MainJP

That's the impression I got. That's what I thought, but when I brought that up they responded with "the emerald has to be placed on the shrine to make the island float" which I'm pretty sure has never been the case, considering all it took for the island to float was for it to be placed on the land in Sonic 3. I don't think that requirement changed for the Adventure games. The argument was also that since the Emerald was stolen the island has to fall of course, so everything else had to align with that part of the map being Angel Island, even though that's not necessarily the case.

Is this supposed to be Angel Island? Was Rouge still on the island when she took the Emerald from the shrine? Someone pointed out that in the Egyptian hieroglyphs in the desert area stages there are echidna looking figures and Chao, and what appears to be depictions of the Master Emerald. Sonic can also be spotted in these hieroglyphs, similarly to how there are Sonic statues in Hydro City and of course the Hidden Palace mural. And there are the human statues like the depictions of humans seen on Angel Island in Sonic 3.

Mighty, Ray, Vector and Sharps made an appearance in the 1992 April issue of Shogaku Ninensei. Same designs seen in Oshima's "Sonic's Friends" concept art.

The hands on this one looks similar to some later artwork, particularly the curled hands. Same with the way the glove cuffs and shoe cuffs are drawn with those U-shaped creases.

This is Yuji Uekawa's artwork, right? He was credited as an artist for Sonic Jam.

The shorter height appears to stem from the Dipodidae (Jerboa). Being based off of a small rodent, Fang himself would have been a small character. I'm guessing Fang was made taller when it was decided he would also be a wolf hybrid.

She was "planned" to be used on posters and billboards. http://segabits.com/blog/2020/08/11/chris-stitt-shares-his-boomer-the-turtle-designs-were-cut-from-sonic-the-hedgehog-2/ You remember Boomer, right?

Nothing implied playability from what I read at that moment. "Planned" doesn't mean "planned to be playable". The anthro girl on the posters and billboards, in Speed Highway. You can see her in early footage shown off in the Sonic Adventure August '98 Unveiling at the Tokyo International Forum. Yeah, he admits his English isn't the best: But he does thank someone for clarifying what he meant, so "planned" in some capacity.

Not sure if this deserves its own topic, but it turns out that the anthro girl seen on various posters in Sonic Adventure's Speed Highway was a planned character for the game!

Sonic characters have always been rubber hose by design, dude. Their bodies stretch and squash, that's just what they do.

Lots of attention to detail.

"Mobian-shaped"? Lumina looks "mobian-shaped". Same way, like...Chaos or Emerl or Cosmo are "Mobian-shaped". Large heads, hands and feet, rubber-hose limbs... And Chip...looks like one I guess. I'd call this "Uekawa designed characters" since the human Eggman (including Nega) have the same design qualities. More like he's just easier to throw over Sonic's rig and call it a day.

My mind immediately went to the Cute Sonic screen from Sonic CD.

That’s a neat idea. That sounds like a better alternative to waiting for a single character per month.