Sonic the Hedgehog Cover Art Curiosity!

[sparf]

Hey,

So I was looking through my collection and I noticed something really kind of funny! If you look at the box art for Sonic 2, you'll see that like many anthropomorphic cartoon characters, Sonic has only 4 fingers. One thumb, and 3 other digits. Take a very close look at Sonic 3's art. He's holding up 3 fingers...and still has one in reserve. Clearly he grew fingers due to repeated exposure to Chaos Emerald radiation.

[Zoe F]

Ah, yeah, well, whenever you notice something like that, a wizard did it.

[JSoup]

Generally when you see things like that, the problem is you've got way too much free time and are noticing stupid crap.

[IHatedSega]

Chill out jsoup.


Thats weird Sonic doesnt have a pinky finger, when Bob The Builder was imported to Japan they had to edit his hands since he didnt have pinkies and kids were freaking out because The Yakuza cut their fingers for different things.

Maybe because hes an animal they dont freak out? Haha, Sonic a Yakuza Speed dealer would be funny.

[GiguFusc]

That's a pretty good spot mate. These days, for a game character to do something like grow a finger, you need permission from about 50 different people including everyone from marketing, sales, design, production and the higher up bosses! Would never happen today.

[sparf]

I have to say, jSoup, that's a pretty hostile response for an innocent discovery. I mean, we're sitting on a forum chatting about video games that are 10, 20, even 30 years old at this point. I'd say we all have a fair bit of free time. Besides, who hasn't noticed odd things when researching stuff for their collections?

I don't know if I've somehow offended you but if I have, please accept my apology.

[sparf]

Mistakes slip through all the time, even today. I just thought it was kind of neat. It took me about ten seconds to check since Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 are side by side on my shelf.

I actually noticed it while looking up old game literature on eBay. One particular Sega Visions magazine has the Sonic 3 cover, which is where I spotted it while zoomed in to check the magazine's condition in the photo. (I had a habit back in the day of not picking up game magazines besides Nintendo Power, so I'm going back to see what I missed out on).

[SpaceFlea]

You're mistaken. He has five digits in Sonic 2 (the thumb is hidden under his arm and only his four fingers on top are visible) just as he does in Sonic 1, 3 and every other Sonic game on every console (except Spinball - where he only has four - likely caused by a tragic flipper accident). Dr. Robotnik on the other hand (no pun intended) only has four digits on the games where he is depicted (Sonic 2, Spinball and Mean Bean Machine).

[JSoup]

chill out jsoup.

NEVER. BRWAKAKAKAKKAKAKLKJ;PJFLKJLD!

And so on.

[Cornelius]

Ah, yeah, well, whenever you notice something like that, a wizard did it.

Three cheers for this post.

[sparf]

You're mistaken. He has five digits in Sonic 2 (the thumb is hidden under his arm and only his four fingers on top are visible) just as he does in Sonic 1, 3 and every other Sonic game on every console (except Spinball - where he only has four - likely caused by a tragic flipper accident). Dr. Robotnik on the other hand (no pun intended) only has four digits on the games where he is depicted (Sonic 2, Spinball and Mean Bean Machine).

Ah, what a shame. But good spot on the Spinball one!

in the SatAM cartoon he's got 4. Maybe that's where my memory is sticking images from.

[Nz17]

Believe it or not, but the 4 finger versus 5 finger thing was a MAJOR STORY EVENT in the U.S. Archie Sonic comics. Yes, it is true!

The first "humans" introduced in the comic were the Overlanders such as Robotnik which have only four fingers. Later, when Sonic Adventure was released, it was pointed out that Station Square was inhabited by humans with five fingers. Later, with the releases of Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog (the game), this concept was expanded to include neighboring human-inhabited cities from those games, all of which collectively make up the "United Federation."

By why would there be both humanoids with four and humanoids with five? Perhaps you might think that it would be a simple explanation like a small genetic mutation. Wrong! The answer, /of course/, is aliens! Aliens which dropped a series of huge animal-gene-targeting bombs on the planet because humans killed one of the alien's kind. That's right, trillions of other lives lost for only one loss of their own.

The bombs killed most animal lifeforms including humans. However what life remained mutated radically into the bipedal, talking animals there today... plus humans with either five fingers per hand or the more aggressive, humanoid Overlanders which have four fingers per hand. Then the aliens returned much later to make sure they killed life on that planet for really reals the second time by using a solar-system-destroying bomb, only to have their plans foiled by Sonic running really fast. Which zapped Sonic across the universe... to the inside of a spaceship... 5,094,000,000,000,000,000 miles away... which contained friendly aliens and a breathable atmosphere... who helped him get back home... which he did after he found Tails's parents on another alien world... and all occurred in the span of one year from the time he left.

