Tails the Fox (Sonic Plush)

Miles "Tails" Prower is an 8-year-old fox cub and the sidekick of Sonic the Hedgehog and a character of the series. Ever since his first appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Genesis, people considered him as cute, and is the best friend for life of Sonic the Hedgehog as well. According to the popularity polls, Tails is the third most popular character of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, right behind Shadow and Sonic. But in front of Sonic and Friends, he sometimes acts like a menacing boy.

Appearance
Tails is a young, anthropomorphic fox cub with a unique genetic mutation giving him two tails instead of one. He has mostly yellow-orange fur with white fur around his muzzle with cheek tufts, front torso with fluffy fur on top of his chest, and the tips of his tails. He also has blue eyes, large triangular ears with white canals on top of his head, a small black nose, and three locks of hair on his forehead. In his younger years, Tails was shorter and more plump, with black eyes and darker orange fur, but these traits have disappeared with age. Typically, Tails' attire consists of white gloves with a gray band around each wrist, and shoes that are red from the heel to the middle and white from the middle to the toe with gray soles, each with a gray band around the ankle.

Personality
Tails is a gentle-hearted, sweet-natured and loyal fox with a positive attitude. In the beginning, he was timid and quiet, but he has opened up and become more outgoing over the years. Tails is not one to grab the spotlight for himself and instead, is always ready and willing to help others without asking for anything in return or as they say because, he causes mischief a lot in the Sonic Plush franchise. During their earlier adventures together, Tails strove to become just like Sonic by replicating the mannerisms he found admirable. In this period, Tails was content with being Sonic's sidekick as he was just happy to hang out with Sonic. As Tails grew as a person, he would still remain as close to Sonic as ever and look up to him as he has always done, but his esteem about Sonic's heroics have dwindled, as these days he cares more about inventing than Sonic's heroic deeds. Well he also became high on crack in this franchise even though Sonic told him to not do drugs.

Concept and Creation
The concept of Tails was founded during the development of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. After some discussion about making a sequel to the original Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), a fraction of the Sonic Team went to work with Sega of America's Sega Technical Institute. A new element they wanted to introduce was a character that would both serve as a companion to Sonic the Hedgehog and hopefully draw the attention of new players to the franchise.

A contest was held at STI in which Yasushi Yamaguchi, originally the main artist and zone designer for Sega's Sonic Team, won. The character was meant to hold a "deep admiration for Sonic." The name 'Miles Prower' is a play by play word on a measurement of speed (miles per hour). Yamaguchi's entry won but Sonic Team decided to change his character's name from "Miles" to "Tails" in which Yamaguchi was not too pleased with at all about. The team and Yamaguchi ended up with a compromise: he settled the name "Miles" in as his legal name; "Tails" would be his nickname, ending up with the full name of Miles "Tails" Prower.

Yuji Naka has stated that the character was originally intended to be a tanuki (a raccoon-like canine native to East Asia and extremely popular in Japanese folklore), who had been modeled after a UFO catcher plushie. However, Yasushi Yamaguchi has stated that was misinformation regarding a different project, and Tails was intended to be a fox from the beginning. Tails received his twin-tails to grow more of a personality.

During the design process, Tails was originally not going to have sclera, only completely black, round eyes and a single tail. Yasushi Yamaguchi also created Tails with the image of him being five years old, despite his official age ending up being eight. Despite Tails' three bangs usually being depicted erupting from the middle of his head, his creator intended them to be coming from the right side.

The character debuted in the 8-bit version of the franchise's second game, and has remained an important character. However, Tails' uniqueness was not established until Sonic the Hedgehog 3 when players were allowed to control his flying.

Tails was redesigned (along with the rest of the Sonic cast of characters) by Yuji Uekawa for Sonic Adventure. Tails' redesign saw him having his fur color changed to an amber-like color, gained visible blue irises, became slightly slimmer, and received a small boost in height. He shifted to a more streamlined appearance with rounded ears at the tips as well as longer tails which are used as his main form of attack, most notably the Tail Swipe.

Powers and Abilities
Though not as much on the forefront in battles as other characters, Tails is still an accomplished fighter. On his own, he has defeated several of Dr. Eggman robots and combat mechs, and even single-handedly defeated the entire Battle Bird Armada and Witchcart's gang. Once, he was also able to go head-to-head with Knuckles the Echidna.

Due to a genetic abnormality, Tails is bequeathed with two large, fluffy tails that can twirl together. Over time, Tails has learned to use them to his advantage in many situations. Most noticeably, Tails can spin his twin-tails like rotary blades to fly or hover like a helicopter. While in flight, Tails can move around with outstanding agility and enough speed to keep up with even Sonic, who can run 768 mph at average. However, he gets fatigued if he uses them to stay in flight for too long.

