Japan Sonic the Hedgehog School Supplies
Japanese Sonic the Hedgehog School Supplies Page 8
School supplies fun & useful neat to collect. They didn't tend to be all that rare, or expensive, and you can use them to make Sonic projects at home too. They also offer such a wide range of different and interesting Sonic theme things. Japan in the present and in the past probably still has the most items in this catagory. While the things here may be more difficult to collect, they're usually high quality and interesting to see. Because a lot of them are small, you'll see lots of different characters too, not just Sonic.
Sonic Gear Main * Japan Sonic School 1 * School Supplies 2 * School Supplies 3School Supplies 4 * School Supplies 5
School Supplies 6 * School Supplies 7 * School Supplies 9 *
Team Sonic Racing Zip Bag This is a flat pencil-case style zip top bag that was an exclusive release with the bonus pack version of Team Sonic Racing game.
It's all blue, and 2 sided. It has "Sonic Speed" written on one side, with Sonic's face in the "o". The other has "Dark Speed" with Shadow's face in the "a". Both sides have the game's logo in white & 'water mark' style graphics in the background overlapping with the big block text of the words. It's a neat looking bag with good thought put into the design so fans of both teams can be happy.
Planet Power News Plastic Sonic Tote Bag Here is a blue re-use-able plastic-type tote bag. It's by "Planet Power News" & was obviously an early era item, as noted by the SegaSonic branding on one side of the bag.
It has a snap to close the top & 2 black simple carry handles. The art of Sonic is white on blue, line-art only. It uses the uncommon 'jumping down' stock art of him that never got used outside of Japan. He's pretty simple/cartoony looking in this one.
But look, he's got a speech bubble going and it is the victim of.....nonsense text pasting!
Nonsense text pasting usually happens when someone wants words from a language they don't understand as part of their design. Usually what they do is open a dictionary & just paste in something they flip to on a random page. Since the audience can't read it either....who's the wiser?
Well, the answer to that now is 'everyone' because the world's a lot more global so you can't get away with such a lazy tactic in design. But, what's worse, is they didn't snag part of the dictionary. It's even stranger than that. It says
"--nowitz: for he new novel, The Male Cross-Dresser / / into a forty second film to be shown as a / / TV and cable, and"

So, it wasn't even copied correctly, the 't' is missing of 'the' or an 'h' for 'her', and really? A novel about a "Male Cross Dresser" being condensed down to 40 seconds? That doesn't make sense either. But, to have Sonic saying those words incoherently is stranger still. Should this bag be on 'suspicious gear'? It's odd.

Clear Vinyl Sonic Tails Tall Tote Bag Now here's a cool bag!
This tall tote is made of fun clear vinyl. It has blue plastic carry straps, 1 snap to close the top & a blue bottom. Classic Sonic & Tails are printed in full color, quite large on the front of the bag. It's arms-cross Tails and hands on hips Sonic. The vinyl was quality too, as it has not yellowed at all despite the age. This probably appared around the time of Sonic 2.
Clear bags are a double-edge item: you can see what's in them for easy access, but then so does everyone else. However, Sonic & Tails look great with the clear background just because it is so unusual. If the design is within a layer of the bag so it can't be scratched, that would be better still, but it is impossible to tell in a photo.
Oval Metal Bento Box Sonic This is a Bento Box.
A Bento Box is a type of meal box that can be packed for lunch. However, it is not a lunch box (as those generally fit drinks & are meant for bagged food) This is meant to hold a little 'setting' of food like rice, veggies, fruits, meat & etc. Sometimes these are set up in a decorative way inside, because the lid is snug.
You can see many festive looking bentos in a search. What IS surprising is that with how common a Bento Box is in Japan, that there's not more Sonic themed ones, and that it took this long for this one to show up. The art here is obviously the "Sonic Screen Saver" art which was very quaint and classic. This has a scene from it, with little egg-o-matic Eggman in the background and the 'dont waste your precious time' quote on the street area.
The interior seems to have 1 separated area (so sauces etc. don't mix) & an interesting plastic item. What is the clear plastic thing toward the right side? It doesn't seem to be a spoon due to the odd shape. You can write in for credit if you know what this thing is.
Project Sonic Cube Stamp Here are 2 promotional items for "Project Sonic" on the Saturn. They are something that was most likely released together, probably at an event like a convention or Project Sonic Promo Stickers Set
trade show. The left item is an ink-pad type stamp. It stamps the logo, and the 'hand out' Sonic silouhette that's printed on the sides of the cube. The white thing at the bottom is likely to be its ink-pad and cover. This one, in the photo is likely to be especially uncommon because it is still unused, mint in the package.
The left item is a set of stickers for the project. You get 2 of each size, one black & the other reversed. There's also the Sega Saturn logo there as a sticker at the bottom. It's a pretty big sheet of them too, as you can tell by the tape measure there.
But what was Project Sonic?
It was an attempt to promote Sonic games even more, but with a focus on Japan-only. The Genesis games weren't as popular there as they wanted them to be (but they were super popular everywhere else) so they made up the Project Sonic to really ramp him up on the Saturn with awareness.
