Here are some prototype 'stand-in' figure boxes, as seen at a toy show or toy fair. Here, you can see their intent to make Metal Sonic, Shadow & variant Sonic & Knuckles figures. They always use a "Sonic & Amy" pair box to do their mock-up.
3 of the figures here aren't actual figures. They're just a cardboard cut-out with a photo of the character from the show pasted on & slipped into the box in place of an actual figure. This is done when a company wants to show what they WILL have at a fair, but does not yet have the finished product ready. Metal Sonic, Shadow & Dirty/Mud Sonic all aren't figures. Interestingly, 'bandage Knuckles' seems to be real...but maybe he could just be given some extra paint stamping for his drawn-on excess bandages so he was finished first. It's good to see Tomy working on more figures for the second half of 2015.