Sonic the Hedgehog LEGO set takes us back to where it all began

Earlier this year, LEGO announced that it had greenlit Sonic the Hedgehog LEGO set that was submitted by a fan through the LEGO Ideas platform. The set aimed to recreate Green Hill Zone from Sonic Mania for the franchise’s 30th anniversary. Fast forward nearly a year, and Sega has officially revealed the final Green Hill Zone LEGO set, and it looks quite a bit different from the LEGO Ideas set that was approved back in February.

Image: LEGO

For starters, the LEGO set that was announced today doesn’t seem to be based on the stage as it was in Sonic Mania. Instead, this appears to be the original Green Hill Zone from the very first Sonic the Hedgehog game. The set clocks in at 1,125 pieces and recreates a stretch of the original Green Hill Zone, complete with a loop-de-loop, some palm trees, and even a few Badniks (as the enemies in Sonic the Hedgehog were called back then) like Crabmeat and Motobug.

The set was originally submitted to LEGO Ideas by 24-year-old Viv Grannell from the UK. The original pitch included Dr. Eggman’s giant walking robot and two of the EggRobo enemies from Sonic Mania, along with detached sections of Green Hill Zone.

Image: LEGO

By comparison, this finished set drops the robot and puts Eggman in his familiar Egg Mobile ship. There are also no EggRobos in sight, so anything tying this set to Sonic Mania seems to be gone. According to LEGO, the set comes with ten ring boxes and four different TV screens displaying several power-ups from Sonic the Hedgehog – invincibility, super speed, shield, and 1-Up. There’s even a spring mechanism that can shoot Sonic into the air thanks to the help of a Technic lever.

LEGO even says that this is a modular set, which means it can be connected to other Green Hill Zone sets and may suggest that LEGO plans to introduce more Sonic the Hedgehog sets in the future. That hasn’t been confirmed at the time of this writing, but considering that LEGO has released several Super Mario sets, we could see the same happen for Sonic the Hedgehog.

Image: LEGO

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen our pal Sonic the Hedgehog in LEGO form. While this is the first official Sonic the Hedgehog set, the blue blur was featured in the video game LEGO Dimensions and had a minifigure in his likeness as a result. LEGO Dimensions, like Skylanders or Disney Infinity, was a game where players could scan NFC figures – in this case, LEGO minifigures on an NFC stand – and play as those characters in-game.

In any case, this Sonic the Hedgehog set will be here before we know it. LEGO announced today that the Sonic the Hedgehog Green Hill Zone Set – as it’s officially called – will be launching in LEGO Stores and on the company’s website on New Year’s Day. The set will run $69.99, so it’s fairly middle-of-the-road in terms of pricing. We’ll see if LEGO announces more Sonic sets in the future, but for now, look for this one to launch this weekend.