Usually, with Sonic the Hedgehog toylines, the villains go rather underrepresented. In the past, the most we've really gotten are figures of Dr. Eggman, a tiny handful of robots, and in more recent years, Metal Sonic. Jakks Pacific has seemingly made it a point to correct this. Ever since obtaining the Sonic license they've been going out of their way to produce an increasingly large selection of robot figures, including one of Eggman's most memorable creations, the Death Egg Robot. Now though, they've really outdone themselves, by being the first company ever to produce a game-accurate, modular Egg Mobile. As any Sonic fan could quickly tell you, Dr. Eggman's Egg Mobile is iconic. I don't think there's ever been a Sonic game where we haven't seen him piloting some variant of it. Despite this, over the years we've gotten very little of it in terms of physical media. A couple statues, and a single underwhelming figure accessory from Tomy's Sonic Boom spin-off toyline, but nothing as amazing as what Jakks has done here. This playset includes the basic Egg Mobile, along with new variants of the 2.5" Eggman and Sonic figures. The basic Egg Mobile is styled after its appearance in Sonic 1, and comes with a slew of detachable accessories to allow it to take on the form of loads of different bosses. These include the wrecking ball boss from Green Hill Zone, the Egg Digger boss from Mystic Cave Zone, and the Egg Hammer boss from Aquatic Ruin Zone. All of these are bosses from Sonic 1 & 2, so no bosses from Sonic 3&K are represented here-- but considering the slew of included parts and the size of the box as it is, that's quite alright. To go along with this, there's also a large base and a transparent stand that connects to it, meant to hold the Egg Mobile aloft to mimic its flight capabilities from the games. Each of the different modes have different moving parts. The wrecking ball connects with a plastic chain, allowing it to swing around, the drills that connect to the sides of the Egg Mobile can spin, the hammer that connects to the front can pivot up and down, and the helicopter blades you connect to the top, naturally, can rotate. All of this is so faithful to how these appear in the video games that it's honestly just delightful. And, of course, there's nothing stopping you from mixing and matching-- you can have the wrecking ball, drills, hammer, and helicopter blades connected all at once to create Sonic's greatest challenge yet! Similarly to Jakks Pacific's previously released Death Egg Robot playset, this has some amusing additional functionality. You can "defeat" Eggman by pressing down on the windshield-- doing this will make all the extra parts harmlessly pop off and send Eggman bouncing out of the driver's seat! Collectors might want to avoid this, as the parts falling off and hitting the floor could, over time, chip their paint, but for kids this sounds like a really fun way to replicate the boss fights from the video games! Lastly, there's the new variants of the Sonic & Eggman figures. The Eggman figure is only slightly different from the previously released 2.5" Eggman-- his knees are bent slightly, and he's got grooves sculpted into the bottom of his waist to allow for a wider range of movement, obviously so that the figure can actually be seated in the Egg Mobile. Sonic on the other hand is significantly different, with a totally new head sculpt and determined expression on his face. The body of the figure however seems to be identical to the previously released version of the 2.5" Sonic figure, the one that comes with the Flying Battery Zone playset. To be honest, I don't think there's much to criticize with this playset. I know that if I was a kid, I would've absolutely lost my mind to have something like this. It's just so cool. If you're a big Sonic fan or know a big Sonic fan, I really can't recommend it enough! It's easily one of the greatest things Jakks Pacific has done to date.
