Japan Sonic Retail Display Items

Selling Sonic games at retail is often helped out by lots of cool display items!
Everything from standees (cardboard cut outs) to posters to shelf-related attention grabbing items will be featured on this page. If it was meant for stores to advertise Sonic, it should be here. However, after stores are finished with the promotion, sometimes it's possible for fans to collect these items. Because stores aren't as numerous as consumers however, promo items are natrually less abundant than regular collectibles. Items here can be from any time classic or modern.

SonicGear Main * Japan Retail Display 2 * Japan Retail Display 3 *

Sonic & Knuckles Game Grab Motion Japan Display

This is a cardboard point-of-purchase type display. This is something that would likely have been seen in game stores or other electronic retailers that planned to carry Sonic And Knuckles games. It's cardboard, but has a plastic base and even features a movement element! See that slot? The game cartridge picture (and their hands) move up and down to draw attention. The Knuckles stock art is familiar, however the Sonic one seems rather unique. The display is a clever use for both pieces. The base is likely meant to look like the console (you can see it 'locking on') and the top part likely explains the action as well. This is a great Sonic related advertising piece! Photo discovered by Sonicboy19

Christmas Themed Sonic Promotional Poster

This long poster is most likely a store display or promo item of some sort. The front has SA1 Sonic in his Christmas themed stock art with Santa hat, coat & bag of gifts. The bottom says "Merry Christmas" and has the Sonic logo. The back has the same art again, but adds Tails & Knuckles in the background. There are also screen shots of various games Sega was promoting at the time. The bottom appears to have a date. This was found at Rare Mizuki store in Japan. Photo & owned by Kari

This is a cardboard standee. They're usually shaped cut outs at life size or about life size of characters. These are usually set up as store displays or promotions at events. Fans sometimes manage to be able to collect them when they're moved off after the promotional period ends.
In this case, it's Love Live! Rin, on her Sonic cross promotion. The standee was made from a giant version of the promo art, where she's holding a cute Sonic doll. It appears all of the other promo crossover items have this same art/same theme, including the statue.

This is a Sonic Rush point of purchase display tag. (POP) it has a sticky end for mounting on a shelf, and features Blaze the Cat art, screen shot photo & explanation, as well as die cut borders for added interest. This would have been on a retail shelf. Photographed & owned by Kari XIII

Here are 2 retail display posters, one for Adventure DX, the other for Sonic Heroes. Each one appears to have a date (likely release date) & the Heroes one has pictures of each team at the bottom, likely with a little explanation. The DX one has several screenshots too. These would likely be hung on the walls of a game shop leading up to the game's release to help promote. Photo & owned by: @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram

*All posters in this area are about "B2" size at 20 x 29 inches

This is a poster to advertise "Sonic & Tails 2" (the Game Gear game), but it is also a calendar. See the tiny numbers all along the right side? They're all the months/days for 1995, which was when the game was released in Japan. The calendar's function was likely to let the poster still be useful/functional after the game is released in hopes that it would stay on the wall anyway.
The poster has the title art for the game, Knuckles sort of randomly in one corner, giant Eggman head rising up at the bottom & various scattered little Sonics. (Look at the top, there's Knack) There are also 3 screen shots from the game & possibly a small explainer headline bit in the bottom right. Over all, the poster is colorful, fits in with the game box-look, & has the added interest of the calendar- with that much nice character art & design, it's a cool collectible now. Photo & owned by: @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram

Sonic & Tails 1 also had a poster.
This Game Gear game poster has a fun feel with colorful icons of enemies & tiny screen shots scattered around the striped/rays background. It has a nice eye-catching large art of Sonic & Tails jumping/looking fun. The game's logo is at the bottom, along with more screen shots so you can tell a bit of what the game will be like.
The whole bottom part is taken up by white space with a full year of calander on it. Notice one little enemy badnick has made it under the calander. This helps keep the poster useful, even after the game is released. However, with the nice art & cute item placement, it remains a cool decoration item anyway. Photo & owned by: @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram

Here's a display poster for Sonic Jam.
It's got the main graphic for the game large in the center with Sonic Tails & Knuckles posed dynamically in the ring. The banner logo is below it, and everything is on a 'backdrop' of many TV monitor shapes. (old style with the rounded edges) most are just colors or static, but some have little logos the words "This Is Cool" or game screen shots (bottom row) in them. There are two vertically written phrases along the edges (in white) but it's all in Japanese. The over all effect of the poster is a sort of colorful collage type feel. Photo & owned by: @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram

Here's a retail display poster for Sonic R.
This colorful CG art poster has the scene from the game (all in CG) taking up the entire poster. Overlaid upon it is the logo with checkered flag, a phrase at an angle, a possible vertical phrase, and a horizontal sentence with an orange background at the bottom. Instead of screen shots or calendars, the poster takes the scenic approach. (and it looks good)
However, this CG art which is smooth and quite modern looking was called "misleading" at the time because if you look at the look of the characters in the actual Sonic R game, they're very polygonal and not really how this portrays them & neither is the scenery/background element.
Due to the cool trio graphic & the scenic style of the poster, this makes it much more like a great decor item than it is an ad. Photo & owned by: @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram

Here's a store poster for Sonic Adventure 1 (At left). It's set up in a more 'art' way than an advertising way without tons of text or screenshots & flashy headlines. It has that 'circle' Sonic, the logo & square portraits of all the characters across the bottom. There are still headlines (vertical red, smaller black) but with the somewhat abstracted background & giant Sonic art, it comes across as more 'poster like' than 'billboard like'. Photo & owned by: @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram

To the above-right you can see the variant of the Sonic Adventure 1 poster. This one has the noticible difference of the black band added at the bottom. It has the release date, tiny texts, and 4 screen shots of the actual game. This one is more of an 'advertisement' type poster . Everything else about it except for the line/it's content is the same. The poster without the bar is smaller & rare-er than the other. Photo & owned by: @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram

A Sonic the Fighters Arcade Game Poster!
This is a quite decorative poster for STF the arcade-only game. It has all of the characters (yes even the boss fighter Metal Sonic--he's down in the bottom left-ish area) sort of rushing forward-outward from Sonic, who's starring in the middle. The poster uses the extremely-polygonal sprites from the game. Notice the heavy use of 'motion blur' and an almost streaky brightness that has been applied to soften the edges & make the characters look a little more natural. (Remember, hardware at the time for 3D was super limited, these sprites were made very simply & looked built out of cardboard) The game's logo is nice & big at the bottom in white. There are no slogans, titles or screen shots here, this one's mostly a decorative eye-catching item. This is a B2 size poster, meaning it is about 20 x29 inches. This is uncommon, since the game itself was arcade only. Photo & owned by: @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram

Here's the poster for Sonic & the Secret Rings on the Wii.
It takes a mostly decorative approach in order to look cool on the wall. It has the metallic logo & borders, with the subtitle (& Secret Rings) written in Japanese. There's also a smaller sub-head there. The bottom features the date of release and 5 screen shots (one possibly with story words in it) so you can anticipate what some of the levels will look like.
Sonic has the titular ring on his finger & the flame stuck to his chest flaring up dramatically over the 'mysterious door' background. Over all, the poster presents a different/interesting view of the game to get people curious to play it. Photo & owned by: @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram