Splats

Splats is an enemy which was originally meant to appear in Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), but was removed prior to its release. It is a bunny-based Badnik model created by Dr. Eggman. Splats bounces by the means of a pogo-like Spring on its underside and has appeared in promotional materials and comics.

Overview
Promotional merchandise implies that Splats used their pogo spring to crush Sonic by jumping on him. However, Splats was scrapped from the final release of the game for unknown reasons, but their graphical data still exists inside the coding of NTRC and PAL releases.

There has been some confusion over the true color palette of the Splats, with the most common being shared with Sonic's sprite palette. This is because this Badnik is technically undefined in the game's programming. This palette is only available the 2013 re-release of Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), where the Splats appears as a functional enemy of Green Hill Zone by using the game's Debug Mode. Besides sharing Sonic's color palette, the Badnik moves at a similar pace to a Moto Bug, except it makes short hops.

Sonic the Comic
In the Sonic the Comic series published by Fleetway Editions, the Splats were a part of Dr. Robotnik's Badnik army. Due to the different artists, the Splats were often give a slightly different look between their appearance, though they retained their overall resemblance to their in-game sprites. Splats, along with two Moto Bugs, were the first Badniks ever to face by Sonic. They teamed up with several Badniks multiple times to defeat Sonic afterwards, but without success and were eventually rendered obsolete.

Archie Comics
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, the Splats was one of Robotnik's Classic Badniks. Though initially used to combat the Knothole Freedom Fighters, the Splats were eventually rendered obsolete by more advanced robots and got decommissioned, the remainder being sent to the Robo Hobo Jungle and the Island of Misfit Badniks.

Merchandise
Despite the removal, the Splats has made few official appearances in promotional merchandise, including having its own promotional trading card after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) and a figurine produced after the release of Sonic & Knuckles by TOMY in 1994.

Trivia

 * Yuji Naka mentions the rabbit enemy being one of unused content from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), but he also added the Badnik originally being like the "Rabbit-bus. Or Rabbit-taxi. You know, sort of like Catbus (from My Neighbor Totoro)".
 * Though Splats does not appear as a known enemy in Sonic Mania, its sprite can be seen among the scrap pile that appears during the Act 1 boss in Flying Battery Zone.