7. Sonic the Hedgehog Crash Injures Two People, 1993
The Thanksgiving Day Parade’s first video game-based character balloon also had an unsuccessful start. En route, high winds caused him to first crash into a Columbus Circle lamppost and then into an off-duty police officer and young girl. The pair mercifully suffered only minor injuries. Sonic, however, got a major time-out. Sonic the Hedgehog wouldn’t grace the parade again until 2011. That year, a new Sonic balloon was designed in a more modern fashion to celebrate Sonic’s 20th anniversary. The 20th-anniversary balloon was retired after 2014.