Ideas set #039: Sonic the Hedgehog

With the recent release of the second Sonic movie  in theaters, I thought this would be a good time to show this need little gem... or gems, as the case  may be. XD   That being said, however, I must ask that you not spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

A good while ago, one  pitch that had come to Lego Ideas was one based on the Sonic games. This one featuring a built diorama of the iconic Green Hill zone from the first game, a minifigure of Sonic, complete with all seven chaos emeralds, and brick-built  versions of Dr. Robotnik and two of his badnik machines. Though this one one underwent a lot of changes- the original pitch was based more on Sonic Mania, which feature  a large mech  based on the  the boss for this stage in Mania, and instead of the regular baddies, there were two of the doctor's  hard-boiled heavies.

One minor gripe I have about Ideas sets become official is sometimes they undergo radical changes compared to the original- depending on how they're handled, it could either be very good, or very bad.   For this one, though, the idea of going with one based on Green Hill was not too surprising. the left side even has a miniature-HUD homage with a life counter. A nice little touch if you played the games from the 16-bit era.   While there were lots of small pieces, they all added to enhance the detail- from the brown checkerboard pattern of the  earth, the greens, and  the tree- I liked how they used the recent shield tiles for the leaves. Transparent pieces were used to recreate the rings  and platform floating in mid-air, and the spring pad has a minor launching feature  to "spring" Sonic to the the top of the loop (last I recalled, that was called a "Mobius Strip, " but I could be wrong). On top are two monitors containing power-ups. The screens could be swapped out if you wanted different ones (in this case, the 10-ring and the 1-up)   The checkpoint next to the loop can be turned- while it doesn't loop clockwise as it usually would, it works nicely, all the same.

The badniks, while small, came together really nicely- they can be set anywhere to try and get in Sonic's way. As for Robotnik, I feel a slight bit iffy about teh build for the doctor himself- though I think they went with the more rounded version of his design- the arms are a bit iffy around the shoulders- I do like the legs- they made them spindly. The mustache, though a bit basic, serves its purpose. It does, however work in terms of scale since Robotnik is bigger than Sonic.  I liked putting the Egg Mobile together- I tired doing a MOC one a few months ago, but could never get it to feel right in terms of scale to the minifigures. The use  of transparent bricks to create the flight  distance is really good.. though I my need to consider adding the ball-and-chain, if I can find a way to make it work.  
I'm musing over doing custom builds for use with the Egg Mobile, though. I'd have to make those modular so that whenever Sonic "beats" Robotnik, he can fly away...  though now I kinda wish this set also included an "angry" head for Robotnik, since he ends up a little charred and scorched before flying away like a heavy chicken, but that's just me, I suppose.


All in all, This is a really  nice set, doesn't take up too much space, and looks to be fairly open- the ends have points you can connect with other things. I know some people are  doing MOC (my own creations) sets based other zones like Marble Hill and Chemical Plant.


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Sonic belongs to Sega