Wonder Festival 2014 (Winter) / ワンダーフェスティバル 2014［冬］ Part 5: Other Sensational Sights

As we wrap up our WF 2014 (Winter) coverage, here's a sample of the other sights to be seen at the show.

 More after the jump:

Wonder Festival 2014 (Winter) / ワンダーフェスティバル 2014［冬］ Part 4: 3A & threezero

Here are pics of the 3A & threezero display from Wonder Festival.

 More after the jump:

Wonder Festival 2014 (Winter) / ワンダーフェスティバル 2014［冬］ Part 3: 3D Printing & the 3D-GAN Area

One of the neat things about recent Wonder Festivals has been a spotlight on the technology that's changing the toy industry. In the 3D-GAN (Geometry Application Network) area, a number of tech companies showed off their machines, products, and services.

In addition to straight-up 3D printers and toys made from them, there were companies with lithography technology, mass produced keshi gomu toys (made from molds that were created using 3D technology), and more.

Here's a video followed by stills of some of the booths.



Astec

These high quality keshi gomu toys are made using a unique injection molding process. The molds were made using 3D technology. Because of the precision of the process, they can make numerous molds for the same design, speeding up production, improving efficiency and consistency, and, I would think, lowering overall costs.

Interesting note: I had a nice chat with the person running the booth, and  he told me that these figures, along with a lot of other keshi gomu toys, are made from PVC resin. So although we often call them "rubber erasers," the material used to make them may be something else entirely.

More after the jump:

Wonder Festival 2014 (Winter) / ワンダーフェスティバル 2014［冬］ Part 2: Indie Toys

Here is Kaiju Korner's main Wonder Festival Winter 2014 report: a look at indie toys, including sofubi, keshi, resin, and more.

Booths are arranged alphabetically.

Angel Abby

Bullmark and Yamanaya

Really cool info board about the way the Ultraman cast hands were made.

 200+ pics after the jump:

Wonder Festival 2014 (Winter) / ワンダーフェスティバル 2014［冬］ Part 1: Medicom Toys

Welcome to Kaiju Korner's coverage of Wonder Festival 2014 (Winter). We start with a look at the always fantastic Medicom Toys display, with looks at dozens of new and upcoming sofubi figures.

This wasn't an ordinary WF, as it came on the day after Tokyo's heaviest snowfall in decades. That had a very big impact on transportation, as both fans and dealers slowly rolled in over the course of the morning.

 On to Medicom's display....

Boom!

Heavy hitters right out of the gate! Kamen Rider...

Kinnikuman...

 More after the jump:

Vintage Keshi Gomu Packaging

Keshi gomu ("rubber eraser") figures are among the most popular toy collectibles in Japan. Maybe because of their size, or the instant nostalgia factor, or maybe the way they were distributed in so many outlets, people still love the little figures.

Keshi toys were sold in gachapon machines, as "candy/premium toys" (ex: buy a box of chocolate and get a little freebie figure), individually packaged with bags and headers, in sets, boxes, games...you get the picture.

I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the varieties of packaging for these remarkably detailed little figures.

Here are some Gegege no Kitaro figures in traditional bag/header card packaging.

Robo Hachan keshi set with backing board + clear plastic window

 More after the jump:

Vintage Wind-Up Toys

The variety of cool toys made in Japan in the 1970s-80s is amazing. We cover a lot of sofubi on KK, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. You've also got chogokin, keshigomu, jumbos, talkers, belts, masks, rigs for bikes to turn your banana seat Stingray into a Kamen Rider Cyclone (oh yes, indeed...)

Then there are tin toys, a staple of Japanese toys going back more than half a century. A lot of them are really tough to find these days, especially with the boxes. Here's a look at a bunch of wind-up walkers I came across in Tokyo.

Barom 1 and Getter Robo

Ultraman Leo, Zaboga, Ultraman MAT, Mirrorman

Zaboga

Kamen Riders + Ultraman Leo

Check out the cool wheel action on this Rider!

Meet the Kamen Riders

You never know who you're going to run into in Tokyo. Today, after hanging out at my favorite Koenji izakaya (kind of like a bar/restaurant) with good kimchi, edamame, and 190 yen draft beer (oh, yeah, you read that right), I wandered over to Godzilla-ya, one of my favorite toy shops.

And who did I happen to run into but two famous tokusatsu actors: Mr. Sasaki Takeshi (above photo - on the left) who played Kamen Rider 2 in the original 1971-73 series and Mr. Takasugi Shunsuke (on the right) who starred as Kamen Rider Super-1, the franchise's seventh series which ran from 1980-81. They were hanging out, chatting, and checking out the shop.

Sasaki-san was flipping through some old Kamen Rider trading cards and commenting on how expensive the Kamen Rider 1 cards were - hah hah, good times!

Takasugi-san and I got to chatting, and I asked if he had a lot of Kamen Rider toys. Turns out he has a lot of Super-1 figures, since he gets them when they come out. Must be pretty cool to have a bunch of figures of yourself!

I got a Super-1 record in the shop and Takasugi-san kindly signed it for me - yay!

Wassap!

Oh, and I found out Sasaki-san owns a bar called バッタ もん (Bata Mon). "Bata" means "locust." As I learned today, whereas in the West, the locust carries a widely negative connotation (plague of locusts and all that), the insect isn't viewed so negatively in Japan. Did not know that.

Anyway, moral of the story - you never know who you'll meet, so carry a smile - and a camera - and a pen is good too (though I used the shop's ;-).

Antique Jamboree 2014

Tokyo has a large and thriving antique scene, with shows held just about every month. There are street sales, flea markets, and large shows held at event halls. Antique Jamboree is one of the better known shows, and it's held at Tokyo's Big Sight.

Dealers have everything from vintage phonographs to antique furniture to glassware, fabric, dolls, celluloid figures, and other toys. This was my first time attending the show, and I had a good time checking out the booths and snapping shots. Here are some pics.

 More after the jump:

New Yusei Majin + Moon Majin Images

New pics I recently shot at Cosmo Knight Alpha of the shop's Yusei Majin and Moon Majin display.

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Super Festival 64 / スーパーフェスティバル 64

 Welcome to Kaiju Korner's Super Festival 64 report.

It was a nice day in central Tokyo.

Toy booths, arranged alphabetically:

Astro Zombies

Perhaps the show's most anticipated release: A pair of "Wingshits" - Green and Red Skullwings painted to match the original fathers of modern indie sofubi - the green and red Finkshit.

They even came bagged in a similar style to the OG Finkshits.

About 140 pics after the jump:

Jyujin by GEEK! Produced by Medicom (Video)

Jyujin is a huge figure designed by GEEK! and produced by Medicom. The figure was shown at some Medicom exhibitions last year, and then we started seeing releases, at places like the Summer 2013 Wonder Festival, Medicom, and TAG.

The 12" behemoth is imposing, but it also has a thoughtful, brooding expression which adds to the character.

Here's my video review of Jyujin, with some other figures brought in for size comparison.