Good heavens, aren’t toys getting fancy these days? All the bells and whistles they have on them; sounds, lights, screens. In my time, we were lucky if we had even a couple of sticky, ragged Duplo blocks to squish together. And when it came to video games? Bah! Children of today, you don’t know how good you have it. Our games came in cereal boxes, and we were happy! I remember that like it was yesterday – Frosties Grand Prix 4 was an absolute, addicting timesink!
I’m only 23, by the way. Not some Werthers-sucking old fart. Just to put in perspective how quickly pop culture and its requisite merchandise have evolved in the last decade. Feel the inexorable grip of passing time yet, dear readers? Oh, hahahaha- you will.
So, let’s throw those two things – video games and toys – together for today’s story. In commemoration of what folks widely consider one of Sonic the Hedgehog’s finest outings, the Genesis’ Sonic 2, ever-faithful Blue Blur toymakers Jakks Pacific have put together an exciting, feature-laden playset. Its centrepiece is a figurine of that game’s final boss, the Death Egg Robot, and as Kotaku reports, it’s more than meets the eye. Much like a certain other, robotically inclined line of plastic tat. Take a gawk at the commercial for the set below.
Sonic himself is of course included in your shiny new purchase, but he’s far from the main attraction here. I mean, just look at him in scale with that beast. Tiny, insignificant little ball of… attitude, I guess. And polymers. No, the star of the show is the Death Star Egg Robot, which is fully articulated, painted to an exquisite sheen and, crucially, possessed of a marketing gimmick. Because we need something to distract parents from the fact we’re pushing products on children that have ‘death’ in the name.
What’s the gimmick, you ask? What an inquisitive soul you are. Much like its source material, the plastic recreation of the robot has a weak spot on its rear end; a few hits administered via Sonic using the included catapult (getting a bit geriatric are we, Sonic, never needed one of those before) and the whole thing busts apart. That’s right: the manufacturer has skipped over the part where your child mistreats the toy and breaks it, and has allowed them to go directly to the step where half the pieces end up lost under the sofa, the other half end up ingested by the family dog, and the whole gift then gets forgotten about in days. How considerate of them.
All joking aside, this is a pretty neat feature – although I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that the Death Egg Robot takes around eight to twelve hits to dispatch ingame, rather than the three it withstands here. Either Eggman has had some budget cuts, or Jakks have been playing too much Mario. Details, details, lads.
Will you be picking up this set? Are you impressed with its features? Let us know!
Via, Kotaku.
