Held on 11 January 2009, Super Festival 48 was the first hobby event of the new year in Japan. For those who are new to the event, Super Festival is a small hobby flea market held once every four months in the convention halls of the Science Museum in Tokyo. The event is run by Art Storm/Fewture Models, the same company that organizes Hobby Complex.
The only industry companies that set up tables to showcase their new and upcoming stuff at Super Festival are Fewture and Aoshima. Most of the dealers there are small hobby shop owners and private sellers. Stuff sold at the event consists of a mix of old and new collectible items, both at heavily discount prices, except for vintage stuff but prices are negotiable depending on the sellers. I once spotted a pair of Mothra wings at the event priced at 980,000 yen! Tons of bargains to be found for collectors on tight budgets, too. PG kits at 60% off, latest toys and PVC figs just released at 25-40% off, and there are items there at prices so low, they're practically giving them away. ^^;
One of the big draw of the event is definitely the designer vinyl and soft vinyl kaijyu toys. Those things don't really interest me much but there are quite a few that do look really, really cool. They can be pricey though since they are all hand made, painted, and produced in very limited quantities.
Then there are special guest appearances of stars from old Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and other Tokusatsu shows. At previous Super Festival events, I got signatures from Tomohito Sato (Kamen Rider Gatack) and Satoshi Furuya whose most famous role was the Ultraman suit actor in the classic 1966 Ultraman show. And of course, one of my favorite sculptor and creature designer Yasushi Nirasawa makes his usual appearances at almost every Super Festival either as a special guest or just there to help out his friends and meet his fans. Nirasawa-sensei sees me all the time at Super Festival and Hobby Complex events that he now knows me by name and can recognize me easily. The following picture is of the famous artist taken at this latest Super Festival. Still kicking myself for not bringing any of his books or sculptures there for him to sign. I'll be sure to be prepared at the next event to at least get a white board for him to draw an original creature for me! Oh, almost forgot to mention that I asked him if he will have an autograph session at the upcoming Hobby Complex event and he said yes. Also asked if he is involved in designing creatures for the new Kamen Rider Decade show. There will be some of his past creatures from Blade, Kabuto, and Den-O appearing in the show as well as some new ones.
Takayuki Takeya's Alien statues produced by Fewture will be reissued later this month.
One of my favorite pieces--the Alien Pile! Retails for nearly 30,000 yen! Will need to save up for this beautiful masterpiece. Gotta find a shop here that's selling it at a discounted price, too.
Will you take the purple poop or green poop? Craptastic crap from Fewture!
Designer vinyl Microman figures. Shiny heads!
Aoshima announced that they're working on a plastic model kit of a 1/48 Gernsback M9 from Full Metal Panic!
Shinji & Rei entry plugs by Aoshima. Still being delayed...
Never seen this one before! Pretty cool design for a bottle. Looks to be only available in the US perhaps?
Gayla!! Nuff said.
Not all items are original stuff though. Some dealers do sell bootlegs from China. More for novelty and customization purposes than anything else.
Bastard child of Transformers and Ultraman!
A Many Mey custom show was also held at the event that features Many Mey vinyl customs by famous artists around the world, and the one-of-a-kind customs were sold at the event by lottery. Buyers who wanted to buy one of the customs will be entered in a draw and only the winner was eligible to buy the item.
Beautiful colorway and a truly magnificent custom! I don't remember the price for this one but I think it it was close to or exceeding the six digit range in yen.
Some more cool customs.
Classic Ultra Q toys and memorabilia.
Check out the cosmic rust on this thing! The lunch box had probably gone to outerspace and back!
The staff and cast of Ultra Q were the special guests at this event. Hiroshi Watari (Sharivan) was also one of the special guests that attended the show for a signing session later in the afternoon but I didn't stay long enough to catch him. I would have stayed for Kenji Ohba (Gavan) though!
Apparently, the Force and loin cloth are all this lil' semi-naked Yoda needs! A seller had a completed model of it for sale at 5,000 yen. Would you buy this?
Godzilla on a tricycle! Awwe!
I had always been keeping my eyes down looking at the items on dealer tables in search of hidden treasures at hobby flea market events, but this time I decided to look up for once and see if I noticed anyone I know attending the event or perhaps the rare chance of meeting celebrities that might be at such events. Just when I started to look up after a quick round of the event halls about 30 minutes before the event began (I got in with a dealer pass), I spotted none other than Yasuhisa Furuhara (Go-on Red from Go-onger)!! Picture of him below. I didn't manage to take a pic of him so I hijacked the pic from his blog. ^^; It took me a few looks to confirm if it was really him, then I took up the courage to walk up and asked him if he's Go-on Red. He smiled and replied yes. Shook his hands and told him I'm a fan of the show. He then replied "Thanks for the support and keep on cheering the Go-ongers!" and off he went with his friends after he bought some toys. I'm quite surprised that no one else recognized the guy and no one surrounded him for autographs. There were crowds of Sentai fans there but I guess they were too busy looking for bargains to look up like I did.
MASSIVE Tetsujin #28 figure by Inspire to be released in April. Retails for 12,800 yen.
Looks like Godzilla's having lobster for dinner! Yummy!
Hey! Careful where you point those things!
Big pile of cheap stuff up for grabs. Sellers tend to give more discounts for large quantity purchases. You can't normally bargain with the shops in Japan though. So some people tend to save up and go on a shopping spree at hobby flea market events such as this.
8 comments:
Fear the naked Yoda O_o
Oh cool! What did you get signed by Tomohito Sato? I like him
irregularcog,
I got the limited edition Kamen Rider Gatack Clockup version signed by him. Makes it even more extra special! ^^
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2068/2171911554_97703069a5_b.jpg
Nice coverage Joseph. Did you see any resin kits? ;o)
Oh yeah, and how big are the Many Mey custom figures? You said one sold for xxx,xxx yen? Is that first x closer to a '9' or closer to a '1'?
Johnson Huang,
Yes, some dealers were selling resin kits but they were just resellers of resin kits that include regular and event-only releases. Not much of a selection there.
Many Mey is roughly 18cm or slightly taller and the one that had a six digit price tag was 666,666 yen. Hmm .. thinking back, it might actually have been 5 digits instead of 6. Not sure if it got sold though.
Ah ok. Thanks for the info.
Hi Joseph,
I'm new to your website. I want to get that jumbo Tetsujin. I am wondering if you could help me to locate one in Japan. I sent you an email about this item and also the Mirei-San (white version) too.
Thank you!
Thomas
Post a Comment