Still more things that don't have their own category yet. But that doesn't mean they're not interesting! USA Random Items overflows onto the fourth page. As usual, things on these pages are subject to change or move as more catagories are created.

Sonic Gear Main Merchandise Page * Sonic Random Items 1 * Sonic Random Items 2 * Sonic Random Items 3 * Sonic Random Items 4 * Sonic Random 5 *

Hotwheels returns to the Sonic Scene in spring 2022 with 2 more cars. They've made Sonic themed cars several times in the past (including Sonic X) so it's not surprising to see them at it again. However, the cars are kind of odd looking? The Tails one has a propeller on top and is 'mini' like one of those micro-eco-cars or something. It also has the theme of his shoes (red back wheel, white front wheel)

The hood/grill area is white like Tails' lower face and the rest of it is orange. The Sonic car is also a bit odd, though it resembles a sports car/fast car which is more fitting. It has red wheels with no white, and appears red underneath too. The front is beige...like a face? while the rest is blue. More photos should be added to get the rest of the details (if I can get these)

They started with the classic Sonic "Mega Squishme" (seen on the previous page) and because it (apparently) succeeded (despite some of them being mis-stamped and somewhat costly) Just Toys brand continues with 4 new slow-rise foam squeezable character heads. You can get this slightly different expressions Sonic, determined looking but wrong spikes Super Sonic, Knuckles, and cheerful Tails. Each foam head is 15 dollars, but is supposedly fairly large. (Still seems costly for just a head that doesn't really do anything.)

It is debateable how well foam toys age. Obviously 2023 produced foams are made out of better/more modern stuff than the foam of old, however, only time will tell how these hold up. Just know it before going in on 15 dollar foams. Why did they let Super Sonic with wrong spikes? The bottom ones MAY be abled up a bit but the top one sure isn't changed enough. Content Knuckles is an interesting choice also, he's rarely depicted classically as anything other than somewhat frowning. This is a factory photo/turn around pending.

Moose Toys did something new and interesting for San Diego Comic Con 2023: They made a new sort of stretchy goo toy, a clear one. This is their Goo Jit Zu classic Sonic, but they've made the blue plastic semi transparent, and replaced the firm gel with a more of a slime gel...and filled it with gold rings. Now, "Sonic is full of rings" can be a literal thing, as it's like a snowglobe with shaker glitter in there. He's still stretchy/squishy toy. It comes in this fancy pixel art Green Hill Zone box, with the SDCC exclusive labeling on there. It's a fun idea that they seem to have executed well. The box and figure clearly have thought put into it an it is a good collectible, but it will likely be rare. This is a factory photo.

The page of 'random Sonic stuff' now lives up to its name more thanks to this uhhh...combination from Just Toys. Their upcoming fall 2023 release is "A hexagon collectible tile in slime". Well ok then. Why should tiles be collected? Why are they in slime? They don't actually do anything other than be unseen when buried in the opaque colored slime that is inside the clear acrylic box with a lid. There are going to be 10 of them on wave 1, and...as usual with rather gimmicky things (and JustToys itself) they're blind boxed. Each one will have a character face portrait on a background.

Opinion Zone: Unless these are super duper cheap somehow, I don't see them doing well. Tiles don't do anything, they're not even a magnet for your fridge. Slime is heavy which makes them pay more to ship these to the store they want them in. Blindboxing is expected of something like this but also annoying because you can't trade them as nobody wants "used slime" (bacteria goes in there whether you see it or not) and having to clean the tiles to trade them? Who knows.

These Squishmes are apparently some kind of success, because here comes even more of them. Now, it's a Squishme 5 Pack of classic character heads-only. And, just in case you had one previously, these are metallic so they're a bit different from before. With this pack you get Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Super Sonic heads all in one box. They are ok enough looking, with slightly limited detail, given the material they are made out of.

What size are these? The box has no indication, and no store puts a ruler near it. Entry will be updated when these actually appear in stores, which is scheduled to be around Fall 2023. What's also not known is how well these are going to hold up to squishing and also aging. Metallic paints (used to) not hold up too well on non very-hard surfaces, so it's a bit unusual to see Squish Me going straight for the metallics for a toy like this. Hopefully they have figured out something new. This is a factory photo

Here's the final Flying Heroes Sonic & Tails toy. And...it appears to be proof that companies CAN change things between prototype and final release. It's seen here with the retail box it will come in, and how it looks ready to play. The gimmick here is that it's a launching toy that uses helicopter motion to fly across the room. You pull that anchor-shaped thing on the side, which spins the top very quickly winding up the toy before releasing it to spin away. (It is a very old toy gimmick, and does not require batteries) Once you head on over to SonicGear Prototypes page, you can see how bad and fake it originally looked. They had mixed modern/classic things, the Tails was horribly mutant with gummy hotdog arms, and it was just sad. Now, it looks much better, the Tails is proportional enough (has to have huge tails to actually fly/but that's part of the gimmick) everything is classic looking, and they fixed the box. Did you catch their errors though? They never fixed Sonic's blue arms OR Tails white ears.

The mechanic is not without its issues: Hopefully time & engineering has cured "string tangle" on toys like this. The pull string of old ones could tangle up within the toy somehow & make it permanently never work again. See the Burger King Meal Toy launcher for instances of that here at Gear. (This is not Sonic's first pull n' fly) Also how is this toy back on the market again? If you remember there used to be a line for girls called Sky Dancers where fairy ballerinas would launch off of very elaborate sculpted stands like this with foam 'wings' sculpted to their arms & twirl through your room. However, they actually got a 'banned list' because somehow kids were shooting them at each other with the intent to stab. It caused nightmares for Ebay sellers because "list a lovely vintage toy gets you banned" as it was such an unsuspecting item to get on such a government list. Maybe technology of some sort makes this safer? Toys sure do have interesting histories.

I guess the Tubbz ducks are a success, odd as they may be. Now, Amy gets the rubber ducky treatment but it kind of looks like a rubber-doggy? The duck beak with tiny nose and her downward spikes gives it a bit of 'dog' like profile/look. (I guess a muzzle on a muzzle because they stack the beak onto the lower face of the character) Of course the duck is in a dress (now there is a sentance) but they do include her piko hammer, which is resting on her back from her...wing/hand. The sculpt for her face is good, and the headband is 3D too. This is a limited edition duck, at only 3000 pieces to be made, so it'll likely end up uncommon. This is Tubbz official photo.

Now with even less detail! Well, there's a headline...(HEADline hmm) I guess. Here, and on previous pages Just Toys has various types of these dense foam squishme heads for various characters, and now they've got another set of 6 coming,

but now they do have actual less detail, as they're more like spheres than ever before. With minimized ears, flattened/non-existant spikes and smoothed out features the heads are now even more like balls. They're also blind bagged in the package so you can't choose who you'll get. With them all being so deliberately similar it'd also be nearly impossible to tell which was which in the package. The price is unknown but they're fairly large so probably over 5 dollars each Opinion Zone: I guess I just don't 'get' this type of toy? Like you can squeeze it and toss it around but that's kind of it? Like how is that so super fun to play with that you need to try to get all of these and then also the prevoius squishy everything they keep making? I mean, it's ok they're doing well, they're clearly putting effort into making lots of stuff and sculpting the characters into smooth orbs I guess took some effort too but it 's just odd that it's doing as well as it is.