Sonic The Hedgehog Items of Netherlands

Several names, one place. It's the Netherlands, but sometimes you can see "Dutch" or incorrectly sometimes "Holland". There's not a whole lot of goods specific to here, or made just for it. (Usually it shares some of the 'general European' Sonic items) However, what's here isn't that common, but it is interesting to see.

Sonic Gear Main *

This is a poster pull-out from a Dutch magazine. There are a few interesting things going on here. First off, it's obviously a CG'ish montage of Sonic Adventure 1 era stuff, but it's supposed to be advertising Sonic X. Why not just use some shot for the show? Sonic X was never CG, so this doesn't make sense. Then, there's the "Fox Kids" logo in the corner. That indicates that it's quite an early poster, because in Europe Fox Kids changed quickly into "Jetix" soon after the release of Sonic X. This measures 420 x 297 milimeters, so it's not all that big. Photo & owned by Hogger the Hedgehog

Here's another magazine pull out, this one's also for Sonic X, but you wouldn't suspect it due to...the art is ONLY Riders! It's a nice poster, and the art looks good here, but the Riders were never in the show so it doesn't make sense to use them. Maybe it's some type of cross promotion? Notice that this one is later, the logo in the corner has changed to "Jetix". The little writing above the logo looks like "Te Zien Bil" which must be some kind of slogan. This measures 420 x 297 milimeters, so it's not all that big. Photo & owned by Hogger the Hedgehog

This is a big give-away poster from "Kr@sh Magazine" in the Netherlands. It's not too busy with a cool sky shot of Sonic & Jet on their hover boards to help advertise Sonic Free Riders. It's great to see various publications giving away Sonic related things to help promote their own sales / game sales too..shows how popular Sonic really is. This measures 840 x 594 milimeters. Photo & owned by Hogger the Hedgehog

This is a set of "Wheelie" brand Tazos. They look like some kind of metal disks, with a small hole at the top of each one. They have rims, & colorful Sonic X themed art. You can see Tails, Sonic, Knuckles & Amy on the individual ones, plus most of the good guys of Sonic X plus Chris on the group one. The backs say "Jetix Wheelies Plus" Jetix was what distributed Sonic X in Europe usually. These are from the Netherlands, and are meant to decorate your bike wheels. The hole is where the spoke goes. It makes sense that they're metal, as bikes are sort of rough/outdoor items. However, using them would probably be bad for them if they got wet/worn/etc. This is an item better left unused. Discovered by MrCalistine, added info by HoggerTheHedgehog

These are 10 'feve like' figures. They are made of glazed porcelain. They're tiny, only about 2 inches high each, and are "lucky cake figures*". These were found in the Netherlands, but, did they originate there? Are they sold anywhere else? Did they come as a set, or did you have to collect each one? If it is a set, it's a great one, as they've selected a nice variety of characters and done a good job with most of them. The colors are correct, and the glaze is pretty evenly done, while each figure is posed in a different, fitting and creative way, usually to resemble a stock art. The set includes Rouge, Shadow, Tails, Amy, Espio, Knuckles, Charmy, Sonic, Cream & Blaze.

The worst figure is Amy, her eyes are completely wrong. Sonic's not that great either, but, since painted items like this vary, perhaps not all of them are that way. Espio is quite nice, and so is Blaze while Cream & Charmy are posed cutely. This is likely uncommon, but looks like a great line of little collectible figures. Discovered by: Victoria Vaporeon

*What is a lucky cake figure?
A small item like a plastic figure or, ceramic, here that's baked into a cake on purpose. The person who gets the figure inside their piece is then considered lucky for a set amount of time. In New Orelans, a plastic baby is hidden inside a purple/green/yellow cake called "The King Cake" around Mardi Gras time. In Europe there is a cake for the day "Epiphany" (A religious day), which may also have non-food items baked in. Isn't it a curious tradition.

Here are some mystery signs!
These signs appear to be made of solid plastic in 2 layers. They have a metal peg on the back for hanging. The curious thing is there's no markings on them at all.

These are likely to have been store signs of some kind, like for displays. They measure 37 centimeters wide and 29 centimeters high. One is the Sonic Team looking logo, the other is Sonic X. They were likely chosen because they are sihloutte style and able to be cut/made simply enough with just 2 layers. As you can see the plastic for each is pretty thick. Even though they're mysterious / unmarked, they're a cool collectible to have on a wall in a Sonic room. Photos & owned by: Hedgy

This is a Panini Sticker Album.
As you know, Panini is famous for making lots of collectible stickers, and then selling them all over Europe. You can find them in lots of countries at the same time, which is great...because Sonic stuff being everywhere is what's best for fans. But, if you have stickers, you might also want an album, so here they go too.
This album is in Dutch...inside. But look at the cover, it seems to be completely in English. But why? It would probably confuse everyone who reads Dutch, probably especially kids who are the target audience for this album.

