Sonic the Hedgehog Items of Finland

Finland has been recently (as in 2011 - 2012) to have a few Sonic items produced there, or made specifically for there. (This includes things written in Finnish, items with 'made in Finland' tags, things that were only sold there, etc) It may not have loads of stuff, but the stuff is interesting to see! This page will be for all Finland related Sonic items, both modern & classic.

Sonic Gear Main *

This is an early issue of the Archie Sonic Comic which is from the USA...however, this is a Finnish copy of it. Notice how the top doesn't have the "Archie A" and instead says "Finland" and has the price in Markka , which was the currency there until it switched to the Euro. (Remember this was before 1999) The interior is likely totally translated for ease of use there. What issue number did they get up to, releasing actual translated issues? Sources say only issue 8, due to lack of readership/popularity. Photo discovered by: PiplupFan77

Look at this cool promotional Sonic. He's a big stand-up sign to attract customers wherever it's placed. Here, it stands outside of a video game retailer in a mall in Finland. It's a classic item, and has stood there since some point in the 1990s, until its sighting here in 2011. (at left) However, in 2012...it was aquired by a fan! At right, you can see it in a home, to get the idea of the

size. It still looks just as good as in the first photo, which means it has to be quality, not some lame cardboard that would fade or bend. It is remarkable, for being such a long lived store display. Store-side Photo by: Zelman, in-home photo by: Sonicfan3841

The base is metal (likely steel) while the Sonic part is some type of wood with colored coating. These materials likely contributed to make it sturdy & long lasting. It's 110 cm high. The game shop it was in front of closed. When it did, they sold off the fixtures (including the sign) It went to a fan, who later sold it at auction. Sign now owned & info by Sonicfan3841

Here's an interesting cloth...item. It could be a curtain? It is likely to be from/for Finland, but do write in if you can confirm! It has green, blue & purple (an uncommon color for Sonic goods) along with Sonic & Knuckles, plus some white spirals & speed-lines. Knuckles is obviously an early version, as he has 'big body' and smaller fists. Also, the yellow part of his shoe is white. Did it fade? Was it wrong? You can see the measurements in the photo to the left. Photo & owned by:

This is a Sonic 'play a sound' type book. A similar one was released in England, but this one is for Finland and is all written in Finnish so kids can understand. Probably the sounds are the same, because they weren't ever words. It runs on batteries and has thick card type pages. You push the button when certain cues come up in the story or game. While the other books like this were basic play a sound books, this one claims to be a game book with randomizer. The water soluble pen would probably write on the card-type pages for activites, & wipe off later. With randomized lights/sounds you could play the games over & over.

The little starburst says "7 Etektronista Pella" which is '7 electronic games' & then the button says "Paina" (which means push). The other things are Vesiliukoinen kyna (Water soluble pen) and Sattumoittaja (randomizer).

It's great to see Sonic books were translated into at least a few languages, so everyone can enjoy them! Owned & photo by: by Sonicfan3841. Translations & extra info provided by:

Here is issue 5 of the Archie Sonic Comic in Finalnd.
This is at least proof that they got up to #5! It came out in 1994. As you can see, the cover is almost exactly the same. It's got the speech bubbles & starburst call-outs all done in Finnish. The Archie stuff is all removed (who localized it, then?) and replaced with the red box, but this time it seems to have a slogan of some sort in it rather than what it had on the first one at the top of the page. The little "funny square" thing Archie did under there is the same, and so is the sound effect "Eeee", but his speech is translated.
The slogan in the red box is "The Fastest Hedgehog". The word "Siili" is "Hedgehog in Finnish. The yellow starburst dot says something like "Sonic gets into a hedgehog pinball machine", while Tails is exclaiming something's ferocious. "Translations for the speech bubbles: Tails is exclaiming ”And the pace is quite wild!” and Rotor is saying: ”Newsstand’s hottest publication guaranteed!”
Photo discovered by & translations provided by Pate
(Notice how googletrans had Tails' word as 'ferocious' but then an actual person from there translating it has it as 'wild'.)