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Sonic Keychains of Japan
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Japan Sonic Keychains 1 * Japan Sonic Keychains 2 * Japan Keychains 3 * Japan Keychains 4 *
Magnet Sonic Penguin Key Holders Box What are these unusual items & their box?
Magnet Key Holders. It is likely that the top part with the character on it has a magnet behind it. They keys go on the loop below that's put through the paper packaging. In this box (and likely all others) you get 2 key holders.
This box has Sonic & the little animal penguin. But, the outside of the box has Eggman, the walrus & Tails too, so it's likely they were also made. The cube shaped box has a window over 2 sides so you know what you'll get. These are uncommon, and the box even more so, making it extra interesting to see. discovered by @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram
Chibi Type Knuckles Keychain Here's a 'chibi type' sort of SD Knuckles keychain. The Sonic he's next to has already been featured here on Keychains. The Knuckles is classic & quite small. He's barely as big as the loop that would clip him to the key ring. He's simplified with no legs, just shoes on the bottom of his body, and tiny fists so he fits into a smooth profile/sort of solid shape. discovered by @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram
Metal Keychain Object Selection 5 Here are 5 'keychain objects'. Each one is on a beaded chain so you could add it to your key ring. The rounded teardrop shaped ones are shoe horns to help you into your shoe. The triangle/pointy ones are likely to be book marks, as the little point goes behind a page & the long area goes on the other side kind of like a paper clip. The rectangle is just a key-tag shaped Amy Rose keychain. They're all made with 'aged metal' which is kind of textured & has black patina over it. It's also notoriously hard to photograph. You can hardly tell which character is in the disk at the top of each item. These are early classic items. discovered by @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram
More metal keychains!
With a modern one sneaking in there to the side. You can see a Tails clip with 'looking out' Tails & his name. Knuckles is on a 'flat card' style multi tool. The marks on the edge are a ruler, the square hole likely picks the lids off bottles...but what does the slot & the other jagged hole do?
The modern keychain is thick metal with a stamped out & texture detailed modern Sonic. It has the "Welcome to the next level" slogan at the bottom & a sturdy rotating clip. All the 'aged metal look' ones here are likely a set of some kind, all released at once. discovered by @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram
Rotating Tails Keychain Front Back Here is a better look at the Tails Rotating Keychain. There were 3, you can see the others here on other pages of Keychains. (Sonic & Eggman) This cool shot though, clearly shows the slogan "I Like Your Style", the Segasonic logo & that the character is shown as a raised design both front AND back, which is pretty unusual because stock arts don't tend to also have a 'back view'. However, this nice detail makes
the spinning around gimmick even better for these keychains. (Sort of too bad it uses the odd 'big nose Tails' art, though) discovered by @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram
Sega Fan Club Metal Keychains Here are 3 keychains from the Sega Fan Club. It's the back-card that reveals where the "aged metal" keychain objects seen around these pages are all likely from. The first one is the Segasonic logo in a ring,
done in copper with dark enamel in the low spots/textured areas. The middle is a pewter-tone bookmark-looking one with running Tails in a disk & the last is a large flat copper/dark enamel with raised/relief leaping Sonic. As you can see here, they came in little clear plastic sleeve-bags with simple back cards. discovered by @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram
Keychain Float Collection More floating keychains?
Seems popular! Here's another set of 5 floating classic keychains. A pretty stiff foam is encased in a squeezy-softer rubbery coating to make these keychains. If dropped in the water, a set of keys would float using these. Each one is a different fun shape, too. The first orange one has Knuckles & the logo as line art & reversed as solid art with a lightening bolt shape dividing the two. The Tails foam is yellow with his face in a lightening bolt-ring & the logo in a banner at the bottom.
The center is a solo Sonic blue one with several sihloutte/stripe & solid echo-shapes for him, and the logo in a little rectangle. The triangle keychain features solid Sonic & line-art Amy with a logo as a banner across them. The somewhat egg-shaped all black keychain (would please Eggman, no doubt) has a nice Eggman art in a gear shape, with a rectangle banner logo. This set is especially nice, because the characters get solo treatment / a keychain of their own. Eggman fans would never pass up his, & the Knuckles one is great too. The creative use of the stock art keeps these looking fresh, even today!
discovered by @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram
Plastic Faces 3 Ring This is a closer look at a keychain that's been in a different photo here on Gear.
But, it doesn't clarify exactly what it's going for/does. Why are there 3 plastic faces on one loop? What's going on with the tiny ring at the bottom of the faces? It was speculated that the different colors (since its all the same face) were for different keys, but without a proper attacher-ring for the face bottoms, how would that work?
