The Tails Doll
Part of a series on Sonic the Hedgehog. [View Related Entries]
About
The Tails Doll is one of six unlockable characters in 1997's Sonic R first released for the Sega Saturn console, and later re-released on PC and as part of Sonic Gems Collection for the Nintendo GameCube in 2005. Often while playing as the Tails Doll, the song "Can You Feel the Sunshine?" plays over and over continuously, regardless of what race track one is playing on. In addition to the creepy soundtrack, the doll limply levitates through the tracks. This led the character to become an urban legend online, spawning creepypastas and horror-themed videos around it.
Origin
In Sonic R, the Tails Doll is unlockable by collecting five Sonic tokens in the Radical City course, finishing third, and beating the character in a race.[1]
Spread
The character went on to inspire numerous creepypastas. The most famous, "The Tails Doll Curse," was created by Rebekah G. and features the doll abducting a child (shown below).[2]
"A man came home from work with a gift for his son. He had picked up a new video game for him, Sonic R. It was a racing game and when he gave his son the gift, he was so excited to get it and play it right away. That night he played the game with his son and they had a great time. A couple of days later the boy was almost finished with the game. His dad was there in his room when he beat the last boss and he roared in excitement when he finially did it. He smiled and asked him how he liked the game as he watched the credits screen. “W-what’s that?” He asked the boy when The Tails Doll appeared on the screen. The boy said it was the Tails Doll, that was all he knew.
He told his son it was time for bed. During the night, the curious father went into the boy’s room and turned on the TV very quietly to play the game for a while himself. He noticed that he now had the option to play as “Tails Doll.” He chose him to tag up with some of the gang.
The game was fun until he tagged him up with Sonic. The screen went black when the game system shut itself down. The man decided it was time for him to go to sleep since he had to work in the morning so he crept out of his son’s room and went to lay in bed with his wife.
At around 2:00am he woke up when he heard thumps on his door. He assumed it was his son getting up to ask him to get him something. He told the boy to “Stop go back to bed.” The thumping kept happening and at one point he noticed a little shadow coming from under the door.
“Tails” kept popping into his head. He got out of bed and slowly opened the door. Then he heard someone say this very softly, “You are coming with me… forever.” It was a doll. An evil, blood-covered, possessed little doll. It was the doll from the game, it had to be."
The popularity of the creepypasta inspired numerous YouTube videos centered around the doll's creepiness. On September 28th, 2013, YouTuber TehCanadianSpartan posted a compilation of shorts centered around the Tails Doll, gaining over 248,000 views (shown below, left). In 2012, YouTuber Lord Kiyo posted a trailer for a fake movie centered around Tails Doll, gaining over 1.6 million views (shown below, right).
The doll has been the subject of several 3 AM Challenge videos as well. On February 13th, 2019, YouTuber imJaystation uploaded a 3 AM challenge video about the character, gaining over 4.2 million views (shown below, left). On May 12th, YouTuber AldosWorld TV made a similar video, gaining over 1.4 million views (shown below, right).
On October 23rd, 2020, YouTuber SplashDash uploaded a history of the character and its impact on the internet (shown below, left).
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Sonic Wiki – Tails Doll
[2] Creepypasta Wiki – The Tails Doll Curse
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Top Comments
Ducker Swanson
Jan 23, 2021 at 11:15AM EST
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Jul 16, 2013 at 03:54AM EDT