Sonic the Hedgehog USA Keychains 8

Sonic the Hedgehog Modern Pins & Keychains of the USA 8

This page of USA Sonic Pins & Keychains will have only modern items. For actual classic items, see Pins/Keychains pages 1 and 2. Because they're not that big, some of the older ones may be harder to find. There was a dry spell for pins and keychains in the early 2000s, then again during the Boom-ban. Some of these keychains may be available in the Sonic Gear Store.

Sonic Gear Main Merchandise Page * Sonic Pins & Keychains 1 * Sonic Pins Keychains 2 * Sonic Pins Keychains 3 *
Sonic Pins Keychains 4 * Sonic Pins Keychains 5 * Sonic Pins Keychains 6 * Sonic Pins Keychains 7 *

These are technically 'bag clips' but they work like kiddie type keychains so...onto the page they go.
A new company in late 2022, or early 2023 Forever Clever releases this set of flat cut rubber keychain / clips. Each is that durable layered rubber that allows for precice lines and nice designs. There are 8 in all, with no chase item. They ARE blind bagged, which is annoying.

The lead loop and clip are that yellow plastic, so do NOT trust these to stay on anything. It is notoriously flimsy. If you're going to wear it, replace it with a metal lead and traditional keychain clip as these are just asking to break off and get lost.
You can collect Metal Sonic in a geometric shape, jumping twist Sonic, Knuckles face on swirl with slogan No Time For Games, ready Sonic in a ring with Come On Step It Up, Sonic & Tails in a rectangle with Too Easy, Eggman face in a triangle with The World Is Mine, Sonic in a triangle with several rings and his name, and Amy with her mallet in a star shape with Let's Roll.
The variety is nice, having solo Eggman & Metal Sonic is a nice touch, as are the slogans...however the cheap clips and blind bagging bring the set down. These have been found at 5 below for 5 dollars but they are NOT WORTH the 5 dollars this store is charging. They are too small and too cheap especially with no control over which one you get: shop elsewhere & seek bargains.

Pyramid America Running Sonic Flat Keychain

A new company on they key chain scene?
It's "Pyramid America" (but their stuff is made in China anyway) They appear unexpectedly in 5 Below Stores (it seems only in 5 Below) with this apparently 1-off little keychain. It's poly-bagged with the back card seen here. It is made of that flat durable layered rubber, so the details are nice / textured in there and it feels normal/quality. The back is black / plain with just the copyright on there.
Again with the plastic clip top, if you buy this for 4 dollars replace that thing with sturdy metal! It's worth it to keep this nice size (not to big nor too small) keychain with you. This is in the SonicGear collection

The apparent return of Figpin in 2023!
Figpin pins are large (3+ inches) metal and enamel pins with more than 1 pinback on the back. They're big, quality, and slightly costly. The brand has many franchises of popular

things (like Naruto, Star Wars, DBZ, etc) and produced 3 pins previously (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles) and then went quiet for a while on the Sonic franchise. Now in Summer 2023, they're back, with a new pose for Sonic and the addition of Shadow. These new pins don't seem to have the usual fitted acrylic clear hard plastic case, they're in more of a shadowbox style frame box. There's jumping twist Sonic and hand across Shadow...if you can find them.
Last time they had a (Target) store exclusive glitter pin, but were also seen at GameStop. Most Target stores cut back on their fiigpin selections too so who knows how hard these may be to get. They ARE cool however, and worth while if you find it because metal/enamel never goes bad. Entry will be updated when pins are found.

A small item with a small photo.
This is the Lego Sonic Minifig Keychain and...it's literally just Lego's normal mini figure with a hole drilled in the top to add the keychain mount, and a standard chain/metal ring keychain added. It seems likely that the head would be altered to be permanently attached unlike the usual minifigures which are meant to be put together/switched around a little...otherwise this thing would lose the body portion quite quickly if anyone attempted to actually use it.
This is available on the Lego website, probably also in Lego retail stores too. It should be about 6 dollars. This is the factory photo.

Here are 3 food themed pins with classic characters...and 1 air freshener. The freshener doesn't belong here...but this is a factory photo. What's up with associating classic Sonic characters with various foods or restaurants? The 'trend' started at some point in 2023, and these pins are part of it. There's laughing Sonic but the art is altered to show him holding a giant chilidog with the slogan "Super Hot Chilidogs", standing Knuckles is altered to be holding an open pizza box with a pizza in it and "Knuckles Pizzeria", the Tails art...may be new, or maybe waving or 'looking out' Tails altered to hold a taco with "Tails Tasty Tacos" on there. With their odd variety of fonts, various shapes, and mid tone colors they're meant to look retro but kind of back to the 80s (which also doesn't make sense) The pins themselves are uncoated textured metal and enamel (no thick clear glaze to smooth them) They're not bad, but they just seem a bit random.

And now another thing to add to your "list of things you probably can't have" is this modern Eggman Figpin.
This was 2023 San Diego Comic Con Figpin booth exclusive item. Only 750 of it were made, and it was only to be sold out of their booth to attendees. Of course, pin collectors are in full force at events like this, so, it would have sold out.
It's a nice pin, as expected from Figpin: it is big, it has all the detail and does include shading on the art. They've chosen a good pose for him that's sure to please Eggfans (but only if they get it, I guess) Hopefully they re-release this with some difference (like glitter or something variant) to a wider retail audience so that anyone can have it who would like to collect. Its price is unknown. This is a factory photo.

