Event | SQDBLSTR

Archive for the ‘ Event ’ Category

Randall’s Magic Scrap Yard

Today was the first Sunday-opening show at Thrash Out I have ever heard of. Typically, shows open on Saturday, which means there’s no way I can join in on the lining up and lottery hoopla. After two years of visiting Thrash Out, this was the first time. And of course, I blindly walk past the line of people on the side of the building and into TO before the show actually starts. Then, by far the worst, is the walk of shame back to the line.

After my false start, everyone pulled numbers, and went inside to warm up while taking pictures of all the customs. Randall’s a nice figure with a good weight to him. The honey claw bit is pretty awesome, too. Bwana brought along a few other mash up figures, and some Gargamel pieces he painted.

The guy that stole the show, though, was Boris the bee. He’s pocket sized, which is the perfect size to cram as many as you can on your shelf. Boris is really detailed, and is a satisfying amount of toy for the size. If that makes any sense. There’s a lot to the sculpt, so it encourages you to pick it up and handle it to appreciate all the small details. Like stitching on the jeans. He has a lot of detail, but it’s not too busy. It’s an amazing balance, and I can’t wait to see the painted versions.

2010: 11/14
CATEGORY: Event
Comments Off

Design Festa 32

Design Festa was, like normal, packed with everything you can imagine. Robotic submarine models? Yep. Umbrellas with samurai sword handles? Uh huh. Cat postcards, cat key chains, cat cellphone charms, cat bookmarks, cat paperweights, cat hats, cat paintings, and anything else you can put a cat image on? Most definitely.

Among all this, a couple toy makers also brought along stuff to sell. Most of the pictures are of toys. Pictures taken by myself and Ellen Chou.

2010: 11/08
CATEGORY: Event
Comments Off

RxH Kaiju Blue Battle Royale Event

On Halloween at Kaiju Blue in Shinjuku’s Marui, Mori celebrated the holiday his own way; by releasing new toys. The typhoon from the previous day and the slow rain in the morning kept most people away, but at opening, there were about 15 people in line. After the initial lottery, everyone formed into a line to purchase the goods. In addition to a large fortune cat, Mori had two Mutant Evils with custom masks made by Uamou‘s father. These were snapped up so fast, I didn’t even get a picture. The things that survived until I got to the front of the line were a Mutant Chaos, Skull Toys and RxH’s Mutant Dokurocks, and Pop Soda and RxH’s Pops. Overall, it was a nice low-key event with some great releases.

2010: 11/08
CATEGORY: Event
Comments Off

Billiken Shokai Kaiju Zenin Shugou – 怪獣全員集合

Billiken Gallery in Aoyama recently had a show that showcased 13 different artists: Takanori Ishizuka, Sunguts, Imiri Sakabashira, Elegab, Noriya Takeyama, Yukinori Dehara, Dream Rocket, Takao Nakano, PicoPico, Tsukasa Masuyama, Keiko Miyata, Yuji Moriguchi, and Yamomark.

2010: 10/11
CATEGORY: Event
Comments Off

Super Festival 54 September 2010

With autumn finally here, this was the first festival in a long time that the stench of nerd sweat didn’t fill Tokyo Science Museum (I include myself in this category). Between sporadic Metallica guitarist sightings, mobs of people rushing for blind bags, and EVERYONE doing some sort of raffle, there was a nice amount of great toys from some really amazing people. These were the highlights.

Atom A. Armwrestler has really come into his own and is pumping out some consistently nice stuff. Glyos buildman? Check. Newly colored Atom Mutants? Those too. The best octopus-colored Mutant Chaos ever? You bet.

Continuing around the RealxHead and Friends complex, were these angels and demons from Popsoda. They first seemed to pop up two weeks ago at Beat 3, but today they brought a much wider variety of colors.

Also in the complex were some new toys from Mirock, along with his finished Pheyaos head, Uamou displayed her work with Onell, and Nerd One’s freshly painted Steregon.

Rounding off the complex was a series of blind bags. Shef dyed a huge number of minis in some really nice colors, while Mori stuck with larger blind bagged figures.

Yamomark showed off his new female villain, Bira-Villain, as well as an early version of a comic book he’s creating using his own characters.

Shirahama released the second version of his amazing Kumon.

Finally, Velocitron has been painfully busy preparing 3 brand new toys for Superfest, in addition to painting MVH’s giant Ollie. This guy is a beast. Velocitron also showed off Zetsugon, what appears to be a cross between Larvagon, Bechigon, and HUGE TENTACLE.

2010: 09/27
CATEGORY: Event
Comments Off

Wonder Festival July 2010

Wonder Fest was really, really hot. I deliberately chose to forego trying to get there early to snag exclusives in lieu of passing out while in line. An hour after opening, there was still a decent sized line stretching outside of Makuhari Messe, but once inside, everything was spread out and the crowd was much less of an issue. The first thing I did was go straight to Shirahama’s booth.

Shirahama produced his first vinyl toy, Kumon, designed by Yatsuashi and sculpted by Kiyoka Ikeda of Gargamel. It’s head and two arms are articulated, and it’s an awesome piece of vinyl. I’m hoping for a clear purple version sometime soon.

Velocitron had a proto of one of his next toys; what looks to be a giant resin Ghoul + Larvagon. This thing is standard sized, and towers over Ricky’s other figures.

Nerd One had his resin figure from Akuma-kun, as well as a few Streregons with him. By the time I arrived, the Steregons has sold out, and only a handful of the mummies left.

M1 Go brought along their giant Hedorah, as well as many more of the Hedorah mini sets than most people thought. There were still a few hanging around by the time I arrived, almost 2 hours after opening.

Kellerman brought along a custom display piece in addition to his normal releases.

Sunguts had a few one day licenses, and in addition to an Ultraman painted Last Sunguts, brought a couple other specials for the day.

At the last Wonder Fest, Dream Rocket had some amazing Hedorahs they painted, and did the same this year. Two were metallic, while the third was more subdued. There were several joint pieces with Dream Rocket paint jobs on Yamomark toys.

Killer J was at both ends of the size spectrum with his mini Sarumon, and enormous mixed parts Rock Monster Jango.

Toygraph released their take on Mantango.

Of course there were resin garage kits all over, in addition to vinyl.

Thunderroad Style

Chubu Mechatronics

One Day License Kits:
Sylvia from No More Heroes

Portal

2010: 07/26
CATEGORY: Event
Comments Off

Super Festival 53 July 2010

Super Fest started like it normally does: waiting in a long line to get in. For most people, this Super Fest was at an awkward time. The last one was only a few months ago, and with both Wonder Fest and SDCC three weeks away, today was more subdued in terms of new releases. Everyone is holding off until the two bigger events later this month.