You are a toy you can't spindash!

[Badnik Mechanic]

Right ya bums.

Do you remember about a year ago, a few photos were found of some prototype Sonic merchandise which was apart of the classic range of products, they included some Sonic squeeze toys, keyrings and a chess set?

Well... at the toy fair event called Spielwarenmesse 2010 They were all on show!

How awesome does Robotnik look there!

But by far the most impressive item has to be the chess set... take a gander at this bad boy.

Hmmm it would appear that Dr William Birkin is about to kidnap Knuckles if you look just under the board.

Even classic Amy is featured! How awesome is that! I really hope that these will finally get a release, I want to play Dread at chess at SOS 10, but it must be Sonic chess for no other chess will mean anything.

They also had on show lots of other toys including the first 4 figures that were released in the UK back in november and some of the DS cases. Spindash.de has the full story, but you may need to run it through a translator as it's all in German.

Edited February 8, 2010 by Casanova

[Dr. Mechano]

Classic Eggman is adorable. That is all.

I want one now.

[Octarine]

I have to say I'm no great fan of the squeeze-toy renditions of the big three, but that Eggman is pretty awesome. Maybe it's just that he's so badly underrepresented in merchandise, but I'd gladly pick him up.

The chess set seems well put together, but why wouldn't you use Eggman and assorted badniks for the second player? Seems like a wasted opportunity.

[Sapphire]

It's pretty cool that they used the classic designs of the characters for everything. Oh, and Robotnik's little grin is awesome.

Edited February 8, 2010 by silversapphire

[The-Master-Board]

I have to say I'm no great fan of the squeeze-toy renditions of the big three, but that Eggman is pretty awesome. Maybe it's just that he's so badly underrepresented in merchandise, but I'd gladly pick him up.

The chess set seems well put together, but why wouldn't you use Eggman and assorted badniks for the second player? Seems like a wasted opportunity.

I would LOVE to have that chess set, but I agree with this comment; why they didn't use classic Robotnik and various others (Metal sonic, badniks etc.) is beyond me. I saw a nice Mario chess set in ToysRus that had bowser and lackeys as the opposing team - perhaps they made both sides Sonic because they thought there would be too much fighting over who would get to play as him?

Here's hoping we get some of those eventually, I wouldn't mind a classic Robotnik figure.

[Phos]

They probably did it because they only need one set of molds to do it.

And yes, Robotnik is adorable.

[Thirsty Pocket]

Don't look now, but there's a horrible monster under the chess set.

I have tons of game character merchandise, but I am really lacking in the Robortnik department. I would love to have that.

I want the Chess set the most, but I gotta gripe that both sides having the same pieces is lame... but I suppose Eggman had too few allies in the early days.

[Faded Echoes]

Holy crap, that merch is awesome! I'll definetly be buying alot of the Sonic and Tails squeeze toys when they're released. I have no room for the chess set, so with any luck I'll be buying the Sonic and Tails pieces seprately.

[-Mark-]

The Knuckles squeezy one looks very very top-heavy, moreso than the rest, somehow. D:

Also, awesome chess set is awesome.

[The-Master-Board]

Don't look now, but there's a horrible monster under the chess set.

but I gotta gripe that both sides having the same pieces is lame... but I suppose Eggman had too few allies in the early days.

Lol, can you imagine what a modern Sonic chess set would look like with an Eggman side: Eggman as the king then a generic monster of the week character as every other piece taking up not only ALL the space of the chessboard but ALL the space of your bedroom floor!

Edited February 8, 2010 by The-Master-Board

[MizukiMoon]

Ahh, this looks awesome!! I completely lost all hope of these ever being released, until now. I'm so getting these as soon as they come out! and I'm loving the new old style Amy figure!

[Thirsty Pocket]

Lol, can you imagine what a modern Sonic chess set would look like with an Eggman side: Eggman as the king then a generic monster of the week character as every other piece taking up not only ALL the space of the chessboard but ALL the space of your bedroom floor!

I'd rather they use Eggman, Shadow, Rouge, Metal Sonic, Omega, Dark Chao, Egg Pawns...anyone who could be considered the "Dark" side really.

If I think about it, they could have had a classic team of badguys too. Eggman, Fang, Metal Sonic, and of course there's always Badniks.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Lol, can you imagine what a modern Sonic chess set would look like with an Eggman side: Eggman as the king then a generic monster of the week character as every other piece taking up not only ALL the space of the chessboard but ALL the space of your bedroom floor!

I think a modern Sonic chess set would have Eggman, Shadow, Metal sonic, Rouge, and Egg pawns. Wouldn't make a lick of sense for them to use the monsters of the week as chess sets, especially since they're not really that symbolic enough to represent modern Sonic.

Edited February 8, 2010 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[The-Master-Board]

Considering they used classic Amy I am really surprised they didn't make the opposing side an Eggman team with Metal Sonic and badniks.

In fact as nice as a Sonic chess set would be, this does pale in comparison to the Mario one I saw. Don't get me wrong I'd much rather the Sonic chess set, but after seeing the amount of detail and thought put into the Mario one it's a shame they couldn't do the same for the Sonic counterpart.

For one the Mario one was highly detailed, think the quality of those really on model Jazwares 3 inch figures, well thats how good looking the Mario chess set is.

