Sega reveals life-size Sonic DNA figure for 35th anniversary
As the 35th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog approaches on June 23, 2026, Sega is stepping things up to celebrate the Blue Blur’s birthday. The company has unveiled a life-size chrome statue of Sonic the Hedgehog that contains a vial of his “DNA” sealed inside a Chaos Emerald.
The effigy, or craftsmanship piece, is life-sized and was created in collaboration between Sega and a Japanese bio-art collective. It is scheduled to go on display in Tokyo toward the end of this month. Still, the question remains: what exactly counts as “Sonic the Hedgehog genes” that have been encased in the Chaos Emerald?
The Sonic effigy was created by the minds at LOM BABY, a “science collective” working under Transeeds Inc., whose experts combine art, engineering, and biotechnology into a single piece. Sega describes the Sonic statue as the result of “cutting-edge biotechnology,” stating that “the essence of Sonic—who has raced through the ages—has been brought into the real world as ‘DNA.’”
Sega further stated that “the DNA encapsulated within the Chaos Emerald symbolizes that ‘Sonic’s core’ will endure, never fading, into the future.” Sega published a promotional video of the 35th-anniversary chrome Sonic statue on YouTube, which detailed Sonic’s video game history through the ages and showed labeling markers like “Velocity Cells,” “Sonic bIOS,” “Boost System,” and “Exploration DNA”—a set of traits that feel very much befitting of Sonic the Hedgehog.
This isn’t the first time LOM BABY has partnered with a Japanese video game company to bring gaming icons and trends to life. Previously, the collective worked on “Dragon Meat” at Tokyo’s National Art Center and recreated the T-Virus from Resident Evil in collaboration with Capcom.
Based on the available information, the company appears to have synthesized a synthetic genome housed inside Sonic’s thorax, which is fitted with a Chaos Emerald.
The Sonic the Hedgehog DNA Figure will be showcased at the Sega Store Tokyo on the sixth floor of Shibuya PARCO on June 23 for a limited time. This collaboration is just one of many of Sega’s larger anniversary projects for Sonic’s 35th birthday, which are slated to include limited-edition brand collaborations, concerts paying homage to Sonic music, and special merchandise drops.
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