Jakks Pacific Sonic Articulated Action Figures

Jakks Pacific Articulated Sonic Action Figures 1

Jakks Pacific got the license in 2019, and continues here in 2020.
This page will have their 2020 articulated figures only. They have both modern and classic license, so any figure that falls in the "Articulated Action Figures" category will be on this page if it was in 2020. Bendy type figures will go onto a separate page. But if it's by Jakks Pacific and it's an action figure, check them out here.
UK NEWS: These & other JP figures CAN be at Smyth's Stores!

Sonic Figures HUB Page * Jakks Pacific Bendy Sonic Figures 1 * JP Bendy Figures 2 * Jakks Pacific Figures 2 * JP Figures 3 * Sonic Gear Main Merchandise Page * Jakks Pacific Deluxe Figures *

Jakks Pacific Action Articulated Sonic Tails

Here's the first look company photos for their articulated Sonic and Tails action figures! And...they look great so far! New things are happening as well, when you take a close look at what's going on with the details...especially for Tails. Usually, figures are painted with their secondary colors but look at the lines between the white/orange for him.

The white part for his tail color, his eyes and lower face are all snapped together. You won't find any overspray here because there was never a need to spray.Tails's joints for the hips also don't work like Sonic's do (other lines had them the same) they're actually slightly embedded into the body, which looks nice. The knees for everyone seem simple here, maybe a little blocky but they could be sturdier than normal maybe with this design.
Because the actual 3D models for the characters were used to make these, there is no "off model issue" that plagued previous things by other companies. Sonic, is of course very solid looking. His head is great, expression is good, has no neck just like he should.
:Little things...Tails' mouth has no color (it's center smile) so it can come across as a bit of a grimace here because the white=teeth-look. Also, no elbow joints, and it looks like Sonic & Tails share the same hands/low on hand poses. It looks like an open-to-grip hand, but then they don't come with anything to hold. Lack of elbow is probably the biggest deal, but it doesn't really deter anything.

Jakks Pacific Shadow Eggman Action Figures

The other 2 from their first set are Shadow & Eggman. Isn't that interesting...no Knuckles in sight! Eggman is an all right choice though, as he doesn't get enough figures and people want to play with a bad guy too, so Eggfans should be happy with this first set. They both look really good, of course, as the CG from the games could be

used to ensure everything is perfectly on-model. The small oddity here is Eggman's ankle joints. They're really...gappy? Odd? There have been figures with his knees jointed but why they chose ankles here is unknown especially if they're handling it strangely. He does get elbows (unlike everybody else) but the long/thick arm/sleeve would enable this.

Accessories:
JP likes to release figures with something, and this set is no exception. However, they ARE making a clear effort to select things from the games that have NOT been released with other figures/other companies. Sonic gets a red star bumper, Tails gets an invincibility power up pod thing, Shadow a 10-ring, and Eggman gets a spikes pad to set down to trap Sonic. The weakest link is Tails's invincibility thing, it doesn't look like that in any game and is really tiny compared to what it is in games while everyone elses' item is 'real size' to the figure.

What you don't know:
Can the hands and feet swivel? (Probably, anything worth it's salt would)
How big will these be? (Hopefully big! At least the size of their bendies, or even larger would be nice!)
How tough ar they? (JW was a bit notorious for high articulation but low durability. Hopefully these are sturdy)

Both photos gathered by SonicHedgehog11

Before the first round of Jakks Pacific Articulated Action Figures even appeared in stores, these photos shows up of more of them.
So, they will add Knuckles and a large green super emerald (probably not the master, as that is larger than the character), Metal Sonic with an Eggman symbol tile, Sonic again, but this time with a snow board accessory, & Tails who has a speed boost accessory.

The Tails is essentially the most similar one as the only difference is what is inside the power up globe. Sonic is basically the same too, but the snowboard is fun. (Note his hands are position reversed too)

Knuckles looks good, as expected. The fists are good/big, and the knuckle spikes seem especially big/they didn't skimp on them/the design. His body is also a different shape than Sonic's, which is good to see as well. His expression seems ok. The emerald being flat on the bottom is so it'll stand up...which is probably ok too even if less accurate.
Metal Sonic looks like he is having a conversation about something. His hands are (by default) the most detailed by far, but they're also posed in the most detailed way. What's disapointing about him is that where is the METALLIC paint? Jakks Pacific owns shiny paint & uses it on other figures but he just looks wrong/boring without it, so why are they not using it? Hopefully the final figure gets real metallic look. He comes with an "Eggman Tile", but what it is, is an "Egg Spring" which is an unfortunately placed spring (that Eggman pu there) to knock Sonic into a trap and it appeared in Unleashed, Colors & Generations. It's nice looking, with raised center detail & good stamp. All photos in this section discovered by SonicHedgehog11

