It's time for prototypes & mock ups! All the things on this page are Sonic items which are NOT yet released, or are items which were NEVER released. If something doesn't ever get produced, it'll stay here forever, for you to see and read about it. Also included on the page are 'mock ups' which are not real items. They're an illustration created by a company to show what a final item would look like. Sometimes they're Photoshops, others are combination of art and photos. A mock up never becomes real itself...but the item it illustrates is often made.
When any item on this page DOES get made, (and SonicGear gets some kind of retail confirmation/fan photo) it will leave this page and move away onto the page it belongs on.
(EX: a keychain appears here, gets produced, a fan buys it and mails SonicGear--that key chain will then leave this page and show up on the Key Chains page)
Anything that does/is getting made should have release date info near it if it is available, along with the company which should be producing it--to help you find it!
Sonic Prototypes 6 * Sonic Prototypes 7 * Sonic Prototypes 8 * Sonic Prototypes 9 * Sonic Prototypes 11 *
Which items are real? The school bag, shoes & pencil are real, while everything else seems to just be mock up art. The jacket is the most obvious. Will any of this get made?
This is a prototype Big the Cat plush. It was made by Tomy, but in the UK. (Tomy mostly operates in USA & UK, some of their stuff is dual-release) However, it was made FOR and to be released by Jazwares when they were getting into making plushes.
This one is a pendant, and appears to be called "Sonic Emerald Holding". It's a fully 3D figure in more of the stainless steel material & black patina they've used so far, but this time with the addition of a gemstone of some kind. (It is not labeled as an emerald, probably a green zircon) It's cut to resemble the famous green one out of the 7 chaos emeralds.
A Chaos Emerald is a CLEAR choice, and a great choice for encorporating into jewelry. It's a cool idea! But...this one...is also clearly not their greatest effor. Look at Sonic's proportions! His arms are at least twice as long as his legs & his hands are larger than his head. The body is also very long & oval shaped much more than normal. (Modern Sonic's body is a rough/rounded triangle, classic's is very spherical)
Triumphantly holding up a Chaos Emerald. But then, you can also see how it would NEVER work & look right. Sonic, by his very design/proportions can't ever reach that much above his head. Let alone to hold a large item like he must do here. If you watch his 3D animations (particularly breakdancing & such) you can literally watch the animators lengthen his limbs temporarily to get him to do moves. Like werehog style bungee limbs because his head is so gigantic & so are his feet. That's OK (ish) in animated media, but it really doesn't work when in permenent/non-moving form. Will this ever actually get released with his long, monkey-arms?
Maybe. This is a part of a large photo taken at a meeting at "IDW". IDW is a comic book producing company, for lots of different brands. Archie gave up their Sonic comic book title / license in 2017, ending that particular comic's run. However, Sonic was deemed so popular that he SHOULD have a comic, even if it's not made by the original producer, Archie from the late 1990s when it got its start. IDW signed on to take over the task from Archie. The Gear Blog has more about what this is/why it happened.
What's the story behind this? Why would someone here randomly have a prototype? Hopefully they don't consider using the poor thing as a model when drawing the art. Photo discovered by BluexBlur
These are the prototype figures by ReSaurus for E-102 Gamma, Big the Cat & Amy Rose, each on their card and with their accessories. Each one is made of red proto plastic (it's kind of typical to cast figures like this in some random color
Just what were these for?
It's the 2nd set of figures from ReSaurus, so they probably weren't trying to prove something (or maybe they were? Their Sonic wasn't that great) so possibly for a toy show, or just some kind of package test or a proof. No matter what though, they're super interesting to look at. Maybe they are one of a kind, too. Photos discovered by:
Notice that the bubbles are turning yellow with age. Some clear plastic does this, and there is likely no cure. Photos discovered by: Giovanni
As the pages of their catalog are revealed to be full of things they never released. Dig in with some rare sights right here on Gear Prototypes. At leaft, above, are 3 plushes for Sonic, Tails & Knuckles. However, each of them was also supposed to talk! The description says they were to have at least 3 phrases 'from games', and would sell on those cardboard platforms you see the Sonic on. Each is over 10 inches tall. You can see they did a pretty nice job with these too, better than some of their figures, even. No detail is forgotten, though Knuckles' head is slightly off/big.