The faces are done in a cute style though, & it seems like a nicely sized colorful item. It's good to see it in the original package as well. discovered by @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram
Fan Club Finger Waving Copper-tone Keychain Another keychain from the Sega Fan Club. Naturally, it fits right in with the rest, being copper tone with raised details & black enamel in all the textures to help bring them out. It has a raised desgin of finger-waving Sonic, with the Segasonic logo across his legs/middle at an angle. The edge of the keychain is wiggly, but not to go along with his outline...notice how it's really wide at the base even though there's no design there. Just like the others, its MIP here on its flat back card in a plastic bag. discovered by @JapanAnimePosters on Instagram
Promise Lanyard & Keychains Collection A collection of keychains! This fine selection of metal & enamel keychains features several that have their own entry & several that don't. At the top, are 3 likely from the same set that are full color enamel on metal. Standing Sonic, standing Tails & running Sonic. Next, what's that really cute sitting Tails item? Is he a broken keychain, or a pin? Under those you can see the still-carded lanyard of some kind. The only read-able word on it is "Promise". The Sonic illustration it gets isn't much of a clue either, what's he doing with his shoe? It looks like he's kicking the 'glitter' that's on the package causing it to spread out.
There's the engraved/textured flat metal keychain, a difficult to see white-ish one & the textured figure Sonic & Tails in brass-tone at the bottom. Notice how those are the same textured/pose/figure from the 'spinner keychains' only not mounted onto an oval. Photo from Hikari Site.
Flat Sonic Tails Cute Key Holding Danglers Here are 2 cute keychains!
These are new in winter 2018. They're in the style of "Paperchildren", which is a flat item drawn so that it looks like it's interacting with the real 3d world. In this case it's Sonic & Tails (modern) who are shaped like they are 'holding onto' the key loop so the key dangles from their clasped hands. They're also 'pinned up' to the clip loop at the top, Sonic by his top spike & Tails by his tails. Each is cheerfully ready to hold the key.
These are more of that flat, textured cut-in layered rubber. This is a good material for keychains because it's slim, doesn't break easily & is clean-able. These aren't too clunky either, size-wise as you can see how they compare to an ordinary key. Photo discovered by Taaron
Team Sonic Racing Keychain A keychain for Team Sonic Racing in 2019!
This keychain was released with a special pack of bonus items with the game. That may be the only way the keychain is available. (Otherwise these sometimes end up as booth promos at events or other exclusive give-aways) It's roughly long/diamond shaped & semi-transparent plastic. It's pretty big too, judging by the size of they key clip. It uses only blue & clear to create the design. It's Sonic in his Speed Star car, along with the game's title (not the logo) and the Sega copyright.
The design is interesting to see because it's actually pretty hard to come up with something that showcases that it's a car race, but also that Sonic is there without over-focusing one or the other....but this succeeds. Photo & owned by Hedgy
Oval Holofoil Sonic Tails Keychain 2 Holofoil Sonic Keychain Shapes
Here are even more holofoil Sonic keychains!
There must have been a large set of these, probably released in gacha or claw/win situations. You can see more of these on Japan Keychains 4. They will turn up every so often for sale if a collection is liquidated, but just how many there were, isn't known. Each one is a fairly thick black plastic, cut into a shape. It has a big sturdy 'sticker' for the design that's all made of confetti-style holofoil. (This makes it hard to photograph) The oval has 'segasonic' at the top, with a picture of standing Sonic & Tails with some colored shapes. The mostly round one has running Sonic & hopping Tails & the rectangle (note the little 'ric-rac' edges of the plastic here) has Sonic & Tails in the title ring.
All of these will always share the same tag, which features 3 color printing of Sonic, Tails & shapes on one side, and single color printing (it's orange) of the same thing on the other side. These would be a fun set to keep, if you could find them all.
Sega Online 2019 Keychains Here are 6 keychains made for the summer season Sega Online 2019 'random buy' event. This event seems to be that you send sega 500 yen and a randomly selected item comes to you from the collection, via mail.
The selection includes these 6 keychains, some post card sets, pin-buttons and ribbon-handle paper bags. All of the art is water-color textured classic-style (though modern characters appear) and cute for summer activities. These keychains are likely to be flat plastic / acrylic with the design printed inside. They have a simple bead-chain loop and 1 hole piercing.
The larger version of the art (which is always broken apart to create the individual items) can be seen here on Gear at Sonic Cards.
Joypolis Blue Case Keychain Box It's a box! It's a keychain!
Well ok...but what is this actually for? Why would you want a long, rectangular shaped box with a keychain clip on it? What does it do? Whatever it's for, it's here mint in the package. The black lines/thing you see there is the barcode on the packaging. The sticker on the top of the box says "Joypolis Official Gear". It has a CG graphic of arms cross/pointing SA1 Sonic at the bottom.
This is likely to be some kind of gacha or prize-machine prize because it's a simple sticker-branded item. But what is it? You can write in for credit if you know.
3 Figural Sonic Keychains Joypolis Here are 3 figural keychains that could only be obtained in Tokyo Joypolis.
They are all modern style, and all mint in the bag. The first is arms cross Sonic, the second has him rather unusually 'just standing there' with arms at his sides. The third is a 'clear variant' where he has no paint but is just cast in all semi-transparent blue plastic. The middle one is extra fun because you can see the tiny & cute neutral chao danle that it comes with. How fun!