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
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| Super creative wooden toys. Click here for Atara's website. |
More after the jump:
Blobpus
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| How awesome are these Blobpus x Galaxy People collabs! |
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| These Biterfish are customs by Kaji-san. |
Chima Group
Dan
Dol Roffo
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| Long-time yarn worker who often collabs with sofubi makers. |
Engimono Department Store
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| This booth represented quite a few toy makers. There were so many people lined up that they had to move the line to a corner and bring people over a few at a time. |
Galaxy People
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| I really like this mashup. |
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| Drawn by Brian's daughter |
Hints and Spices
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| This intrepid toy maker made the trip over from Australia to attend. |
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| Toys + chocolate = winner! |
Indigo
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| Very talented felt maker. Click here for their website. |
Jungle
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| The grey one is a one-off. |
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| Another custom. Cool figure. |
Markaro
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Nice write up of the figure's backstory.
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Company history
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Marukai
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| In-development sculpt |
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| Love the backdrop |
Masataro Toys
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| More nice felt toys |
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| Booska is the perfect character for a felt project! |
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| Handmade packaging, Nice touch! |
Max Toy
One Up
Paul Kaiju
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| Paul released this sweet Mockbat at the show! |
Pico Pico
Rampage Toys
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| Great paint work |
Science Patrol
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| Toys circled by trains - TES! |
Sunguts
Touma
Tovi
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| Tovi also flew over from the land down under. |
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| There are magnets in each toy so you can remove them from the dango stick. (Dango is really tasty Check out this write-up I did of a dango stall near Nakano Broadway.) |
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| Super glossy dessert-themed toys. |
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| Who doesn't love Skittles?? |
Yamomark
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| Hand puppet fight! |
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Hey Andy! Excellent coverage as always, bud.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in learning more about Marukai's Hikari robot remake. Do you know if they're planning on remodeling anymore from that series?
Thanks!
Thanks! Yes, I believe the one he's currently working on is a new version, and he brought out another head part to show me. That's all I know about the series. Incidentally, the same guy who makes those has a physical shop not far from Nakano Broadway.
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