However, everyone knows the Saturn was kind of ill-fated and didn't have a mega-hit Sonic game on it like other systems had. That means this project was too. These items were likely from the start of the promotion at Tokyo Game Show 1997 which was also the year of Sonic Jam. (But remember, Jam was pretty much a re-compilation of previous games, and some 'goodies' like art and music as unlockable extras, it wasn't really a game in and of itself) The only other 2 games it got were Sonic R (Which was fine) and 3D Flickie's Island which was less than fine once all opinions came in.
Then, the whole thing got snuffed out by the Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure 1 which was the best game by far (out of those 4 games because 3D had slow Sonic, Jam wasn't a game, and R was fine but when you compared its graphics with SA1 (at the time--remember these 'opinions' are a product of the age of release) it didn't stand up and also it was a racer-only while SA1 was unprecedented in its plot thus-far in the series
So that's why you don't really hear about the project much, especially outside of Japan.
Wisp Theme File Folder Joypolis
Here is a better look at an item from 'joypolis shelf' photo earlier.
It is a Wisp theme file folder for school. It's a thicker plastic, probably slightly transparent item to keep your papers safe from bends. It has a colorful pattern of Sonic Colors Wisps all over it. You can even see included the dark/bad wisp too. Not all wisps are shown facing forward. The Sonic in the corner is cute, he's done in the cutie style that they labeled "Emoji Style", so he's simplified. Notice the lack of eye color and kind of a combo between modern & classic style. With simplified wisps, he looks right in place running along the cover. This is a cute and colorful folder which was only sold at Joypolis in Japan.
Black Vinyl Case Music Sonic Here is a "Vinyl Case"
Yeah but a vinyl case for what? CDs? This is a company photo so there's no telling how big it is & no hint about it other than its musical theme. It's all black, with a presumably stiff top part with the metal ring handle. The Sonic is blue line art only, and it is quite an unusual selection. Where else was this used? Can you think of a product? It shows him either kneeling or rising? while listening to music...ish, from headphones. He's got both hands over the headphones, but they are on the sides of his head rather than where his ears are. (Headphone is always made for humans to wear) He's got a music note speech bubble and an equalizer readout type background. This is an interesting case to see, no-matter what it is for.
Stylish Breifcase Style School Bag Sonic A stylish flap over case!
This is likely to be a breif-case style school bag...but it is quite stylish! It has a nearly 80s asthetic, with the radiating lines & choice of font for the Sonic word. It has a seldom-used but quite nice looking pose for stock Sonic, & the addition of leaping Tails there in the background is nice. It's also very 'segasonic', with the yellow sideways logo & it being reiterated in the fonts below him. It looks like it buckles shut, has a single handle on the top & is likely made of nylon canvas and maybe faux-leather?
This is quite a nice bag, and it looks like it is thick/quality with the stitching and textures you can see here.
Puyo Tote Bag Pixel Sonic Puyo Pixel Tote Trio Bag Pixel Puyos!
Sonic & Puyo Puyo are teaming up for Sega 60th Anniversary merchandise. These canvas tote bags with shoulder strap plus carry handle appear to have classic Sonic pixel art on them. The first bag has standing
Sonic, and the second has Sonic Tails & Knuckles sprites, all in a running pose. However, when you inspect them closely, the pixels are actually little colored puyos. (All the same one) This makes for a fun effect. The blue square is the "60th Sega" anniversary logo. The totes also feature a snap closure at the top. (Just 1 metal snap)
A4 Size Sheet Pixel Puyo Sonic Paper Here is probably either a paper cardstock or plastic A4 size sheet holder. You can see the thumb/grip crescent shape there on the edge so that you could pull the papers out of it. Like the other Sega 60th Anniversary team up items, the running classic Sonic sprite is composed of puyos as the pixels. The 'speech bubble shaped' area there gives a really good look at what it would be close up. You can see the 60th logo there in the bottom corner.
Sonic Eraser Pencil Set Collection Sonic & Tails Face Shape Erasers Here are 2 face erasers. These are the flat, shaped erasers that are made from cutting a long tube of material into slices. As you can see here, they're a good
quality, because they are thick. They're also fairly large, look at theri size as compared to the pencils in the photo to the left. It looks like they came by themselves, in some kind of 2-pack with a logo in the middle.
The Tails looks odd because the eyes are too high. They should be placed right at the edge of the lower-face-white area like how Sonic's are. But also notice they did catch the white between the hairs of his bangs...which makes that glaring eye mistake even wierder thing to mess up on.
The left photo shows items from other school supply packs, like the Sonic & Tails white pencils, the STK pearly finish white pencil (came in a pack too, seen elsewhere on gear) and the HB red pencils which had character names on them. There's a Dr. Eggman, and then...."Emmy"? That's right, in the VERY early days you could get Amy Rose spelled as Emmy Rose because the Japanese letter that starts her name just goes "Eeh", (kind of) and there isn't a letter for "Aaayy" to make it specific when converting it into English letters. (Why not mess up Eggman too then? He couldn't, because he's literally 2 pre-existing words & not just a regular human name.) Discovered by: Reddit IThinkSonicIsCool