Sunday, July 29, 2012

2012 Summer Wonder Festival - Indie Toys

Today's Wonder Festival was amazing in so many ways - from the number of indy sofubi makers attending to the fantastic new versions of existing figures to the debuts and previews of a huge number of new toys.

I'll start in this post with an indy toy maker roundup, from A to Z:

Akaikutsu Club




Amapro

 250+ pics after the jump:








Angel Abby

This new Skull Butt Head was designed by Andy of Angel Abby and sculpted by Skull Head Butt. It's an Angel Abby exclusive head sculpt.

Secret release

One-off

Angel Abby x Rumble Monsters

Angel Abby x Bwana Spoons (painted by Gargamel)

Original AA figure - Monkeykey

The new head sculpt under the hood is super top secret. They weren't letting anyone see it. Mystery! ^_^
Another AA original - Denwakingu (Telephone King)

AA original (the eye extends - very cool!) - Cameran

One-day license Kanegon. Very nice SD style

 Atelier G-1

Prototype sculpt of Melon Bear. I'll have more about this in an upcoming post.
Black Rabbit



How awesome is this - they encourage you to handle the figure before deciding to buy one. Well done, I say!

Custom paint by Black Rabbit - display only

Check out these awesome key chains. You can carry a Chupa Chups or piece of chocolate for a munch on the go - nice!

Bullmark









Cosmo Knight Alpha + Bear Model

New Bear Model releases

Prototype new figure from CKA. I'll have more about this soon.
Prototype Bear Model sculpt. Sofubi figure slotted for release later this year.
Creative Design

Today's release

Another new release



Denboku
Denboku's one-day license offerings are always very popular.







Impressive design

Looks like a magnet attachment!


These looked like they were made of metal.



I thought this was pretty cool.

Dr Strange Toys
Prototype sculpt, slotted for release in sofubi down the line.

Fig-Lab
Debut of Fig-Lab Finger Five










Upcoming Fig-Lab release
The 6th figure in the Fig Lab 5 series. This is the sofubi representation of Don.

Five Star






Grody Shogun
MVH x Grody Shogun marvelous mashup! The figure is called Oniboya

Unpainted sample. The thing rattling around inside is a plastic eyeball.


Feel the power!
Ichibanboshi


Upcoming figure: Monkey Chaosman
 

Ilanena

Ilanena x Rampage Toys



Ilanena-san + Jon the Rampager
Jetture

  
This is Sparta Giant (aka Gaiboto). So nice! One of my favorite new figures

special four-armed Hormone Kaiju (aka Helumola) release for the show

standard Hormone Kaiju (aka Horumola)

Kaisanda


Upcoming new figure: Kubi Ningyo (aka Maneki Yokai). I'll post more about these later. (I know I've been writing that a lot, but there's just way too much to cover in one post, and I don't want to bury the details about all the new figures in a single post. Forgive!)

Kaiju Shojo
One-day license releases



resin figures
Kumon
Glowie!

Linden
Cornucopia of one-day license releases

The candle is GID. Very nice touch
 
Linden released some nice one-day figures from the manga Gegege no Kitaro.


A boss from Adventure Island - a Nintendo game. One of my favorite one-day license releases.

If you bought all of Linden's releases, you got a blind bag which contained one of these little figures.

Upcoming gachapon releases. More to come about these...

Marusan


These are Marusan's anticipation of what figures and colors we might see in the 2014 Godzilla movie. I filmed an interview with the Marusan owner, in which he discusses these figures, Marusan's digital publishing plans, and more. That will be up soon!

Original Marusan character


New figure intentionally painted in a worn vintage style. I thought that was a pretty cool concept.

Marusan's I-phone/I-Pad app. Coming in August. Only 250 yen!

The photos in the apps are from the spectacular Marusan photography collection, shot Marusan's owner.


The map in the app tells you where the kaiju are from!

Info about the app

Max Toy

Debut of Kaiju Zanga, which was designed by Nakayoshi's Yamashita-san This big fellow has 10 parts and weighs at least a couple of pounds. I'll have multiple shots of this figure in an upcoming post.

One-day license figures from the anime Azumanga Daioh.
More Azumanga Daioh one-day license figures. From left to right: Chiyo-chan, Chiyo-chan's dad, Osaka


Max Toy x Frenzy debut releases

 
Mirock, Real Head, Coccodo


Debut release






Ninja Alien







Pico Pico





PP Pudding


Rampage Toys









Jon will be painting these for NYCC



Renovatio
Renovatio is a super-cool outfit I learned about at WF. Their figures are resin and are a kind of culture mashup. This figure (which was only 3000 yen) mashes the traditional fortune cat and vintage toy forms and paint techniques, with the maker's imaginative flair bringing it all together. I talked to the maker, who is very friendly. Overseas shipping is OK.



Another Renovatio meme mashup




The box is also designed to have a retro feel

Shamrock Arrow
Today's release

Upcoming release

Sunguts






I liked these a lot
Toyful & Monstock





d

US Toys


Velocitron
Lots of releases in a nice painted glitter




Any unsold figures will likely go up on Lulubell's site.
Yamomark





Yet another set of prototype sculpts. These are even smaller than the standard Yamomark minis and are exquisitely sculpted. I'll have individual pics up soon.
 Yutari

Garoborg, from the 1973 TV show "Zone Fighter"

Unpainted Garoborg
Jikiro, from the same show
As the maker told me at the booth, in the show Godzilla drops by to help the hero take on his opponents. That was mighty neighborly of the oft-misunderstood fire-breathing fellow. Click here to read a more in-depth post I wrote about these Zone Fighter releases.

16 comments:

  1. Hey Andy,happy to talk with you again today,see you next time.

    angel abby-ANDY

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  2. Nice talking! I've added Angel Abby to the link list on Kaiju Korner. :)

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  3. Thank you!

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  4. Amazing coverage as always andy!!!!

    Lots of great toys this year and it's almost impossible to pick favorites.

    I forget which level in Adventure Island that figure is the boss to. It's the same body used repeatedly each level; just the heads change. Cool release!

    It really wowed me that Fig Lab is carrying the OMFG dudes. Props to both crews on that. Really great!

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  5. Awesome post Andy ! Wish i could have been there .. some amazing new sofubi !

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  6. One day license gear looks amazing this go-round.

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  7. andy - amazing coverage as always - thanks for the pix of the F5!

    small note - the pics labelled Chima Group are actually the Toyful & Monstock table...

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  8. Thanks for the pos. feedback guys. More posts to follow in the coming days. :)

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  9. ~ Some amazing stuff - Great photo's Andy. The U.S. Toys table !! nice ~ six7777

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  10. Awesome coverage!! So many incredible toys. Thanks for the pics.

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  11. Fantastic pics and coverage as always Andy, it's the next best thing to being there (and easier on my wallet at least, if that is a silver lining :o)

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  12. Thanks guys- KK virtual toy show tours in the house! ^_^

    I like the way big events like this have something for everyone. That's why I try to be comprehensive with the coverage - you never know what folks will be into.

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  13. Sweet post Andy! Thanks for all the pics!

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  14. Awesome coverage of the event, Andy!
    I've looked through all these
    photos about 3 times so far.
    Thanks for posting them!

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  15. Glad you're enjoying the coverage!

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