A long time ago I had trouble beating a boss named Squeamy on the old Sega Master System game known as Alien Syndrome. I retold the story about how one night I finally defeated Squeamy only to have the power go out before I could prove it to my brother and ended up winning Poe Ghostal's Sonic Action Figure Contest. As a result I got Jazzwares Jazwares new Sonic the Hedgehog Black Knight figure.



I've never played the Wii Sonic & The Black Knight but I was excited to get my hands on one of these 3 inch figures. I was reading on Jazwares site, where ironically I learned that Jazwares is spelled with one Z (learn something new every day) that these are supposedly 3 3/4 figures. I have a problem with that though. None of the figures are over 3 inches, so this is a 3 inch line.

Even though I've never played the game this Sonic came from, I'm an old school Sonic fan and how can I not review something that's free? So big props to Poe Ghostal for the contest and for picking me as the winner. I like this Sonic figure alright... But he's got one major issue with him that makes me glad I didn't pay for him.

Packaging:
The package is attractive enough with some colors and logos similar to the old Sonic games. Sonic himself is nicely displayed in the package and you can see him pretty good before you open him. His sword is also clearly displayed.



The back of the package shows off three cartoon pictures of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. These are also the other figures in the series, but Jazwares might should actually say that... Plus where's my obligatory "collect em' all?"! It's almost like Jazwares cheapened out on the back of the package and considering that Sonic has a full line of 3 inch, 6 inch and 10 inch figures plus some Mighty Mugg ripoffs that it'd make sense to advertise all their product.

Articulation:
Ol' Sonic has a metric ton of articulation. Which is really surprising because this figure is tiny. He has peg post style joints at the elbows and legs. These aren't peg post ball joints, but they emulate the same movement. He has swivel neck, waist, hands and feet. As well as elbow and knee joints. It's plenty of movement for such a small frame.


You can get Sonic into a ton of poses although he has a lot of issues standing because of his giant noggin. I also had a couple of joints that were REALLY tight and because the figure is so small I was afraid I was going to rip his arms and legs off trying to unstick them... However none broke so I guess he's sturdy enough.


This guy is a lot of fun to pose and I have no doubt I'll pick up the rest of this series now. It's just a cute little set of figures and they're relatively cheap and poseable. I may end up making my own peg holes like Poe Ghostal did though.

Sculpt:
The sculpt is nice and they've captured Sonic's head which is the most important part. The thin limbs with all the articulation does look a bit choppy, but since it allows Sonic to get into most of his patented poses it's forgiveable.


This version of Sonic is the "Knight" version so he has a special sculpted Knight's gauntlet on one hand. It's a weird thing, but it looks pretty good. That's the only thing that separates this figure from the regular Sonic.


Ah, but all good things must come to an end. Notice anything funny about Sonic's left hand? It's on wrong. See this hand should be on the other arm. Actually... This hand shouldn't be on Sonic at all. I managed to get a bum Sonic with the wrong hand on his arm. This lets me know that they assemble the Black Knight Sonic and the regular Sonic in the same part of the factory because my Sonic has the right hand of a regular Sonic on his left hand. It doesn't look terrible, but it doesn't look good either. Since I didn't buy this guy in stores I can't take him back. Although had I noticed this before I opened him I might would have went to Toys R Us and pulled the ol' switcheroo.


Other than that Sonic is nicely sculpted and painted pretty well. He's not amazing or anything but for a $5-6 toy he's pretty good. There are definitely worse looking toys out there in this price range.


He works out to be just about as tall as Jazwares Astro Boy from that line of toys. So if you want to have him cross over, you can. Hopefully we can get a Dr. Robotnik!

Accessories:
None of the other figures come with accessories, but Black Knight Sonic comes with a sword. I'm guessing that's King Arthur's sword based on a little research I did on the game. I don't know how accurate it looks to the game but I'm guessing it's pretty close. It has a fair amount of painted and sculpted detail.


Oddly enough it doesn't fit in Sonic's hand that great. It does fit, but it's pretty loose and floppy. I'd really like all these figures to come with peg holes and a stand. It just makes good sense considering the design... But such is life.



Value:
It seems like only Toys R Us has these in stores. They run at about $5 I believe. That's a pretty great value these days even for a small toy like this. Everything is going up, so it's nice to see a quality toy with some fun value for both collectors and kids at a reasonable price. Unfortunately you need to be careful and make sure you don't get one with the wrongs hands on the arms.


Run Sonic, Run!

Score Recap:
Packaging - 6
Sculpting - 6
Articulation - 7
Accessories - Sword
Value - 7
Overall - 6 out of 10

I'm grading this as if I bought it myself. If I'd paid the money for it, I would have been severely displeased that he had the wrong hand. Believe it or not that's the first time I've ever had a toy with a wrong limb or one on backwards. So I'm knocking the score down to a 6. However if his hand wasn't messed up he'd be a 7. I think the toys are probably pretty good and I may end up picking up some others to review.


"BY THE POWER OF EMERALD HILL ZONE 1!"
Thanks again to Poe Ghostal and big thanks to Squeamy for being such a badass.