Tails Doll

Tails Doll
The Tails Doll
Appearances
First appearance	Sonic R
Game appearances	Sonic R Sonic Gems Collection
Appearances in other media	Archie Comics
Real-world designer(s)
Creator(s) (real-world)	Yoshitaka Miura
Biographical overview
Creator	Dr. Robotnik
Species	Robot
Physical description
Gender	None (referred to as male)
Color scheme	Orange
Eyes	Black
Alignment and character traits
Alignment	Evil
Affiliation(s)	Eggman Empire
Powers and abilities
Skills	Levitation

The Tails Doll (テイルス・ドール, Teirusudōru^?) is a doll version of Tails built by Dr. Robotnik. He is comparable to Tails in the same way that Metal Sonic is comparable to Sonic. The Tails Doll has a metal rod protruding out of the top of its head that leads to a red gem that seems to control the robot's movement.

Concept and creation

During a Q&A session at the Summer of Sonic 2013 event, Kazuyuki Hoshino revealed that Tails Doll was not created by a member of the design team, but rather a background artist who later went on to be the lead background artist of Sonic Lost World. According to Hoshino, Tails Doll originated as a shootable gimmick in an Eggman stage. When the subject of Tails Doll came up again during the Q&A session at the Sonic Boom 2013 event, Hoshino repeated the anecdote, this time mentioning that Tails Doll originated as a gimmick in Eggman's base in Sonic Adventure.

The creator of Tails Doll appears to be Yoshitaka Miura, who joined Sega in 1997 as a background artist for Sonic Adventure. In the original Sega Saturn release of Sonic R, Miura is given a "Special Thanks" credit, whilst in the PC port he is credited as a character designer. In the credits of Sonic Lost World, Miura is the top billed Field Artist.

Profile

Sonic Channel provided at one time Sonic R's profile descriptions for each of the characters. The following is the information provided for Tails Doll:

As a last resort, Eggman manufactured this to catch Sonic unprepared. This, except for the power plant embedded in its head, is a mere stuffed animal, whose meager form nevertheless exhibits considerable ability in races due to its lightweight design. Still, it is also able to float in the air for a long time.

Game appearances

Sonic R

The Tails Doll appeared in Sonic R as an unlockable character on the Radical City course by collecting five Sonic Tokens, finishing in at least third, then beating him in a race.

Tails Doll has poor handling, average acceleration and average top speed. He is the slowest character in the game, but he can glide over water like most of his metal allies, and he has a strange floating ability as his "air action", allowing him to remain airborne longer than Tails can.

In other media

Archie Comics

The Tails Doll makes an appearance in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics. Also known as "Project Deadly Cuddles," it was a robot sent into New Mobotropolis by Dr. Eggman. It is first shown lying alone on a rock amongst some wreckage and picked up by Cream the Rabbit during Titan Metal Sonic's assault on the city. Cream saw the doll and assumed that it had an owner who dropped it in the assault, and so took it with her in an attempt to find whoever owned it, unaware that it was sent by Eggman. The Tails Doll acted as both a spy and saboteur for Eggman as it was able to disrupt nanites which it did so in an attempt to kill Mina, and also allow Metal Sonic to bypass the city shield.

After the Super Genesis Wave, the Tails Doll acted as a spy on the Freedom Fighters and it gave Dr. Eggman information on their plan to fix the world. It was later discovered by T-Pup and was data-mined for answers by Miles "Tails" Prower.

The Tails Doll has also exhibited two transformations, the first one which makes it huge, gives it claws, glowing eyes, and a mouthful of sharp teeth, and the second transforming it into some kind of eldritch abomination.

Trivia

Tails Doll in Sonic Adventure

• While he is classified as a "robot", his description makes no mention of mechanical parts other than his power plant. His actual body is just a stuffed plush toy, with no mention of endoskeleton. However he is still able to move and his winning animation depicts his raising his arms with no explainable reason.
• Although not the same character, in Sonic Adventure, there are doll versions of Tails, Sonic, and Knuckles used as target practice dummies for Eggman's robots (such as E-102 Gamma in Final Egg). They appear incapable of moving on their own as the Tails Doll can.
• Tails Doll is popular on the Internet, where people make up horror stories called "Creepypastas" about him. His scary nature is reflected by Archie Comics, as evidenced in a "Sonic-Grams" in which the person answering the letters said he could not mention how Tails Doll would impact the story because he was too scared. They further referenced the creepypastas when Tails Doll revealed its ability to transform into a horrid monster. Sonic even refers to it as creepy.
• In LEGO Dimensions, if Sonic interacts with Peter Venkman, he will tell the ghostbuster that he saw the Tails Doll, and wants him to take a look at it.
  • The Tails Doll also makes a cameo appearance in Marble Zone in Lego Dimensions as a Lego teddy bear.

Gallery

Sprites and models

Sonic R

Sonic R

References

Sonic R

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