Sunday, February 17, 2019

Toyfair Time! Who's News? Sonic in 2019 Jakks Pacific

It's Toyfair 2019!
A time collectors look forward to, for hearing about what's to come in fun for the new year. Of course, Sonic the Hedgehog is making a showing at the big convention...and there's some good news for figure fans.

First off:
It looks like Tomy got their license taken away.

Next up:
Jakks Pacific seems to have gotten it!

LOTS of people were NOT happy with Tomy's offerings of Sonic stuff. Their lack of articulation compared to Jazwares & their high prices didn't work out too well for them. But remember: they can't take ALL the blame because of the Boom Ban which was Sega's doing.
Tomy mostly just let out rehash stuff at raised rates that fans wouldn't buy because someone else did it before/better. No one was eagerly buying up Boom because the games weren't amazing at all. Only their final set of figures was anywhere near popular, and because Toys R Us was closed out of business....fans could barely ever even find it, which was an even bigger disappointment. (It was their Sonic/Zavok/Infinite set) Their plushes were also over priced & small, as well as being re-runs and harder to get with no TRU.

Tomy's Best Item:
Now that they're gone, you can definitively crown the larger 'accessories switcher' classic Sonic figure (Kind of like a Nendoroid Goodsmile) because it was not only good quality for the price AND fun, nobody had done something like that in the US before.

Will Jakks Pacific do a good job?
They've done Nintendo figures in the past that fans have liked, so it seems likely they have the ability. Gear will of course be looking for photos but what's known so far is

Their stuff will have a starting price of 4.99
Probably FALL 2019 releases start
They will have dioramas with figures
They will try to make a mini pinball game
They may have plushes
There will be Mania Adventure items including RAY & MIGHTY

Opinion zone:
4.99 price staring is very encouraging.
Boom ban being gone is also encouraging.
Dioramas seem well liked, so that's ok too
Fans love Mania & Ray and Mighty so that's very positive
The only thing in question will be if their sculpting is good & their materials quality/articulation quality is good or not.
Over all: good.

Why is SonicGear USA-obsessed with these latest updates?
Because no one from anywhere else is sending anything in. The Sega Shop is also apparently in some kind of overdrive letting off items left and right so the site has to try to keep up with it because it has no newsletter or anything to let fans know what's going on there.

I always try to include variety of places & categories in the update so that no one feels left out. However, it's still limited to what I can scour up off of the internet, which happens to just be USA stuff at this time. Of course, because Gear's traffic isn't too high submissions aren't very high either.

Next week:
You can guess it...more stuff for the USA pages.