Super Sonic’s speed sphere smashes into Shadow's summer set! There’s no shortage of big vehicles in the LEGO range, but this substantial enemy machine is robust, exciting and supplemented with a good range of smaller items. Gather your chaos emeralds and let’s check out this super set!
Summary
76999 Super Sonic vs. Egg Drillster, 590 pieces.
£69.99 / $79.99 / €79.99 | 11.9p/13.6c/13.6c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
This set boasts a fun vehicle with nostalgic details and a coveted minifigure for fans to collect.
- Action-packed
- Reasonably substantial
- Great colour scheme
- Part of an expensive theme
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Minifigures
Super Sonic is Sonic the Hedgehog’s super state transformation. This yellow ultimate form is granted through harnessing the power of the seven chaos emeralds.
The head here is not just a recolour of either Sonic or Shadow’s head moulds—this piece is entirely new, dedicated just to Super Sonic. It’s narrower like Sonic’s, but points upwards like Shadow’s. We can’t be sure how much of a premium fans are paying for this, but I appreciate the dedication to accuracy.
Sonic’s rival and ally Shadow the Hedgehog, is slightly different from his January 2024 release in 76995 Shadow's Escape. The immortal ‘ultimate lifeform’ has an updated facial expression, now baring his teeth.
This is my first time seeing LEGO Shadow for myself, and I respect the printed details of his air shoes and limiter rings. Between this great minifigure and 77000 Shadow the Hedgehog coming out in October 2024, Shadow is getting the love he deserves!
The first iteration of LEGO Doctor Eggman from 21331 was entirely brick-built, and frankly quite cursed. Can we erase it from memory alongside the original version of live-action Sonic, please? While the Ideas figure did well in showing Doctor Eggman’s size compared to Sonic, some details were slightly off. His reimagining as a minifigure is a huge improvement. Just keep him away from any LEGO employees!
It makes sense that his head is moulded into his large round torso, as the character really doesn’t have a neck, but that does reduce the reusability of this mould which is a shame. I’m glad that Doctor Eggman has been chosen to receive the long-leg treatment, which is necessary as he’s supposed to be twice as tall as Sonic.
This set’s evil Badnik robot is the Egg Pawn, which first appeared in Sonic Heroes. This design looks close to the game's source material in many ways and has an awkward cuteness to it. The lack of hands or fingers does diminish its threat somewhat!
Much like the Eggrobo in 76998 Knuckles and the Master Emerald Shrine, the kidnapped critter is securely stored in the ‘head’ of the Badnik as its power source, but it also looks like they are piloting the Egg Pawn as a mech. In some game appearances, the Egg Pawns are customised with extravagant accessories, which might have been a nice inclusion.
The Gun Wing is a twin-engined robot deployed by the military organisation G.U.N. (Guardian Units of Nations). It appeared in games such as Sonic Adventure 2. I’m glad a transparent stand was provided so that it can be knocked down in a speed sphere attack.
Here it has been reprogrammed (and of course repainted) for Doctor Eggman’s nefarious purposes and neatly houses a compartment for one of the kidnapped creatures.
Pecky the penguin makes another appearance in this set. His mould is shared with the other Sonic universe critters, Flicky and Clucky.
Pocky the bunny rabbit makes his fourth appearance with the same recoloured Friends baby bunny rabbit mould. Both creatures still have accessory pin holes to allow you to adorn their heads with a bow or party hat as you please—sadly not a feature relevant to the Sonic universe.
The Completed Model
The setting isn’t very specific; it could be located on the Space Colony ARK and whether its owner is Shadow or Doctor Eggman is a little ambiguous. In addition to the main vehicle, pod launcher, and enemies, there is a wall and lab desk area. The wall is built of basic bricks topped with 2x2 truncated cones, droid heads and neon cones, which are nice inclusions from a parts perspective. The structure is suspiciously fragile, as we’ll see later…
The chair, desk and shelves are charmingly built and filled with references. Next to the item box containing a shield on Shadow’s desk, his computer screensaver shows a photo with Maria Robotnik. Maria is critical to Shadow’s backstory, right back to his very creation. Many of his decisions are motivated by this friendship—even his complicated morality and shifting allegiances.
