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!
