Japan was (and still is) quite prolific with Sonic character plushes. This page will have a mix of classic and modern plush doll photos. Pretty much all of the Japan plushes are collectible, regardless of how common or ultra-expensive they were/are. Adding to the collectibility is the general theme of these to be better quality more consistently than plush from elsewhere.

Sonic Gear Main Merchandise Page *Japan Sonic Plush 1* Japan Sonic Plush 2 * Japan Sonic Plush 3 * Japan Sonic Plush 4 * Japan Sonic Plush 5 * Japan Sonic Plush 6 * Sonic Plush 7 * Sonic Plush 8 * Sonic Plush 9 * Sonic Plush 10 * Sonic Plush 11 * Sonic Plush 13 *

What's very small, and inside this plastic ball? Sonic Doll! If you ever wondered about how those "very tiny" plushes were packaged, well...wonder no-more because now everyone can finally see

that they were inside of clear plastic balls, likely to be dispensed from claw or coin-prize machines in arcades. It's a cute idea, because the clear ball lets you see which character to go for inside. These little guys are the VERY tiny dolls, not the 'stringy leg' earlier ones. They have 2 flat felts for hands & other small details. There are at least Tails, Sonic & Eggman made in this format. They'd of probably all been sold together in the spheres upon release. They're all small enough to fit on one hand, yet still have nice proportions and details. Photo & owned by

This is a Japanese Sonic plush, but what is it from? There are 2 fairly distinguishing characteristics though, so maybe someone can recognize it. First off is the mis-match cloth tag. The Sonic doll is mdoern, but the tag has the classic style logo, which is wrong. This CAN happen on legitimate dolls / merch, but it's not that common, especially

on Japanese things, where the quality control tended to be tighter than most other places. The second thing is that the feet are very thick. Like, look at the shoe sole on the left foot there, it's much thicker than other plushes. The stripe position isn't the best either, instead of the center where it should be, it crosses the sock. The rest of the plush seems decent, with good thick hang-cord, appropriate spikes, stand-up years, all-embroidered eyes, good head shape & nicely sewn hands. The back of the cloth-tag is all in Japanese with fabric-care instructions. His spikes are fully modern-style & well sewn. It's a good solid quality looking plush. Photo & owned by Tones Caffa

Here's a real 'wow!' item! It's a BIG BIG Sonic plush from 1997. Not only is it big, it's pretty amazing as well. Look at the fingers of the gloves, they're actually individual items...and that's pretty much unheard of. The size is also very unusual for the time (classic) and also for the place (Japan). Japanese plush tended to focus on quality over size. "Jumbo Prizes" like in the USA/Canada seem fairly unheard of there. So, a doll big enough to take up a whole chair is an unusual/rare thing indeed. The spikes, ears & arms are all very nicely sculpted. It looks like some kind of shiny/foil fabric was used for the buckles. He has plastic eyes, which look fine here/nice and classic. The expression is good too, he really does look like the art of the times. You can fairly well bank on it that this is a very rare and expensive doll. Photo discovered by Pichu97/Charlie

You've seen 'basket holdin' Sonic' before, but as you know with the era, if there's Sonic, there's usually everybody else too. So, naturally, here comes Basket Holdin' Tails & Eggman. Each small plush is a little under 8-10 inches sitting down. They are sewn to a small wicker basket. They're meant for desk top use, holding pens or supplies. They all had the same tag, which you can see here on Eggman, and it does include Basket Holdin' Flicky. The tag shows the full line of plushes. Eggman is likely to be the rarest one of these because 'villain'. These are a cute and useful idea, and it's good to see real photos of more than just one character.

These plushes have appeared before in a group shot, so here is a closer look at 2 "Summer Season" Tails plushes. These were most likely UFO Prize type dolls. Because in the early days of Sonic, there weren't loads of characters, but Sega needed lots of plushes...so what they did was invent 'seasonal' and 'theme' dolls so they could keep releasing the same characters over & over, but because they were different somehow, people would keep buying. It's an OK strategy if quality can be applied... And it was. The doll construction is solid & cute. The accessories are fabric, appropriately sized & fairly well thought out. The themes involved decoration with more than 1 item.

Summer Swim Tails has his float ring with colored stripes & real 'sunglasses'. The fabric glasses have red transparent plastic in them for real lenses. Summer Baseball Tails has a little plastic bat, a baseball glove on one hand & a little red ball-cap with green bill. These are cute to collect, but they are both old from the early 1990s and uncommon.

