Super Festival 56

Today's Superfestival marked the first toy event of spring, and the first big event since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. There were some new releases, but mostly today had a feeling of getting back on track and reconnecting, as many of us haven't seen each other since the disasters. The fans came out in huge droves, and by 11:30 some areas were packed wall to wall. And that's a very good thing, I think.

It was a beautiful spring day in Tokyo.

Fans got there early for a shot at the 8:00 AM "pre-releases," a SF tradition. The main halls don't open until 10:30, but a lot of great stuff goes on sale before then. To have a shot at the most limited stuff, though, be prepared to get in line at 6:00 AM.

 170 pics after the jump:

Marmit

The Marmit faithful are always out in big numbers for the early morning sales.

 Indoor exclusives:

Shikaruna

Off the charts Kappa!

The Shikaruna dudes hanging outside.

Mirock

Cord Viper

 Fig Lab

Upcoming Real Head Chaos Trooper!

New Paul Kaiju Joe Salamander!

  

Billiken

 Bullmark

Butanohana

 CCP

Whap it on the head and the eyes light up!

  

Frenzy

Upcoming release.

Another upcoming character.

 Ilanena

Gorgeous Ilanena x Velocitron Larvagon

 Velocitron

New figure to rule them all!

Kaiju Ken

 Kikkake

 Marusan

Shooting prize game!

 Spooky Parade + Dr Strange Toys

Awesome Spooky Parade x Nerd One collab. The original Stereogon heads are inside the figure, ratting around!

Mic Low (Nerd One) + Dr Strange Toys

  

Sunguts

Pico Pico

 TTToys

 US Toys

 Yamanaya

 Yamomark

Upcoming minis - so gorgeous!!

Other sofubi dealers:

Garamon disaster relief figure.

 Fewture Models

Dynamic Koguma

These guys make freaky electric toys that light up, spin around and make weird noises!

 Other dealers

 American toys

One thing I noticed about this Superfes was a clear resurgence of American toys (both new and vintage), from plush to mascot to superhero, movie, and other properties..

Japanese Toys

You can always count on SF for a great selection of recent and vintage Japanese toys.

Clothing

There were quite a few booths selling clothing (mostly T-shirts) at today's event.

Ultraman Exhibit

SF usually has a cool exhibit related to a popular TV, movie, anime, or manga property.

Celebrities

Fans line up out the door and down the stairs to get a signature from dignitaries from the otakuverse.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully today's event is a sign of good things  to come for the rest of the year!