Sonic The Hedgehog will be making his return to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade confirmed Monday night by the Sonic The Hedgehog Twitter account. This takes place during Sega’s celebration of Sonic’s 30th anniversary. The blue blur has not been seen at the yearly event since his last flight in 2013. He was the first video game character to appear in the parade.
Sonic has had an interesting history with the Thanksgiving Day Parade, starting with an accident that occurred during its first debut in the 1993 parade. A gust of wind caused Sonic to fly into a streetlight, ripping the balloon open. Two people were injured with no serious injuries. The balloon was eventually retired in 1997 but returned to the parade in 2011 as a celebration of Sonic’s 20th anniversary. He took flight again in 2012 as a promotion for the game, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Sonic was last seen at the 2013 parade as a part of the marketing campaign for the game, Sonic Lost World.
Sonic appears in the list of balloons on Macy’s parade webpage alongside other famous characters like Spongebob Squarepants and Goku from Dragonball. The page contains details on the balloon such as its height being as tall as a four-story building. There is even a fun fact about his shoes.
Sonic’s signature red shoes are size 171; a truck could fit in that footprint.
Sega recently released Sonic Colors: Ultimate for the blue hedgehog’s 30th anniversary. The game is available now for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Epic Games Store. A new game was announced to be in development last June but will not be released until 2022 for the Playstation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.