TSS Review: Sonic The Hedgehog Bath Balls

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOhirStDZWU

Product Purchased By Author.

Today we’ll be taking a look at the Sonic Bath Balls, a charming little toy/cosmetic product which was released in Japan earlier this year. The above video contains footage of what it’s like to actually use one, so if you’re curious to see what the effect it has on water as well as human skin check it out.

Not Quite Blind Bags…

So the idea is, you buy a bag at random and then take a bath with the bath bomb. As the bomb dissolves you are left with your toy. Typically, these blind bag toys have no clues as to what’s inside them unless you weigh them.

Well this is where things get interesting, because these blind bags do have an identifier! Each bag has a code printed on the back, there are 5 different codes which relate to the different characters. Each code ends with the following combinations.

• 005A = Sonic
• 005B = Amy
• 005E = Shadow
• 005C = Tails
• 005D = Knuckles

So it’s completely possible to get a full set of these without ever buying a single duplicate!

Blue Bubblegum

Even before I opened the individual bags, there was a noticeable smell coming from the retail box. Upon opening a bag and unwrapping the first bomb it really kicked in. I can’t really say for certain what the smell was, but it reminded me a lot of those old bubblegum flavour pop drinks you used to see kinds in schools drinking a lot. Or like how back in the 90’s the most exotic flavour of ice-cream you could find was that blue bubblegum flavour.

So if you want to smell of bubblegum, these are a must.

Turns The Water (And Your Skin) Blue!

If you want to see what happens when you actually drop one of these into water, skip to 8:30 in the video posted at the top of this article.

Watching the ball slowly dissolve in the water, the liquid quickly turned a deep blue colour with a lighter blue foam over the top. Only, it’s not just the water it turns blue, it also changes your skin a noticeable blue colour. You might at this point be thinking ‘does it wash off?’ Well… no, not completely.

The blue colour remains on your skin for a while, even if you rub your hands with soap and water you won’t get it completely off.

It makes me wonder how many people got these and just threw them in the bath with themselves. At least they’ll get an audition at the Blue Man Group if that did occur.

Toys in The Tub

The actual toy itself is… Surprising high quality and really well made! Out of the 5 figures I’ve got, all 5 are nearly flawless, no paint errors, no build errors, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them.

The level of detail on them is also surprisingly high. Shadow actually has his jets carved into the sole of his shoes, Amy’s eye lashes are painted correctly and there is no sign of paint bleeding at all.

Even very small details like eye pupil colour, there is no sign of paint bleeding or errors on any of the toys.

They’re also quite durable, they remind me a lot of the old Monster in My Pockets, you can squish them a little but they’re not going to break unless you twist and pull them violently.

10/10 Too Much Water

This is one of the most surprising products of the year, I was expecting the toys to be really low quality, lots of paint errors, poor build construction with no way to tell what figure was inside each bag.

Instead, these are some of the best quality toys I’ve seen for a long time. Given their size and cost you would expect these to be very low end toys. But the opposite is the case, the quality is very high and is supported by a keen attention to detail.

Over here in the west the closest thing I can think of to compare these too if we go by price point and concept would be the Tomy Gacha toys. The difference is night and day, Tomy’s Gacha toys often feel and look very cheap, fall apart with ease and have a lot of paint errors, whereas in Japan’s product does more and is putting the western offerings to shame.

Definitely recommend these if you can still find them. Just beware turning yourself blue.