Greg's Life #104: Summer Wonder Festival 2015

Summer Wonder Festival 2015

July 2015

I've yet to make it to a Winter Wonder Festival (WonFes), but this past weekend on Sunday, July 26th it was my fourth time attending the Summer Wonder Festival. I spent the weekend in Tokyo to attend this event. I watched the Sumida River Fireworks Festival with my friend Yasu on Saturday night. He is a graphic designer and a musician, and he designed the game cabinet for one of the Hatsune Miku Project Diva arcade games. The Sumida-gawa Fireworks Festival is a huge event in one of the largest cities in the world. The crowds are said to be incredible, so there are various places in the city where you can view the fireworks off-site. He found one such place, called an "anaba" in Japanese, on the Web somewhere. There are two sites from which the fireworks are launched, and from the place we went to, we had a view of one of those from between buildings. We could only see the other site from the reflection in the windows of one of the buildings from around the corner.

Whenever I travel to Tokyo alone, I always stay at the Hotel Meigetsu in the Minami Senjuu area. This is very close to the Sumida River, and I've often seen crowds of people flocking to the area to see the fireworks. But I've always gone elsewhere in Tokyo that night. I got a late start with making my travel plans, and unfortunately, Meigetsu was booked solid (most likely because of the fireworks festival). So, this time I made a reservation at Capsule Value Hotel Kanda instead. It's a quick walk from the south exit of Kanda Station, just one stop away from Tokyo Station. So it's conveniently priced and placed, at least. This was my first time ever staying at a capsule hotel. It was a bizarre experience. I could choose from either privacy or oxygen. Ugh. I could close the shutter, but there is no air conditioning inside the capsule, so it got stuffy inside. I had to compromise and just have it partially open. Perhaps there are fancier ones, but I'd rather stay at Meigetsu for the same price. Plus, Meigetsu is convenient from Akihabara Station.

WonFes is such a huge event, easily larger than the Shizuoka Hobby Show by 1/3rd. However, it is only open for a day. Much of the focus of this event is private individuals selling their garage kits, aftermarket parts, sculptures, dolls, jewelery, and other handiwork. On top of this, there are the plastic model and figure companies, showcasing their current and upcoming products. So, there is no way I can even attempt to cover everything at this event. It is just way too huge, and the crowds of people make it more difficult. All I can do is point my camera at what catches my eye, be it cool, unique, or bizarre. So anyway, here's a photo gallery of this event that covers garage kits (GKs), plastic models (plamo), figures, and various other hobbies and crafts. You can click on these images for larger versions. Enjoy.

Tasty-looking robots.

Ah, yes! Yamato 2199! These guys were selling a 1:72 scale resin GK of the Cosmo Falcon. While Bandai has released plastic models of Katou's and Shinohara's Cosmo Falcons, they have never provided one for the regular fighters of the squadron. I asked if perhaps I could just buy the decals from them (so that I could put them onto a Bandai kit), but they said that they don't sell them separately. Nuts.

They also had several of the Yamato 2199 figures on display. It was nice to see Mikage's figure for sale. She was only available on Premium Bandai's site, and I believe she's sold out there.

These people were selling plants. Sometimes I am asked about what stuff is sold at WonFes that is not GK- or plamo-related. Well, here you go!

Left: Do you feel that you are not shown the respect you deserve as a guitarist? Well, maybe it's because you need a guitar with a skanky anime chick that looks like somebody's jizzed all over. Then finally people will respect you. Or not. Right: Pretty cool looking computer keyboards!

Right: This rifle is from Ghost In The Shell.

Here are neat little interlocking miniature city sets. I don't know what scale they are.

These skulls remind me of that time I was locked in Grandma's basement by mistake. Oh look, it's Saber!

Right: I'm always impressed with this seller's models. I believe they are lacquered wood? Here's the Discovery from 2001.

Here are his models of the Minerva from Crusher Joe and the Bronco II from Orguss.

This seller had 1:144 and 1:72 decals for Area 88. I assume you can use them on models by Hasegawa and the like to turn them into Area 88 models.

Right: I see this vendor year after year. I really wonder how TPP will ruin creativity like this by making the one-day licenses granted at WonFes events illegal and such. The implications are disturbing. Countries willing to submit to the Trans Pacific Partnership are willing to sacrifice their national sovereignty to the whim of corporate lawyers. It's sickening. TPP may not only halt such American properties from being celebrated at WonFes, but it may also force Japanese companies to put a stop to this event as well.

Left: I may not be the President. I may not be the Pope. But as long as I've got pretty titties, I shall never mope!
Right: an army of Flatwoods Monsters! Don't inhale their poison gas or you'll convulse and vomit.

You can always count on finding some shmup love at WonFes. Here are two GKs from R-Type.

Right: Can't wait for the apocalypse, cuz then we get to mount machine guns on our car hoods and have a blast.

These are metal miniatures for use with tabletop RPGs. The vendor here had licensed characters, and she also had several original characters. Neat!

Left: I believe these were papercraft. Very cool!
Right: Blade Runner love is always a welcome sight to me! This vendor was selling custom-made Lego Spinners among other items. Those Ertl die-cast Blade Runner cars always fetch a high price!