When did Sonic the Hedgehog catch on in Korea? (Write in if you know...but it appears to be around the time of Sonic X) Korea has a fair amount of interesting Sonic items. There are sure to be more, so if you live there, visit there or know anyone who has anything that's not on this page, please do send it in! These detailed & quality goods are both colorful & interesting. Will a classic item show up? Why don't these things ever turn up on ebay? There are still questions to be answered.

Look how popular Amy Rose is! She's got a whole set of colored pens/markers themed just for her! There's a flower & bow pink motif Amy design on the front of the clear plastic holder. Each pen has several pictures of Amy, along with a row of hearts. Cute & colorful, these are very suited for Amy or her fans. Photo by SonicTeam.

This is a plastic puzzle featuring the cast of Sonic Adventure 1. You can see it's in sort of a bag like packageing. The back of the card seems to have mini 1 line character descriptions/profiles of the characters in the puzzle. The puzzle is incomplete/pieces shuffled in this photo. Photo by SonicTeam.

This is a water color paint set with a Sonic theme. The colors are either powders or thick gels in little plastic tubes. You dilute them a bit on a pallet to use. The Sonic theme here is a little strange, as it has E102 Gamma in the background, shooting a spiral green laser at/near Sonic who is on a bent skateboard. This was released around the SA1 era, so it used that early SA art. It's great to see E appearing on goods though. Photo by SonicTeam.

This is a collection of fun, mini spiral note pads. They look like list pads...possibly for homework or something. Each pad is different. The Sonic one shows him with meteors/space setting, and has stars & SA blue-tone art inside. The Knuckles one has wiggly edges, red coated plastic spiral & blue-tone Knuckles disk shaped art inside, with simple lines for writing. The Amy one is nice & pink, but look at Tails sleeping on his towel in the background. He's emitting/bubbling/snoring hearts out. (The Sonic note didn't have anything interesting on the back, is why it doesn't appear here) Photo by SonicTeam.

Korea got its own exclusive bonus content with Sonic Generations. It got a "Special DVD with Original Soundtrack CD". (See both in photo at right) Note the Korean text on the box (but then why is everything else in English, wouldn't that confuse people who can't read it?) What's the content like on the special DVD? Is it similar/same as what Europe got? This is a great bonus package.

This is a larger version of the notebook seen above. It's pretty much identical to the small one, with meteors, logo & SA1 Sonic. What does it say in Korean in that oval thing? It's cool to see different sizes of useful Sonic supplies. Photo by SonicTeam

Here's something interesting that's just Korean. It's Sonic 2 , which you'll know for the Game Gear, but here it's a cartridge for the non-portable console, the Mark III. It uses the same artwork as the PAL box (shown here). The cartridge is pretty tall, not like those short rectangle Genesis ones. You can see how big it is compared to the system in the bottom photo. The top has foil & Korean writing, likely to be the title. Photo & owned by: MetaRidley001

It's the highly coveted "Soap Shoes Sonic!" This big, quality plush has the famous 'soap shoes' for rail grinding and is usually thought to have been a costly and not-long released Japan Only item. However, this photo from Korea along with the info is helping to prove otherwise. There, the doll was released with Sonic Heroes (note: paper tag) bundled with the game itself. It's unclear if he's some kind of really cool pre-order bonus or if he was with a 'deluxe edition' or

something similar. What a cool item to offer with the game....no-matter how it was offered! Korean fans were really in for a treat with this cool plush around. Photo discovered by Pichu97

This is a set of modern Sonic plushes, only sold in Korea. Here, they are in some sort of prize machine, sitting on a top shelf. They're all pretty large...and pretty detailed as well. If you look closely, you can see Amy's fingers, Shadow's shoe-bottoms have actual texture, & Knuckles' fists are actually pretty big. There are a few oddities going on here though...

Everyone has "Center Smile", which is a little odd. Amy can sometimes have it, Tails has it most frequently...but Knuckles should never, and neither really should Sonic. Shadow is too folded over to see what's going on with his expression. Then, Sonic's eye-shine-dots are at the bottom instead of the top, where everyone elses' are. His spikes are also a little thin/long somehow? They are certainly a good effort with their own unique patterns (ex. not copies of other pre-existing dolls) however with this angle it's a little hard to tell exactly what's going on with them. These are certainly a set that is interesting to see. Discovered by Pich97/Charlie

Note: The thing all of these have in common that possibly* NO OTHER DOLL has is individual fingers. That's a big step up for quality/features in a doll & it's mentioned here as it applies to all of them. (*did any other doll have this?)