Lego had a booth at SDCC 2023.
This was expected/great because they would release quite a lot of sets of Sonic fun Lego, from big to small that year. Aside from the actual Lego minifig keychain (seen above) they also had this booth exclusive metal and enamel pin there.
The pin is (naturally) an art of the Sonic minifig, done in a running pose. The art they used does look good, notice that it has the shoe buckle small detail included, and tries to show the '3d-ness' of the figures' head via lines for the spikes and etc. Pins like this are usually added to the events' lanyard (as seen here) as a way of collecting them along side the memorable item/s from the convention.
This is likely to be a booth-exclusive item that they don't sell elsewhere.

Figpin gives in to greed and makes some fun pins that will be highly annoying to get or might put people off of pins.

It's sad to see such a quality thing fall to greed by making tiny pins that cost ten dollars and then blindboxing them so no one can get the characters they want.

Think its as easy as just buying 80 dollars worth of pins? Think again when you see that stupid key code there on the box back with the shapes that indicate pin rarity. Not only do you not have an equal shot at getting a character, but there's probably somebody who's not even in the display AT ALL and you can probably guess it's Super Sonic (Or Metal Sonic, or if they're feeling really spicy fan-favorite Shadow because it's what'll make people the maddest trying to get)

As expected for Figpin though, the pins themselves are cool and nicely designed. Each one has a triangle base with background color and encorporates a Chaos Emerald somewhere in the design. The character is a bust, and the art is placed so that they are 'popping out of' the triangle shape for a fun dynamic look with various edges. (Some of the Emeralds do repeat because there are 7 emeralds but 9 pins) Metal & enamel stuff is great to collect, doesn't go bad and is tough. They're fun to use with lots of decorating possiblities (lanyards, backpacks, jackets, etc)

Why can't they JUST MAKE COOL STUFF AND LET PEOPLE BUY IT!

That display is OVER 100 DOLLARS of small pins in the Game Stop as they are 9.99 each. Blindboxing needs to be for little cheap tradable stuff, it's 90/100 dollars for all 9 pins IF IF IF you get 1 of each character which with that key up there it's not going to happen. Do they think kids and fans are made of money AND enjoy frusteration? Ugh.

After not hearing from them for a while, Zen Monkey returns in Fall 2023 with a nice selection of 4 new glitter theme character shapes metal keychains. They use iridescent glitter and metal/enamel to create sparkling designs for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy. Each one is in a lesser-used pose so you have fists profile Knuckles, hopping fist up Amy,

and for some reason fists/rage Tails. Due to their larger, good, keychain size there's plenty of room for the line art details and enamel to really see all the colors of each character. The metal back/borders are black and they are slightly textured. (The lines separate off the enamel areas and are slightly raised) Where will these be sold? How much will they cost?

A new company gets a classic Sonic license, and it's "Box Lunch"
They use it to produce this...well is it a plush or a keychain? It's supposed to be both but becuase it is a plush doll it is also way too big to function as a keychain. So, probably more like a backpack hanger or something. It is a very pale blue classic Sonic, holding a plush chilidog. The face is slightly modified to have the toungue out a little bit, as an embroidered detail.
For something so small, the details here are actually pretty darn good. All the spikes are there, the tail is that flat felt flap, the head shape is ok, the shoe buckles are there, and the chilidog is detailed/shape is fine. It looks like they've given him a plastic bead nose, which is interesting (and maybe a first?) because it looks ok in this instance. Why he's super pale is unknown, there's not even really any 'beige' parts to him, it just looks white which is somewhat confusing with his eyes also being white. Where will this be sold?

More Comic-Cons...more exclusives...more disappointments for fans I guess.
Here, you can see the new limited pins from Figpin (left) and Zen Monkey (right) They were released only to be sold at their booths at the New York Comic Con 2023. Which means most fans who want this will never get it, and pin collectors (regardless of fan status) will simply hold onto them because they are rare items. Hopefully both companies will choose to release something similar in the future that anyone can have because these are very cool.
Figpin brings in fan favorite Metal Sonic with a great pose, great detail, and their usual big/good size. Zen Monkey brings something new to the table with what's obviously some kind of new pin enamel method

Whatever they're doing allows for a painterly/pastel almost 'smear' chalky look to really sell the action on Sonic, while still being able to bring in glitter and shiny silver dust. Look at all the colors under the shoe and in the speed lines behind him. This is a very artsy pin, very interesting to look at. Hopefully they do more with this interesting method! Both photos by the company, at their booth this year.

Zen Monkey had even more pins at NYCC 2023 than previously thought, these 2 bring their exclusive amount up to 3 pins you can't get elsewhere / limted to 500 made. Again, hopefully the non-glitter versions of these are general releases because they are cool.
Here, they've got big action poses for Sonic & Shadow, done in black/white & single color where the color is a glitter one. Sonic is shown running on a blue square, and Shadow is...jumping and gesturing on a red square. The pins are round, but the characters overlap the edges for a 'die cut' interesting look. With stark shading, good detail & size, these are really nice collectible pins. That you probably can't have.