Movie Live Action Sonic Merchandise
(That I don't approve of)
So here's a sub-standard title card that's very boring.
People seemed to like this better, and so merchandise moved ahead. However it's #NotMySonic so, like bandana and sports tape loving Boom Sonic (And poor Stupid BoomKnuckles) the merchandise must all get corralled away onto a special page/set so as to keep it from contaminating other items. This is that page.
There is also Movie Clothing * Movie Merch Page 2 * Movie Items 3 * Movie Items 4 * Movie Items 5 * Movie Events *
On Twitter, it launched a 12 Days of Sonic give away type thing, along with banners like this. This one is Day 6, and features tees.
The other tee is all black, and has a CG portrait of Movie Sonic as it's only decoration.
*Portray- The non-cg art is clearly being jimmied to take away/minimize the look of the 'movie aspects' like the 2 eyes, odd cat ears, and kind of gummy lower face area to make him more clean-line and 'modern Sonic' looking because that is what's more appealing. Ad discovered by SonicHedgehog11
No, but it looks just as hairy. This is the "Movie Talking Sonic Plush", who will no doubt say cringey phrases recorded from the movie. It has flat smooth fabric, with that 'cg hair texture' printed all over to give it a sort of mottled look. The lower face is big like the movie, and they have the brow lowered to ease up on the white face-center that separates the eyes.
Somtimes movies that people feel will be popular get a novelization...and...here comes hollywood with this book. The front says "now a major motion picture". Items like this are pretty common when the movie isn't based on a book already. This follows their pattern, with 1 character on the cover and a non-revealing background that's non-specific on purpose. (Can't be a spoiler)
This was released on pre-order in late January 2020, because the movie date is Feb. 14, so that no one can 'beat the street date' and get it early to spoil the plot or use the book to skip the movie. The cover does have the updated design, and the removed product placement 'nike' off the shoes so it doesn't look as much like a screaming ad gimmick.
This is the 13 inch plush doll referenced in the Twitter Contest above. Talking plush and figures for Sonic have been done before, so something like this was sure to be on the merch menu.
The box says "Brings the movie to life with 10 sounds" You get 7 phrases when you squeeze him, but also 3 different sound effects when you shake him. So, that's 2 kinds of interactivity, which is nice/more quality going on. He comes in a 'chair box' with open front, as seems traditional/common to plush in the 2000s or so. But what's unique is...he's standing! Usually absolutely every character is always sitting in these.
The fabric isn't fuzzy or soft, it is instead printed/smooth, so it can have the 'hairy cg texture' of the movie critter-Sonic. The ears are kind of...oddly crumpled? These are factory photos & they left them like that...but then look at the art on the box, that photo & also the movie CG isn't crumpled.
Also notice how they changed the doll's proportions to more closely resemble actual-Sonic, the body is MUCH smaller and follows modern-Sonic shape rather than the shape you see on the book cover above & even on the side of the box. It seems likely this will turn up in Target when it releases along side the actual movie in Feb.
Opinion Zone:
YES they're doing everything they can to minimize 'movie-ness' about the merchandise so it'll actually sell. Big-bean-body up there isn't attractively designed to the consumer-eye, so they're trying to push as much toward 'actual normal modern Sonic' as they can at every trun with this stuff. There's a reason Sonic classic/modern design is so damm iconic! You're not going to 'fix' him by winding him up in sports tape and giving ragged quills, or making him into a funky blue monkey. What's rotten is all these things proving their own point along-side the internet flame-out edit / redo.
Opinion 2: The standing up doll in the box is actually a really good way to pose something. Good idea.
Wow.
This thing...can make fun of itself.
That's...got it going on I guess. Squashing on the movie or its plot is certainly possible in this 'worlds greatest word game' book, where you fill in the blanks with wacky words and then read the whole thing back to create funny phrases.
This actually ISN'T Sonic's first mad-lib either! There's a funny book of Modern Mad Libs that you can still get today on Amazon, over on Gear Books. This particular one though, will release when the movie does to avoid spoilers. It will also sell on Amazon (price pending) after Feb 14 2020.
It is now time to (positive-verb) the restraint of me, for not creating a mad-lib right here that would dump on the (yucky food word) inspired Sonic Movie that probably smells like (noun).
