This year's show had quite a mix of Eastern, Western, 12" figures, custom toys, exhibitions....some Secret Base, Rockin Jelly Bean, obscene art, and other stuff that might interest folks here. Part 1 (Intro): http://kaijukorner.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... intro.html Part 2 (Guests): http://kaijukorner.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... uests.html Part 3 (Toys): http://kaijukorner.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... -toys.html Part 4 (Exhibitions): http://kaijukorner.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... art-4.html Part 5 (Other): http://kaijukorner.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... other.html Part 6 (Venue and wrap up): http://kaijukorner.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... venue.html
Alas, not quite as much sofubi this year since OneUp didn't attend. Still some nice stuff to be seen, and yeah the overall vibe was good.
From Wonderful! Design Works (who I really love) 8-Style Studio...I believe. Looks like a version of Barro on the right love this
Any particular reason why there's less sofubi this year? Is there a decline in sofubi fans in Taipei? And we didn't see your loot this time from TTF Andy. Awesome piece of reporting--thanks Andy!
Thanks Jay. The sofubi drop is mostly because OneUp didn't come. (They had huge booths in past years.) Paradise was there but had less sofubi on hand. Some other companies just didn't show. Some sofubi designers like Morry (Spooky Parade) were there but didn't bring figures. There are sofubi collectors in Taiwan. T9G and Biskup have fans. Gargamel and Secret Base too. But since a lot of people are unfamiliar with many types of sofubi (which is the case most everywhere, really), it's important for companies and designers to travel to Taiwan to grow interest and awareness. The only thing I bought was a 16 GB Star Wars Mimobot - Luke in Stormie gear.
Based from your previous reports over the years--well, this year and last year, the appetite for vinyls made in China hasn't waned. Preference for local designers are felt and evident still, with the presence of some personalities. I can only wish for something like this happening here in Manila. We just had our local version of a Toycon, but expectedly, there's just zero sofubi, or at least a respectable amount of interest on designer vinyls. Its predictably DC/Marvel items mostly... I remember when Biskup attended the TTF, there were talks of him swinging by, but it never happened of course.
Great coverage!!! I've never had the pleasure of attending TTF so this rocks. Was the 3-d color printer running?! Would have loved to play w/ that thing.
@Jay, it's tricky here since interests and popular lines change so often. I think the reason sofubi doesn't have a stronger foothold is a lot of people back in the day grew up with diecast stuff and robots more than kaiju. Not surprising since Takara and other companies had factories in Taiwan in the 70s and 80s. So there's a really big interest in chogokin stuff. Beyond that, 12" figures have been popular a long time, so they do well at shows. But yeah, the guys that keep coming here and doing their thing (Devilrobots, Touma, Brothersfree, etc.) and signing, drawing, and hanging out with fans have the edge (but they still have to put out stuff people will like). I guess you could say collecting is very social/fan base driven. That's why I always tell designers if they want to make a splash in Taiwan, then exclusive releases and signing sessions at stores, galleries, etc can be a big help. (But it may take 2-3 visits to build a base.) Recently there have been a lot of crossover releases at clothing stores, which makes sense since stuff like BAPE, BxH, Wonderfulman, etc. has really built up a foothold, and now some local brands like Outer Space are doing really well. @Leecifer, thanks, glad to do the reportage. Yep they had the 3D printer going during the show. It looked like a honkin' big deskjet printer. You couldn't really see the 3D figure rising from the ground like some hell spawn beast. (Which would have been cool.) Not sure what the whole process is - maybe they extract the figure from a block after the machine finishes running?
