Super Festival 75

Super Festival 75

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Super Festival 74 / スーパーフェスティバル 74

Super Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The most recent installment of the show was very well attended, which bodes well for the future. The biggest shift in the toy scene is the growing number of toy makers from Hong Kong who are having toys made in China using Japanese production methods. I'll say a bit more about that below.

Here is my 200+ pic report on the toy offerings from around 50 toy makers from Japan, England, China, the USA, and beyond. They brought goods made from sofubi, resin, keshi gomu, and other materials. For the pics, the booths are arranged alphabetically.

Akaisatsu Club

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Super Festival 73 / スーパーフェスティバル 73

Happy 2017! Here's a look at the toys of Super Festival 73, with the booths in alphabetical order.

Aimou

Alien's Park

190+ pics after the jump:

Chicago Toy Show (aka the Kane County Show)

Twice a year, the fields of Northern Illinois come alive with the sounds of thousands of toy collectors descending on the Kane County Fairgrounds. That's the site of the venerable Chicago Toy Show.

Filling buildings with names like "Rabbit Building," the "Prairie Events Center" and the "Doll House," some 600+ dealers assemble to sell antique dolls and tin toys, Star Wars figures and Hot wheel cars, plus modern toys like Funko Pop figures and Lego mini figs.

This event was held on October 23, 2016. When you talk to old hands about the show, they speak in hushed whispers about the glory days before the Internet, when deals at Kane County flowed like wine and people traveled from all over the world to get in on the action. These days, auction websites and the democratization of information have leveled the playing field, contributing to the decline of toy shows (and not just in the USA).

But there are still a lot of people who like seeing toys in person before buying them, not to mention fraternizing with collecting buddies and learning from the greybeards who bring centuries of combined knowledge and wisdom. Plus there are several food trucks selling delicious ice cream with freshly made waffle cones. So good...

Here's a look at the show:

There are many high quality toys and excellent displays at the Kane County show.

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Ultraman Ace Exhibit at Super Festival 72

The tokusatsu focus of Super Festival 72 was Ultraman Ace. As with past shows, the organizers did a great job putting together an exhibit of Ultraman Ace items. That included toys, books, scripts, and what look like props from the show. Here's a look:

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Super Festival 72 / スーパーフェスティバル 72

Welcome to the Kaiju Korner Super Festival 72 report.

Acro

Aimou

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SDCC 2016: Interview with Super7's Brian Flynn

Super7's owner Brian Flynn talks about Masters of the Universe toys and animation, Alien, The Worst, sofubi toys, and more.

ThreeZero Toy Show at Pixiv Zingaro Gallery in Tokyo, Japan

ThreeZero Mazinger Z

The Pixiv Zingaro Gallery has an ongoing exhibition of ThreeZero toys.

The Pixiv Zingaro gallery is inside the Nakano Broadway mall.

The super-detailed figures from the standout Hong Kong company are based on a variety of licensed characters from anime, video games, and elsewhere.

Getter 1 from Getter Robo

Iron King from Zoids

A lot of figures are for sale, including 4 figures which are exclusive to the show.

T-45 Power Armor from Fallout 4

All of the figures have an amazing sense of realism and detail.

Full Metal Ghost Captain Form

Here's a video I shot of the show:

Design Festa 43 - Indie Toys

The latest Design Festa, one of Japan's largest gatherings of craftspeople, musicians. and other creative sorts, took place at the Tokyo Big Sight on a beautiful spring weekend.

Many of the indie sofubi stalwarts were there, and in addition to those I wanted to provide a look at some makers working with other materials, since Design Festa really brings everything together, from sofubi to felt to yarn to wood, and more. So here's our toy report, with makers arranged alphabetically.

Atara

Super creative wooden toys. Click here for Atara's website.

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Super Festival 71 / スーパーフェスティバル 71

 

At the latest installment of Super Festival, a huge number of toy makers sold figures made from sofubi, resin, and other materials. Many shared booths, maximizing the number of makers who could attend. In addition to new and familiar faces, we saw others who haven't attended the show in a while, as well as some exhibitors from overseas. It was quite a gathering of toy makers!

By and large, most exhibitors had a limited number of things on hand or on display, with exceptions like CCP and Fewture Models. But there was such a variety and so many booths that the total number of releases was substantial.

It was a balmy, drizzly spring morning, and the event's location in central Tokyo was almost pastoral (a word rarely used to describe the city).

To get to the event site, you go up a little hill and through this massive gate, which was once an entrance to an Edo period castle.

Despite the light rain, many of the toy faithful were in line before 7:00 AM.

Here are the toy makers in attendance, arranged in alphabetical order.

Acro

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Mirrorman Exhibition at Super Festival 70

Super Festival 70's tokusatsu focus was Mirrorman, one of the early TV shows that inspired a massive variety of shows in the 1970s.

Yamanaya Mirrorman

The Mirrorman theme was apparent throughout the show, and there were a number of licensed exclusives from companies like Yamanaya.

Mr. Nobuyuki Ishida

There was also a talk show and signing session featuring the hero himself, Mr. Nobuyuki Ishida, who portrayed Kyotaro Kagami (the journalist who transformed into Mirrorman) in the 1971-1972 TV show.

On display, there was also a two-showcase extravaganza of vintage Mirrorman goods. Here's a look:

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