Great Eastern Entertainment unveils Sonic 2006’s Mephiles, Whisper, Emerl and more as plushies
Just as a flower comes from a seed, or a chicken comes from an egg, everything has an origin. That origin today being Great Eastern Entertainment, manufacturers of a variety of Sonic merchandise, who have announced that a host of more, shall we say, ‘obscure’ characters from the beloved franchise are hitting shelves in plush, cuddly form.
As NintendoWire reports, the new curtain call includes such faces as Whisper the Wolf, introverted sniper of IDW comics fame; Emerl, a reprogrammed Gizoid robot who dotes on Cream the Rabbit; and Mephiles the Dark, main antagonist of the legendary Sonic 2006, who marks his first ‘official’ appearance here in some time after fans largely thought he’d been memory holed out of existence. Given a one-way ticket to oblivion, you might say. After all, at the risk of not only beating but utterly desecrating a certain deceased equine, it’s probably not a title SEGA are overly keen to revisit.
And yet, here come GEE with a new soft toy of the villain, proving that the company hasn’t totally purged their records of that event. Oh, how ironic fate can be. I would never have imagined Mephiles would be resurrected through their toyline. Just look at him, the edgy little blighter:
Am I excited for these plushies? The answer’s yes… and no. On one hand, it’s cool to see some lesser known characters being dragged into the limelight after years of the usual suspects – Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, et al – hogging all the plastic glory. However, the need for all the characters (some from totally disparate art styles) to maintain a homogenous look across the whole range leads to some awkward proportioning; Emerl in particular looks like he’s been sat on, and Whisper appears to have planks for hands. These might just be prototype issues, though, so it remains to be seen whether they’ll persist in the final products.
It does seem like they’re taking the nostalgia angle for this line, which is all good and fine, but sadly such marketing won’t work on me. The ‘I’ of now has more willpower than the me of the past. What may have worked 10 years ago… no longer does.
Pay me no heed, though. I’m just a cynical old fart – there’s lots to be excited about here for fans of the franchise, and it’s certainly nice to see SEGA willing to acknowledge the entire Sonic back catalogue. The plushies will doubtless be available for order soon, so buyers: it’s now or never if you want this.
Are you excited by this news? Will you be travelling back in time and picking up a Mephiles plush? And did you pick up on the utterly ridiculous running gag in this article? Let us know!
Via, NintendoWire.
