It's that time of year again! For those of you who may not know (or were lucky enough to miss the explosion on Twitter last weekend) Wonder Festival is a bi-annual expo where figure companies and independent makers alike come together to show off the figures that will be depleting our wallets in the future. Last Saturday's show revealed a ton of figures, and in this post I'll share some of my favorites!
Nendoroid Sakura Kinomoto
I'll start things off with the big news: iconic magical girl Sakura from the Clamp series Cardcaptors will be Nendoroid #400! This release has been rumored for a while, and it looks like GSC was waiting for a fully colored prototype before they made the announcement. Expect pre-orders for her to open up soon!
BRAVE-ACT Eren and Armin
Attack on Titan still had a huge presence at this WonFest, with characters that weren't just Levi and Mikasa this time! Sentinel is continuing their BRAVE-ACT line with Eren and Armin, and also announced that Erwin and Hanji would be next.
Kotobukiya's 1/8 Scale Eren
Kotobukiya also unveiled a very dynamic sculpt of Eren, leaving open the possibility of making other characters from the series.
Good Smile's 1/8 Scale Mikasa
Not to be outdone, Good Smile Company also premiered their colored sculpt of Mikasa.
Nendoroid Armin
And for those of you who were disappointed that only an exclusive Figma of Armin is out, his Nendoroid version was also announced. No word on whether this one will be limited/exclusive as well.
Union Creative's Levi
Coming a bit out of left field, Union Creative showed off some prototype sculpts, including this one of Levi. I'm interested if only for the fact that it's a different sculpt approach than what we've seen from other companies so far.
Overall, expect Attack on Wallet to continue for a while.
Figma Ryuuko and Nendoroid Ryuuko and Mako
Moving on to other popular series, Kill la Kill was expected to make a big showing and Good Smile and Max Factory did not disappoint. Colored versions of Ryuuko's Figma and Nendoroid were all ready to go at their WonFest display.
Mako's Nendoroid was announced as well. I can hardly wait to see what her alternative faceplates will be.
Nendoroid and Figma Satsuki
And while there were no prototypes, Satsuki's Figma and Nendoroid were announced as well.
Nendoroid Solid Snake and Wind Waker Link
Other Nendoroid announcements that caught my eye were Wind Waker Link (he looks much better in the candid pictures than the official ones) and the plan for a Solid Snake Nendoroid. I'm all for video game Nendoroids, but one is more surprising than the other...
Max Factory Scale Cordelia
For Fire Emblem fans, apparently GSC and Max Factory's joint production on the Tharja scale figure did well for them, so the announcement of another scale figure from Awakening is a pleasant surprise. This time it's Cordelia, who's a bit of a polarizing figure in the fanbase but a good character nevertheless. It was initially reported that this was a Figma release, since it was placed next to other Figma announcements, but the sign definitely says "scale figure." It'll be interesting to see how she turns out.
Cu-Poche Takanashi Rikka
Moving away from GSC and Max Factory, the Cu-Poche line is still going strong and may just become the Nendoroid rival that it wants to be. My favorite announcement was for Rikka from Chuunibyou, who has been sorely lacking in figures.
S.H. Figurarts Sailor Saturn
Despite the remake taking far longer than expected, the new Sailor Moon figures continue to roll out. Alongside a great display of all the Inner Scouts, the prototype for Saturn was revealed, hopefully putting to rest the fears that not all of the Sailor Scouts would get the Figurarts treatment.
Alter's Natsume Renewal
Alter is re-releasing their highly sought-after Natsume figure with some updates to the sculpt and the mold. As anyone who has seen the secondhand-market prices for this figure can tell you, this is great news.
And now some coverage of figures that I've mentioned in previous WonFest wrap-up posts:
Alter's Haruka and Makoto
These sculpts actually premiered awhile ago, but one fan has already pointed out that some changes have been made to the sculpt since we last saw them. Like with any Alter release, it'll probably be a while before we see them in color.
Figma Lucina
Yeah, that's right, I don't care about spoilers anymore. The company is openly displaying the name, so I will too! Anyway, despite premiering a year ago, Lucina's prototype still isn't colored. However, a release date was set for September of this year. Hopefully pictures of the colored version will come up soon.
Figma Archer
At first glance, I thought that this was a scale figure for a second. Anyway, Figma Archer looks great, which is also good news for the fans that have been waiting so long for him.
Phat's Kirigiri
There was not nearly as much Dangan Ronpa as I expected from this WonFest, but at least we got another look at the colored prototype for Phat's Kirigiri scale. It looks amazing.
Figma Thor
I'd forgotten that Figma Avengers were a thing. Thor has been colored (and also Iron Man, but I couldn't find good pictures of him). These are also set to be more pricey than regular Figmas for whatever reason, so keep that in mind if you're interested!
And finally, every WonFest there are announcements that I'm utterly confused by. Here are a couple:
Nendoroid. Solid. Snake.
I'm sorry, I just feel the need to emphasize how completely out of left field this was for me.
S.H. Figurarts Those Copyright Mascots IDK What Their Names Are
So... Apparently these guys are from a clip played before movies to remind people that recording is illegal...and some people ship them? And now there are figures? I don't know, I'm so confused. I guess it's just another reminder that no matter how big of a fan I think I am, there will always be parts of fan culture that I'll never understand.
Figma Horse
Half of me doesn't understand why a Figma horse exists. The other half wants one for my Attack on Titan Figmas.
Figma Pyramid Head
No comment...
And that's it until this summer! For the collectors, GSC has exclusive figures for sale at their online shop until Feburary 20th, which will be released in July. They include the Snow Miku 2014 Nendoroid, Snow Miku Figma, Attack on Titan's Armin Figma, and Madoka Magica's Mami Uniform Ver. Nendoroid.
There was a ton more than what I covered here, so check out the tag #wf2014w on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram to see more pictures. New figures announced can be found on MFC here. Have fun, and remember to budget wisely!
All pictures are from MFC and/or the watermarked websites. This post is also available at OASG.
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