Friday morning LEGO announced the latest round of its approvals from the LEGO Ideas program. One of the two confirmed sets from this round is none other than the much-requested Sonic Mania: Green Hill Zone set. LEGO says that it was reached an agreement with Sega so that the Sonic Mania: Green Hill Zone set can be released at retail. A final design, as well as pricing and release information for the Sonic Mania: Green Hill Zone set, are still being worked on.
The Sonic Mania: Green Hill Zone LEGO set features a variety of characters from the Sonic Mania video game. Unique Sonic and Dr. Robotnik characters are included, as are multiple Dr. Robotnik robot creations, and some friendly critters, too. The highlight of the set is a giant Dr. Robotnik mech with spinning drill hands. The head of the mech can even be opened so that Dr. Robotnik's figure can be placed inside. Lastly, there are hand-built sections of the iconic Green Hill Zone area itself included.
The Sonic Mania: Green Hill Zone LEGO set was designed and created by Viv Grannell, who goes by the username toastergrl within the LEGO Ideas community. Grannell's profile describes her as an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) who gets creative with digital LEGO concepts since she doesn't have many physical bricks. Grannell describes her designs as focusing on "playability" and having "action functions," which can definitely be seen in her now-approved Sonic Mania: Green Hill Zone set.
LEGO's Idea's program is hugely popular within its fanbase. LEGO builders are able to submit their custom sets, have other fans vote for them, and if they reach a 10,000 vote threshold LEGO will evaluate them and potentially make them into full products. Few ever make it through this process, however. In today's round of approvals, just 1 new set of 35 was approved while the rest were rejected. The Sonic Mania: Green Hill Zone set is technically a holdover from the last round.
The Sonic Mania: Green Hill Zone set is particularly surprising to see approved. Licensed sets can be created and voted on in the LEGO Ideas program, but to get official approval LEGO needs to secure a licensing agreement. LEGO and Sega were able to agree on various financial details in order to get this set made, just for Sonic's fans.
This isn't the first Sonic-related LEGO. A Sonic the Hedgehog Level Pack was released for the video game LEGO Dimensions, which is becoming increasingly difficult to purchase online. It featured a Sonic mini-fig, as well as plane and car figures. The new set will make Sonic much more widely available for LEGO fans of all ages. Expect more information about the new Sonic LEGO set in the months to come.