While the Toy Festival itself is kind of a sad affair, more or less a glorified Swap Meet, and definitely a far cry from the monolithic Wonderfest held just the week before. But like any good flea market there are great bargains and strange treasures to be found. To my pleaseant surprise, Cronic, one of the new wave of Indie Sofubi designers was there, selling another fresh batch of his super ltd. edition hand-pinstriped figures. This time he had 2 designs with 5 pieces each. Now THATS a limited edition. I finally broke down and picked one up.


Also met the good folks from Monster Taipei, which is the main toy node in Tapiei, Taiwan. They were fresh from the Taipei Toy Festival an event they organize every year. (must get down there and check that out.). They were showing off the event-only Bearbricks and their own new line of Collabo Canvas toys. While both utilized a nice range of local talent and the usual big name ringers, it again brought home to me that this is rut continues to get plowed deeper and deeper.

Another fun little item was from the 8-style, a shop in Koenji best known for the character Baaro by the Japanese designer Zai. This was a ceramic ash tray. Some ambitious designers should tag up the white version of this piece. That would be a bit more original if not at least useful.

Posted in Fig-lab, Fig-lab-log