Monday, January 07, 2013

Rabbit Bowtie Mystery

This week sees another timely update, with a decent amount of stuff.
The rest of that big ebay bunch went on, plus some new shirts. It seems like they make tees regardless of what the weather is doing now. It used to be you got more long sleeves in winter, and then maybe 1 or 2 short sleeves...but I guess the companies kind of don't care, or tees always sell well, regardless of if you can wear them out or not.

What's with the odd post title?
A mystery (and likely solution) that was brought up by a fan! Remember that really old set of UFO dolls that were added the week before last? It was Sonic 1, so it only had Sonic, Eggman & little animals. Well the little animals weren't accurate. For instance the penguin should have had a yellow feather on the top of the head, & poor Flicky gets sort of a ninja turtle type mask look. (I think later the pink was only at the edge of the eye?)

But look at Pocky the rabbit, there weren't enough pixels (probably) to give a bow-tie in the game, but the doll sure has one, and it's red. Why does that matter? Look at this photo
http://shade3c.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=63435005

(Should be a gray felix the cat styled rabbit)
Anyone who has seen a Japan artbook or two (they're sorta rare though) may have already seen that guy, he was a prototype for Sonic. It has Felix the cat type eyes, but is gray sort of like Peewee Herman. It's super simple too, with noodle ears and very plain gloves/shoes. You can see why they didn't pick him. Were the UFO plush makers looking at this old art when they put together Pocky?
The face isn't similar though, or it would have likely gotten close to looking like a knockoff Sonic, being that the rabbit is blue too instead of gray. The 'stringy' arms for Sonic also make sense with the old art style they had for him. (arms could get very long & noodly to do gestures)
Info paired up & discovered by: Sonictoast

Nothing looks bad for those UFO dolls though, but it's interesting to note that they weren't perfectly on-model either. This makes it even more likely that the set were the actual First Dolls ever done.

Wanted Gear Wanteds...
There's more, and they're Spencers' related. What is up with Spencers recently too? It's like the store is getting sleazier or something. X rated stuff is fine but really do you have to put it in the front of the store? What happens if people's parents see it and won't let them shop there? Their Sonic items are perfectly good (if over priced) but weeding through every swear word on earth scrawled onto shirts or anything else they could scribble on is annoying too, and that's without the raunch. Maybe that's why nobody sends photos.

Sonic Monopoly?
Did this actually ever come out? Did anyone care if it did? I'm mildly curious about what the items inside look like. Did they really theme it up, like putting hotels up in Starlight Zone? What are the pieces?

Next week:
Hopefully that book store re-arrangement & additions. Gotta get it ready for that actual giant History Sonic book that the USA is finally getting.