The shelves feature two eggs and a microscope-like device examining the red chaos emerald. On the bottom shelf sit miniature renditions of Orbot and Cubot, two of Doctor Eggman’s creations. Finally: According to a very strange but nonetheless official source, Shadow smells like lavender—is that what’s in the purple box?
Super Sonic’s pod launcher is much the same as previous iterations, with just a colour scheme change. Similarly, the pod itself is recoloured in yellow to match its occupant.
The Egg Drillster is a vehicle design that goes as far back as Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Reminiscent of LEGO Power Miners, its three-part drill bit counter-rotates as the vehicle is pushed along, due to a mechanism connected to the oversized wheels.
The upper section of the vehicle lifts out. The body of the Egg Drillster is not only sturdy, but also relatively advanced in its design. It uses plenty of sideways and upside-down building techniques as well as curved slopes and the occasional decorative detail. There is also a fun “easter egg” hidden inside.
After about eight hits upon the Egg Drillster from our spikey hero, Doctor Eggman’s hovering Egg Mobile can launch upwards to escape. The Doctor Eggman figure sits comfortably in the extra-wide co*ckpit, although his splayed arms would prevent him from reaching the controls if there were any.
The upward curve of the wing pieces allows a carefully aimed strike with the speed sphere to displace the Egg Mobile from the drill below. These wings are a clever reuse of panels from 42143 Ferrari Daytona SP3.
The main depicted action feature is the demolition of this suspiciously fragile wall. It’s a little trickier, but the wall is precarious enough that you could take it out with the speed sphere as well!
A typical assortment of extra elements at the end—sadly nothing printed or particularly exciting here.
Conclusion
The vehicle is well-designed, and not just bulky for the sake of it. The wall knock-down feature doesn’t do much for me, but I understand its appeal to the target audience and am glad that the build extends beyond just stacked blocks to knock over, to subtle references and deep cuts.
The value for money is on par with the rest of this theme, with the price driven up by large elements and specialised figures. For kids who are into big vehicles, this set will be a great source of storytelling and action-packed entertainment. Plus, Sonic fans will no doubt want to add Super Sonic to their collection!
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17 comments on this article
By AndyB1 in United Kingdom,
Why always Eggman? His name is (Dr) Robotnik. Americanism I guess?
By Maxbricks14 in New Zealand,
Super Sonic is the best part of this set.
By KumataJDG in United Kingdom,
@AndyB1 said:
"Why always Eggman? His name is (Dr) Robotnik. Americanism I guess?"
"Dr Robotnik" IS the Americanism - in Japan he was called Eggman right from the start, they dubbed him "Dr Robotnik" for American audiences to sound cooler.
They've harmonised now; his name is Eggman in all localised Sonic media, but canonically that's just a nickname and his real name is Dr. Robotnik.
By 8BrickMario in United States,
@KumataJDG said:
" @AndyB1 said:
"Why always Eggman? His name is (Dr) Robotnik. Americanism I guess?"
"Dr Robotnik" IS the Americanism - in Japan he was called Eggman right from the start, they dubbed him "Dr Robotnik" for American audiences to sound cooler.
They've harmonised now; his name is Eggman in all localised Sonic media, but canonically that's just a nickname and his real name is Dr. Robotnik."
Yep, just like the Mario princess. Always known as Peach in Japan, but initially localized as Princess Toadstool in the US, up to the point where they split the difference and called her Princess Peach Toadstool in the US before the Toadstool name was dropped almost entirely so she's just Peach everywhere.
By Trigger_ in United States,
@AndyB1 said:
"Why always Eggman? His name is (Dr) Robotnik. Americanism I guess?"
His name is Eggman because he's fat or something.
By CC in United States,
No stickers in this set?
By Mister_Jonny in United Kingdom,
@CC said:
"No stickers in this set?"
I believe that most if not all of the main Lego sonic sets have avoided stickers so far, presumably in reflection of the young target audience.
