Kaiju Korner: Super Festival 74 / スーパーフェスティバル 74

Super Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The most recent installment of the show was very well attended, which bodes well for the future. The biggest shift in the toy scene is the growing number of toy makers from Hong Kong who are having toys made in China using Japanese production methods. I'll say a bit more about that below.

Here is my 200+ pic report on the toy offerings from around 50 toy makers from Japan, England, China, the USA, and beyond. They brought goods made from sofubi, resin, keshi gomu, and other materials. For the pics, the booths are arranged alphabetically.

Akaisatsu Club

Much more after the jump:

Alieneyeland

Amapro

Astrozombies

Bean Sprouts

I had a nice chat with this Hong Kong toy seller. She told me that the factories making toys like this (and others) from Hong Kong are also producing toys for larger Japanese toy sellers. As I learned from other conversations at other booths, originally materials for sofubi toys would be made in Japan and then shipped to China. But now they're able to do all that in China and export the finished product to Japan. The quality is pretty good, and the cost is a fraction of what it costs to make them in Japan. My question is, since it costs less and less to make these toys (even in small quantities) these days, why do the prices keep going up?

Big One Craft

Spectacular clear Silver Kamen with paper inserts, pipe cleaners, and light spray. The quality of clear toys these days is fantastic.

Billiken

Black Seed

Another new Hong Kong seller. I like the creativity and infusion of fresh ideas with some of the new offerings we're seeing. But, like with many other indie toys. the cost will block out most collectors. These were sold by lottery.