Design Festa 2008 @ Tokyo Big Site

Design Festa was another first-time experience for me in Tokyo. The two-day event, held at Tokyo's Big Site, brings together thousands of illustrators, musicians, dancers, performance artists...you name it!

Most of the booths are run by casual artists and hobbyists, with some professionals mixed in. So the event has something of a massive arts and crafts show feel to it.

When you get there, you might start looking for this or that, or at this or that. After a while, the senses become overwhelmed, and you just start to enjoy it for the experience!

Some pics from the show:

Cronic Black Parade @ Tokyo

Today at OneUp at Nakano Broadway, the mother of all Cronic one-off shows was held. More than 30 one-offs were sold, including: Maverasu, Bakurasu, Zyurai Asu, and Tripasu.

A wide variety of paint styles were on hand, including metallic spray, "handpaint," and even an amazing new kind of pinstriping, which I guess we can call "tattoo pinstriping".

Some people arrived before 6 AM to line up for the event. We rolled up at around 9:30. Very cool show!

Some pics:

Ilanena Spiral Toys Set Video!

Recently at the Spiral Toys shop, Ilanena-san released a fantastic new set of Dai Kaiju Card Monsters. They come with strobe LEDs which light up when you tap the figures.

Here's a video I shot at Pachisummit yesterday. Display action courtesy of Ilanena-san.

Pachisummit Fall 2008

Today I was pretty excited to attend my first Pachisummit. It's always sounded like a very cool, mysterious kind of show. Finally I was in the right place at the right time, and for sure the show did not disappoint!

Pachisummit is held at a bar in a basement. There's a stage where all kinds of recording and computing equipment are set up.

The first part of the event is a two-hour show during which hosts introduce all manner of bootleg kaiju items, from toys to playing cards to comics. In the first photo, you can see a bunch of toys in front of the host. Those are given away later, during the lottery portion of the event.

As you watch the show, you can order food and drinks. Here's Ilanena-san showing one of the ways to get a food server's attention:

For every 500 yen (or above) food or drink item that you buy, you receive a ticket that's entered into a lottery which takes place after the big stage show. One by one, the freebie kaiju toys are handed out to the winners.

Here are the cool toys that I won. (The yellow/orange one on the right was a freebie that everyone who attended the show was given.)

My favorite!!

After the lottery, a deck of cards is used to determine which group of people will get first shot at buying stuff from the dealers (who, up till now, have been hanging out and drinking with everyone else!)

Shots from the dealer area:

Maxtoy Co. brought 5 one-offs by Mark Nagata. I picked up this slick Tripasu:

All in all, Pachisummit was a very cool event. Although I can't say I understood the whole show (which was completely in Japanese), there were plenty of visuals which made it easy to follow along.

I also liked the laid back vibe and the atmosphere of the venue. And, the lottery aspect of both the free toys and dealer table buying order was pretty neat. It was also great to hang out, chat, and drink with a bunch of friends. Basically, Pachisummit is totally different from the other big toy shows in Japan. And the Suntory Maltz beer ain't bad at all!