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 (
WonFes) 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!
New Announcements
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 WonFes, 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 WonFes display.
Mako’s Nendoroid was announced as well. I can’t 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 even so. 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, which I hope puts to rest the fears that not all 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.
UpdatesAnd now some coverage of figures that I’ve mentioned in previous WonFest wrap-up posts:
Alter’s Haruka and Makoto: These sculpts had 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 take 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. A release date was set for September of this year though. Let’s hope 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 WonFes, 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!
WTF AnnouncementsAnd finally, every WonFes 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…I understand 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.
What is my life
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. You can find the new figure announcements on the MFC site.
So what figures caught your eye at WonFes? What are you planning to buy out of this group? And what threw you out of left field? Feel free to share in the comment section below! Whatever the case, have fun, and remember to budget wisely!
All pictures are from MFC and/or the watermarked websites.
