Brian Szabelski: So, now that Wonder Festival and Toy Fair are over, what's everyone's thoughts on what they saw?
Pedro Cortes: This was the year of Mass Effect and it's about damn time! After years of waiting to get some decent toys and statues, we're finally getting a bunch of poseable toys and detailed statues that will most definitely be gracing my shelves.
Square-Enix takes the poseable crown with their Play Arts Kai versions of male Shepard, Ashley and Garrus. I'll be making sure I get MShep and Garrus and hope that a Tali and Legion will be coming down the line.
However, Kotobukiya will be taking all of my precious dollar bills. On top of announcing Bishoujo Power Girl, their Bishoujo Liara continues to impress. I'm also quite fond of their female Shepard design. It looks decidedly more fierce than Yamashita's typical designs, what with her scowl, aggressive stance and assault rifle at the ready. Some people aren't too thrilled with it, but based off Koto's re-sculpt of Loara after fan backlash, I know that they'll rock FemShep something fierce!
Tianxiao Ma: There were a few things at WonFes that got me excited. Let's start with Sen-ti-nel's Canti. I've been a huge FLCL fan since forever, and always wondered why such a beloved series never got the love from toy manufacturers that it deserved. There are so many zany mecha designs in it, so I thought for sure a Revoltech or something would have been made. But Sen-ti-nel is giving us Canti, and that's amazing. Can't wait till the pre-order details are announced.
Next there's Yamato, who are doing a proper Shunya Yamashita figure. I like Kotobukiya's Bishoujo line but I miss original Shunya figures. Yamato's Kneesocks is gorgeous as well, and should pair up nicely with Alter's Panty and Stocking figures.
I'm happy about all the Persona 4 stuff coming out. I would definitely get MegaHouse's Protagonist figure, and probably pick up the figmas too.
To round out the stuff I can't wait to buy, we have: Plum's Alisa and Max Factory's Shinobu. Both are gorgeous designs. Though I don't know anything about God Eater Burst, I like Alisa because I'm a fan of giant swords and underboob. Volks' Selvaria almost made the list. I love the first Valkyria Chronicles but another Selvaria? I'm pretty sure there were other characters in the cast. I'm also pretty sure she's only popular because of her bust size.
Brian Szabelski: Play Arts Kai Conrad Verner, Pedro. That's where the money is.
I'm not as sold on FemShep yet. I think it's another weird choice luke X-23 in its a character that really doesn't seem to fit into the line well and they're forcing it in there because she's popular. Of course, there's also the news about the other two Bishoujos from that series that might eventually be made, which almost has to be Miranda and Ashley, right? I can't imagine them doing Bishoujo Tali. :p
Pedro Cortes: Ugh, if they make Miranda and Ash I'm going to flip a table >:-(
Brian Szabelski: Search your feelings; you know it to be true.
Pedro Cortes: Considering what I heard, my guesses are Ash then Tali.
Kristina Pino: My personal favorite was seeing another Nono figure is being made. I only got into some "classic" mecha series recently, like Gunbuster!, but really I was happier with the FLCL style artwork in the sequel Diebuster! as well as completely enamoured by the cute Nono-riri~
I was hoping there'd be a sculpt shown for Jaina Solo or Harley Quinn by now, but since that didn't happen I'll just have to be more excited about the Haganai figures we also examined. For now, anyway.
Natalie Kipper: It should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody that my highlights of Wonder Festival and Toy Fair were almost entirely plushes. However, the Nendoroid Puchi Charlotte is a toy of the non-squishy variety that I am seriously considering purchasing. I need more candy witches in my life. Kobato's plush bunny by Cospa is a must-buy. I may not be the hugest Haganai fan but I love the design (especially in the face) and the color scheme. Plus, bunnies are awesome.
As for Toy Fair, those new Creepy Cuddlers from Mezco look freaking awesome, especially the rabbit. I also loved the Uglydoll Uglybuddies. And something tells me I should check out Adventure Time...