By manipulating the curvature of his twin-tails, Tails can glide through midair. He can also use his twin-tails as a rear turbine to sail across the ground at speeds great enough to let him stand a chance against Sonic in a race. By using them in said manner underwater, Tails' twin-tails become rear propellers that let him move around underwater with ease. Tails' twin-tails are also quite powerful limbs, being both strong and fast enough to slice through metal, and highly prehensile, having once grabbed a toothpick from a sandwich by its tip and then used it to type on a keyboard.

Even without his twin-tails, Tails can move at exceptionally high speeds. He is able to keep up with Sonic's speed on foot and even once cut Sonic off repeatedly using extremely swift movements. With or without his twin-tails though, Tails' speed still is considered average by comparison and he has admitted in spite of his feats that he is still slower than Sonic. Tails is also quite physically strong, having enough strength to hold up both Sonic and Knuckles at once and move blocks that supposedly weights several tons. He is also tough enough to go through atmospheric reentry and then land on the ground unharmed. In addition, Tails has demonstrated great feats of acrobatic skills and agility, he can effortlessly grind on rails and pull off different acrobatic tricks while airborne. He is also good at swimming. Tails has also demonstrated the ability to harness chaos energy for his own use, although this is an ability he uses sparingly. By harnessing the Chaos Emeralds, Tails can give himself a boost in power.

Tails possesses a genius-level intellect and is a skilled inventor. Described as a natural born mechanic with genius-leveled prowess in this field, Tails is as talented as Dr. Eggman, who has an IQ of 300. Tails even once claimed he is smart enough to build a TV out of paperclips and reprogram a supercomputer using a toothpick and dishwashing detergent. As a testament to his skills, when presented with foreign technology (even of the advanced kind), Tails only needs to take a few looks to understand it. He is likewise quick to grasp new forms of technology, and once he develops an understanding of it, he excels at said technology. Tails also has a knack for building things, to the point that his friends believe that there is nothing he cannot build. Over time, Tails has created a number of inventions that often have gotten both him and Sonic out of trouble and let them stay just ahead of Eggman's schemes. These creations include his transformable Tornado series of airplanes, his combat equipment, his Emerald Detector, the Sea Fox, the Lunar Fox, a fake Chaos Emerald and his multifunctional Miles Electric to name a few. Among the different fields of his expertise, Tails is also a capable Extreme Gear mechanic who can create, customize and tune Gears. Though he is Wave the Swallow's lesser as an Extreme Gear mechanic,his skills are still good enough to impress Wave, which is a considerable feat.

While mechanics are his specialty, Tails is also well-versed in physics and science, enough to come up with solid theories regarding matters as complex as time and space. Combined with his mechanical skills, Tails can construct different vessels that can travel between dimensions. In addition, Tails has shown that he can read and translate Binary and Hexadecimal language. He is also a history buff who knows a lot about his world and its lore.

In direct combat, Tails utilizes a fighting style that combines a blend of basic punches and/or swipes with his twin-tails. When applied in battle, his twin-tails become like whips that can lash out with significant power across a wide range. Tails can as well spin around with his twin-tails at high speeds to become a dangerous top that can tear through opponents. Tails also has a number of aerial maneuvers to get advantage over ground-bound opponents. These maneuvers let him launch attacks at foes from above or fly at them with increased momentum. During some of his tougher periods of battles, Tails has also been known to complement his fighting style with gadgets.

Tails can also perform the Spin Attack, where he curls tightly into a concussive ball or cutting disk, while in locomotion to damage, mow down, or burrow through obstacles and foes, and any substance if given enough speed. Using the Spin Jump, Tails can leap into the air and curl in a spinning ball to deal damage to anything he lands on. The Spin Dash lets him shoot himself as an acceleration roll at high speeds to break barriers or mow down enemies. The Homing Attack allows Tails to jump and home in on an enemy to attack.

Tails has excellent skills when it comes to piloting aircrafts and driving vehicles, including mechs and racecars. He also has incredible aerial dogfighting skills, being able to win areal battles against massive ships like the Egg Carrier and Egg Cauldron with his personalized biplanes. Tails is also a talented Extreme Gear rider in his own right, and possibly one of the best in the world due to his ability to go head-to-head with the Babylon Rogues, who are considered the best Extreme Gear riders around. On an Extreme Gear, he has enough skills to ride through mid-air with great control.