Fortunately for Netherlands, the inside is all written in Dutch so it can be understood about Sonic 3, screenshots, stickers and details. The bottom right image is a 2 page spread where you are supposed to place the shaped stickers from the sticker packs into the grayish shapes to complete the scene. Notice how the art is rather "Fleetway Comics-Like" on the cover, and then how they take a stock art and turn the smile upside-down to create 'aggrivated Sonic' as a canvas for placing badnick stickers. With 180 to collect, that's quite a lot!
It's interesting to have a look inside this uncommon book. Photo & owned by Hedgy

What's this CD doing away from Sonic Music?
That's because it's a special Dutch one, that has a contest on the packaging. Also, most of the text is in Dutch too...but oddly some English is sprinkled around like partially on the sticker and "over 70 minutes of music".
When you look at the booklet/insert you can see what you have to do to win, and also the prize list. The translation follows...

18 original dance trax of PURE ENERGY!

Doe mee aan de SEGA Prijsvraag! be : = Enter the SEGA Competition!

Could be multiple ways to translate like "participate in the sega competition". Also some information is lost in this English text because "prijs-vraag" literally translated means "prize question". So you'd immediately know there's at least 1 question to answer to participate.

1) Van welk merk spelcomputer is SONIC de mascotte?

2) Welke 3 tracks moeten volgens jou in ieder geval op een eventuele volgende SONIC Dance CD komen?

3) In hoeveel SEGA spellen speelt SONIC de hoofdrol?

Here's an English translation:

1) From which brand game console is SONIC the mascot?

2) Which 3 dance tracks should definitely be on a potential future SONIC dance CD according to you?

3) In how many SEGA games does Sonic play the main character?

For question 3 it may be important to note that this competition ran until April 30th 1994.

1st prize is a Sega megadrive with a Mega CD and 2 videogames

You could also win

Sonic Ties ("Sonic stropdassen" in Dutch)

Sonic t-shirts

Sonic caps

Sonic calendars ("Sonic kalenders") "

However, it never specified which items you could win (no photos) so, which items are a mystery. Plus, Calendar? Those were never very common anywhere outside of Japan really. Also, it doesn't say how many of each were winnable, (USA contests must disclose how many of each--but this one seems to not have to) so how likely it is that someone who won something sees the entry seems pretty low. Photos & Translation all provided by Hedgy

The Netherlands appeared to be on a roll with wheelies...
As, here come more and this time they are orange and pretty large. Notice the size of the hand in the right part of the photo. These are meant to be placed on the spokes of your bike wheels to help decorate it. (A good choice as bikes are very popular there) These were put out partially by Jetix which handled the EU area release of X. They are from may and june in 2009, so quite a short run.

Especially when you consider what you had to do to get them. In the grocery store you had to spend 15 euros, and then you would get a random one for free. With all the different designs and the short run of them, that probably wouldn't have been easy to do. So, these may end up uncommon. (Plus, that looks like sticker, and bikes could get rained on which is not a good combination either) Photo & owned by Hedgy

A rare sight to see! Because it could possibly be the only one.
This is the Mario Sonic Olympic Games prize snowboard that you've seen before on Gear. It's got the same great ski jumping Mario & snowboard Sonic on the top, and all of the colorful character logo circles (that debut in this game) on the bottom. So how's it different? Just check out the logo, the whole thing is in Dutch. The bit under the Olympic logo (for that year) says "Vancouver 2010". This must have been some prize / give away thing, but only for someone inside the Netherlands. It was won at a convention in Amsterdam by playing Mario & Sonic. Because this prize snowboard was localized, does that mean others were too? Was more than 1 created per language/area? It's interesting to see that they did customize the logo into something the people live there can understand to increase its desirability for winning. It remains there to this day, photo & owned by Hedgy

England's Sonic The Comic got all the way to the Netherlands...for a few issues at least. Here, you can compare the first issue from here & from there to see what's different. First off, it is, of course, all written in Dutch so the people can understand it. They changed it from 'the comic' to 'magazine'. Of course the contest had to change too, so this one lets you win a Game Gear with Jungle Book game even though it's not Sonic-relevent. This comic was known also for its' in-bag prizes', (little free goodies) and they are continuing that here with the stickers. Sometimes prizes get cut out when something goes international.

But then look at the words...some of them are super similar like "Wiin" is 'win', and Magazine is the same word. They even write "Sega's Super Star Sonic the Hedgehog" in the box and then "Paniek in de Marble Zone" you can clearly tell is "Panic" just the spelling is a little different. Isn't that interesting. The red dot at the top had the price in it. Photos by: Hedgy