If a movie is popular enough, or if someone hopes it is, there's usually toys set up for it well ahead of time. As you know, toy manufacture takes quite a long time from concept to actually being able to buy it. So, when something's in early planning or not even close to done...the toys are being worked on.
But look at the actual toy....it's still that "Hated Blue Hairy Gremlin" that got the internet so fired up they spent many millions changing it away. Sure, the box art is all updated to the more 'socially acceptible' version, but it was far too late to change the mold so...kids will be in for a surprise if they get this and inspect the figure. Price and retail location will be updated, this is expected to 'launch' (maybe literally) along side the movie in Feb. 2020.
Then "Baby-Ize-It"! That seems to be the philosophy here, with "Baby Sonic Movie Plush". At some point in the movie there will be a flashback to 'baby-Sonic', and of course they're going to make it 'goo goo cute' for screen time just so that....here comes a baby doll for the kids. It has toeless ball shaped feet (kinda odd?) small eyes, blue strip down the dog like muzzle, and a sort of beige 'finger area' despite...
Remember:
It's CANNON that Sonic (and probably everyone else) has NO TOES. Tails has no toes, neither does Amy. Big doesn't either, and since he's a cat & so is Blaze, then probably she is also toe-less. Who knows if movie has toes, but this doll sure doesn't. How well this will do, will likely depend on the movie. It should appear in Target around the time of the movie.
This is "Parade Magazine", which is really more of a leaflet-type item that is included in different brands of Sunday Newspapers in the USA. It has general 'celebrity content', like an interview or an article, plus ads, Q&A type column and maybe a recipe or two. In this case, it's a Jim Carrey interview due to the Sonic Movie supposed to be marking a bit of a comeback for him in a funny type role. The interview is mostly about him and not the movie, though. He mentions about how sometimes 'we all feel like Robotnick' going against the grain and just wanting to run things ourselves. There's no real movie dirt or really much Sonic content at all beyond like 'oh I wanted to do the role' type stuff.
These agile-type games can be changed much more quickly with content than PC or consoles, so they can fast-reflect changes/ads and events. That's the case with the "Sega Heroes" game who's panels are seen here. This game mixes around all of Sega's famous property-type characters so that it tries for a wide appeal. Even if you don't like Sonic, you may want Jet Grind/Jet Set Radio or other properties seen here.
This gets on "Movie" because of the top tile, still grayed out due to time restriction of it only appearing when the movie releases.
Naturally, it would want to promote the movie in the game, so here we have Movie-Sonic running along and the possibility to Win Silver Shards to get people to play the movie theme portion.
Screencap by DragonStar Planet
This is a little figural keychain of Baby Movie Sonic, still in the package on the promotional card. The date, 3.27 is the date it'll release there. (But why write "Fri." in English? Aren't the days of the week there called something else? Would it confuse people?) It has a beaded chain at the top, and looks like the copyrights on a blue plastic tab that hangs with it.
Why choose the odd flashback baby? Maybe because Japan is known for liking cute things, or possibly the combo of that AND "It's baby" so it NOT looking like Sonic, but rather a "Sonic-like-creature" is ok/more palatable than the adult-form thing in the movie. Photo and owned by
Here are 2 different sizes of him and....it's almost basically modern Sonic with blue arms at this point?
For these plushes, they've either got the nose sewn up between the eyes to divide them, or the eyes may actually just be the normal mono-eye / cylopian thing that actual Sonic is supposed to have. The ears don't have the peach color inside...which looks like a genuine mistake because the movie-Sonic does have the ear color & so does other merchandise. The feet are small/the plain lace up shoes from the movie, & the gloves have the larger cuff/plus blue arms and center mouth with the much lowered eye top area. Maybe the fabric is furrier than usual but it's interesting to see these changes in the design making it into the merchandise like plush dolls (which have quite a manufacturing lead-time / you can't shift these last minute because of patterning issues) These were both claw machine prizes. Photo discovered by Keke B.
They're not movie merchandise, but they were part of the movie itself. These are hand made special effects props used in the movie. They were for scenes when he was faced away from the camera, and also used for the actors. This 'life size' doll would be placed in the scenes so the people would know what he looked like and have something to talk to and act with to make the job easier.
