The Marvelous Queen[1] (マーベラスクイーン[2] Māberasu Kuīn?) is a vehicle that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is Fang the Hunter's air bike and means of transportation. He uses it frequently because he lacks the speed to get out of trouble by his own means. It is also the main source of transportation for Fang's Gang.
Description[]
The Marvelous Queen is a pod-like air bike with yellow armor, a dark blue-gray hull on the bottom, and an open cockpit. It has as well a single blue seat in its cockpit and rockets on the sides that are covered by blue, ellipsoid-shaped pieces of armor. In addition, extending upward from the front of the vehicle is the steering mechanism, which consists of hand clutches covered in yellow armor with a windshield on the top of the front and an instrument panel on the back.
In the IDW comics, the instrument panel also includes an Emerald Radar-like radar display, three different purple buttons for activating the different features of the Marvelous Queen, and measuring displays. It also has an access panel on the rear. The Marvelous Queen also comes with two autonomous, modular sidecars[3] that can attach to the sides of the Marvelous Queen. Each one of these sidecars resembles a yellow pod with a dark blue-gray hull on the bottom, a single blue seat inside an open cockpit, a windshield on the front, and a blue rocket exhaust on the rear.
The Marvelous Queen is equipped with many weapons and tools that can be interchanged through design modifications. It has been shown to fire missiles, lasers, nets, energy blasts, oil balls, laser walls, harpoons, and more. A drill or spring can pop out of the bottom of the vehicle for certain situations. The airbike flies at a very fast speed and can maneuver effectively. The Marvelous Queen has also been shown summoning protective energy bubbles and using laser-firing drones in battle. Fang's vehicle can sometimes attach to other parts or pilot other vehicles if it was designed in mind for it.
History[]
Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble[]
Fang's airbike, originally unnamed, first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble, when Fang used it as boss vehicle. When the player has passed through labyrinthine platforming section or collected enough amount of Rings from the sky with Tornado, the timer will stop and the player will face Fang with his airbike as mini bosses in the end of each Special Stage.
Like Dr. Robotnik's Egg Mobile, the airbike comes with a variety of attachments that Fang uses against Sonic or Tails to protect the Chaos Emerald located to the fair right. When the player has destroyed the attachment, Fang escapes to return in the next Special Stage. He seems to have more than one airbike, since all of them explode into nothingness upon Fang's defeat.
Emerald | Description | Image |
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1st (Blue Emerald) | None. Fang jumps on a switch and laughs, only to get himself burned seconds later by flames coming from underneath him, much to his embarrassment. He then clumsily leaves the arena. | |
2nd (Red Emerald) | The airbike is properly introduced with a spring attached underneath it. Fang pilots it as it bounces around the arena. To defeat it, the player has to hit it sixteen times. | |
3rd (Yellow Emerald) | Having no attachments this time around, Fang simply dashes left and right across the arena on the airbike to swooping into the player. The player can beat this boss with three hits. | |
4th (White Emerald) | Fang launches a homing missile from underneath the airbike and then hovers around in the middle of the arena. The missile will fly around the room. The player can hit Fang numerous times, although the missile will eventually home in on the airbike and defeat Fang. | |
5th (Orange Emerald) | The airbike has a drill attachment, while Fang keeps hovering above the player. The airbike will eventually drop to the ground, for then to hover up again and repeat the pattern. It is at this point the player can attack Fang. On the fourth strike, the airbike gets stuck in the ground, allowing the player to keep bopping on Fang until he and the airbike are buried in the ground. |
Sonic Drift 2[]
In Sonic Drift 2, the Marvelous Queen returned as Fang the Sniper's personal race car that he uses in the game's racing competitions. In this game, it has a different design compared to the ones it had in Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble.
In gameplay, the Marvelous Queen has high acceleration and speed, but low handling. Its low handling means that it has a hard time getting through tight corners. As its special ability, the Marvelous Queen lets Fang deploy "Oil Balls"[1] onto the track that causes any racer who touches them to spin out of control for a few moments. Using this ability however, costs two Rings.
Image | User/Driver | Special Ability | Attributes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acceleration | Speed | Handling | |||
Fang the Sniper | Fang's a slick one. He chucks Oil Balls onto the track that, when hit, causes cars to spin out of control. | High | High | Low |
Sonic Generations[]
In the Nintendo 3DS version of Sonic Generations, the Marvelous Queen makes a small cameo appearance on a bonus artwork in the Collection Room.