For seconds they didn't go the lazy way and make both sides the same - they had a Mario team and a Bowser team. Furthermore rather than having two exact same Bishops, Knights and Rooks, they had Mario as the King, Luigi as Queen (I know kinda funny it isn't Peach) Peach and Daisy as Bishops, Yoshi and umm can't remember...but the point is each team had a different character for each individual piece besides the pawns (Coins and Shells for Mario and Bowser respectively). It would have been nice to see a whole chess board filled up with Sonic's friends and items and Robotnik's badniks.

If we're talking modern Sonic then it'd be easy to fill up the roster, and for the fans put Rouge, Shadow and Omega on Eggman's team.

Edited February 8, 2010 by The-Master-Board

[Guest]

I'd only like this stuff if I could actually buy it somewhere that's not online.

...And why is Tails yellow again?

[SefHighwind]

Yep, I'll definitely picking up the keychains if I get a chance to!

As far as the chess set goes, I like the classic style, but I do agree they could have done a bit more with the black side of the board. If they did end up doing it: you could easily have Buzz Bombers as Pawns, Knights would be Fang the Sniper, Bishops would be Egg Robo, Rooks would be Miniature Death Eggs, Queen would be Metal Sonic, and the King would be Eggman.

If they found a way to do this, then that would be great!

[SchemingMinor]

That Eggman is so adorable, it makes Care Bears barf and Yum Yums cry.

[T_Touchdown]

Those toys are really cool. As for the chess set, It's not bad, but I agree with a lot of people. A modernized chess set, I think, would be set like this

Hero:

Sonic=King

Blaze=Queen

Tails/Knuckles=Bishops

Amy/Silver=Knights

Hero Chao=Rook

Regular Chao=Pawn

Dark:

Shadow=King

Rouge=Queen

Eggman/Eggman Nega=Bishops

Omega/Metal Sonic=Knights

Dark Chao=Rook

Eggbot=Pawn

Again, this is my belief. Eggman should probably be king, but making Shadow another piece if sonic is king wouldn't make sense. And I set things up according to the kings' affiliation. As for the two different characters for the higher pieces, I kinda based it off of the Super Mario Chess Set.

Edited February 12, 2010 by T_Touchdown

[Marcello]

Those toys are really cool. As for the chess set, It's not bad, but I agree with a lot of people. A modernized chess set, I think, would be set like this

Hero:

Sonic=King

Blaze=Queen

Tails/Knuckles=Bishops

Amy/Silver=Knights

Hero Chao=Rook

Regular Chao=Pawn

Dark:

Shadow=King

Rouge=Queen

Eggman/Eggman Nega=Bishops

Omega/Metal Sonic=Knights

Dark Chao=Rook

Eggbot=Pawn

Again, this is my belief. Eggman should probably be king, but making Shadow another piece if sonic is king wouldn't make sense. And I set things up according to the kings' affiliation. As for the two different characters for the higher pieces, I kinda based it off of the Super Mario Chess Set.

Switch Blaze and Amy, I mean Blaze is Sir Percival xD, and change Eggbot to Eggpawn and I think it would be fine. Omega seems a bit odd, though. I don't know why..

Btw, I found this months ago:

http://www.toy-palac...chachspiel.html

Its been there since a year..

Edited February 12, 2010 by MarcelloF

[JaidynReiman]

Honestly, I'd have to say that it would make more sense for Hero/Dark Chao to be "Knights" because they can fly, whereas Silver/Blaze and Omega/Metal Sonic would be Rooks, general considered to be better pieces, and also more straight-forward characters involved.

As far as the Dark Side King/Queen... it kinda is a mixed bag. It'd be really weird to have, say, Eggman and Metal Sonic as that, so Shadow and Rouge make sense... but Eggman is a more formidable foe than Shadow is, and in fact, Shadow and Rouge are more "middle" characters... they're not flat-out evil, but they generally only help out for themselves (or simply because they don't want the world to be conquered).

Yes, though, here's what I'd see a modern chess set looking like...

Light -

Sonic (King)

Amy (Queen)

Tails/Knuckles (Bishops)

Hero Chao (Knights)

Silver/Blaze (Rooks) [Despite Blaze being a "Queen" or "Princess," she's not as high up as a character, and she's generally paired with Silver, so it makes more sense for her being in the same role as Silver]

Chao (Pawns)

Dark -

Shadow (King) [as much as I HATE "King Shadow" from Archie]

Rouge (Queen) [the only possible "dark" character who could play queen... That's why Shadow's king, as well)

Eggman/Nega (Bishops) [not sure on this alignment myself... Eggman should definitely be in, so it would be logical to include Nega as an alternative]

Dark Chao (Knights)

Omega/Metal Sonic (Rooks) [despite the fact that Omega hates Eggman)

Chao (Pawns)

Still, it ain't gonna happen, but it'd be sweet.

Regardless, this chess set looks pretty cool.

[Octarine]

The idea of Sonic as the virtually-immobile King amuses me. Surely he'd make more sense as the Queen?

[The Conductor]

And that would appease the people who think he is gay! *shot*

[LimeTH]

I'm not the only one who saw this, am I?

That Sonic Chess set is awesome, though an Eggman side would have made more sense, It probably keeps the kiddies from arguing over who gets to play as the good guys.