20th Anniversary Figure Reviews Start

These past couple of weeks have been CRAZY

I have to say I don't know what's going on right now that's making everything that makes Sonic things, release them all at once. It's very annoying, because it makes Gear too hard to keep up with properly (mail is out of control and it gets WORSE every week, not better) and also it's too hard to keep up with buying.

Not everyone who likes Sonic stuff is richie rich.
Not everyone can afford to buy everything they want off the shelf when there's 100s of dollars worth of stuff out there all at the same time--for a LIMITED time! The catch with these things always seems to be "Buy it when you see it because next time it won't be there" well that's rough when you're like 12 and out of money. This kind of 'merch storm' makes it difficult on the fans. Hopefully it's fought against by longer shelf times and better re-stocking so there are multiple chances for the fans to buy all the things they want.

20th Anniversary Figures:

Over all I have to say it's very positive. There are good choices all around for the line, like 5 inch Super Sonics & 5 in Classic Sonic's construction improvements. Letting Fuzzy Sonic onto the the Website TRU & TRU stores is also good, not everyone lives in California. The repeat figures feel quality (yeah yeah forced re-buy but...there isn't really a solution for it) so you can substitute out the older flimsier ones.

Complain Zone!

Badniks Badness:
WHY does Motobug not roll?
WHY does Grabber Spider not Grab?
WHY can you not turn Sand Worm?

These are stupid super simple little 1 spot articulations that would have just perfected the line. It's like...everyone who buys these 2-packs is going to be a re-buyer. That's pretty much a given--so why not throw us a bone here? Most kids/fans/people/whatever already have something like THREE SONICS already because of Racers, 2 Packs & Single cards. What are you supposed to do? NOT buy figures because you keep saying "well, he'll come out again with some widget I want...better not waste the money..." That's annoying and no one does it. Can't they throw people a bone here and just do that?

Badnik Choices:
The choices seem weird. So weird infact, that there will be a conspiracy theory below!

Motobug -
The iconic badnik! The first thing you fight in Sonic 1 Genesis! So then...why is it NOT the one from Sonic 1? I mean the box back card has Green Hill all pixelated...why mis-match the version of the robot? It's not like people can't tell.
MonoBeetle-
Really? You have a HUGE roster of enemies and you pick this boring thing? Why?

Grabber Spider-

THIS was extremely appropriate. It was like the 1 thing that auto-control Tails would save you from in the game if you got caught by it. His simple AI drive to be 'near' you would make him jump up and hit it once it reeled you in. It's fun, it's colorful, and you can tie a string around that winch on top to play with it. The only thing is: it doesn't grab. A barrette style clippy/clicky mechanism would of fixed that.

Spinner & Sandworm-

Meh.

What would I have picked?

Caterkiller. Crabmeat. Something BlackDoom brought along. I still can't figure why they did 'mono beetle' out of every crazy thing they had to choose from. To be stubborn that wind chicken weathervane thing which I find hilarious for some reason. Also comic of it!

http://sega-memories.blogspot.com/2009/01/sega-fanart-showcase-badniks.html

Why? because it doesn't seem like they're actually paying attention to what game they came out of, just that the char+robot appeared in the same game at least once.

Conspiracy Theory:
Jazwares was making a modern badniks "Sonic Colors" line, when Sega stomped in and forced the 20th Anniversary move. They didn't bother to re-tool anything and so just threw badniks in there and said it was classic.

Still, these are mostly smaller gripes. Nothing feels cheap or flimsy, the packaging is good, if you buy at Target or TRU the value is all-right (not at gamestop though! yikes!) It is also wonderful to finally have badniks as toys. The fans wanted them for ages, and this is a good time/way to deliver. The only thing they can do to improve would be 1 articulation spot per thing or a "Badnik Combo Pack" where you buy multiple baddies and no figures.

As more figures are acquired, more reviewing will follow.
Regular stuff blog post/commentary will be on the next entry.