Here, you can see someone is having fun by putting a cowboy hat on him along with a red bath robe (look at those little monkey hands...) while the other photo has the doll prop being
So they're always looking for popular tie-ins to make plushes for. They've done Sonic before, and he turned out ok (seen on USA Plushes) because the store uses quite good quality fabric, nice embroidery, stuffing, and has extras like his ring, sound effects & other stuff. But then here's...this.
No doubt there's solid construction & it's super soft but it's...super odd? They're gimmicking off 'baby Sonic' because of the supposed cuite pie appeal that was supposed to transcend the gremlin-monkey design. Build a Bear is kind of taking it back to the bear-roots here because it looks like a teddy bear that's blue. The giant lower face, tiny ears, and mitten hands that are somehow flesh tone in one set of photos but then white in the other? Is it gloves or hands? Then the feet-bottoms are red which...they super probably weren't in the movie.
To further the dress-up-dolly appeal (that all their stuff has as a matter of course = upsells) you can buy for him movie logo branded tie sneakers, a PJs with Sonic & rings/logos print, a little tee shirt with a picture of regular movie Sonic on it, and, in the last photo the stuffed gold ring (re-used from the first doll they did--which is not a problem it is actually an opportunity to pick the ring up if you missed it the first time) It can't be said that effort wasn't applied to this, but it's up to if people thought the baby in the movie was cute whether or not this plush would be desirable.
But, since it's supposed to be movie Sonic, it goes here. This is a display large size statue made by Diamond Select Collectibles. It was created for their use in displays at places like Toy Fair and other trade shows to attract attention. It has Sonic on top of an Eggman machine, with '3d electricity blue magic' crackling around his feet as he lands in a 3 point stance.
But look how non-movie it looks! It's almost just regular modern Sonic but with boring ugly shoes and blue arms. The 'movie look' is gone from this item almost totally as well. He doesn't even have movie ears or movie body shape or leg shape...or...it looks like he may even have 1 eye again? The other thing is that it has that hairy texture. IDW works on figures and toys so they DO know what they are doing, anything with this statue wasn't an accident of poor design or someone fumbling the ball.
Yes! Is it technically the first Peru Sonic item? Maybe. But, it's unexpected to be sure...was he ever really popular there? (Like in Brazil he super is because of the unending affinity for the Genesis) Either way, to celebrate the movie they released this set of 3 drink cups. Each cup has a different CG art of movie-Sonic, and the same decorative cap. The cap has a green grass texture with a gold rin. In the middle of the ring is the movie figure
This isn't the usual type of pin, it uses an enamel glaze over the metal, rather than using enamel to fill in areas like tiles. The metal itself is embossed with raised texture for the design, and then the enamel is stamped on. It has movie-Sonic in his usual pose in a gold ring, with the logo at the bottom. The "C" that had the spikes in it is also pierced through, which is a decent effect for something super small like that. He isn't CG, but rather cartoon art, so you can see the movie-minimizations on the distinguishing details. Though, he does keep the long body, big mouth and jaggy outlines to represent the shaggy fur. This is a Sega Shop item, and is 17 dollars.
But, it is movie-Sonic on a poster. In this case, it's once again 'baby version' CG Sonic from the movie holding up his GHZ style sunflower. Written beside him in Japanese is Baby Sonic. The background has faded/gray with rectangles design & the logo is at the top. This is a Sega Shop item in 2020, and it's pretty big/regular poster sized so you have to be really sure you want this sappy portrait of him really large on the wall before you buy it.
They're both the same black ceramic mug base, both 15 dollars each, but with a different design. The top mug has the movie logo by itself on one side & the 'darkened look' CG Sonic in a dim 'ring' shape with some rectangles for the background. Here, he's shown pointing. The bottom mug has the logo, adds the "Whole new speed of hero" slogan at the top, and a sprinkle of rectangles throughout. The other side has 'darkened' or shadowed CG running movie-Sonic, while the rectangles there are shown as CG/glowing to give him a bright background/a reason for hiding his design in the shadows. They are ok mugs if you like the movie style.