Here is a nicely sized Sonic plush from Japan Joypolis in 1997. Joypolis has always had dolls they only sell there, and these also change their pattern over the years as it evolves. This one being from 1997 is of course, classic, but it's later on in the classic period.

It has a good solidly constructed look with nice attention to detail. There are sewn on gold-tone fabric buckles for the shoes, the hands are an ok size, and the spikes are well constructed. Notice that the ears have good borders and stand up easily. Being the most 'Sega' place of all, they would never allow any sort of flaw or major problem on a doll exclusive to their area. A nice plush to collect! Photo & owned by Pichu97/Charlie

Here is a small Amy Rose plush from 2007. She seems to be around 7 inches tall or so, and is a Japan exclusive plush. The small size doesn't mean small on quality though...

Look at how nicely proportionate the doll is. The boots have the little bit of a heel and are properly shaped. Her head shape is good, as are the spikes & headband. Her ears stand up properly & the gloves/hands are nice and big/fluffy with defined enough fingers. The dress looks nice as well. Few small dolls can compete with how well they did this one, as tiny plush can be hard to do. The tag is all in Japanese (of course) but you can read the few letters at the top "Amy" and then the (S) indicates a small size doll. Photo & owned by Pichu97/Charlie

Here's another look at the 'seasonal' dolls. There are 2 for summer with surf board Sonic and the float ring Tails, plus one winter with Santa Hat & Holly-bag Sonic who has a bow around his neck. Float Ring tails is seen closer-up above on this page. Surf Sonic may have been made later, or maybe the summer ones were later as they look larger than the Christmas doll & maybe the Sonic has plastic eye chips instead of what looks like the older-fashion cloth for the xmas one. Photo from Hikari*Site

Seasonal Sonics! These 2 plush are from Joypolis and are summer themed. As seen above, themed dolls aren't exclusive to actual old classics. Each of these is the same modern Sonic plush in a mid-size but with a different tack on theme. The left doll has a surfboard with the name logo on it and some stars. The right side doll is in a silly floral pattern Hawaiian shirt and is holding a quite large stuffed watermelon. But look again at surfin Sonic there, what's that yellow stuff around the neck of the plush? Because the pattern & matierals are very solid/quality, he works no-matter what he's holding, even if it is a silly melon. These are probably limited edition items.

Joypolis has a reputation of 'doing everything right'. But.....nobody's perfect because here comes 'chef' Sonic and.....he's not fabulous. Now, how is that very conical dunce cap they've got him wearing in any way supposed to be like a chef hat? It totally misses the mark! The white coat with side-buttons is obvously supposed to be a chef's coat, and it's ok. But that hat....gee whiz. This was made for an event which got a 'dressed up' stock art where the art was altered to show Sonic dressed up in a chef costume. (With no pants, of course) Because Joypolis does event/theme dolls all the time a plush like this would be a natural choice for them. It's just kind of too bad they couldn't figure out the hat. What was the event though? There was Cafe-Sonic, which was an event, but that always had him dressed as a waiter which has a vest/apron sleeve combo that looked nothing like this.

3 plush dolls, 3 sizes, all the same era. These are Segasonic branding era, so early 1990s. What's interesting to see here is how each doll is distinct, with the largest one being the best/most accurate. They're all pretty darn good (as is usual with Japan, even early on) but the first one has the ears very low on the head. The second colors the shoe bottoms differently, and the largest has actually excellently shaped shoes. Look how triangular! Too many makers forget that. Then, the face structure is really good & the nose is rather "Sonic CD" animation-like (as in it is long/thin) It's difficult to tell if the first 2 have the proper belly dot, or if it's the mistake 'belly bib' where it goes up to the neck/shouldn't. An interesting comparision of early dolls. Photo & owned by Spazer40

A trio of sports themed plushes from 1995... But someone new is here! You've seen already in Japan Plush the Soccer Sonic and Tennis Tails, but what about Basketball Eggman? He is new to the site even though this doll is old. He must be uncommon...or he wasn't as desireable at the time of release, with only 1 accessory: his stuffed basketball. (Sonic had his shoes changed and soccer foot ball, Tails has his tennis racket and headband) It is interesting to know they included Eggman in the Sport Set. Photo & Owned by Spazer40