It's almost that time, you can be in boring San Diego or you can be having the time of your life at G-Fest! Who's going? Who's thinking about going? We'll be there all weekend, have some Medicom and Marusan sofubi.

I'm planning to be there on Saturday.

Awesome! I know you were on the fence about it.

No set-up pics yet guys?

a sample of photos from today's rounds in the dealer room (which, for many folks, seems to be the only room in the convention):


chibigojitoys table

hi linda & noel! ...and husband!

(fyi, the marmit ultraman with the jointed elbows is no longer available )


random table 3 - a by Ultra999, on Flickr



random table 4 - b



show favorite

the kemur (zetton seijin?) head was lying detached on the table; body was mia. i couldn't resist making it into a meat helmet for an annoyed jirass


self-promotion (details on the flickr page):


my artwork* at nakama toys table

* these are flat prints, not cards.

couldn't get a good shot of nakama toys' setup without also catching an embarrassing half-expression on someone's face. will try again tomorrow.

view the rest (more will be added over the weekend as the event continues): g-fest 2013 set.

Our Man on the GojiGround! Thanks for the reportage, Bill; looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Oh, and beautiful work on those cards of yours! Wish I could be there to appreciate them in person.

Are those sales displays? Looks so fantastic, thanks for sharing those pics Bill. Your KR villains came out spectacular, and I love that you are selling them in the 3-pcks like that. G-Fest looks great!

I want to go, but I just couldn't get the time off. Thanks for sharing!

your cards look soo good bill!!

Any leftover Cards from G-Fest will be on Nakama Toys... Monday?

Yeah Monday!

Thanks for taking pictures Bill. We didn't even have time to take pictures of our booth all set up. Very little Sofubi Kaiju anyways.

I forgot all about g fest.. hope it went well!

We still have 10am til 4pm on Sun

thanks for the kind words about my artwork, guys! just to be clear, they're all flat prints, not cards. that doesn't mean cards aren't in the cards. the mix-n-match-body-parts ones probably won't work well as cards, anyway, eh?

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one of the coolest sessions: "wolfman vs godzilla" — a fan film created by shizuo nakajima (no relation). it's been in the works for decades, made with salvaged puppets/miniatures/sculpts from real kaiju movies as well as new suits, guest input from sir tsuburaya himself, and a crazy werewolf plot. after a presentation of entertaining and jaw-dropping slides, we were fortunate enough to be given access to a 20 minute assemblage of clips from the movie. unfortunately, we were asked to refrain from sharing recordings of the movie and behind the scenes slides, so you'll see none of the incredible material here


g-fest 2013 session "wolfman vs. godzilla"

i think, however, these non-movie related bits from shizuo nakajima's personal history are ok to share...


g-fest 2013 session "wolfman vs. godzilla"
he single handedly saved this suit from the incinerator!


g-fest 2013 session "wolfman vs. godzilla"

i have more but limited myself to just two in case they don't turn out to be sharable.


a common scene often seen in the dealer room:


g-fest 2013 dealer room
it was wonderful to witness parent/child shopping sprees there seemed to be many more younger fans this year than previous years.

here's a proper shot of nakama toys' table:


g-fest 2013 dealer room
bryan may have gone completely off the rails by this point.


g-fest wouldn't be g-fest without the incredible talent displayed in the costume parade! here are a few standouts/oddities:


g-fest 2013 costume
frumpiest hedorah ever.


g-fest 2013 costume
oddly (unintentionally?) s&m-ish (or at least gimp-mask-ish), ultra-shiny ultrawoman?


g-fest 2013 costume parade
"real" radioactive spines! they lit up right before the breath attack effect would strike.


g-fest 2013 costume parade
motorized head and hands spin 360 degrees!

amazing home-made suits, all. there were quite a few baby/toddler costumes that drew "d'awwwwwwww"s from the crowd, too.

see the rest (just a few more) in the flickr set. those are just the highlights. when i get a chance to comb through the rest, i'll probably find more to upload.

only one day left!

Hey guys, just a head's up Ultra999 (aka Future Creature) prints are going up at Nakama Toys. These prints are out of this world, also you get to support everyone's favorite Skullbrainer! (Seriously who doesn't like this guy?).

http://www.nakamatoys.com/products/futu ... der-prints

^ i'll share clearer images of the prints a little later this evening. thanks for the support!

great pics! and cool set up bryan it looked nice!!!

Thanks,

Convention season is over for the year for me. It bums me out a little, but I've got 1000 plans for next year.
The table was rough compared to how stocked we were at the beginning.

So who's gonna start that C2E2 2014 thread? It's only like a year away!

just a couple more from the costume parade:


g-fest-2013 costume parade — ultra seven montage
with detachable eye slugger!


g-fest-2013 costume parade — montage of the rest


one last dealers room gem:


g-fest-2013 dealers room — atom boy (operation style game)


kaiju anatomy and sonosheet session:







got to see and hold the ghidorah one in person!



i swear this garamon's face looks just like someone i know.







these photos aren't at all in focus for some reason. operator error, i'm sure. there are a few more in the g-fest set.

artwork display board:


masked rider display backing board


all the print variations available at the convention:


masked rider prints released at g-fest 2013
each row constitutes a set.

digital prints of kamen rider villains, 4" x 6", based on unifive repro mini toys. i wanted to really push their lucha libre aspect. their proportions are dictated by the original mix-n-match purpose; the neck and waist lines line-up across all the illustrations.

titles (left to right):
"arachno kaijin"
"double shocker"
"koumoratu kaijin"

Bill, tell me you bought that Astro Operation game! Pleeeaassssee. If so I am planning my roadtrip now.

Love all the work fans put in to some of their costumes. For me it isn't necessarily about being totally screen-accurate or detailed, I love the creative ones - just shows the passions of the people who make them. Cosplay at cons is one of my favourite things to check out.

^ by the time i got to look at that one, i realized everything at this table was $300-$1000 so, no, no operation game for me!

these guys didn't dress up just for the costume parade, either. many of them saunter around the convention in full regalia for photo ops with excited fans. the hard-core guys that make the more screen-accurate suits no longer participate. but many of them get together to shoot short films starring g-fantis. down the hall is a scale city stage complete with remote control mazer tanks for shooting battle scenes. each year the film gets more whizz-bangy

a funny side story related to costumes:

the first autograph session was delayed by about 20–30 minutes. when we tried to set up, the door was locked. it turned out that j.d. lees (the man behind the convention) had the keys, but he completely forgot about them and had already donned his g-fantis suit, so we couldn't get to them without tearing him out of there the keys were jangling inside the costume

so good Bill, great coverage! thanks

Haha, I know you what you mean. I got hit with some incredible 'sticker shock' when I checked out a lot of the vintage stuff in Japan. So many times I picked up toys and was thinking, well that's not so bad, little did I know I had miscalculated by a couple of zeros.

Thanks for all the coverage, in spite of operator error!