Sonic's edgy rival, Shadow the Hedgehog, gets his real-life motorcycle on display at the MotoGP US stop last April 12 - 14. A new promotion tactic by Sega for its upcoming title, 'Sonic X Shadow Generations' and perhaps for the upcoming third installment of the Sonic movie series as well, where Shadow is set to debut.
Sega reportedly states on its website that it designed the real-world equivalent of Shadow's trademark motorcycle, Dark Rider, which debuted in the 2005 film Shadow the Hedgehog. Sega has disclosed certain specifications, including its tip-to-tail width of 9 feet, 7 inches, seat height of 2 feet, 2 inches, handlebar height of 3 feet, 10 inches, and fork angle of 43 degrees.
Together with this, SEGA also mentions the tire sizes for the front and rear, which are 120/70-R21 and 300/35-R18, respectively.
The Shadow-inspired motorcycle made its debut on April 12-14, 2024, in Austin, Texas, at the MotoGP Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas. Remarkably, there have previously been other MotoGP motorcycles with pop culture characters on them.
SEGA also revealed a ton of other exciting announcements, such as the Shadow the Hedgehog Escape LEGO toy set, which retails for $19.99. Moreover, SEGA said that through in-game events, users of Sonic Dash (iOS, Android) and Sonic Forces Mobile (iOS, Android) can enjoy unlocking Shadow variations such as the Dragon Hunter Lancelot, Super Shadow, and Vampire Shadow.
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Real-Life Pikmin Flower
While Sega's Shadow proves to be a head-turner, this is not the first time that videogame memorabilia was turned into a reality. Last year, a real-life flower that resembled the Pikmin characters was bred by Nintendo in conjunction with S&G Flowers/USA as a way to promote the Pikmin franchise and the GameCube console.
Sutera cordata, commonly called Chaenostoma cordatum, was selected as the plant. It is native to South Africa and has small, spherical flowers that bloom profusely when given the right amount of sunlight.
With meticulous breeding and selection, the Pikmin flower was created, featuring a vivid yellow core and five white petals. Nintendo's marketing approach was designed to draw in both game players and garden aficionados.
Then, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at S&G Flowers, Keith Cable, highlighted gardening's widespread appeal to consumers as a popular American past activity. Nintendo sought to establish a presence in the gardening community and reach out to customers outside the confines of traditional gaming by introducing distinctive items such as the Pikmin flower.
Other Sega Publicity Stunts
Sega and Ryan McNaught, better known as The Brickman, collaborated to create a life-size Lego version of Sonic the Hedgehog in October 2023. The figure was commissioned to commemorate the release of Sonic Superstars, which featured a Lego MiniFigure version of Sonic, and took about 103 hours and 25,807 Lego pieces to construct.
Sega staged an actual burial for the "Yakuza" and "Like a Dragon" characters from its related videogame series as part of a more recent marketing gimmick. According to reports, Sega and department store chain Parco collaborated to organize an exhibition where viewers could visit fictitious gravestones and place flowers at the images of the series' deceased video game characters.
Since its launch in 2005, the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise has produced 19 overall entries, including spin-offs and remakes, in addition to seven mainstream games. There are several shocking deaths despite the main protagonists, Ichiban Kasuga and Kiryu Kazuma, promising not to commit murder.
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