TSS REVIEW: Sonic Prime 5-inch Figures

Coming out shortly after the recent premiere of Sonic Prime’s second season, Jakks Pacific has released a wide variety of toys based on the Netflix animated series. From small, plush bag tags, to Knuckles the Dread’s pirate ship, to box sets of 2-inch figures, and finally, a collection of 5-inch figures featuring characters from the dimension-hopping animated series. It’s those figures that we’ll be focusing on in this review. 

The first wave of figures consists of Sonic in his dimension-hopping gear, Thorn Rose with her homemade Piko hammer, Mr. Dr. Eggman, and finally, fan-favorite Nine with his seven mechanical tails. Each figure is highly detailed and very poseable. Nine alone has 70 points of articulation due to his seven mechanical tails that operate similarly to Dr. Octopus from the Spider-Man series. In fact, this series beats all previous Sonic figures in terms of articulation. Wrists, elbows, legs, knees, and feet. All can be posed in different ways. Even Mr. Dr. Eggman’s toupee has its own articulation! When he gets mad, he can literally flip his wig! While this can lead to some fun posing, it can possibly lead to the figure having a difficult time standing if used too much as the joints might loosen over time. Thorn already has difficulty standing due to her heavy hammer, while Nine has his tails to keep him propped up. Each figure has a detailed paint job and a fantastic mold that really shows the expressions of each character.

Not the friendliest face.

One of the noticeable differences between these figures and your standard, 4-inch Sonic game figures is the price. You may be surprised at the new price sticker of $14.99 (US) compared to $9.99 (US) for the game and movie figures, but there’s a good reason. The most noticeable difference between the two is the size. In case you weren’t paying attention, you may have noticed that I’ve been calling the Sonic Prime figures 5-inch, while mentioning the game Sonic figures as 4-inch. This is very apparent when placed side by side. 

"Going by this chart, we've had a 20 percent growth per quarter."

The other big difference is in the articulation. As mentioned before, the Sonic Prime figures have a ton of articulation in almost every joint, whereas the game and movie Sonic figures have less articulation. In particular in the elbows and ankles. This makes the Sonic Prime figures far more poseable. In fact, their height and detail are on par with the $20 Super Mario Movie figures (also made by Jakks Pacific). So why are these figures $15 versus Mario’s $20? The answer seems to be in the quality of the plastic. The Super Mario movie figures feel like they have a decent, thick weight to them, while the Sonic Prime figures are a bit light. In particular Sonic and Mr. Dr. Eggman feel like the plastic is hollow on the inside. This may have been done to keep the price comparable to the game Sonic figures rather than have higher quality figures at double the price.

"We're blaming you for everything!!"

Overall, the question you need to ask yourself is whether the Sonic Prime figures are worth the $5 boost in price over the regular Sonic figures. I’d say definitely. While not quite as high quality as the Super Mario movie figures, the Sonic Prime collection does have a good size, great sculpts, and fantastic articulation. You’re definitely getting more plastic for your buck. If you’re a fan of the Netflix series, I’d highly recommend picking these up.