Toy Fair 2013 Report
written by Alessandro Sanasi - www.spindash.de
And what was new about Sonic at this year's Toy Fair in Nuremberg?
Many of the Sonic items shown there might already be known to fans
or even available in stores. Here is a short overview of my
exploration.
At the booth of Gaya Entertainment
(www.gaya-entertainment.de)
this year once again the well-known Sonic Chess Game was shown, as well
as the Sonic Squeeze Keychains, for which the fans in Germany have been
waiting fruitless since years. Because SEGA always had to criticize
something on the final design, the release date was postponed again
and again. Two years ago Gaya got permission at least for the
Australian market, which of course didn't help us much over here.
According to Andre Schmitz
from Gaya Entertainment, the keychains will now definitely be available
within the next few weeks, because SEGA has finally approved the final
design for Germany too; the first shipment is already on its way. Except
of very trifle things like for example the removal of an additional
light reflection dot in Sonic's eyes an a slightly better coat of painting
there will be no difference to the version released in Australia.
The Sonic Squeeze Toys, that had also gotten approval for the Australian
market, will not be available over here, because these fall under the
category 'toy figures', for which Gaya no longer owns a license.
At the booth of PBM from the Netherlands
(www.pbmexpress.nl)
the Tails and Knuckles Statues from First4Figures
(https://www.first4figures.com)
were on display (which were only shown as prototypes last year), as well
as from Underground Toys
(www.underground-toys.com)
the also already available Plush Figures with Sound Effects (both
standard and keychain versions).
When the belly of the plush figures is pressed, well-known sounds
from the Sonic games are played. They are successively Jump -
Ring Collect - Signpost - Bumper Jump - Extra Life
and then they repeat. The larger figures allow the battery to
be changed, while the smaller ones have it sewn-in, but should
last for years.
Apart from that a few items from the Jazwares collection range
of toys was shown: the Sonic Mini-Figure Sets, the Sonic Earbuds
(earphones) and the Sonic Roller-Racer (disc-launcher),
similar to those that were shown two years ago by
Tomy
as prototypes, but were never produced.
Following that was a short detour to Millennium 2000
(www.millennium2000.de),
which apart from other things produce the handheld-versions of the
Genesis (Mega-Drive) and Master-System consoles, with a selection of
the most popular SEGA-games from the 8-bit and 16-bit era built-in.
Both consoles are already available in stores.
BioWorld Merchandising from the Niederlands
(www.bioworldmerch.nl)
was also present at the Fair with an assortment of Sonic accessories.
On display were flat Sonic Keychains made of rubber, a very prominent
Sonic belt-buckle made of metal, Sonic Headphones and Earbuds, various
T-Shirts as well as backpacks, bags and a checkered sports bag.
By the way, re-distributors can register directly at the online-shop at
http://www.bioworldmerch.nl
and will then receive a confirmation-key, with which they can immediately
order all the products shown there. So if you know a local store that
should offer those products too, don't hesitate to point this out to them.
Sablon Innovative Toy Solutions for Europe
(www.sablon.com)
is a re-seller for various licensed toylines, among others also Sonic.
Here they had the "Sonic Free Riders" Remote-Controlled Racer (Sonic
and Jet on Hoverboards), which had once so far been shown in 2011
on the website of ForbiddenPlanet England
(www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk)
for 29,99 Pounds each, but were later cancelled.
Now they are finally coming out... better late than never.
In addition to that, several items based on "Sonic All-Stars Racing"
were shown: the Super Race Set and the Remote-Controlled Racer,
as well as many of the already longer available figures from Jazwares,
partially in new packaging.
According to Sablon, the Sonic items on display (especially those
from Jazwares) will be available at some Toys R Us stores
in their multimedia department, though probably not the whole
product line. I suggest to check this by calling Toys R Us
by phone in advance.
Abysse Corp. Frankreich
(www.abystyle.com)
also showed a few new Sonic products, which this time were even
produced and sold by Abysse themselves: an extra-large Sonic-mug
with "Green Hill" design, a Sonic Gift Set consisting of mug,
t-shirt and keychain and a whole bunch of plushes. Said mug
I've even seen on sale already in German stores for 12,99 Euro
(and of course immediately bought it).
The Sonic All-Stars cars as well as the Race-Track Sets from the
company Meccano
(www.meccano.com)
are probably already known by many fans from the Sonic Merchandise Store
(www.sonicmerchandise.com).
In this respect SEGA had already made a contract with Meccano in
January 2012, e.g. stated
here
Right now Meccano offers a "Green Hill" Playset, a
"Casino Street" Playset and a big "Chemical Plant"
Racing Track Set, where even different track-layouts are possible,
as well as additionally buyable cars with Sonic and Knuckles
("Sonic Speed Star" and "Knuckles Landbreaker"). The racers
that are already included in the sets are battery-powered, while
the separately offered recer have a pull-back engine (the spring
is spanned when you pull the car backwards, and when you release
the car it will move off). Apart from that, both versions are
optically identical.
According to Meccano, both race-sets will probably not become available
in Germany, but of course they can be bought at
Amazon or
eBay.
Apart from the Gacha-Toys, Tomy
(www.tomy.co.uk)
doesn't offer Sonic-related stuff anymore. Gacha-Toys are
usually sold in plastic balls, that can be pulled out of
Gacha-machines when inserting a coin. New this year are
the Sonic Magnets (Sonic images on strong magnet foil, that
stick on refridgerator doors or similar), Sonic Keychains
and Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed Mini-Figures, of which
alas I was not allowed to take photos. In the current Tomy
catalog there were pictures, though.
This time the mini-figures and keychains are packaged not in balls
but in oval-shaped plastic tubes. How these will fit into the
Gacha-machines is a mystery to me.
As a long-year licensee, of course Jazwares
(www.jazwares.com)
had the most to show about Sonic. On display were new
Sonic Walkie-Talkies (the first ones were produced long
ago by Tomy in 1993 in Flip-Phone design), the
"Sonic Black Knight" Action Figures that show
Sonic and Shadow in full armor, and a set of the
"Chaotix-Team" including Charmy Bee.
Furthermore the "Sonic Generations Display" was shown and the
mini-figures of Tails, Knuckles and Amy, that existed last year
only as prototypes.
Here you can see the walkie-talkies and stereo-headphones again in
their original packaging, as well as the Sonic "Boombox" CD-player
(available since approx. two years), and of course the obligatory
plush figures.
The new releases this year (as already announced on the
Jazwares Facebook Page)
are the "All-Stars Racing Transformed" Racers, a 'life-size' Gold Ring
for role-playing which lights up when touched, and high-quality
plastic masks of Sonic and Shadow.
The All-Stars Mini-Racer and the Gold Ring were still in early
prototype state, therefore only the packaging with cut-out cardboard
images are shown here. But even those look very promising.
The plastic masks, even though they were also still prototypes, this
time weren't the usual cheap variant that come for example with various
Sonic costumes for kids, which means not only thin shaped-out plastic
with two holes to see through and a rubber band to hold it in place.
The plastic was solid, the whole eye area had small holes to allow
a wide-range view, and the inner side of the masks was padded and
equipped with durable belts. Alas everyone started to panic when I
tried to take one of the prototypes from the shelves to inspect
it closer, therefore I can't give any further details. But Jazwares
told me that the masks would also fit on adults, even though I wasn't
able to test this myself.
Well then, let's wait what the future will bring.