Thanks, I was more interested in info on the company themselves, is there a connection to Y-MSF. I’ve seen a few things by Raymundo (which I’m assuming is also them, since it’s been all Kong and mecha kong) pop up over the years but there doesn’t seem to be much online outside of toy for sale listings. One header said they were located in Alaska.
Revising my earlier statement: "Raymundo" is a reference to Raymond Burr, the Godzilla actor. It's just Y-MSF and Tempting Toys trying to avoid the lawyers of Toho, Warner Brothers, Legendary Pictures, Marvel, and whoever owns the rights to Mechanikong, although I don't think anyone has any illusions about what's actually going on.
So, I went to my first G-Fest. To answer your question, @foto junkaay, I did have fun, but it was a lot of work, and three days makes for a long show. The dealer's room was super active on the first day. I was asked to help out at the M1GO table in the morning which was very hectic. By contrast, Sunday was pretty quiet, but even so I rarely got to break away from the table over those three days. I visited the other dealer's room downstairs, that was about it. It's different working one of these fan conventions as opposed to a toy convention like Five Points or DesignerCon. You encounter many people who have seen every Godzilla film multiple times but the word "Bullmark" or even "sofubi" isn't in their vocabulary, so some people are looking for a little education when they come to your table. You would think that price points alone would convey that what we were selling at Marusan are not toys for kids, but there was one woman who told us she was going to give a Marugacha to her two year old grandson. We were all tripping over ourselves to let her know that this was a bad idea. The dealer's room had a good selection in terms of breadth and depth of items. Vintage and new sofubi, big makers and small ones. However, there were not many deals to be had. I think a lot of the items are things that were originally purchased by American collectors at a markup, then changed hands a couple of times in America, increasing the markup, etc., until you have an item that is priced way beyond what you could get it for from Mandarake or YJA. Maybe part of what keeps these dealers in business is that flying to Japan or ordering things from there is a bridge too far for some groups of collectors, so these are the people who end up buying. There were a couple of bargains here and there. There was one seller who had a lot of unbagged standard size Bullmark reissues priced anywhere from $60 all the way down to $15. A couple of old Skullbrainers stopped by and said hi, and thanks to a mention of the BBS during one of the panels, we are getting an influx of new users, which is always good. My haul was pretty modest compared to Five Points. Three Yamanaya reissues of Bullmark minis (including my fave, Satan Beetle), an SD keshi of the Nise Gundam, and the glow Marusan Mogurines I've been eyeing for a while. M1GO gave me a Tokyo Tower, too, which was very kind of them. I will be doing the show next year, primarily helping out M1GO but also pinch hitting at the Marusan table. Should be fun.
G-Fest 2025 vendor list is up: https://www.g-festcon.com/g-fest-vendor-directory M1GO, Marusan, and Sunguts will be there.
I'm definitely excited! Are you going again this year? I'm coming with my kiddos. They loved it last year, and I'm happy to keep the G-Fest tradition going! I wonder how many SB'ers are going to go? I know @Gojigirl will be there! That's definitely one fabulous person I look forward to seeing every time!
Overall, this was a good show, but it felt a little different this year because they moved the dealer's room into a different area. Sunguts was there for the first time, which was nice. Creature Bazaar joined up with M1GO and US Toys. Dealers like Toku Toy Town and Otakumerica beefed up their displays to be even more dense with figures. It did feel like there were fewer vintage toys this year, and if the item in question wasn't Toho-related, that meant it was actually affordable. For $20 I grabbed this teensy vinyl Robocon who is now my traveling companion: View this post on Instagram View this post on Instagram But to follow up on what I mentioned above: the ATM in the G-Fest hotel ran out of cash on Friday and nobody restocked it. By the next morning, every hotel in the area had had its ATM drained. This was not good for the businesses that were cash-only. Hopefully someone fixes this next year.
If Sunguts / Marusan / M1 become regulars I may just switch out DCON for this show next year. I've been meaning to go to Chicago anyways.
Even though M1GO and US Toys are at G-Fest, if I had to choose between one of those shows, I would choose DesignerCon. Just looking at the dealer's room experience alone, the majority of the items there are current Bandai Godzilla figures you can get on Amazon or Big Bad Toy Store and the prices are high. If you see anything vintage, and it is Godzilla-related, you will not find a deal. For example, I saw a handful of Marusan or Bullmark standard Godzillas priced around $600-800 and a couple of Bullmark giant Godzillas priced around $1600-1900. Not awful, but not great. In addition to this, the show is being held at a venue that is far too small for 5,000+ attendees, so fire prevention rules ensure that you spend a lot of time waiting in line. At 7AM there are at least 100 people lined up for the dealer's room which doesn't even open until 10 for non-VIP ticket holders. Honestly, if I could not circulate freely throughout this show using a dealer's pass, I would never go.
Appreciate the intel Roger. Am looking for excuses not to be in Vegas but guessing DCON is still the only name in town to see Japanese makers state side.
