Thanks for the replies!

Nemoide: Ha, yeah, I know it's pretty hardcore. xD I get a reasonable amount of money from reselling duplicate things I get in bulk lots on YJA, so it's rarely totally money from my bank account being used for items. I certainly couldn't afford these things if I wasn't selling at the same time!

Charlie: THAT'S the image on their tags that is so hard to see, thanks for posting! I always did wonder who the non-Claris and Elliot people were, heh (thanks Nemoide!). I wonder if any of these, aside from the two I have, ever did make it into final production? I've never even seen the kids, let alone the others.

DiGi: Appreciate it! I'm in the prototype train of thought myself at the moment as I've got no evidence otherwise. I might not have been around so long, but I'm thinking by now I'd have at least seen a picture or something... Then again, the Christmas Nightopian caught me out in January! It'd be nice if Claris and Elliot are indeed real. Finally getting something after searching for a long time is really rewarding and it would be so nice to add them to the gang. It may sound weird, but I almost want Claris and Elliot to exist because I DON'T want my set to be complete just yet... It's nice to have something to search for and I've made so many friends already during the gathering of what I already have.

Noctourne Wonderland: You got it! That's a NiGHTS Chao. It's from the Sonic Adventure 1 plush line released in 1999. It even has a cute little devil tail, a yellow mood ball and large yellow-white wings. I haven't taken it out of the bag as I don't have anywhere to display my plush so I keep them bagged and in boxes, but here's a better photo of it... It's hard to see, but it also has airbrushed stripes on its horns and airbrushed paws and belly.



(Kudos to the person who knows what purple belted animal from the Sonic series is behind that Chao! )

So I figured of all the places I could try, this would be the best place to go to discuss merch.

I've been collecting NiGHTS stuff for about 9 months now, and I'm particularly big on the plushies. In that time, I've got the plushies in the picture below (plus the keychains and a second Christmas and flying NiGHTS, which are not pictured).



My question to you guys is this... Were there any other plush outside Christmas NiGHTS and Christmas Nightopian released in that UFO set? The hang tag suggests yes, but I've never even heard of any others yet alone seen them. Of course this could be simply because I am relatively new to this collecting fandom, but as a collector it bugs me to not know for sure if this set has others in it. I like to know what I am looking for, or if it's finally time for the wallet to take a rest!

Thanks for any input you guys can give. I appreciate it! Do we have many other plush collectors here?

I just think the game is stupid about keeping track of that stuff. I've been using Jacky religiously since release and it says Aiai is my most used as well.

Agreed. I've switched characters a lot since I started doing the time trials yet it says my favourite is still Opa Opa... True I use it a lot online, but hardly ever for anything else. The PS3 version of the game is also notoriously niggly for bugs in places. This might be just one of them if you are a PS3 user. If you're an Xbox user... Then I can't help you there. xD

Overall, despite the trophy issues (suffering with a Ghost Master glitch at the moment), the game is really fun and feels like the game Mario Kart Wii should have been. The AI are a little too elastic and item-happy on the harder difficulties and it's impossible to catch someone online if they get too far ahead as items become useless, but those are just small downers in an overall great game. Besides, it's all for fun at the end of the day - I'm hardly going to lose sleep over not winning an online match or because I'm missing a trophy!

Also... Sandy Drifts really isn't that bad once you get used to it. -shot-

Oh man, I'd love to have one of those plushies but they're super rare and I bet they're super expensive too.

The prices for them vary wildly depending on which one you're after and if people happen to see them. Often these plush go below the estimates I've suggested as people simply do not often search for them as they so rarely come up on Ebay. You are right though... Even when at a low price point, the prices in general are quite eye-wateringly expensive!

NiGHTS - $250-300
NiGHTS (arms up) - $300-350
Reala - $200-250 (I sold a Reala at $250 earlier this year, values seem to have recovered)
Claris - $60-80
Elliot - $60-80
Nightopian - $20 (has been extensively faked)

I have sold Claris for $100 on her own before, but that was a stroke of luck from a buyer searching for one to accompany his Elliot. You are much more likely to find them sold for $100-120 a pair, on average.

Christmas NiGHTS/Christmas Nightopian are hard to appraise as I've not actually seen them for sale on Ebay... Christmas NiGHTS is so sought after that it's pretty much name your price. I'd give an initial value of $300-350 to match the arms up NiGHTS, but $500 wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. Christmas Nightopian is the more unusual and much rarer plush but also suffers from not being as popular, so won't fetch as much as NiGHTS.

Finally... Admittedly not something that would have been on Christmas NiGHTS, but that's a NiGHTS chao plush from the Sonic Adventure 1 plush set in the top right. Last one I saw sell that wasn't mine was 3 years ago on Animemate for $600. I got mine from a Japanese auction site a month ago and even on there, where Sega merch goes much cheaper than Ebay, it was $215... Hate to think how much it would be on Ebay these days!

Off the top of my head:

The plushies were promos in Sega's UFO (claw) machines; they appear on eBay from time to time. The awesome horned hat was a promo thing at a gaming event (E3?), and TRiPPY managed to get one. If anyone knows anything about that NiGHTS bed, I want to know!

Correct on the plushies. I have many of them in my collection. There were two plush sets released in Japan in UFO catchers. They consist of the following:

Original set

NiGHTS
NiGHTS (arms up)
Reala
Claris
Elliot
Nightopian

Christmas set

Christmas NiGHTS
Christmas Nightopian

I am unsure if any further plush were released in the Christmas NiGHTS range, I have never seen any others for sale outside Christmas NiGHTS and Christmas Nightopian. The tags suggest this is true, but did they necessarily make it outside the prototype stage?

Here's a photo of all the plush I own...

Thanks for the welcomes, everyone! Seems I am a somewhat known entity already. xD

@Nemoide: The art is by a very talented artist on DA. If they offered a print I would happily buy it. They deserve a lot of praise!
@DiGi: I appreciate you guys were pretty busy! There will be other times we can geek about various NiGHTS items, no?
@TriPPY: I sure do love my merch, haha! And yes, I am cosplaying at the next SoS. I am not sure who to do out of Reala and a well known Sonic the Fighters character - I guess we will see what comes out of the foam as we go. At the end of the day it's all good fun either way!

Good day to you, fellow NiGHTS fans!

Long time lurker, new poster here. Since I've become a bit more active online lately (largely thanks to meeting so many new people at Summer of Sonic), I thought why not finally take the plunge and get to know a few more new people from the NiGHTS fanbase? A few of you may already know of me - I was the Rouge cosplayer at Summer of Sonic and I go by this name on SSMB (Oni on VGMM). If you know of me from either of those two places, be sure to say hello! I'm still trying to get in touch with the people I met and it would be great to talk to you.

What brings me here? Well, obviously I'm a fan of the franchise else I'd be a bit of a heathen being here! Primarily I'm a SEGA merch collector with a strong affinity for NiGHTS merchandise. I've not been collecting very long (a year this May), but the jewels of my collection are definitely the plush I have accumulated. The initial attraction to the NiGHTS series when I was younger was based on the design of NiGHTS, and it all went from there. I am a huge fan of anything harlequin/jester and I always wanted these dolls, but when I saw the prices I winced... I can't tell you how delighted I was to finally get them! It may burn the proverbial hole in the pocket but it's so worth it. xD This is a link to some collection shots, if you're curious!

I hope that's a good way to start things off. Looking forward to getting to know you guys!