Wonder Festival, or Wonfes, happened this weekend. The bi-annual figure showcase is pretty much the E3 of figure collecting, giving collectors a sneak peak at items that may not come out for years or ever even. The past few Wonfes have seemed kinda samey to me; that is to say the only items that really jump out at me are Fate/Grand Order figures and lewd nonsense from Native and Skytube that I'm very unlikely to ever buy. Still, even if there isn't that much for me personally, it's still fun to check the blogs and twitter and see what all is in the pipeline.
I'm just going to be highlighting the items that look cool to me here, but if you want to look at some comprehensive summaries of the announcements you can find them in a few places:
1) browsing #wf2019s on twitter
2) Dengeki Hobby has a great index
3) Moe Pop has a good index as well
As for my interests, let's have a look at them in no particular order here:
Chiyo - QuesQ
Another Chiyo figure will be redundant for me but I think this one looks pretty cool. It's her standard outfit, and she looks pretty accurate to how she appears in the manga. I've been a big fan of Chiyo's design since I first saw her figures popping up at a previous Wonfes, but do I need 3 of them? I don't know, haha. I've already got Dragon Toy's here just waiting for a replacement camera to show up so I can do a review, and I've also got Revolve's paid up and on order so maybe I'll take a pass on this one, but she does look great.
Chiyo Bunny Ver. - Max Factory
Listen I know I was just waffling about whether or not I needed more Chiyo figures but this one has a bunny outfit. Overall I like this but to be honest she looks like she's sporting some pretty suspicious fakies here compared to all the other Chiyo figures that are on the way. This video that was posted to twitter gives me some hope that she might look better in real life but only time will tell.. I do really love how they did her legs and hips here. She's looking a bit more thicc than the other Chiyo figures so far.
FGO BB - Alter
Sometime in the past year or two a wave of BB fan art was sweeping twitter and I think really ignited my policy of clicking the like button on pretty much all FGO fan art. BB looks cool, she has a kinda vampire thing going on that I really enjoy but is hard to find outside of some Native/Skytube stuff I won't buy because it's way too horny. Alter is a top tier figure company so this should turn out great, but it's hard to judge based just on the art so I'll have to wait to see the prototype and also the price before ordering. Considering the Fate tax I bet it'll be way expensive but we'll see. It looks liek she'll have two versions, a limited and regular, with slightly different coloration and facial expressions.
Gal Sniper - Skytube
I really like this figure. Her cybernetic limbs are cool. She's a bikini figure, which is bad, and her bikini looks like it's going to be gold based on the art, but I am still kinda hyped to see the final paint. Her proportions look good, and for a Skytube figure she's pretty conservatively dressed/posed I'd say so that's a nice bonus. Surely there will be some castoff options that I'll never use but it's nice to know they're there. Skytube has a great reputation for quality, so maybe this could be the start of a anime ladies with guns sub-collection in my figure collection? We'll see.
Lee Enfield - ACTOYS
Speaking of anime ladies with guns here is a Girls' Frontline figure by what seems to be a new manufacturer, AC Toys. I fell off of Girls' Frontline pretty fast on account of the very bad load times and downtime between actually doing anything in the game, but I really enjoyed the character designs. The first couple of figures based on the game were kinda ho-hum and boring in my opinion but here I feel like we're starting to see some cooler outfits. I'm excited to see how this turns out.
DSR-50 - Wonderful Works
Here we have another Girls' Frontline character, from another new manufacturer. I really like this one. The case and the champagne flutes are nice touches. Her dress is really cool too. Of the anime ladies with guns here I think the one inhabits the middle space between Gal Sniper's overt sexiness and Lee Enfield's more avant garde design.
Elf Village Priscilla - Vertex
I think it's weird that Vertex have announced the 4th figure in their elf village series before even producing a render for the 3rd figure in the series, but whatever. This may have appeared before Wonfes but it's the first time I'm seeing it, so here it is. I like the first elf village figure, Archeyle, but the second one doesn't really do anything for me; nevermind that it's a high priced yet diminutive loli figure. No thanks. Big tiddy sorceress is a category of figures I already am somewhat invested in but I feel like Vertex is kind of hit and miss with regards to pricing and quality in their figures. It's one I'm keeping my eye on.
So to conclude, there wasn't really much for me this time around. If I had to predict which if any of these figures I might own in a couple of years when they finally come out my guess would be Gal Sniper and Chiyo Bunny Ver but we'll see. I'm cautiously optimistic about the third and fourth figures in the elf village line, but I can imagine losing hope for the fourth one if the third one isn't great. BB looks cool too, but considering we're just at the art stage here it could be years before we ever see a the prototype.
Still, I don't want to end on a down note. I know a lot of people are excited for a lot of different figures, so even if there isn't anything that really blew my mind this time around I think the hobby is in a really good place. I know a lot of people complain about the prices being too damn high these days, but while generally true, I think the quality of the figures is really outstanding and it's only getting better.
Are there any figures you're excited for, regardless of whether you plan to buy them? Let me know here or on Twitter.
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