SEGA has signed a fresh merchandising deal to get new figures made based on a range of their franchises – including Sonic. The collaboration has been made with toy company Racing Champions, via their newly-formed JoyRide Studios group, as well as games magazine GamePro whose association will allow the figures to come included with “codes, strategies and cheats” for certain games.
Racing Champions intend to create products based on Sonic the Hedgehog, Virtua Fighter 4, Super Monkey Ball and Crazy Taxi among others. The toys aim to hit the shops in North America by July 2002 and will be branded under a “GamePro Presents” line. Here’s a bit from that press release.
According to Peter Henseler, President of JoyRide Studios and of Racing Champions, “Over the years, Sega has constantly pushed the game industry to new heights. We are thrilled about the opportunity to create collectible figures and vehicles based on some of Sega’s most popular new and existing game titles. With Racing Champions reputation for quality and Sega’s reputation for cutting edge, we believe this licensing agreement will help expand our new Joyride Studios’ product category into the multi-billion dollar video game market.”
“Sega has become one of the most recognized video game characters and franchises in the world,” said Mike Fischer, Vice President of Entertainment Marketing, Sega of America. “Working together with Racing Champions and Joyride Studios, we can deliver high quality collectible figures and vehicles to game fans everywhere.”
Via CoreMagazine