Michael Muller: Hasbro's Transformers offerings at Toy Fair was the real highlight for me. It's great to see the company not only offering a great deal of figures but also a nice variety too. Their designs, especially in regards to Transformers Prime, keep getting more and more amazing, those blocky figures of my youth are now but a distant memory. No question though what stuck with me the most was the War for Cybertron Bruticus. It has left me with a hole in my heart that can only be filled by a large robot made of five smaller robots.
In regards to Wonder Festival I couldn't be happier with the amount of figmas, like Skyward Sword Link, Samus Aran, Persona 4's Chie and Yukiko. As a result of seeing all these I can only hope I inherit a bunch of gold from some relative in the next little bit.
Natalie Kipper: As awesome as the Link figma is, I am going hold off placing it on my shopping list until I see what it comes with. I am a plush gal and it takes a lot (and I mean a lot) to make me deviate. Although, Link is pretty dang cool... Argh! Stop confusing me with your awesome games!
Keith Polott: Figma Link gets points for being basically the only thing I care about to come out of Wonfest this time around. Toy Fair, on the other hand, was pretty nuts. Highlights for me would be the aforementioned Fall of Cybertron toys Hasbro showed off, with the star of the show being Bruticus, everyone's favorite Big Bad Battlin' Dudeicus. I'm unspeakably thrilled to finally be getting a real combiner, with five different limbs with true 3-mode transformation, no extraneous combiner parts, that isn't going to cost me hundreds of dollars in third-party merch -not to knock third-party, but I'll take a $60 combiner over a $600 one any day of the week. The Shockwave from the same line was likewise glorious, and both will be joining my collection at the earliest possible juncture following their release this summer. The upcoming product for the G.I. Joe movie was also exciting, just not nearly as much. The other highlight of the show for me would be Neca's upcoming action figures and prop replicas based on their Valve license- the Portal Gun was beautiful in person, and I'm eager to start collecting my favorite characters from Team Fortress 2. A surprise at the show was the preponderance of blind-packed figures- every other company seemed to be showing some off. I'll be sticking with my Lego blindbags for the time being, though.
Jonathan Tubbs: I was pretty hyped for Wonder Festival though I don't know why since it's silly to do that. And sure enough it was since I actually was disappointed by the offerings. Been whining for a standard scale figure of Nodoka from K-On! and now that there is one, I'm not too happy with its pose. It's from ALTER so I should be happy but I'm not too keen on the mid-turn pose. And then there's the full reveal of Luka from Vocaloid by Max Factory that looks great in the body but that head mold looks off to me. Almost too round in the face and the hair based on the original art work. I was hoping there would be more male figures but not sure what I really wanted. Of the ones revealed, none had me wanting to buy. Was hoping MegaHouse's Kotetsu from Tiger & Bunny would be in color.
I am surprised yet happy to see that MegaHouse is doing a figure of Rorona from Atelier Rorona. Will go great with Phat Company's Totori from Atelier Totori. I do have to admit the iDOLM@STER figure of Makoto by Kotobukiya I find cute but I notice I tend to gravitate toward this character. Only two things have me truly excited. There's the Tales series Nendoroid Petit figures by Good Smile Company mainly because it'll have Estelle from Tales of Vesperia and Max Factory's figma Chie from Persona 4. I'm still praying for a Fuuka figure from Persona 3. Oh, right, and figma Link. Nice to see Nintendo allowing more use of its licenses by other, more popular figure makers.
There's a lot of pretty figures like the Max Factory's Inori from Guilty Crown and Tales of Xillia's Milla by ALTER. Plum's Alisa from God Eater Burst is another but it's not for the underboob like Tian, you naughty boy, you. Overall though, there really isn't that much that has me wanting to immediately reach for my wallet.
I do have to rain on Haganai fans' parade. The pair of Maria and Kobato is just down right creepy. I mean, these KIDS are how old again? Heck, it's not even a good looking figure. I'll even say the same about Yozora. The pose is so generic and a bit awkward with the one leg lifting and head tilting. Also, what's going on around her waist? I'll admit I do not like the title as I found each character intolerable and infuriating but for figures, I don't really see anything impressive about them.
