Wonder Festival 2012 Figure Highlights

Wonder Festival 2012 presented many upcoming figures. Today I’ll be pointing out my favorite highlights from the convention, including some pretty impressive figures from Good Smile Company, Kotobukiya and…Dengeki Bunko?

Dengeki Bunko 20th anniversary

This year marks Denki Bunko’s 20 anniversary and the book publishing company is celebrating the occasion in several ways. There’s a big Denki Bunko book convention in Japan and lots of commemorative items in store, including a set of new Nendoroid Petite figures of selected Dengeki Bunko series. In the pictures you can see Shakugan no Shanna, Boogiepop Phantom, Kino no Tabi and Index among others. Dengeki Bunko has yet to explain whether it intends to sell these figures as a set or have each included with a volume of its respected series. I myself am thankful for the opportunity to get another Shakugan no Shana, Index and Kino no Tabi Petite Nendoroids because up until now you could only net Petites of these characters by buying a copy of the expensive Cross of Venus DS game. The release date and maker of these figures is still unclear, but since these are Nendoroid Petite figures I’d assume Good Smile Company will make them.

Good Smile Company

Speaking of which, Good Smile Company keeps pumping out new figures day and night. In wonfes they showed an upcoming Nendoroid figure of Dead Master from the Black Rock Shooter TV series. The Dead Master Nendoroid is expected to come out during winter 2013. GSC also presented an Insane Black Rock Shooter 1/8 scale figure, which they probably hurried to produce after receiving hundreds of hate mails from collectors who were forced to buy an entire series just to get their hands on the only available Insane BRS figure. The release date for this one is still TBA.
Just to be clear GSC also showed a bunch of new Saber figures (how surprising!), which aren’t special enough to warrant a place on this post.

Max Factory

Max Factory showed some pretty sleek Dead Master and Gold Saw Figma figures, also from the Black Rock Shooter TV series. These will join the BRS TV figma of Black Rock Shooter herself that came out earlier this month. Both figures are expected to be released in spring 2013.

However, that’s not all Max Factory showed. They also had this:

Wow, this is one cool looking Guts figure! Depending on the coloring of the armor the ball joints (one of the uglier assets of figma figures) might be completely unnoticeable. The release date, like most things related to the Berserk manga, is TBA.

FREEing

Yeah, this is what FREEing had to offer at WonFes. In case you were wondering this is a figma of the vulgar comedian Egashira 2:50 (real name: Hideharu Egashira). The figma mimics one of his comedy poses. Let’s compare it to the original:

Yep, pretty much the same. It’s interesting to note that with such a big “extension” it’s hard to judge how much articulation, if any, this figure will have in the back and right hand. The Egashira 2:50 figma is still TBA, so you’ll unfortunately have to wait a few month before you get yourself a one or two of these.

Kotobukiya

I don’t usually write about Kotobukiya figures, because Kotobukiya has been prominent mostly for Mecha and Batman figures in the last year and had a fairly mediocre anime figure line. However, certain things cannot be passed over, and this upcoming Trigun: Badlands Rumble Vash the Stampede figure is one such thing. The Trigun franchise has had more than a couple of shabby figures in the past so it’s delightful to see a good figure of Vash. The Badlands Rumble Vash the Stampede figure is scheduled for a release this winter season.

Kotobukiya also had a nice gift to those Metal Gear Solid fans out there:

You are looking at a 1/100 scale figure of Metal Gear Rex from the video games. This one is also scheduled for winter this year. However, unlike the Vash figure this will be a model kit, meaning you’ll have to build it and paint it on your own.

That’s it for this week. It seems we have some attractive figures to look forward to near the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013.