New, Never-Before-Seen Tails Artwork Discovered In 'Sonic the Hedgehog' Preservation Project

Video Games

Apr 16

Some very early concept artwork for Sonic’s two-tailed buddy, Miles “Tails” Prower, has just surfaced. As part of an effort to preserve and document as many of the Sonic cartoons produced by DiC as possible, preservationist Fieryfurnace has uncovered never before seen sketches of the fox and what are likely to be the earliest images of the character. The bulk of this artwork is from Yasushi Yamaguchi, the original designer for Tails, but there are also pieces by Moore & Price design and the artist behind the US game boxes, Greg Martin.

Yamaguchi’s art is less consistent between pieces and features a Tails that is fluffier than his final design. The artist had this to say on Twitter regarding the pieces.

These are the earliest character set-up drawings.
Since the development period for Sonic 2 was short, we used these drawings as a base and brushed up the design as we created the game.
— 斗々屋 (@judy_totoya) April 11, 2023

RELATED:

Image Source: Sonic Stadium. Art by Yasushi Yamaguchi

The Price and Moore pieces include an early turnaround for Tails, and the Greg Martin Piece is an early mock-up of the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 video game box art. You can find more images of this artwork at the Sonic fan news site, the Sonic Stadium! This is an incredible find for hardcore fans of the blue blur and especially of his two-tailed best buddy! What will Sonic archivists find next? The possibilities for these sorts of finds seem to be endless!

READ NEXT:

Sources: Sonic Stadium, Twitter

Join The Team