Whew! Right! Toy Fair! Though I'm not much into the American entertainment scene there are some announcements and releases that interest me. The Adventure Time figures by Jazwares are something neat to own and it's cool to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coming around again from Playmates. The new retro figures definiely have my attention. I've never really watched Spongebob Squarepants but Mezco's line of figures for this title are looking really great for quality.
I still find it intriguing how Square Enix has opened up to Western licenses for its Play Arts Kai line. Though I've only watched someone else play Uncharted, the Drake figure I find nifty. Very glad to see that Bluefin is around to help bring over Bandai's D-Arts line and giving us folks in the States a second chance at this popular line of figures. Oh yeah! And I already forgot about the new G.I. Joe movie figures. Cobra Commander may be someone I pick up if I see him in the toy store one day.
Though I do the Transformers thing, I'm not too excited about what's coming. Wait, no, scratch that. Like Keith, there's Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Shockwave that I love to have in my collection. Howver, I will have to disagree with him and Michael about Bruticus. I'm in the camp of not excited for him. It's cool to see a true combiner today but my issue with that figure is how the limbs are so large compared to the main body. It looks like a mess than anything uniform. The official art has that proportinate look from the limbs and body but that didn't translate perfectly into figure form.
Overall for these two events, some nifty stuff coming but since I'm more conscious of my spending habits and have a future to save for, I do have to be a lot more picky about my figures.
Kristina Pino: I think the figure with Maria and Kobato is just an extension of the joke that I took the OP to be. I think it's cute, though! It's just kinda... shiny... But whatever!
And... Well now I've got figma Link on the mind. I love that they picked the Skyward Sword version. It's a great design and I am also happy a younger version wasn't picked.
Jonathan Tubbs: Now where's the Mario and Wind Waker Link Nendoroid? Make it happy Good Smiile!
Jonathan Tubbs: *happen too!
Natalie Kipper: I'm still waiting on a Ocarina of Time Navi plush that yells "hey! Listen!" when you slam it against a table.
Keith Polott: Unfortunately the only real way Bruticus could have avoided proportion issues would have been if Onslaught was a Voyager, and unfortunately Hasbro's loath to commit to that price point for toys without a tie-in these days. Would have solved 'Slaught's alt-mode issues, too.
Chris Seto: *Ahem* F**K SKYWARD SWORD AND F**K FIGMAS!!!
Seriously, the best Zelda game was and still is a link to the past on the SNES!!! And I'm just about done with figmas and Nendos. I watched part of the english goodsmile broadcast which was just hours of promoting the nendos, figmas and metric craptonne of Madoka magica stuff... I'm sure that there are more than twice as many figma and nendo releases compared to general figures these days. Surely they're going to run out of characters to release soon!!
You have no idea how happy I was when I was able to just blot out all the GoodSmile stuff from my head... Except for the Inori figure. But that's just cos I really like her design.
From the other companies, only the Charagumin Selvaria Bles from Volks and the announcement of the Kotobukiya KOS-MS ver 4 kit (how is that going to work anyway?)
And from Toyfair, it was only about Harley Quinn, even though she was announced beforehand.
The Dealer floor at Wonder Festival was also a bit of a mixed bag. It was good to see a more healthy mix of characters and series on display after the madoka-fest from the summer at least. I just didn't get a feeling of any "must get" kits, although there were some pretty good ones on display. And then my buyers regret kicks in! Why didn't I try to get the Sacred Seven kit from the principality of Kagutsuchino? and, of course, I failed to get any of the kits I tried for... orz
So overall, a disappointing WonFest for me but for a whole bunch of different reasons. Not a bad one but still not that great.
Also Kobato was stupidly popular over on the dealer floor. There were way more kits of her compared to Meat!!
Natalie Kipper: I kind of liked Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap best. *ducks* Now those Picori would make some interesting figures...
In regards to Madoka stuff, I am sure plenty of people are still waiting on anything of Walpurgisnacht. I keep seeing that in comments and on FaceBook. I honestly see no problem with a ton of Charlotte merchandise. Bring it on!