A better look at Amy. Here is the Amy from the set above. Something occurred (in Korea maybe) that caused several of these plushes to appear on America Amazon, exposing them to more fans. And more photos, so we can take a closer look. She is quite a good plush, which makes it sad that she's not just a tiny bit better & has a few amature hour mistakes.

The dress is great, has a good shape & lays right. The ears stand up, the headband is 3D, the proportions are actually really good...better than most. The shoes are also super well done, complete with heel for the boots. Her eyelashes & eyes are well sized & the 'center smile' is in character for her and looks just fine. The bangs are stuffed/not some felt strip tack-on & her head shape is good as well but then..... The head spikes are kind of a mess. The back is really...not accurate at all. Which is a little sad because really Amy's spikes are the easiest out of everyone to create since they're downward facing & wide. Still, she is a good sized plush with a majority of good detail & quality. Photo discovered by:

Here is the Sonic from this set. And, when he's alone like this and not in the plush group above....he doesn't really hold up all that well. Especially when you compare him with their own Amy Rose from the same set.

How did they slip up with Sonic? He's the most important one to get right...you'd think. First off, look at the super tiny, dinky feet. Amy's feet are rightly sized, his are just terribly small. The stripe position, buckle & sole-texture are fine, the feet are just silly little. Then, like the rest of the dolls, he has 'center smile'. This isn't terrible on him, and it does give a new expression but from the front it's a tad odd. The ears do stand up/are stuffed & they did mind the ear-borders. But then look at the spikes. They're so thin and noodly, as to practically be tentacles. This starts the oddity, and the somewhat strange eye shape just continues it. The log legs are good, as are the individual fingers, but then the oval belly dot starts giving the impression of 'big body'. He's not terrible by any means but...the strange eyes/center smile face combine with the tiny shoes and noodly spikes to just create an odd impression doll. Which is a bit of a shame because they're clearly really capable of making something neat. Photo discovered by:

It's almost 'mutant gear'.... But not quite Knuckles here is just ok enough to remain on this page. How did his shoes go so wrong? Not even fake plushes will make this mistake, only 1 row of bolts? They even bothered to make the gray part 3D, but then to have only 1 row after going to that trouble makes it extra strange. It's a shame too, because his large fists have great detail, & all the limbs/shoes/hands are in good proportion with the head and body.

He also has 'center smile' as the rest of the set also does...and it doesn't look great, but it is ok. His spikes are also pretty decent, as is the tail. His head is a little 'tall'/long in the back but it doesn't look bad from the front or 3/4 view. It's a plush that is full of effort, but suffering from easily avoided slip ups.

Their Shadow is better than their Sonic, because at least he doesn't slip up on the details. Yes 'center smile' is here for him as well...and it doesn't look awful, but it's not really true to the character. Sonic/Shadow faces weren't really engineered to have center smile going on & be compatible with their

common expressions. However, his feet are big enough & the details are very good for the shoes. His spikes are correctly positioned/no wilting or mutant head shapes & he does have the red leg stripe...but is either missing the arm one or it's off-model levels of too short. He's a good solid pick in this set, that interestingly comes across a bit better than the Sonic...despite him being harder to do with more details & possibilites to go wrong.

The last doll in the set is Tails. And, he is the general mix of some really good ideas and then some fairly obvious errors. All of these larger plushes were a bit of a 'mixed bag' of similar issues & this one's not an exception. There's the excellent stuffed 3D fur for the chest edges & face edges as well as the bangs to ensure they always lay right/stand out. But then, the head is nearly flat.

It's not as bad as some of the pancake head dolls from other companies but look at the profile, it's not right, either. He looks fine with the 'center smile' they gave all of the dolls, but the mouth might be a tad big. Instead of having pointed shoes like Sonic, his are clearly rounded which also isn't right, but doesn't look awful. The tails are a little small, but they did have nicely done individual fingers, glove & sock cuffs and the right size for the nose & ears. He's not a bad collectible at all, but things like the flattened head are confusing in the face of super-quality steps like the individual fingers.