I follow the link to the two older versions of Sonic provided in the article, it shows me that I own zero of each (which is wrong), but when I follow the links to the sets they appeared in, it shows me that I own both sets (which is correct).
Normally figures from sets I own are also shown as owned. Strange. "
Look again now and it'll be fine: it will have been due to you looking so early in the morning when the minifig data is being re-imported and processed.
The Robotnik figure looks a little odd stood on its own, but looking at the linked set images it looks perfectly fine inside his machines. I suppose that's the main way he'd be displayed anyway, so it's fair enough.
The other figs look great.
Eggman should be made like Hagrid, or Axl, with an actual minifigure head, maybe a mustache neckpiece, instead of this big ugly piece of plastic. I hate it
@Huw: thanks for the heads up.
Indeed it is now working perfectly again.
:-)
About the 'only reviews of minifigs for certain themes' bit, please DON'T.
Minifigs are indeed often desirable for many people, but this is a fansite about the building toy, right? And are we really going to discount sets before giving them a try just because the minifigs are nice?
Also, many reviews are based on review copies. Would you just not even bother to review 97% of the set and just pocket those parts?
Also also, are we really just going to go along with Lego in treating the build as filler? We should keep sets to scrutiny, especially when desirable minifigs are included. Otherwise we'd just condone lego producing large sets with forgettable builds as just a hurdle to overcome for getting the figures.
Please, this is a terrible idea and shouldn't be what we as fans should strive for IMHO
And I know it takes time to review a full set. But this is not a standard we would want to set.
robotnik looks really quite bad, there's something very un-legolike to his head, he really looks like a cheap knockoff. Tails looks great, Sonic and Amy are always unsettling in their designs to me but I suppose they're well produced,.
@vizzitor said:
"The more I see of the Dr Robotnik figure, the more I think that style, but with shorter legs, would have been better for the Disney Series 3 CMF Baymax instead of the normal minifig torso."
Should have also been used for Mr. Incredible in the Incredibles 2 sets.
I love the tails fig, that doctor eggman fig is so cool aswell
Minifig overviews are a good idea but I feel they'd have to as well as,not instead of!
@Ridgeheart , @Binnekamp , I am not proposing to skip reviewing sets properly, but there are cases when the time and effort required to review them isn't warranted by the lack of interest and thus low page views they are likely to generate.
4+ Ninjago sets might be a good example, when it's not worth our while reviewing them, but taking a look at the minifigures might be.
LEGO does not let us pick and choose which sets to review when they offer, say, Ninjago: it's either all or nothing, and given some sets will be of interest, we take up their offer to receive them all.
Maybe we should broaden our pool of reviewers but finding people who can take good photos and write eloquently has proved to be difficult in the past.
@vizzitor said:
"The more I see of the Dr Robotnik figure, the more I think that style, but with shorter legs, would have been better for the Disney Series 3 CMF Baymax instead of the normal minifig torso."
That could work. Before Sonic had been revealed, I was leaning towards them using a specialized mold that would look similar to Ned B.
I’m astonished how many people are positive about these! They’re objectively nothing like the source material and are downright horrifying!
I love these! Looking forward to the review of the sets!
A partial review is certainly preferable to none at all! I have little interest in the Sonic theme except for the fact that it's Lego, so... I am interested, at least in the minifigs and any new parts! So this works for me.
I think my son would love these.
“The hedgehog's torso print and head mould are the same as the two previous versions ot him.”
The two previous version torsos were actually different from each other, one print was oval and one was a circle.
This one looks like it could be different again, as the oval print looks thinner at the bottom ?
@Ridgeheart said:
"The colour-printing on Robotnik's head is surprisingly rough. I mean, the figure looks better than that brick-built monstrosity, but getting a "Looks Better Than Previous Attempt"-trophy, you wouldn't put that on a shelf. I'm a bit disappointed.
Also, I have no idea who Amy is, but "self-proclaimed love-interest", isn't that just a euphemism for "stalker"?"
That very much depends on how well written she's being. Usually their friends but Sonic doesn't want to take it further and she gets that. Unfortunatley when she's baddly written, yes she is just a stalker, and it hurts.
@Playererror404 said:
" @Ridgeheart said:
"The colour-printing on Robotnik's head is surprisingly rough. I mean, the figure looks better than that brick-built monstrosity, but getting a "Looks Better Than Previous Attempt"-trophy, you wouldn't put that on a shelf. I'm a bit disappointed.
Also, I have no idea who Amy is, but "self-proclaimed love-interest", isn't that just a euphemism for "stalker"?"
That very much depends on how well written she's being. Usually their friends but Sonic doesn't want to take it further and she gets that. Unfortunatley when she's baddly written, yes she is just a stalker, and it hurts."
That is in part because in the early years, the US version of the Sonic storyline/lore for some reason had her in this fangirl role, instead of in Japan, where it was presented that Sonic and Amy were some sort of couple, but not in the traditional sense. In the more recent years she has been written far better, especially in the latest game, Sonic Frontiers.
One thing I would have liked to see is Tail's tails actually spin on a pin. Darn, didn't mean to rhyme this time.
I just got back from a holiday so I wasn't able to go on Brickset for the past few days, but these are AMAZING! I am so happy we finally get Tails and Amy, and all the MOCs I can't wait to do with them!
However, I will be very disapointed if we don't get Knuckles or Shadow...