Wonder Festival Winter 2010 Mega-Digest

Wonder Festival, the unquestionably preeminent figure and garage kit event in Japan, held its Winter 2010 event yesterday on February 7.

As always, the event provided a ravishing amount of otaku eye-candy, running the gamut from pre-painted PVC figures from companies such as Alter, Good Smile and Kotobukiya to a vast assortment of resin garage kits from tiny doujin circles…

For the uninitiated, Wonder Festival (Wonfes for short) is a biannual event organized by Kaiyodo (makers of Revoltech poseable figures) that is currently held in Chiba’s Makuhari Messe convention center.

In recent years it ran at the famed Tokyo Big Sight as do a countless number of other otaku events such as Comiket, but had to change venues following a nonlethal yet damaging escalator pileup incident in 2008.

While unpainted resin figures (garage kits) that provide the base for a complete figure after much construction and painting work by the buyers are the heart and soul of the event, pre-painted PVC figures from professional figure companies are among the most eye-catching and garner the most attention.

Both pre-painted and garage kit figures are shown below, and identifying one type from the other should be simple for anyone in the least bit familiar with figures – in general, if a figure is obviously part of a large booth exhibit and surrounded by banners or plaques it is probably a PVC figure, while if it has a “rough-looking” paint-job and is simply presented it’s bound to be a garage resin kit.

Concerning garage kits – given their completed figures used for display the best possible paintjob is often neglected by kit makers makers, so seeing an obviously beautifully constructed kit let down by its painter’s handiwork is quite common. The best examples generally come from skilled figure painters later on…

Figures from large makers are mostly grouped together near the top of this page and should be identifiable by their name plaques.

Lovely Yui and her fellow club members Azusa and Mio below all come from Alter, one figure company you can usually depend on to produce sterling figures such as these.

Loli pair Koromo and Yuuki above and below are part of a series of figures from the recently aired Saki, still from maker Alter.

This preproduction cast of Hitagi from Good Smile Company looks great, although one has to wonder how her falling accouterments will be handled in the final version.

Max Factory’s Figma Plug Suit Asuka looks excellent for a Figma, probably due to the plug suit’s coloration helping to cover up the joint lines.

Of course, there is also Rei present…

And Mari, shown below in a 1/6 full size figure, also by Max Factory:

A Rider Figma due out in May, wielding what looks like a fun accessory for a Figma.

A cute, frowning Loli Haruhi Figma, wielding as her weapon whatever it is you call those track lane markers (?)

These adorable Nendoroids come from the Haruhi movie, giving Haruhi and Nagato yet another set of Nendo versions.

A Long-haired Haruhi Figma pre-production model was also there:

A winking Mikuru, of course.

A gaggle of Nendoroid Puchi, the chibi version of the already chibi-fied, full sized Nendoroid.

So cute!

More Puchi, this time of three of the Bakemonogatari girls.

Mayoi’s hair and Nadeko’s hat look adorable.

Back to full sized Nendoroid, starting here with some of the K-ON! girls.

This special set of Mio and Ritsu Nendo premiered at this Wonfes, #101 in the long-running series of Nendoroids from Good Smile Company!

The next several figures all happen to be GSC, but mostly of the typical figure sort.

Index!

Easy panchira!

The Black Rock Shooter Nendoroid is painfully adorable…

This “Anime Version” is another of the myriad BRS versions.

A cute Nendo of Love Plus’s Manaka, striking a moe Kira pose.

Just look at those chibi Nendo Striker Unit and shimapan…

It’ll never be said that Saber was ill-served by her figure incarnations.

The bodywork is just gorgeous, isn’t it?

This sukumizu Shirley comes from Hobby Japan’s Booth.

Below are several of Kotobukiya’s offerings, starting off with a lovely preproduction model of Ayanami Yukata Ver…

The two posters above are advertising Kotobukiya’s upcoming Sora no Woto and Dance in the Vampire Bund, both series with a good amount of potential for figure incarnations.

The always pleasant to look at Tamaki, from Gift.

An old, but still beautiful Ayanami garage kit from Yamato, one of the few large-scale companies (along with event organizer Kaiyodo) to still make garage kits.

This nicely rounded figure comes from a Mogudan design, a doujin artist well known for his long-running, super voluptuous Ayanami series and illustrations for Scrapped Princess series.

This Akuma-san from Daiki Kougyou is actually in the unusual 1/12 scale, making for an especially tiny figure (despite this photo not displaying that at all.)

This Yoko is wonderfully decadent…

These sort of censor stickers abound at these events.

Some cute Nendoroid Puchi-esque figures of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, from Liquid Stone.

Ah…

An army of Tama-nee.

Some Idolmaster nightmare fuel…

The next image follows the same theme:

Papercraft Sisters…

These are Miku keitai straps, all adorable.

Taiga in Tiger cosplay.

Yui and Azusa in appropriately tight mizugi…

There is also a good amount of related otaku goods at the event, such as dakimakura and oppads.

Hinako!

Saki’s Nodaka.

A most invitingly laid out bed…

This odd thing is a Eva cushion patterned after an Angel.

You’re supposed to hug it…

Giga Drill Breaker!

The detail, especially on the hair and eyes, is just lovely here…

Convention Hall Photos

In case you might be interested in what the area looks like aside from close-up shots of the merchandise:

This area shown below was apparently off limits to photography, but at least there was some excellent Eva art on the outside:

A photo from 2channel depicting the otaku swarms around the convention center should close off this post nicely…

The next Wonfes will be held on July 25, announces the just updated official website.

Hundreds more are available at the sources: Akiba Hobby, Hobby Stock, Dengeki Online, Azure Toy Box, and Cut A News. Even more sites are summarised here.