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Are There Any Figures at WonderFest for Retro Anime Fans?




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psh_fun



Joined: 22 Oct 2023
Posts: 91
PostPosted: Sat Feb 17, 2024 5:08 pm Reply with quote
Given the way people consume media today, anything more than 10 is probably safe to call retro. I remember being excited seeing Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal figures one year and realizing the show was 12 years old at that point despite just seeming like yesterday Laughing
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Greboruri



Joined: 09 Jul 2003
Posts: 387
Location: QBN, NSW, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Feb 17, 2024 9:05 pm Reply with quote
I went to the Summer Wonder Festival in 2018, and while I wasn't specifically looking to buy garage kits, plastic models or figures, I found quite a lot of new items of older series amongst the independent seller tables. I was mostly wandering around aimlessly but I found seller's original garage kits of series such as Dirty Pair, Future GPX Cyber Formula, Patlabor, Ashita no Joe and Mospeada without even specifically searching that material out.

It looks as if the catalogue (which previously was also your ticket to get into Wonder Festival) is no longer printed, so I looked online at the website and did a search for the independent booths under "copyrighted works" and found six booths in the first page of results selling material (garage kits and other merchandise) from series such as Nadia of the Mysterious Sea, Towards the Terra, Crusher Joe, Patlabor, Votoms, Orguss 02, Vifam, Sailor Moon, Creamy Mami and Mospeada. There were 40 other pages of results which can be searched down to individual series via tags. Patlabor and Macross seems to be the most popular.

I really think the article is quite reductive in it's view of looking for figures of older series from independent sellers at Wonder Festival. If you're not going to do some research beforehand to see where the booths are and what they are selling and going to social media to see what the products are on offer, you're going to be disappointed. Some of this stuff is incredibly niche. Do you want to buy a full scale garage kit of the swan mics from Macross 7 for instance? You also cannot expect professionally made or sculpted products from some of these sellers.

I also think Wonder Festival is far more than new figures from commercial companies or garage kits from independent sellers. You have oddball stuff like displays of military vehicles or equipment, Goodsmile Racing brining in their Super GT race car and Race Queen team, and the adults only area which blew my mind with a Godzilla figure made up of penises and scrotums (!!) and a woman selling very realistic full sized figures of women in lingerie.

I feel articles like this reduce Wonder Festival to figures and kits, and it isn't just that. It's far more varied and interesting.
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Meexa



Joined: 13 Mar 2016
Posts: 212
PostPosted: Sat Feb 17, 2024 11:35 pm Reply with quote
Someone send me the link to the Astro Boy figure. I can't find it on myfigurecollection for some odd reason. It looks tight!
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3564
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2024 3:17 pm Reply with quote
Meexa wrote:
Someone send me the link to the Astro Boy figure. I can't find it on myfigurecollection for some odd reason. It looks tight!

It says the manufacturer right there in the article image!; Blitzway.

If you look at their site there's several of this same model in different unicolors (front cover is removable so you get the same look as in the image in the article, except the skin is unicolor. This variant is probably still TBD...).
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2267
PostPosted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 10:28 am Reply with quote
Garage kits are the way to go for smaller/retro titles, or even for side/niche characters! Chances are that if your fave doesn’t have an official figure yet, some dedicated fan has already made or is in the process of making a figure for them.

I think the hardest part on the non-Japanese speaking side of the fandom is keeping track of who is selling what, since a lot of the advertising is done on Twitter and in Japanese. And even though buying kits directly from the seller is easier than ever, you still have to jump through a few hoops to set up proxy buyers, Booth accounts, and/or Treasure Festa accounts.

But those aftermarket prices can be *rough*, so I’d rather deal with the hassle of language barriers and tech than burn through my wallet hunting through Yahoo Auctions. (Anyone even vaguely aware of the Princess Tutu kit knows what I’m talking about. >.> )
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Meexa



Joined: 13 Mar 2016
Posts: 212
PostPosted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 3:46 pm Reply with quote
whiskeyii wrote:
Garage kits are the way to go for smaller/retro titles, or even for side/niche characters! Chances are that if your fave doesn’t have an official figure yet, some dedicated fan has already made or is in the process of making a figure for them.

I think the hardest part on the non-Japanese speaking side of the fandom is keeping track of who is selling what, since a lot of the advertising is done on Twitter and in Japanese. And even though buying kits directly from the seller is easier than ever, you still have to jump through a few hoops to set up proxy buyers, Booth accounts, and/or Treasure Festa accounts.

But those aftermarket prices can be *rough*, so I’d rather deal with the hassle of language barriers and tech than burn through my wallet hunting through Yahoo Auctions. (Anyone even vaguely aware of the Princess Tutu kit knows what I’m talking about. >.> )


There was this controller I bought several years back, the only place I could find it was through Japan Yahoo auctions, had to get a proxy service (now that proxy is currently closed). And yes you are right, it was expensive.
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