Sonic Superstars[]
Fang appears riding the Marvelous Queen in game during a number of instances. Most notably, Fang uses it during the chase in Speed Jungle Zone, the boss fight in Golden Capital Zone, and the first phase of the final fight in Trip's campaign. He upgrades it multiple times throughout the game until by the end of Trip's story, it is a large bulky spacecraft equipped with even more weaponry. Naturally he can fire energy pellets, lasers, and missiles from his vehicle as well as launch deadly laser walls (pods that split into two with a laser line in between). The Marvelous Queen also is shown to have a suction device that was used to steal the Chaos Emeralds. After upgrading his airbike, it was shown to be able to fire more missiles and laser walls. After upgrading, it also is shown to create an energy barrier around itself and use laser firing drones to attack.
IDW Publishing[]
The Marvelous Queen was used by Fang, Bark and Bean to travel to Summer Falls Zone to find a Chaos Emerald. While there, Fang used the Marvelous Queen to travel behind the waterfall where the Chaos Emerald was, using its sidecars to shield himself from the falling water. Finding the Chaos Emerald on top of a pillar, Fang used the Marvelous Queen's spring feature to reach it. However, Tails would throw off the Marvelous Queen's calibrations after tampering with its wiring, causing it to bounce all over the place. After getting the damaged Marvelous Queen under control, Fang, Bark and Bean used it to head towards the next Chaos Emerald in Autumn Forest Zone. When later teaming up with Sonic and his allies to stop Heavy King, Fang's gang traveled to Heavy King's base in Winter Caverns Zone in the Marvelous Queen. When later forced into battle with a Chaos Emerald-empowered Heavy King, Fang tried firing the Marvelous Queen's sidecars at Heavy King, only for the latter to deflect them using a force-field and then shooting the Marvelous Queen down. After defeating Heavy King, Bean retrieved the damaged Marvelous Queen, which Fang's gang used to leave in (and find a good mechanic for it).[3]
In other media[]
Archie Comics[]
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, the Marvelous Queen originally only barely resembled its game counterpart, although they came to look much more like each other after the continuity was rebooted. In this media, the Marvelous Queen is Nack the Weasel's previous hover-bike and a vehicle often employed by both Nack and his team, the Hooligans, where it has two extra side cars for Bark and Bean.
Trivia[]
- The Marvelous Queen is the earliest example of an air bike in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
- The Marvelous Queen is first named in the manual for Sonic Drift 2, as in the Japanese Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble manual, Fang's air bike is written as "flying bike" (飛ぶバイク tobubike?).
Gallery[]
Concept artwork[]
Artwork[]
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Promotional material[]
Sonic Superstars: Trio of Trouble[]
Gallery |
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Sonic Superstars Start Book[]
Sonic Superstars: Fang's Big Break[]
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References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sonic Drift 2 (Sega Game Gear) United States instruction booklet, pg. 8.
- ↑ Sonic Drift 2 (Sega Game Gear) Japanese instruction booklet, pg. 39.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sonic the Hedgehog 30th Anniversary Special, "Seasons of Chaos"
Playable characters | Sonic · Tails · Knuckles · Amy · Eggman · Metal Sonic · Fang | |
Courses | Purple GP | Emerald Hill 1 · Hill Top 1 · Dark Valley 1 · Casino Night · Desert Road 1 · Iron Ruin |
White GP | Desert Road 2 · Rainy Savanna · Ice Cap · Hill Top 2 · Mystic Cave · Emerald Hill 2 | |
Blue GP | Dark Valley 2 · Quake Cave · Balloon Panic · Emerald Ocean · Milky Way · Death Egg | |
Enemies | Mecha Vulture · Moto Bug | |
Vehicles | Blue Devil · Breeze · Cyclone · Egg Typhoon · Marvelous Queen · Tempest · Whirlwind S7 | |
Gimmicks and obstacles | Balloon · Bumper · Goal Plate · Heart Attack · Jump Panel · Meteorite · Mine · Spring · Triangle Bumper | |
Items | Flash · Item Box (Dash, Invincible, Jump, Mine) · Reverse · Ring | |
Other | Chaos Emerald · Chaos GP · Death Egg |