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 Random Items 4 * Sonic Random 5 * Sonic Random 7 *
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
A New blind-bag style toy appears in an unusual place...the Dollar Tree? (Now the dollar-ish 0.25 tree because of inflation I guess) Usually items don't show up first there (they get cast off type thing that didnt sell well elsewhere) but this time they do seem first.
And, it's pretty appropriate because these are only worth about a dollar anyway. Each set comes with 2 disks and the black plastic launcher. The disks are built like mini frizbees, and the only Sonic element is the sticker on the disk. There are 12 different ones to get, but you do get 2 per pack. (So, at maximum luck, you'd need 6 packs to get all of them)
It's interesting to see Eggman get 2 solo disks and Metal Sonic to get one as well.
Tubbz decided to create a smaller, less expensive version of some of their cosplaying ducks, and Sonic is the first of that license to be released on smaller format. Instead of coming in the tub box, it's in a regular window box. This was found at 5 Below stores for 5 dollars. It is likely near the register and its display stand has all different franchise characters in it along with Sonic.
The smaller size didn't make this any less wierd though. Hmf.
This is a regular size Tubbz ducky, and it's sculpted with a semi-transparent plastic green Chaos Emerald at the tip of the wing. It does look slightly annoyed as well. Using clear plastic for the emerald is a quality move, and they did manage to transfer most of his details to the duck. But it's still odd!
Why? Loads of people must be buying these for some reason because here comes more characters as really odd looking rubber duckies from Tubbz. Now you can get Espio, Rouge and Silver, all as the standard size duck who comes in the bath tub dome packaging.
Despite their oddity, what's interesting here is that Tubbz actually does a really good job with the duck sculpting. Aside from slapping a beak on the face, they're actually really good at the character? Like you would wish other companies could get the heads/sculpts and etc as correct as they do here. Encorporating the details onto the unfitting duck design (tails, arms, etc) isn't easy but they keep doing it as correctly as the format allows.
Opinion zone: It's too bad these are ducks! Let these people cook: they can clearly make nice items, there's real talent here, just stop them from being bizzarre mutant ducks.
These sets may move depending on what these get categorized as. These are "Legends of Akedo Vs" sets. It's like a mini figure with limited action joints that fits on a mount and you use the button to spin/move the figures at each other so they fight. There are 2 per pack, and one exclusive pack.
Akedo itself just seems to be a word someone did and then put an accent over the 'e', but it is by Moose Toys who tends to start off with their own original things (like ninjas characters) and then aquires licenses for other stuff to fit the bill of whatever they're making. For instance they have both the modern Sonic license and then also Ninja Turntles TMNT on these sets.
These are about 15 dollars per set, and available at Target, Toys R Us Canada, and Amazon in winter 2024/2025. If they do well, more characters will likely show up on future sets.
And if racing is involved, you can always count-in the Sonic characters. They start off with classics as individual toys, and also play sets. The individual character has 1 racer, 1 launcher button thing and 1 badnick panel. You hit the button to launch the toy forward so it will knock over the badnick panel.
Amy's panel is a crabmeat robot. Her launcher has a Chemical Plant Zone theme. It's nice that they paid attention and made both the button and bumper themed after the real springs in the game. The under-view of the toy shows that it's not really on wheels, rather it is steel rollers/wide horizontal things. This is deliberate so that it has enough mass/intertia to keep going for a while once launched. It's also great because it's less likely to wear out. Underneath the launcher is a hidden button. If it is not depressed by placing the launcher on a smooth surface, the upper yellow button won't work. This is to prevent you from shooting the toy at your siblings! Notice the peg on the side of the launcher. This is so that launchers can be connected to each other for a perfect 'starting line' so that you can literally race them against each other to see who goes fastest/farthest etc.
Jakks Pacific did put thought into these, they're a fun little idea. These are at Target, Amazon and Canada Toys R Us in winter 2024/2025. They should be around 10 dollars each.