The writers from that time no longer work for the company.

[Rickstilwell1]

Chill out jsoup.


Thats weird Sonic doesnt have a pinky finger, when Bob The Builder was imported to Japan they had to edit his hands since he didnt have pinkies and kids were freaking out because The Yakuza cut their fingers for different things.

Maybe because hes an animal they dont freak out? Haha, Sonic a Yakuza Speed dealer would be funny.

In before someone hacks the Yakauza games and replaces the main character with Sonic.

[JSoup]

Believe it or not, but the 4 finger versus 5 finger thing was a MAJOR STORY EVENT in the U.S. Archie Sonic comics. Yes, it is true!

The first "humans" introduced in the comic were the Overlanders such as Robotnik which have only four fingers. Later, when Sonic Adventure was released, it was pointed out that Station Square was inhabited by humans with five fingers. Later, with the releases of Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog (the game), this concept was expanded to include neighboring human-inhabited cities from those games, all of which collectively make up the "United Federation."

By why would there be both humanoids with four and humanoids with five? Perhaps you might think that it would be a simple explanation like a small genetic mutation. Wrong! The answer, /of course/, is aliens! Aliens which dropped a series of huge animal-gene-targeting bombs on the planet because humans killed one of the alien's kind. That's right, trillions of other lives lost for only one loss of their own.

The bombs killed most animal lifeforms including humans. However what life remained mutated radically into the bipedal, talking animals there today... plus humans with either five fingers per hand or the more aggressive, humanoid Overlanders which have four fingers per hand. Then the aliens returned much later to make sure they killed life on that planet for really reals the second time by using a solar-system-destroying bomb, only to have their plans foiled by Sonic running really fast. Which zapped Sonic across the universe... to the inside of a spaceship... 5,094,000,000,000,000,000 miles away... which contained friendly aliens and a breathable atmosphere... who helped him get back home... which he did after he found Tails's parents on another alien world... and all occurred in the span of one year from the time he left.

And then all that "humans have this many fingers, overlanders have this many fingers" crap was forgotten. Or at least didn't remain consistent in the art.

The writers from that time no longer work for the company.

While Ken Penders being gone is pretty good, Karl Bollers is somewhat missed by the fandom. His story execution aside, he really does know how to pull some wild ideas out of his ass and make them fun to read.

[SEGA_Queen]

Karl Bollers is somewhat missed by the fandom. His story execution aside, he really does know how to pull some wild ideas out of his ass and make them fun to read.

Yeah, some of his early stuff was good. But later he started writing stuff that made the characters seem very OOC. (Sonic as a playboy, The infamous "slap" scene, etc.)

Near the end of their time on the book, both Penders and Bollers pretty much ran it into the ground.

[Nz17]

I like to think that in a storm of camaraderie, all the Overlanders and humans put their differences aside and joined to gather into one society.

[JSoup]

I like to think that in a storm of camaraderie, all the Overlanders and humans put their differences aside and joined to gather into one society.

Might be something like that going on. I want to say that I remember seeing this during the Sonic Adventure saga and much later in the early issues of Sonic Universe that Station Square and G.U.N. do not discriminate as far as members go.

[SEGA_Queen]

I like to think that in a storm of camaraderie, all the Overlanders and humans put their differences aside and joined to gather into one society.

Actually, that's pretty much what happened. When the overlanders first came back to Mobius, Eggman invited them to live in Robotropolis. But once Eggman's true nature was revealed, they joined the rest of humanity in the United Federation.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I thought the different number of fingers was due to some cultural stuff in Japan?

[Nz17]

I thought the different number of fingers was due to some cultural stuff in Japan?

Actually it was Walt Disney -> Osamu Tazuka -> animation industry -> animation rebellion -> tradition continued in the game industry.

Long story short, it was easier and cheaper for Walt's animators to draw four digits instead of five (less to track, less to draw, time saved and thus money saved). Osamu Tazuka, the "father" of the Japanese comic and animation industries, copied the Western style. Years later, he got to ask Walt's men why they drew only four. Got the answer, didn't like it, and from then on all he created had five digits per hand. However it was too late by then as most of the Western and Japanese animation industry were following suit with the four finger fad. This continued onward in the comics and animation industries of the world for years, but has slowly been fading out due to old animators/creatives being replaced with new ones. But it affected the game industry too which is why so many video game characters have or had four metacarpals instead of the usual biological five.