LittleBigPlanet Mini Knit Sackboy Mascot – Soldier Sackboy

With the announcement of Little Big Planet, the world fell in love with Sackboy’s design, and custom plushes were being made before the game was even out.  The first officially licenced plushes to hit the scene, however, originated in Japan with a set of Mini Knit Sackboy Mascot prize plushes.  When the set was first announced, prototype images showed a normal, unadorned Sackboy with a closed mouth, a caped soldier, a pirate with an eyepatch and hook hand, and a happy smiling Sackboy with an open mouth.  Between the initial preview (and preorder) stage and final release, however, the happy/smile Sackboy had instead been replaced by one with sunflower petals around its head, and the final release consisted of Normal, Soldier, Pirate, and Sunflower Sackboys.  At some point due to the switch, my “smiling” Sackboy preorder had been canceled and had not replaced by the “sunflower” version, hence why I only received 3 of the 4 in this set.  The set of mini strap/keychain plushes was made by Taito and was a prize plush in Japan.  In addition to the small strap plushes, Taito also released larger 10″ versions of the Normal and Pirate sackboys the following month.  Being the first official Sackboy plushes, all of Taito’s original prize plush releases were highly sought after and sold out quickly.