I find this set frustrating: the drill is good and the minifigures are great, but the other build feels lazy and scattershot. Are we looking at a room on the ARK? The Death Egg? If it’s meant to be Eggman’s base of operations why is he demolishing his own base with the driller?
I just think with a bit more care and thought we could have gotten a secondary build that was more coherent.
By Studnotontop in United States,
All I see is a pair of $80 Ronald McDonald legs plus 600 free pieces.
By MegaBlocks in United Kingdom,
Dr Robonik's Mean Bean Machine Game.
By SJPlego in United States,
@8BrickMario said:
" @KumataJDG said:
" @AndyB1 said:
"Why always Eggman? His name is (Dr) Robotnik. Americanism I guess?"
"Dr Robotnik" IS the Americanism - in Japan he was called Eggman right from the start, they dubbed him "Dr Robotnik" for American audiences to sound cooler.
They've harmonised now; his name is Eggman in all localised Sonic media, but canonically that's just a nickname and his real name is Dr. Robotnik."
Yep, just like the Mario princess. Always known as Peach in Japan, but initially localized as Princess Toadstool in the US, up to the point where they split the difference and called her Princess Peach Toadstool in the US before the Toadstool name was dropped almost entirely so she's just Peach everywhere."
And same thing with LEGO Adventurers, too. It's a common misconception that the characters' original names were Gail Storm, Charles Lightning, and Sam Sinister before they were renamed Pippin Reed, Dr. Kilroy, and Slyboots. But the truth is the former set of names was just their localized American names (albeit made available internationally thanks to LEGO Racers), whereas the latter set of names were their original names in Denmark that later became standardized internationally after Dino Island.
Baron von Barron, on the other hand (or hook?), was Mr. Hates in Denmark. So it's still a mystery why he was renamed Sam Sinister internationally...
By Alia_of_AGL in United States,
As in my comment about this set on the previous Sonic review, I find the choice of red for the Egg Pawn to be a bit strange. In Heroes they were a reddish orange, much like the color in this year's Space sets, and in later appearances such as Colors, Generations, and Lost World they're more of a standard orange. The red gets the idea across and I guess makes it look more evil and less like something related to Tails, but by that logic, the red would make it look like it's related to Knuckles. There is precedent for the pawns being recolored in certain situations, but as a basic enemy, the color inaccuracy is puzzling, and it makes the printed part for the head dome to be more wasteful from a production side - if they "correct" it in later sets to orange, even if they reuse the graphic design, that's a new part. The lack of hands feels odd but it does look cute; though the fact that Pawns are famous for being accessorized means you can't put a lance, a gun, a pickaxe, a sign, a trumpet, etc. in its hands to match it to particular levels or play concepts.
It's still a pretty good set, there's just those handful of headscratchers.
By Andrusi in United States,
I've personally always thought of Egg Pawns as red, so I guess you can blame it on me somehow.
By TheOtherMike in United States,
You say Super Sonic, I say Super Saiyan.
By SetToBuild in United Kingdom,
@TheOtherMike said:
"You say Super Sonic, I say Super Saiyan."
KAMEHAMEHAMEHAMEHAAAA!
By Freddy_Hodson in United Kingdom,
I think the phrase "there is a wall" sums up my issue with these sets. I like that they're play-oriented but the play features never feel natural. There's no sense of geography to this or the previous Shadow one, which wouldn't be an issue if I thought it was difficult. Maybe I'm being harsh again. But it feels in some ways that these sets have some parts designed by one person, and others designed by someone else, and they end up being put together with no real sense of why or where. Minifigures are still good though.
By LT587 in United States,
welcome back LEGO Power Miners...
By Ridgeheart in Netherlands,
I used to really like Sonic, but then the internet happened to him, and that was... not great.
I do really like this vehicle. That seems to be a recurring thing in the Lego Sonic theme: I can take or leave the minifigures, but the vehicles are by and large, really good.
If you think I'm not going to use that printed dome to spruce up one of my many, many, MANY Hulkbusters, we can't be friends.
