Toy Island Sonic the Hedgehog Action Figures

The second company to create Sonic the Hedgehog action figures, soon after the release of Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast was Toy Island. Toy Island produced durable, chunky figures which were well accessorized for play on their initial 2 releases. Many of the figures had un-mentioned accessories or features, which you can learn about right here!

Toy Island re-released this line under a "Sonic-X" promotional premise. The figures have been re-packaged with a Sonic-X theme, but they are essentially the same. No NEW figures have been produced on this large-size line (about 6 inches high each). They have also had their accessories removed, in most cases. While you may not get the interesting accessories from the previous line, this is your 2nd chance to get a hold of these figures if you need them.

If you want Toy Island's Second Sonic Lines see Toy Island Lines 2. These figures have also just been RE-RE-Released, this time with mini-keychains of the figure instead of the accessories. This is also in the Sonic X packaging.

Jazwares has now re-re-re-released part of this line, which can be seen on Jazwares Sonic Figures page.

You can also see some Toy Island Prototype Figures.

The full line of regular figures, as seen at a toy show. You can see from here even that there's something wrong with Knuckles' head. The snowboard Sonic has, is a prototype. It never had the black areas on the final release. Note: 2 sizes of rings. The rings they were released with on final were tiny curls of metal. Why? All their feet are magnetic so they can 'collect' rings. These figures also came with the plastic emeralds that the bendies did.

Toy Island Sonic the Hedgehog. He got the short-end of the sculpt...with a big body and a rather odd looking face he leaves a bit to be desired style wise. He came with an orange snow board, which was also magnetic so he could stick to it.

Knuckles: His head was big, and he had flap-like quills. His bent shoe affected his ability to be posed. He is more accurate than Sonic but...

Knuckles came with a ring-holder, which looks like the Sonic Adventure ones, only totally clear/blue with a cap.

This figure was unique, because it could move on it's own. He is a wind-up toy. If you wind his tails, they'll spin slowly. He came with a PVC Chao. (Shown next to a ReSaurus)

It's very interesting that this figure was their only self-moving "action" figure. Why did they only incorporate wind-up into 1 thing? Is the mechanism the reason his body is so big?

Tails Toy Island Action Figure Full Photo

Tails:
This guy could've been a contender. But his body is huge, making him resemble Tails' chubby cousin 'snails' or something. Also, his expression is goofy rather than looking like a design error, as Sonic's was. He is also quite large, breaking up the scale to other figures.

Eggman was really great! Toy Island's Eggman is a super likeness. The face, the pose, the suit, everything they got right. But WHY him and no one else?

Ki-Ki or Coconuts monkey, complete with PVC bomb! This guy has 6 points of articulation, making it like getting a FREE figure! What a great idea to include! SUCH a shame they removed him for the re-release.

His face is good too, with the mustache made out of bendable rubber type plastic so it wouldn't break off. His articulation is just ok, while his underside is rather squared off/polygonal for whatever reason. Side view photo by JSHedgehog

Of course, the villain toy is not going to be among the best sellers...which is really a shame because his sculpt is just so darn good. He's EASILY the best one on this line. Especially when compared with the job they did on the hero-side cast. Perhaps they are just better at sculpting humans...
As a result, this figure has become somewhat rare in 2009. It was not included on as many re-releases as the hero-side, and the Kiki bonus items were taken away quite quickly.
Back of eggman figure photo provided by LarryInc64

Here's his pal Froggy. Big's pole has a magnet in the lure, but for some reason Froggy is not magnetic. A real bummer, it would have been 'cute' to catch him with the toy.

Interestingly, Big is the only figure on this line to Re-Release under the Sonic X label and KEEP all the things he originally came with. Notice the Sonic X theme box, but look inside: There's Froggy, the emeralds and his fishing pole. This Big's head does not turn, but you can move his arms, legs (which are very short) and wrists.

These are wahat they looked like ready to sell, notice the changed snowboard. Why are Tails' tails over there? You had to assemble him once you removed him from the box.
This is how the figures' boxes looked when they were initially released with a Sonic Adventure 1 theme.

For a side-by-side comparison of the boxes, here's Sonic in his re-release Sonic X theme box. This box has a lot more going on, but a lot less going IN! Here you can see the absence of his snow-board, and curl metal rings. They left the plastic emeralds in though, which is better than nothing. Too bad they couldn't of improved the sculpt!
Remember, if you're getting Sonic X version of these, NO ACCESSORIES are included except the emeralds.

Here, you can compare early and later-released Sonic figures. It's obvious they've fiddled around a little with his face, but they DIDNT improve it! The changes are small, but really, neither one is still any good. Why would you bother with such a tiny change if it really wasn't going to help the figure at all?

It's a mystery, because all they seemed to do was continue stripping down the figure, making an already mediocre toy worse as it kept being re-released. If you're going to pay for changes, might as well try a real over-haul so the figure isn't so odd and doughey looking. Comparison shots provided by Retro.

This box is actually a misprint box, but it still illustrates how Big looked if you bought him on the initial Sonic Adventure 1 release. The band on the front should say "Big the Cat" and have a picture of him, but instead they've accidentally added Sonic's band to the front. That may make this MIB figure worth more than normal. In the box you can see how well he was accessorized, with his magnetic fishing pole, Froggy figure, 2 Chaos Emeralds and their under-sized yet real metal rings. (This one still had magnetic feet too) You can compare this one with the Big pictured above in the other Sonic X style box. Photo discovered by Berzerker.

Toy Island re-used this figure line quite a bit, however Eggman was dropped, likely after the first run of the new 'Sonic X packaged' figures. Here, you can see they stripped away all accessories except for 1 chaos emerald, and switched the packing to a simple close-bubble style. Discovered by Berzerker

Even so long out of production, Toy Island items continue to amaze! Just look at what a difference there is on the faces for this 6 inch Sonic! The right side is SO MUCH BETTER! TI might have actually succeeded if they'd made all their figures look like this. Look at the better eyes, better lower face, and better positioning of the head! It's clearly the same figure...but that one is just miles better. WHY wasn't the better one used/produced? Photo discovered by: Berzerker

Original Release SA1 Eggman Kiki Figures

These packages here are the ORIGINAL release packages for this line. They appeared soon after Sonic Adventure 1 in the USA. As you can see, the original release was also the best release, with each figure having 2 chaos emeralds, 2 rings (for their magnetic feet) and at least 1 accessory. Sonic has his magnetic snow board, and Eggman (Notice the package is labeled Dr. Robotnik because they didn't know to change it over yet) has Kiki the robot monkey (seen above) as well as a PVC bomb for Kiki to throw. These original package figures are pricey in 2011. Sonic photo discovered by BlueBomber

Original Release SA1 Sonic & Board Figure

Most of Kiki the monkey robot don't have the area under the face (seen here) painted. It generally stops at the front edge, making this one a superior variant. Photo & owned by CoolLuke1337

This is the standard box back for the first set of Toy Island figures. (So like the Robotnick & Sonic above would have had this box back image. But notice, that the photo shows chaos emeralds in colors they never ended up releasing. The Sonic has a milky white one, while the Tails shows a transparent white one. It's too bad TI never released all 7 colors of the Chaos emeralds to collect. Photo & owned by CoolLuke1337