Sonic the Hedgehog Cards Title
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Sonic Trading Cards Page 2
Sonic the Hedgehog is not a really obvious choice for trading cards, especially in the early days without very many characters. However, that didn't stop Topps from making two sets. These were released in 1993, at about the same time. They came in wrapped packs, and you probably had to trade to get all of them. You can see all of the cards on this page.
Looking for the Sonic X card battling game? That is on Page 2. They are based on Sonic X, and it is actually some type of game you can play, to try and get 3 emerald cards.
Stock Art card front photos first 9 First 9 trading cards backs
Ah, nice big scans! These are direct from the Sonic Gear collection. If you turn your head sideways, you can even read the backs. As you can see, this first set is comprised of stock arts and title screen captures. What does it say in the corner? "Peel". These are also stickers. The backs are conveniently numbered for your collecting ease. These are shown in a Trading Card plastic slip cover (with binder holes) probably by Fleer or Topps.
Second set 9 card fronts It should be noted that these follow the old (And bogus) story that Sonic turned blue by running too fast, and Robotnic was once good, and desired to bury the evil chaos emeralds, but he dropped one and merged with his raw egg while Sonic was on a treadmill. So he blamed Sonic and wants to beat him with animal robots. Yea. Makes sense...in BIZZARRO WORLD. Card backs 10 through 16 with story
In the beginning, no one really had an official explanation for WHY anything was like it is in the games. So different companies just kind of made up anything they could think of at the time, yeilding like 4 origens for Sonic, none of which were cannon anyway.
Notice the edge of the cards. This is a "Flick-It" flip book style animation where the stock art goes through several stock poses before 'running off''.
Eggman & Robotnic on third set of 9 Another curiosity with these cards is they show both versions of Eggman and Robotnik. You can see the "Anti-Japan-ed" one on the 'rotten egg' card, but the rest are regular eggmans.

See the "Super Sonic" card? Too bad he's not shown for real, although SS DID exist at the time these were made. They just didn't have a 'freebie' art to use of him.

Trading card backs 19 to 27
Also note:
Flying walrus in top card.
You can also watch the slow degradation of the stock Tails (center card) as it becomes more and more mutated.
Last 6 cards of first set No, the bottom row isn't cut off, that's just how the animation ends. The center bottom card is an unusual one. Cards 28 thru 33 backs, end of flip animation
Somewhere with these cards (and maybe the following set) are supposed to be special cards. They were billed as "Holograms", but they aren't. They are more of a silver foil type deal, with designs you can only see by tilting them in the light. There are presumeably 6 of these, all different. However, they are SO rare. The normal cards being as scarce as these are, means their foils are nearly impossible to get.

Of course...if you have some, sending in scans/photos is really recommended! These large scans are a courtesy for the zillions of fans who don't have the cards, and can't be expected to buy them, as there aren't any left. This set was aquired when a large Sonic collection was liquidated over a Newsgroup. *Do you remember what a newsgroup was? You can look it up.

9 screenshot & stock art mixed trading cards The second set of cards is somewhat less impressive. All they did was take screencaps of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 for the Genisis, and add in really poor stock art. It is often mis-used, wrongly sized, misplaced or just inappropriate. The sprites would have looked better.

The backs have various profiles (not really) for the different robots, and little tips for the games. Some are useful, and some are rather obvious, but that is to be expected.

Sonic the hedgehog game tips backs
Sonic 1 & 2 Screenshots trading cards Enemy robot profile & tips card backs They were going for a classy look, with a nice font to label each level, and they could've done it without the stock art. Why is Tails laying down in the water fall? Why is the special stage called "Warp of Confusion"?
Even more cards Some of the profiles are useful (EX: Rexxon has a riddle which implies you can stand on the body once you kill the head) but others are downright funny (Clucker "Oh no a chicken with a mission--beware!") It also claims Grabber (spider from chem plant) is 'unpopular'. Umm ok. And that you race Aquis (sea horse in Oil Ocean) But aquis rarely moves, except to shoot a single pellet as you pass. Not so helpful hints & profiles
Last 6 normal cards from set 2 There are 31 regular cards in the screenshot series. The foil cards added 6 more to the total count. Last 6 card backs from set 2
Finally appearing! A foil card. As you can see this is 3 of 6. To create the effect, this card is simply printed on the rainbow-foil bits type paper. They've chosen the "Sonic on a bridge" stock scene, common around the GameGear Sonic releases. What's the border? The card is actually inside a special plastic case for these photos, due to its rarity. Card photographed and owned by: Jeremy Hatfield
With the addition of these other 2 cards, it appears that they've used the same sparkle/foil type paper throughout the set. This stuff is notoriously hard to photo/scan, as the real effect is achieved by turning it in the light, but you can still grasp it here. Card #1 (left) has a quite similar (if not the same) running stock
Sonic that the #3 above has, only this time, there's no background. Still, the 'after image' looks neat when seen through the foil cardstock. The #2 has the familiar Sonic 2 logo with wierd Eggman/Robotnick hybrid grabbin' background. The foil effect here enhances the "2" as well as the ground. It appears that all the backs of these are the same, and numbered. Both these cards photographed and owned by Scott Simms
Here, the Sonic 2 card really stands out. The foil effect is really super going through the water and sky around the Sonic 2 logo, as well as in the word really helping it shine. The logo is also quite well done, using direct Japanese art so everyone's quite on model and not stale looking. This was a prime design to put on a foil The left card is #4 and the right card is #6.
Card 6 isn't nearly as impressive. This is the seen-it-a-billion-times standing 1 finger Sonic. It's nicely shaded and everything, but it doesn't really put the foil to use or act creative in any way. It does, however, illustrate that where they put the heavy ink, no foil comes through at all. Both above photos by Scott Simms.
This is card 5, and it's pretty good too. It uses the foil to good effect inside the 2, and the "I'm new here" peeking Tails coming from behind it used some good art. Again, the card isn't yellow like this, it's rainbow like all the other ones, it's just how they scan. Card is in the collection of: TJ Kitsune
Topps Card Packaging Here is the package that you would have seen when buying a pack of these trading cards from the Sonic 2 set. You can see the Topps logo, suggested retail price of 50 cents, and it says "Includes Sonic 2 Tips" and "Cards & Stickers" with randomly inserted added, of course. The fine print mentions 2 foil cards are randomly inserted in 2 out of 36 packs. Cards like this (and most all trading cards) were blind-packed.
The package art leaves some to be desired, with random tiny Tails art placed on top of where Sonic's feet are 'running', and a random white cloud all in the background. You can see poor Tails was on his way to mutating here, being colored brown & with the less-cute art. Photo by WrongButtonGames
Topps Sonic Cards Case Box Set Here's what the Topps cards packs would have looked like when they were on display for sale in the store. The middle photo is the open cardboard box that's the case that holds the 36 packs. The top was opened & customers would pick packs out. The bottom is the 'wrapper' for the case which has the
copyright details & 'prism' liklihood (which is mandated to be printed on stuff like this for legal reasons) The rate is 2 prisms (means holo, foil) cards per every 36 packs. So, the ratio to get one of these is really low. Each card pack there has 8 cards total...but they usually only sold for 0.75 cents or so. (So it wasn't a super ripoff) Notice the card package still sealed (above right side) is different from the one in the entry above. This one is an earlier edition. Photos by Hedgy
Sonic Trading Cards Page 2