At right is a page for the bendy figures, plus the often-rumored but never-released "E102 Gamma Bendy". You can see him up there on his single card. Remember: ANY single-carded figure out of these was uncommon, they were mostly sold in the Bendy 6-Pak, but some were released with t-shirts later. The right-most page has the dolls (again) and the "big talkin' figures" that did release normally. Left photo discovered by Pichu97, right by PatMac
This page has just more plush, and none of them ever released. At the top is their biggest Sonic, at over 20 inches. Below are a series of 'bean bag plush' figures that would have come in that little cardboard stand box there. You could choose from Sonic, Tails, Knuckles or the neutral chao, each stuffed with bean-filling. These are only about 6 inches each. *It's interesting to see the chao there, because why choose that over Amy Rose who was also in Sonic Adventure 1, which these were to be released for? The chao is ok, but you'd think they'd want an actual character. Note that the chao lacks the pink wings or yellow limb-tips of an in-game look. Photo discovered by Pichu97
This was their 6 inch or so main action figure line. And it was released...so why appear on 'prototypes'? There's a prototype item here if you look carefully: See by Sonic there is a WHITE Chaos Emerald, and it's opaque, not like the other toys. It never got released. You can also note the lack of the bomb by Eggman/Kiki and Knuckles never had the red item, he had the clear/blue 'rings container' from the game. So, they differed a little here from final release, but not by a whole lot. Photo discovered by PatMac
The release of anything here is debateable. If anything actually came out, it might have been the erasers. On the left page you can see Tails, Knuckles, Big & Sonic are little 'chibi' type plastic figures, each of which has a desk/school function. Tails is a stapler, Knuckls pencil sharpener, Big dispenses tape & Sonic is a tape measure. Photo discovered by PatMac
Carded E-102 Gamma robot carded bendy! You could spot him up there on the merchandise magazine page, but this toy is worth a spot light because it is so interesting. Out of all the bendies, it never got made...maybe aside from this one here. It's especially interesting to see him on card like this. Gamma was always the rarest character out of Sonic Adventure 1, but he's also well liked by fans so this bendy would've been great to have. Why didn't they make it? Was he too expensive, or difficult? Did Toy Island feel no one would buy him? (Yeah and that they wanted Big the cat....) Maybe this single item of him will turn up one day. Photo discovered by PatMac
This is a CG proto page of Funko POP Sonic figures. And they're a bit frightful? The Sonic characters (except Eggman) were ALREADY exaggerated of proportion with big heads/mono eye, and cylindrical limbs, so POP-erizing them with even wierder proportions just makes it look...not so great. But the ideas they have here are actually ok.
Sonic finger waving, including Super Sonic, Emerald-holding Sonic and 2 ideas for Shadow...plus look! He's got a Dark Chao in his hand on the middle row. And, oddly the chao is actually correctly proportioned, which just throws the whole thing off more. The best figure here is Eggman because he started off with ordinary enough proportions so POP-erizing him yeilds an actual 'wacky chibi type' figure they're going for. The distorted mono-eye & black beady stares on the others just don't mesh. Will these actually be produced? Discovered by Taaron.
The page shows the Gel Pens with figural character toppers that WERE released (though poorly & limited) as a boxed 6 pack. (This is in the SonicGear collection & is seen on USA School Supplies) Each ink color corresponded to the character topper.
Notice also that "The Girls Curse" starts here: the 6th topper in both instances is a Chao instead of Amy Rose who had a much bigger role in the game & would have given pink ink instead of 2 blue inks. Also somehow: Big.
The bottom items are "Desk Organizers" with thick round bases and large character figures on top for Sonic, Knuckles & Tails. The base would have a drawer in it for your small items, but what did the figure do? Could you pose it? Unclip it? The description just says "it has room to keep all your desk items like pens pencils rubber bands paperclips & more and that "the figure is full size") You can see slots/tubes for upright pens/pencils behind the figures' feet. It LOOKS like these figures are just their "Figures & Emeralds" size action figures but glued onto bases. It wouldn't be super shocking that these didn't get released, as the figures didn't have the best sculpt, articulation was kind of 'meh', and their use here as an 'organizer' seems somewhat tacked on as they are to the bases. Photo discovered by PatMac