Recently my Mrs picked me up a classic style Sonic the Hedgehog made by Jakks Pacific that is very similar to my TOMY classic Sonic, so I thought why not do a quick comparison of their features.
Jakks Sonic comes with a light blue square stand themed around Casino Night Zone. The base has two ultra tiny pegs and Sonic has foot holes. It is unfortunately nearly impossible for Sonic to stand with these super tiny peg holes, which are vastly undersized and he is top heavy with his huge noggin.
The underside of the base is hollow and has no storage feature (the TOMY one does). The Jakks figure can stand fine without the peg holes, as long as you angle him back a bit, he can also lean against the backing of the stand, so has not fallen over for me yet.
Jakks Sonic stands around 7″ tall if you count his hair/spikes. He comes with several interchangeable hands and facial expressions, the neutral fist hands, pointing finger, ring grip finger etc. His color is almost a powder blue and looks very lovely.
The sculpt is fantastic showing off the classic 90’s era chubby Sonic the Hedgehog as he was first designed. The articulation is simple and good, but not great.
Moving over to TOMY classic style Sonic the Hedgehog the first point of difference is that like many Japanese made direct market anime figures, he comes with a robust stand that plugs into his back and the base.
The stand allows for cool dynamic display options like this mid-upside down run pose. He can also stand off the ground/base as if jumping etc via the stand. The base is hollow, coming apart like a seashell into two halves, allowing convenient storage of the alt hands and facial expressions, and has three peg holes for the stand allowing for more display options.
The Jakks Pacific (right, blue) and TOMY (left, brown) under bases. The Jakks sculpt and style mimics the TOMY one and I was surprised they did not pinch the storage option for underneath. Next time I have an empty container of strong plastic, I will cut it up and make my own piece to slide in underneath to allow storage of the Jakks parts.
Some side by side comparisons with Jakks being the bigger Sonic on the blue base, and TOMY on the right with the Green Hill themed base. TOMY Sonic is closer to 5-6″, and his base is a bit lower, the size difference side to side is not that much and both are impressive.
The next points of difference are that Jakks Sonic has the gold colored ring, while TOMY has the more cartoon style primary yellow. Both look decent, but the in game ring color is neither of these shades. The colors and style are mostly the same on the sonics, with Jakks a lighter blue and TOMY a bit darker.
Comparisons with some other Jakks Pacific 3″ figures, and a bootleg Nendoroid (small one on stand) and a modern style long leg Sonic Amiibo.
Both the TOMY and JAKKS Sonic figures have fairly decent articulation and can hold a pose. The TOMY one has slightly better joint tolerances and doesn’t sag so easily, but it’s a minor gripe.
The Jakks figure can do most of the dynamic poses too, but if you want him on one foot you really need to add some kind of back stand as his weight will tip him over without one.
Both figures are quite excellent in their own way, both were marketed at a reasonable price with nice window display boxes that I’ve kept out the back and I’m happy to have both on my shelf.
THE TRANSFORMERS MULTIVERSE 