Independent modelers show what they can do, even when official rights holders don’t bother to show up for the event.
The summer iteration of Wonder Festival, Japan’s biggest convention for anime/video game figures, models, and garage kits, recently took place at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba Prefecture. We made our way to the exhibit halls and shared a massive collection of photos from the major manufacturer booths, but you might have noticed a few high-profiles series were absent from the images.
That’s because figure manufacturer Good Smile Company was running its own company-specific exhibition elsewhere at the same time as Wonder Festival was going on. That meant no figures from franchises Good Smile has the merchandising rights to, such as Fate/Grand Order, Uma Musume Pretty Derby, and Blue Archive.
Except, actually, Good Smile being a no-show at Wonder Festival just meant no figures from those series at the industry booths. Similar to Comiket, Japan’s biggest independently published manga event, Wonder Festival is also an event for independent modelers and figure craftsmen. Many of these figures are based on intellectual properties not owned by the modelers themselves, but, in another similarity to Comiket, the rights-holders agree to a day of leniency in that regard, with the understanding that the figures will only be offered for sale during the event.
So when we wandered over to the independent creator section, we saw plenty of series that weren’t being represented in the industry area, plus a few more amazing works of art that we’re sharing with you today.
Blue Archive in particular had a strong showing, as even three years after its release, the mobile title is still going strong.
▼ Hina Sorasaki (produced by Nogi Zosen Kosho)
▼ Hibiki Nekozuka (Dylan Tang)
▼ Mika Misono (T’s system/Takeshi Miyakawa)
▼ Yuka Hayase (T’s system/Takeshi Miyakawa)
▼ Aru Rikuhachima (Gyakudenshi Hancho)
On the Uma Musume front, the series about historical race horses reincarnated as fleet-of-foot schoolgirls, appropriately, still has legs.
▼ Narita Top Road (Ayador Riken’s Riku Kurokawa)
▼ Haru Urara (Riku Kurokawa)
▼ Vivlos (Studio SunFlowerSunFlower)
▼ Manhattan Cafe (Miro)
▼ Mejiro McQueen (T’s system/Takeshi Miyakawa)
Though its hype seems to have cooled off a bit from its peak a couple years ago, we still spotted some very impressive Fate/Grand Order pieces.
▼ Van Gogh (SunFlower Studio/SunFlower)
▼ Melusine (SunFlower Studio/SunFlower)
And rounding out our favorites from the independent creator zone are Strike Witches’ Perrine Clostermann (Ana/Alsace)…
…Goddess of Victory: Nikke’s Elegg (Miro)…
…and, finally, Armored core 6’s gigantic Ice Worm (Riku Kurokawa), with a few ACs for scale.
Like we mentioned above, all of these were being displayed and/or offered for sale under a “just for today” condition, so they’re not available for purchase anymore. That’s not to say they won’t show up again at a future Wonder Festival, and even if these exact models don’t return, it’s a safe bet that their independent creators will have more pieces to amaze us with the next time we see them.
Photos © SoraNews24
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