Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic's Green Hill Zone Loop Challenge

The one where you flick Sonic through a loop and try not to knock him off the track.

Brick Rated Score

3.7/5

Set 76994 · 2023

Pieces802

Minifigs3

Year2023

Set number76994

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The verdict

This is the set that turns a level of Green Hill Zone into a little tabletop obstacle course, and the loop-the-loop is the piece that got me the first time I saw one built.

You load Sonic into a speed sphere, fire him down the track, and time your taps on the pink tiles to topple the Badniks before he crashes into them. It is genuinely fun and genuinely fiddly, which is very Sonic. I would hand this to a young Sonic fan who wants to play with their LEGO rather than pose it on a shelf.

Best for: A Sonic-obsessed kid (8 and up) who wants a set they can actually play with, not display

The full review

What it is

I have a soft spot for the sets that try to bottle a video game rather than recreate a single frame of it, and this one goes all in on the actual playing of Sonic. The course runs about 76cm long and comes in sections loosely pinned together, so you can rearrange the run. You drop Sonic into a speed sphere, load him into the launcher, and send him rattling toward the loop and the ring while Badniks named Chopper and Newtron block the way. Each Badnik sits on a little structure you topple by pressing a pink round tile at the right moment, and getting that timing right is the whole game. The first time I sent Sonic clean through the loop and knocked a Badnik flying I made a noise I am not proud of.

The catch

Here is where I have to be straight with you. For all the charm, this is a set built for play more than for building, and the price told that story loudly. A hundred dollars for 802 pieces was on the expensive side even in 2023, and the build itself takes maybe an hour and a half across roughly 270 steps, a fair chunk of which is repetitive green groundwork. The bigger disappointment is that gorgeous loop wearing a sticker for its checkered pattern when almost everything else around it is built in brick. On a set this focused on one hero feature, that shortcut is the thing people bring up again and again. The launch mechanic is a touch limp too, so the loop does not quite deliver the whoosh the box promises.

Who it's for

So who is this for. If there is a Sonic fan in your life around eight or up who wants something to fire, flick, and reset over and over, this is a joy and it earns its keep on the carpet. The figures alone are worth a lot to a collector who wants a good winking Sonic, a jet-ski Amy with her Piko Piko hammer, and a properly proportioned Eggman. If you are the kind of builder who lives for engineering and clean brick-built detail, though, I would steer you toward a different Sonic set, because the sticker loop and the play-first design will leave you a little cold. Now that it is retired it sits well below its old price on the secondary market, which honestly makes it a much easier set to love.

What works

The winking Sonic, Amy and Dr. Eggman figures are all lovely, and Eggman uses those newer taller legs so he finally reads as the barrel-shaped villain he should be
The topple-the-Badnik mechanic plus the speed-sphere launcher make it a real play set, not just a static build
Eggman's two-in-one mech is a proper little highlight and gives the course a boss to beat

Worth knowing

The brown checkered pattern on the loop is a big sticker rather than built up in brick, which stings on a set this size
The launch mechanic is underwhelming in practice, so the giant loop does not fire Sonic through as satisfyingly as you want
At the original 100 dollars for 802 pieces it was steep, and the palm trees look genuinely odd in LEGO form

Sold? Grab it.

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The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building this is quick and gentle, which is exactly right for its audience. You lay down big green ground sections, add the palm trees and totem-style scenery, assemble the loop and the ring, and then wire in the little toppling structures for the Badniks. Nothing here will test an experienced builder, and there is a decent amount of repetition in the groundwork, but it moves along and there is a satisfying moment when the loop finally stands up and the whole course reads as Green Hill Zone.

The stars in the bag are the characters. The winking Sonic head is a treat, and Dr. Eggman is close to unique, sharing his mould with only one other set and using the longer legs that first turned up in the Avatar range so he actually looks like Eggman. The Badniks are the parts nerd's reward here: Chopper the menacing fish and Newtron the big-eyed lizard are both exclusive to this set, each with a little back compartment to hold a captured animal. Four animal friends, Flicky, Becky, Pocky and Pecky, round out the roster, and the speed sphere and launcher are neat function pieces. It is a set where the minifigure and creature selection carries far more value than the bricks themselves.

Fun facts

01The set recreates a full stretch of Green Hill Zone from the original 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog, complete with a loop-the-loop, a giant golden ring, and a speed sphere launcher to fire Sonic through it.
02LEGO marketed it as having nine Sonic and Friends characters: three minifigures (Sonic, Amy, Dr. Eggman), two exclusive brick-built Badniks (Chopper and Newtron), and four little animals (Flicky, Becky, Pocky and Pecky) to be rescued.
03Dr. Eggman uses the taller legs first introduced in the LEGO Avatar sets, which is what finally lets him read as the round, barrel-bodied villain from the games.
04It launched in 2023 and retired in December 2024 after a run of about a year and eight months, and it has traded well under its 100 dollar RRP on the second-hand market since.