The first of the two Wonder Festivals for this year, the Winter edition was as brilliant as it normally is, with major toy and kit companies showing off their wares alongside the homemade hobbyists. There also seems to be a lot of love for classic Shinji Aramaki mecha designs now as well.
The big surprise of the event was how Bandai and Tamashii Nations was mysteriously absent. They are normally present in a big way but this time around only a special Macross themed booth had their upcoming toys on display. Many of these toys being tied into the upcoming Macross Delta series as well as the Hi-Metal R toyline covering much of classic Macross.
Sentinel again had a very solid display this year, with a large Riobot Mazinkaiser looking very nice indeed along with a more realistic coloring set for both the Metamor Force Dancouga and Black Wing. The 1000toys spin-off also display some of the increasingly amazing Izmojuki toys.
While I know the designer behind these personally and have worked with him in the past, it was nice to see so many people on the event floor checking his toys out.
The big takeaway from this WonFes for me was the number of Shinji Aramaki designs on display. What with Fewture still showing off their EX Gohkin Garland from Megazone 23, Arcadia too has their own though much smaller version planned. The latter is interesting is because both T-REX and Aramaki himself are working on the figure. The smaller size is also likely a smarter choice as the older and bigger Yamato version had an issue of falling apart and breaking. Reducing the size and thus the weight will potentially limit the strain placed on the joints during transformation. However, we’ll just have to see on that once these toys are finally out.
The amazing MADOX-01 chogokin by Aygo. A classic mecha design is finally getting the toy treatment... [+]
The other major piece of Aramaki love was a lovely and large chogokin for MADOX-01. Made by a new company called Aygo, the figure uses a lot of diecast in the joints and hands, as well as across the body. The anime itself is somewhat of cult hit both in Japan and abroad, so the fact we have this to look forward to is really rather great.
After that Good Smile went all out with new figmas and Nendroids, with Iron Fossil from DariusBurst: Chronicle Saviours making an appearance. Normally, figmas tend to be of figures so this is a curious departure as the Iron Fossil is a giant mechanical alien fish.
Another great little figure was Arthur from the Makaimura games, though abroad they are more commonly known as Ghosts n' Goblins. I am massive fan of these games and its nice to see that I’ll finally be able to have my own figure of the main character, brazen underpants and all.
The garage kit side of things was more uneventful this year and didn’t have many interesting items on show. There were a few pieces that were good but a lot of it had already been present over Summer last year.
Bar a few nice Patlabor, VOTOMS and Vifam pieces it was a bit underwhelming. These things happen though, as the hobbyist side of things is entirely down to the whims of those that come up with these garage kits. That’s one of the great things about WonFes, you never know what you are going to get with all the garage kits as there is not a cynical marketing department behind it all.
As always, though WonFes leaves me with a sense of yearning for the year ahead. So many amazing toys are on the way and one of those will be the MADOX-01. I can only imagine that my bank balance will be brutally savaged come its eventual release.
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