Mighty Armadillo Classic Jakks Pacific Figure

A bit of a surprise for winter 2020!
It's a Mighty the Armadillo action figure! He is showing up along with the 2nd ...ish wave of the 5 or so inch 'figure and accessory' ones. (If you're counting waves by what's pictured on the box-backs) Notice how they keep releasing Sonic & Eggman over and over while just changing the thing they come with per line.
Mighty is, of course, classic so he appears smaller than the other figures / shorter. There is still no modern version for him, so his is also the only box that will have neoclassic art on it to match his look. He comes with a ring monitor

accessory. It looks like one hand may be a fist, or able to hold something. He has 11 points of articulation, and so is thus missing the elbows like all the JP figures (except Eggman) are. The others that are supposed to be out with him are Super Sonic, Sonic with purple chaos emerald and Eggman with Star Post marker.
Fan reviews say that the head of all of these figures is made of a very heavy solid plastic. It's good for quality but less ideal for posing because it makes them easy to tip over. Photo and owned by Taaron

To go with Classic Mighty (above), here's Jakks Pacific's classic Sonic action figure with his red spring accessory. He has the same 11 points of articulation as the rest of these do (no elbows) as is the usual. The red spring looks just like it does in the games, and is sized appropriately as well, so it is a nice thing to have to continue setting up your scene.

Sonic himself looks good, the circle body is normal/shape, and the head taken from the CG from the games is of course, spot on. The paint looks good, without overspray. He's big enough to capture all the detail of textures and paint. It's quite a decent figure & certainly one to get for Classic style Sonic fans.
The thing that's slightly odd is that they seem to be giving him expressions that Classic Sonic never really had / they seem to be trying a little to make him more like ModernSonic....but it doesn't quite work. This has the mouth somewhat open, and there's white there for his teeth but instead, it looks a little like he has odd white lips instead. Classic Sonic was generally so simply done he wasn't designed to have teeth/inner mouth details & etc.

What doesn't make sense here?
The waves of figures. As you can see, the figure has a picture of who else is supposed to be on this release/wave along with it. But everyone else is modern! It should have had classic Mighty & Sonic together on 1 wave, but it doesn't. This one instead has Super Shadow ( ! ), with a re-release of modern Tails & Modern Knuckles. Knuckles and the Super Shadow come with a different color of chaos emerald, and the Tails has the star bumper this time. This is a winter 2021 release, and so far is only confirmed at TARGET IN STORE. (Why they don't put these on the website is unknown.

Sonic Gear vs. Waves
Generally the website would seperate the waves into "Classic" and "Modern" to better keep track of the figures, but because of their odd release-ways, that can't be done. So it's going to just stay as 'by size' with this page having only the larger figures no matter of classic/modern.

What's Accessory OK:
Re-releasing accessories with the various figures. Because distribution doesn't seem to be that great on these, it's nice to have another chance at a figure if you missed a wave completely. Remember, that star bumper originally came with modern Sonic, so now Tails has it. It's also possible to grab more emerald colors by getting the figures too. (Modern Sonic also has a purple emerald, and now the Knuckles fills in dark blue while Shadow's is red) Things like star-post, spikes, ring monitor etc. can be used as more than 1 to set up a Sonic scene on a shelf. The accessories make sense & are a good size.

Same figures, different packaging?
It seems so! Here, you can see their regular 5 inch size Knuckles & Shadow, in what is likely to be permanent-for-a-while new packaging. This features a red sticker in the upper right corner with the 30th Anniversary logo on it. It also seems they have changed the paperboard logo/character name area thing that goes to the front/base of the box's bubble. It's now white with a yellow/fade bar that has the character name in it. It's good to see them releasing the characters more / again / for a longer time because tons of fans have yet to get their favorite character.

IMPORTANT:
As of this posting in MAY 2021, the Jakks Pacific figures have been CONFIRMED spotted in the toy aisle at WALMART. Sonic figures have never been in that store before, so this is something new. It's good too, because their distribution at Target has always been reportedly spotty. They are the same price, 9.99 per figure. Photo & info by Taaron

The "Go Sega" symbol / 60th Anniversary of Sega Symbol:
This symbol appears on the packages of all the figures, usually as a blue square. This is Sega celebrating it's 60th year as a company, but now over that blue logo seems to be the red sticker shape with the Sonic 30th. Seeing either one around on 2021 merchandise should be normal. You can read more at Sega 60th Anniversary web page. It is an interesting coincidence that the "G" in the Sega font also looks a lot like a "6". (Fontographers / founders have cloned the Sega font, extrapolating the rest of the alphabet for it as well as numbers, but it seems unlikely the original font included numbers in its set. A group or person who makes fonts is sometimes called a 'founder/foundry' because fonts used to be made of metal. That is interesting.)