Tougher Than Plastic: The History of Knuckles Merchandise

If you were a major character in an extremely popular and marketable video game franchise, go figure you would get a lot of merchandise. That is certainly the case for our rad red friend, Knuckles the Echidna. But... it didn't always use to be the case.

Bada-ba-ba-ba, I'm Lockin' It.

Sometimes, even the greatest icons start from the bottom before reaching plastic super stardom. Let's look back at Knuckles' history with merch by looking at the toy that started it all... Literally.

If it weren't for this McDonald's Knuckles, and his Happy Meal brethren, we would never have gotten memes like "& Knuckles". It was this very deal with SEGA and McDonald's in 1993 that pushed the gaming giant to split the ambitiously large Sonic The Hedgehog 3 into two halves: Sonic 3, and Sonic & Knuckles.

That's right kids, without this spinning Knuckles toy on a cloud, we would never have Lock On Technology. Or this commercial directed by Zack Snyder of all people.

...Maybe he should go back to his roots and direct an episode of Knuckles.

Knuckles returned to the fast food world in 1999 via the restaurant chain Jack in the Box. As a way to promote SEGA games being playable on PC, Knuckles joined Sonic, Bug and Ecco the Dolphin to represent the PC Collection of Sonic 3 with a toy that doesn't know whether or not it wants to look right, or left.

Probably the highest quality Fast Food toy of Knuckles comes from this plush released back in 2000 through Denny's. Now, I know what you're thinking. How could this be a toy released in the 2000s? Sonic Adventure came out! Everyone should have transitioned to the modern designs by now! Where's the purple eyes?

Ah, but look closely, my studious reader. See that tag? This isn't just an ordinary Knuckles plush. This Knuckles is meant to promote Sonic Underground! It is one of the very few times this oddball show got merchandise to call its own, and Denny's is certainly the only place to get plush toys representing the show, let alone a Knuckles plush at the time!

Soon though, our favorite Echidna warrior was called back to those luscious golden arches of McDonalds. In 2003 to promote Sonic Adventure DX, Knuckles was one of the many characters to get one of those infamous LCD sports games. It's Knuckles Soccer!

One year later to celebrate Sonic Heroes, another McDonalds LCD game released known as Knickles' Treasure Hunt! No radar on this one, I'm afraid. Love that the arrow keys are emeralds, though!

Lastly, heading into modern day, McDonalds got one more lick in for Sonic Movie 2. And with this blockbuster Happy Meal set came not one, not two, but three versions of Knuckles! One with him sliding down an icy slope, one with him dashing on streaks of red, and as if everything went full circle... Yes, one with him on a dust cloud. Just like that original Happy Meal toy from years ago.

Who knew Ronald McDonald had a thing for being poetic?

Master Emerald? No, Master Toy Partner!

What's a Master Toy Partner, I hear you ask? Well, a Master Toy Partner is often a manufacturer given full rights by an IP holder to be the most prominent creator of toys for a specific brand. That doesn't mean other companies can't make toys now and again, but the Master Toy Partner's figures and plushies are who dominates the shelves.

Here are examples of Knuckles figures created by master toy partners over the years. Can you spot the evolution?

ReSaurus isn't typically considered a Master Toy Partner, but it was a prominent creator of Sonic figures at the time of Sonic Adventure back in 1999. So it is close enough to be honored here, especially with how much Sonic toy collectors adore ReSaurus' unique style.

Instead of focusing on an evergreen art style we see from toys today, ReSaurus paid very close attention to the 2D art of Yuji Uekawa when sculpting their Sonic line. This gives them these larger than life, exaggerated proportions and facial expressions which makes them truly one of a kind.

A company that held a more definitive position of Master Toy Partner during the early 2000s was Toy Island, who held the license starting from 2000, and branched out from Sonic Adventure to even Sonic X during the latter part of their run. Made of cheaper, bulkier material than ReSaurus, these Knuckles toys are ready to fight, and could really take a beating!

Considering Sonic characters are typically very lanky and have noodle-like limbs, that's no small feat. Other Toy Partner figures need to be handled with care. Toy Island though? They sacrifice accuracy and articulation for playability, and that's kinda admirable.

They even branched out into more wild, non-canon variants like the Metal Force, characters with armor and light up electronics. Perfect for an Echidna warrior like Knuckles!

Jazwares is a toy partner with a lot of love in the Sonic merch scene. When they got the Sonic license in 2008, they had a massive presence at toy stores, more than any partner to date. For good reason too, and Knuckles had no shortage of great toys under their thumb!

This company's core defining trait is how much they value articulation. Their figures are delicate due to how many joints have to exist on such thin limbs. But the trade off? Amazing posing potential. And for someone who'd rather flex his muscles than chuckle, with Jazwares you can do just that on so many different scales! From their 3.7 inch line, their 5 inch, or their massive Super Posers, there's a Knuckles for every size!

Jazwares also managed to make plushies of Knuckles, and rerelease figures from other distributors, like First 4 Figures' 3 inch Classic Knuckles. This makes it the first Classic Knuckles figure you can get at toy stores since that weird Jack in the Box figure from years gone by!

Jazwares had more planned before the license faded from their grasp, sadly. In terms of Knuckles, his knightly counterpart Sir Gawain was set to have a toy. But alas, only death could remove this stain upon Jazwares' honor.

Taking the rights from Jazwares in 2014, Tomy became the short lived Master Toy Partner that never truly reached their full potential before having their rights snatched away. But Knuckles got away with some pretty sweet toys!

