A couple of days ago I posted a roundup of all the Sonic related merchandise news I could find at the New York Toy Fair, in that post I mentioned that there was another toy fair in Nuremberg about a week prior and how Sega/Jazwares had a very big Sonic presence, but no photos of the event had come to light… until now.
A fellow merch collector over at Spindash.de was at the event and took a rather large selection of photos, including the contents of the Jazwares booth, which was displaying several toys that have yet to be announced.
Did I mention these photographs are all clear without obstruction? If your curiosity is ready, your wallets might not be.
But first, we start off with Gaya Entertainment. You’ve probably seen these before, but finding them out in the wild isn’t easy. Well, that’s about to change, according to Gaya, the reason why they’ve not been available in Europe is due to a licensing issue with Sega, it turns out Sega were not too happy with the look of some of the figures which has prevented them from being released outside of Australia. However this problem has now been resolved and they should be widely available across the EU as of this month, we’ll wait and see on that one.
Now onto the big one… Jazwares. If these photos are anything to go by, Jazwares has a huge year ahead of it when it comes to Sonic merchandise.
Oh boy… where to start? Putting aside the items which are already out, this photo contains a lot of new merch, some of which is in the prototype stage, others look close to a final product. On the top right of the image you can see the already announced Sonic & Shadow face masks. But on closer inspection, there are a few other new products.
First of all we have a prototype/concept figure based on Tails from ASRT. Whilst there is actual car there, this is clear evidence that Jazwares are making ASRT collectible toys and that the packaging is completely different from previous Jazwares toys.
Don’t be fooled here, that pack which shows the MotoBug and Classic Metal Sonic isn’t new, though it is a bit tricky to find. The new item is the ‘Roller Racers’ toy, I have no idea what it is or supposed to do, but it looks like it’s one of those old ‘disk launcher’ toys which were popular in the late 90′s.
Ok now these are interesting! These appear to be very early prototypes of new Sonic figures, only not one of them appears to be based on a previous Jazwares figure. In fact the build is completely different to any seen previous Jazwares toy. It’s possible that these figures are the ‘morphed’ figures which we told you about in the NYTF update. Also notice the eye colour of Sonic, that’s not modern Sonic. As for Knuckles and Metal, very hard to say, Jazwares have previously hinted at a classic knuckles and as seen in the other photo, they do have a modern and classic Metal Sonic figure.
This is awesome! Sonic and Shadow ASRT toys based on their jet forms! Whilst it doesn’t look like they transform… though if they did these would end up costing more rings than there are in the entire Green Hill Zone, these look like they would not only make great display pieces, but kids will almost certainly use them to fight… urm… I dunno Transformers? Actually… can we have a Death Egg next so we can use these jets to go and attack it?
As mentioned in the NYTF update, Jazwares seem to be making a new electronic toy, a life sized golden ring which responds to touch. Unfortunately, this is just a cardboard mock up. But the idea sounds awesome and for the size it is, I can already see people at SOS or Sonic Boom holding up one as if they’re something from SatAM.
Oh hey a boombox! Boomboxes are cool! You can play all your funky tunes and get… …. Metal Sonic Plush!? The Metal Sonic plush is by far the biggest surprise in this photo. At last years NYTF it was first spotted, however it was never released and no other information was given about it, prompting many to conclude it was cancelled. However it’s inclusion at a 2013 toy fair suggests that it might not be cancelled after all, I really hope this is the case, since the only other official Metal Sonic plushies often fetch prices in the range of £200-£300+ due to their rarity and quality. Would be nice to just have a plush based on this character without having to break the bank.
Update: SSMB user Lhancat (who has very eagle eyes) has pointed out that there would also appear to be a Super Sonic plush in this photo. Looking at it closely, at the back of the plush box, there is a Tails plush (you can see the tag), then just next to it is what appears to be the spikes of Sonic, only they’re yellow. Super Sonic plush?
And finally, we have something which isn’t Jazwares to show you. Gacha make small capsule toys which are given away in candy like vending machines. It seems from this picture that they plan on making a new range based on ASRT. Though what is strange is that they’re still showing Shadow riding a bike, but he doesn’t ride a bike in ASRT… so this is likely to be a very early mock up image.
There’s more photos in the gallery at the end of this update and I encourage you to see Alessandro’s full report on the Nuremberg toy fair, he was gone into much more detail and produced both an English as well as German version of his report so please pay a visit to his site.
Stay tuned to TSS for more info as we get it.
Source: Alessandro Sanasi’s Toy Fair Report (English) & German language version
