The year was 1999, and 10 years to today's date the SEGA Dreamcast was released and would forever change the world of gaming. Sonic was set to take the world by storm once again with Sonic Adventure, and Ecco would soon follow, but not before being released as toys in Jack in the Box Kid's Meals!

These are pretty rare fast food toys, so photos aren't easy to come by, and neither are the toys themselves with there only being one set on eBay at this point in time.

They came packaged just like normal Kid's Meal toys, but seemed rather large compared to most of the toys you would get as a kid. There were four of them in total, but apparently only Ecco and Knuckles are safe for all ages, as you have to wait until you're at least 3 to be able to play with Bug and Sonic, but let's take a closer look anyway.

You might already notice that these aren't quite as joyous as the McDonald's toys, and they weren't from what I can tell. I sadly never got to own these for myself because we didn't have a Jack in the Box anywhere near me to go nab them.

Sonic was a pull-back racer type of toy, where you pulled him backwards and let go then he would roll away. Which makes sense for the fact that Sonic is faster than the speed of sound, but... what's with the yellow legs? I assume it was suppose to make it look like his figure eight run, but it was sadly kind of a poor job.

Next up was Knuckles, with which I can only say 'Wow...' I'm honestly not sure what happened to him, but if their plan was to make him look like a zombie statue, then congratulations you achieved it. He honestly didn't do anything, and was just a statue which is sad because I absolutely love Knuckles and enjoyed that he got yet another toy, but it's almost creepy!

Does anyone here actually remember Bug! for the SEGA Saturn? I do, but then again I'm nerdy for all things SEGA. Well, they re-released it for the PC and I'm assuming that's what they were promoting when they released this toy in the meals.

If you don't remember it, or are too much of a youngin' for that, then check out this video on Youtube of the gameplay. It was a great platformer, but we're not here to talk about the games, we're here for the toys. Bug was a wind up walker, where you wound up the post on his side and he would walk around like he did in the game. A listing I saw for it said it was 5 inches tall, which seems ridiculously huge for a Kid's Meal toy!

Last up was Ecco the Dolphin, which apparently no one wanted to hold onto their Ecco toy because pictures are practically impossible to get ahold of. Poor Uncle Ecco. Well, anywho being as no one decided to keep theirs I actually am not positive on what it does. From the looks of it it's a wind up toy that swims, so when you wind up the peg on its side its tail flaps and it'll swim around in water. I really feel I need to own this for who knows what reason, damn you Ecco!

Another thing they did at Jack in the Box was allow you to buy SEGA PC games with your meal. If you had bought a Kid's Meal you could get the games for $1.99 or if you wanted to buy them outright you could for $5.99. As you can tell from the above photo Sonic 3D Blast was one of those titles, which makes sense why they were ready to get rid of them considering Sonic Adventure was about to blow everyone's minds.

It looks as if you're trying to get your hands on a set of the toys you might be paying at the very least $15 or more, as these just seem to be few and far between. Just for nostalgia sake I really want to find myself a set, but it looks like I've got a search ahead of me. What do you think? Do you remember these, still have them, or find yourself wanting them for the heck of it?

[Photos Via Sonic Gear]