Tomy was like this middle ground between Toy Island and Jazwares. Their toys were sturdier, but at the cost of very downgraded articulation. But they were a lot more accurate to the evergreen designs we would know today.

Tomy had the rights to Sonic at a very interesting time. It was not only the series' 25th anniversary, but they were given the distinct honor to create toys for Sonic Boom! So Tomy was able to give us toys for three different iterations of Knuckles!

We have our standard modern Knuckles with a very well done mold, one of the greatest Classic Knuckles figures you'll ever see, and the only toys for Boom Knuckles!

Tomy went all in on the plush toys as well! Each Knuckles had at least one plush to call his own, including the ever-adorable emoji plush! Awww!

This brings us today with the current Master Toy Partner: Jakks' Pacific. And man, Knuckles gets a LOT of love from these guys!

Jakks made toys for not only the mainline games, but also Prime and the movies! With Prime having multiple versions of Knuckles, and the movies really pushing Knuckles to the point of him getting his own show, you can bet there's no shortage of the Echidna you can find on shelves today!

2.5 inch, 4 inch, 6 inch, you got a variety of sizes to choose from! Knuckles even got his very own playset for the first time with Knuckles the Dread's pirate ship! Perfect for assembling a mighty crew to catch ME BEAUTY.

Classic Knuckles had this very interesting toy around Easter time making him sport a pink getup! Is that Super Knuckles? Not exactly... but it's close enough! Let's take what we can get!

One thing Jakks deserves props though is giving us a Chaos 0 figure! But why is he in this Knuckles retrospective? Why, it's cause he has the Master Emerald! The very first Master Emerald toy, no less! Now you can reunite Knuckles with this almighty gem at long last!

With Jakks still holding onto the license today, who knows what other Knuckles they will create in the coming years? I know I'm excited, they've been VERY good manufacturers!

You Know Me, The Plastic Freak Knuckles

We've been playing things straight so far. Showing your average, run of the mill Knuckles toys from major manufacturers. But now it's time to get... weird. Let's see some unique or just bizarre one off merch made featuring our favorite red boy.

Let's start with some plush toys I'm sure many of you are familiar with. If you ever went to an amusement park during the early 2000s, you probably saw some of these low budget abominations. Small ones, big ones, ones with misshapen eyes, ones made of disgusting shiny felt, you couldn't escape these.

Toy Network milked the living crap out of them! There are variants for countless occasions. Christmas, Halloween, Valentines, pirates BEFORE Dread, even very lazy 4th of July ones with Knuckles wearing a tacky shirt. They're bad. They're really bad. But there is a charm to the badness... and the desperation to slap Sonic and friends on anything and everything.

Moving from insanely bad to insanely good, people praised the Good Smile's Sonic Nendoroid for its great build quality, customization, accessories and paint job. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before Knuckles got in on that action too in 2023!

It's a wonderful looking figure with interchangeable expressions and hand parts to create the Knuckles of your dreams!

But did you ever just wanna punch Knuckles? Like, beat the everloving crap out of him? Well, in 2000, Toy Island got your back with this Knuckles Bop Bag!

Branding's misleading though. If it's from Sonic Adventure, it should say "oh no" every time you hit it.

Screw playing with Knuckles though, I wanna BATHE with Knuckles! Thankfully, my prayers were answered in 1995 by Avon, who not only gave Knuckles a can of bubble bath with a finger puppet attached, but also Sally Acorn! Now THAT'S a rare find!

But we're talking about Knuckles here, and look at that pose. It's like his bottom half is melting. Least he seems chill about it.

Tick tock, more like Knock Knock! SEGA Prize created in 1995 this Knuckles clock you can hang on your wall and tell the time! There wasn't a lot of Knuckles merchandise created under the SEGASonic The Hedgehog marketing label, but this was one of the few made for it!

When you think of high-quality Sonic merchandise though, one of the names that would come to mind is First 4 Figures! They create gorgeous (and very expensive) statues and dioramas of your favorite video game characters, and that includes Knuckles! In fact, this is the most recent Knuckles statue you can still order today: Knuckles Standoff!

This Movie Knuckles statue is wonderfully sculpted down to every last quill and piece of rubble, and can even connect to the Sonic and Tails Standoff figure to create an even more dynamic set piece! Yeah, we're Sonic Heroes!

Alright, this isn't a real Knuckles toy, but I'd be amiss to not talk about this freakish being. This... thing is a bootleg pumpable Knuckles with a face that reports say that if you stare at it long enough, you will be casted into the fiery depths of Hell.

Don't take my word for it though.

I'm sure you're asking though is WHY does it exist, and WHAT's with his face? Well, it's cause this wasn't originally a Knuckles toy. This is a unauthorized retool of an old toy from the 70s called Vac-Man, the arch enemy of Stretch Armstrong.

Vac-Man could be pumped to either be filled with air to make him stretchy, or suck the air out to reveal the solid grains inside. This "mutates" him into a monster, able to be stretched and pulled permanently into crazy shapes. Then you pump air back in to restore him to his original state. Pretty cool for the 70s... Pretty horrifying for Knuckles!

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And there you have it, folks! A fun look back at the many, many Knuckles toys over the years! Many good, some bad, some strange, and one that's just Vac-Man with dreads. 

Thanks for joining me on this little adventure! Are there any toys I missed? Please, add to the conversation and keep the retrospective going!

If you excuse me though, I'm off to get some Knuckles toys of my own!

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Photos found via Sonic Wiki Zone, @PatMac, HedgehogsCantSwim, Sega Memories, and many, many, many defunct eBay listings