Brian Szabelski: Of course you have no problem with a ton of Charlotte merchandise. :p
And I'm kind of in the boat with Jonathan on this. The Kobato and Maria figure made me go "WHAT IS HAPPENING" when I first saw it. It just felt ... off to me. But I guess there's been worse.
Natalie Kipper: Charlotte and I would share our magically delicacies! And we promise not to bite anybody's head off!
And yeah, those Kobato and Maria things put me off my tea for a bit. I was like, "what is this I don't even." Plus, I am sorry but underage girls have no business being that shiny.
Chris Seto: Probably doesn't help that the "fictional" character kobato cosplays is also flat as a board. Speaking of which, which is worse, underage kids being put into bunny girl outfits and given a bit of a chest or an older character in a revealing swimsuit but totally flat? And I mean flatter than those 2. Himegami from maken-ki, I'm looking at you!! Seeing her figure was my "wut?" moment.
Pedro Cortes: As much as I do like Kobato, Sena should definitely be getting more love. I heart me some eroge-loving gals!
Jonathan Tubbs: Shame on me for not commenting on the kits. That's usually the goldmine and wishful thinking for a mass produced version area of these events.
After having to push through wave after wave of Miku figures, there was at least one Vocaloid kit that caught my attention and that's the Rin and Len pair. The Gendou from Evangelion with the AT field makes me laugh because it makes me picture him in a fighting game. Though I never watched it, I've always been charmed by the design of Cecily from The Sacred Blacksmith so it was nice to see a decent kit at the event. And anything with Lupin the III's Jigen will always win me over.
I'm not done yakking though! So many awesome game kits, too! The Sigma from Megaman X with the different faces is very impressive. Why is this not getting mass produced!? Speaking of such a thing, why do the BlazBlue boys get no love besides these events? I mean, who wouldn't want Ragna, Jin, and Hakumen? And with all this love for Persona, where's the love for Female Protagonist from Persona 3? Sad. Also, Hibari from Senran Kagura pushes all the right buttons with the short, pink hair in a cute twin tail style and looks like she has a fuller body (I don't mean the chest, folks) which I like. ...then I realize what title she is from and feel ashamed....
Overall though, I do share the same feelings as Seto about Wonder Festival. Didn't feel that great for an event.
Natalie, not sure why you're ducking because you like Minish Cap. I loved Minish Cap but then again, I really enjoyed the Capcom developed Zelda titles period. HINT HINT NINTENDO. And with the comment about the Piccori, how come there was never an official hat? Why do you fail in the merch department Nintendo?
I honestly don't get the Kobato love. I found her character to be the most insufferable character of all with her constant pretending to be that character from that show. Quit being fooled, Japan! It's not cute! It's annoying! As much as the title makes me foam at the mouth, I will take Meat over that brat any day. ...even if her breasts defy gravity. Man, that has to be a pain to live with.
WHY AM I SO TALKATIVE IN THIS THREAD!? Someone shoot me with a tranquilizer dart!
Natalie Kipper: Sorry, I used my last dart on a rampaging tiger. I totally agree that Nintendo needs to step up its merchandise game. An actual official Minish Cap would be hardcore and required con ware. I have seen a few bootlegs and some handmade ones on Etsy.
I watched the first two episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for the umpteenth time last night. I am pretty psyched that some of the new toys Hasbro showed off for the line at Toy Fair. Nightmare Moon looks freaking awesome.
Jonathan Tubbs: Just saw the Himegami figure from Maken-ki! and wow. That is a horrible and unattractive swim... ribbon? Stretched taffy? Hair looks nice but WOW! That is a hideous whatever it is she's wearing.
Chris Seto: How did you miss it before? Maybe it was because I was a little numb to the whole thing but the Kobato and Maria figure went right over my head but that one was like a slap to my face and pool water in my eyes! I probably wouldn't have minded as much if she had a fuller figure though. Like the nurse whose name escapes me right now. That would provide an interesting dilemma from a design perspective at least...
And what's all this about Sena needing more love? Meat got ALL the love!! the other characters are just arriving after her massive wake! GK makers went for Kobato probably because they didn't want to bother competing with the big companies. I bet people unfamiliar with the title prior to the anime showing knew Sena before Haganai!