Advent Hill Zone: ACT 2!

Welcome to our second day in the Advent Hill Zone, where a boxful of speedy, Sonic-y surprises are doled out one-at-a-time each day leading up to Christmas!

Box 2 awaits! What could it be?

It's our first accessory, a 1-Up Monitor!

Star Post #1: General Info

As the name suggests, breaking open a 1-Up Monitor gives Sonic (or whichever character you happen to be controlling at the time) an extra life. It made its first appearance all the way back in the original Sonic the Hedgehog and some variation of it (whether in this Monitor form or as a capsule-esque Item Box or straight-up floating head/icon) has appeared in every Sonic game with a Lives system. The accessory that we just pulled is specifically based on it as it appears in both the 16-bit version of Sonic 1 and all versions of Sonic CD.

Star Post #2: Trivia

You wouldn't think something as specifically game-y as a 1-Up would make an appearance in tie-in media, but Fleetway's Sonic the Comic found a way! Issue 13 of the popular UK-published series featured a story called "Double Trouble," which introduced a clone of Sonic created by his friend, Dr. Ovi Kintobor (Eggman when he was a good guy in this particular continuity,) that was intended to give the Blue Hedgehog a helping hand in case of an emergency. However, this "extra life" turned evil and was imprisoned within a Monitor, leaving it with nothing to do but plot revenge. That revenge eventually came when the clone tricked Tails into busting him out, causing him to run wild. After a bit of confusion and an altercation with the REAL Sonic, however, Tails was able to seal him back inside his prison. Sonic then punted the Monitor into space, never to be seen or heard from again. (A shame. This fellow probably would've gotten along like gangbusters with Fleetway's version of Super Sonic. I wonder if the CLONE'S Super form is actually a nice guy?)

Goal Plate: Closing Thoughts

From a figure I didn't have to an accessory I already did! (Thanks to Jakks' 4 inch Mighty figure.) You can never have too many items for making fun Sonic level displays with, though! They should release more variants of this accessory for the other characters.

Act 2 has concluded, but be back here bright and early tomorrow as we enter Act 3 of Advent Hill Zone!