Two times each year the probably most important fair for figure manufacturers and figure fans takes place in Makuhari Messe Hall in Tokyo. This winter wonfes was the first one in 2012 and I was eagerly waiting for the new figure announcements from the different manufacturers.
Lets start in alphabetical order with the much vaunted ALTER company
From the Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai anime they decided to make a figure of Honma Meiko. It’s a nice compact combination of base and figure, personally Im no big Menma fan, but the figure and the base recreate the atmosphere of the anime very well.
From the Wii game Oboro Muramasa ALTER brings us another figure, after they already made Momohime(there will be a re-release, btw). The figure is named Kongiku and is a well endowed fox spirit. With the same sttyle as Momohime this might turn out as a really pretty figure
Tales of Xillia was also chosen as origin for one of their figures, character Milla Maxwell comes off in an elegant and proud pose, the main attention grabbers are the wildly flowing hair and the interesting design of her warrior outfit.
ALTER also decided to make something from the previous Last Exile anime, here is a wonderful 2 figure combination from an Range Murata illustrations, it shows the cute Alvis and Lavie sitting on a futuristic bench. The sculpt will be scaled 1/8 and the release date is still TBA.
Yuri Yuri an anime from the previous season also received ALTER’s attention, they’ll make a figure of Mirakurun in an adorable loli witch outfit, I haven’t watched the anime, but I have a soft spot for magical girls and loli witches. This one might turn out very cute.
Chara-Ani made a very nice figure of Touwa Erio from the Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko anime, its so cute how she is hugging her futon while lying on a matress. Her petite body was captured hopfully they will deliver a good final product. The figure just went up for preorders and the release is sheduled for May 2012. She’s scaled 1/8 and the whole thing is 170 mm long.
CM’s Corporation also made a creative attempt for an Touwa Erio figure, here Erio is sitting in the basket of the bike where she was driven around by her cousin. The prototype already looks quite appealing, it would be quite difficult to mess this up, but you’ll never know in advance.
Now lets move over to the not so well known company Freeing, so far I’ve seen this cool Nanoha figure from Mahou Senki Lyrical Nanoha Force with her updated look and weapons.
They also have a figure from the nice short ova Houkago no Pleiades, they made a figure of the main character Subaru, I hope this one will turn out good.
Gift just showed a single figure so far this one shows Takamachi Nanoha loli style in a nice beach outfit, she looks a bit different than my image of Nanoha, but still very cute. 1/4 scale!
The always popular Good Smile Company also brought a good lineup like ALTER, but they aimed for the more popular franchises, I wouldn’t mind if they would produce something aside from the most popular cashcow franchises from time to time. From Bake/Kizumonogatari we see the adult Shinobu, with a playful yet dangerous face expression. The sculpting looks quite smooth and also the pose appears very good. She is too scary for my tastes, but great figure anyway.
From Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica they prepared an impressive prototype of Kaname Madoka goddess version in her final transformation outfit. The outfit is beautiful and the whole figure has quite a different look in comparison with the previously released Madoka figure.
One of the already painted prototypes was the Cheerful Japan! Hatsune Miku-Support version. This one has a very cool color combination, the dynamic pose is awesome and the figure itself is very cute, I love her face :). she also has an awesome base for her. I’ll probably get her.
Kotobukiya’s lineup also showed some interesting figures this year. From Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai they showed us a rather ecchi posed Sena Kashiwazaki, eating a bowl of cherries, sculpt looks nice but the paintjob on her will be quite important to say more about this figure. They also have a nice Sora both will probably be 1/8 scale even though they look more like 1/6.
One bigger surprise from Kotobukiya was the Idolm@ster trio, there will be Haruka, Makoto and Miki. They have recreated the distinct style from the very enjoyable anime and Im really interested in Makoto with the enchanting beach hat and also Haruka looks appealing to me.
There were also some Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse related figures, what grabbed my attention the most was the 1/6 scaled Inia Sestina in her enchanting appearance, I like the stockings + swimsuit outfit. The hair and the cute blush marks in her face, are just beautiful.
Max Factory is next, they produce more figmas than figures, but when they produce figures, most of the time they’ll turn out great. Ok first is Vocaloid Luka, she looks quite different than Miku. Luka is very attractive with her body, but also her brown dress with the golden details make Luka appealing. The face turned out better than expected, even though her smile looks a bit evil.
Honma Meiko was also adapted by Max Factory, a very cute prototype, well they somehow made a ultra loli of her, she’s very cute, but something in me says its wrong to look at her like that XD
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai is also included in the lineup of Max Factory, they made the figures of the two younger characters from the cast, Maria and Kobato. Putting these young girls into such an outfit is slightly questionable, but their faces are as lovely as in the illustrations.
Both are scaled 1/7 and fit very well together, but they will be sold seperately.
An rather unknown character was also transported into figure form, she’s called Samurai and comes from the game 7th Dragon 2020, I like the more comic less anime look of this figure.
Im not sure about purchasing this one, but Im curious about how she will look colored.
Orchid Seed is a manufacturer that I like a lot, but it seems like they are the slower ones, since they showed a lot of their older still unfinished prototypes at this Wonfes. But they showed their updated 1/7 scaled Kotegawa Yui from To love Ru with a fully castoffable school uniform.
The best thing at their booth was the painted prototype of Blanc Neige from Shining Tears with an awesome ice like base. The preorders for this figure might start in the next few weeks.
They also announced to make a 1/7 figure from the Sonicomi manual illustration, called Super Soniko – Sonicomi PKGversion. Very nice choice with bikini, star pattern stockings and boots, her outfit will be very appealing. That might turn out great.
Plum is a relative new figure manufacturing company, their Nymph received mixed opinions, their other Sora no Otoshimo related figure, Astraea made a much better impression. The latest announced figure from PLUM is called Alisa from the game God Eater Burst I’ve seen the illustration some time ago, I guess it’s still on my hdd. The design is pretty cool with the skirt and the hiigh boots and the girl looks sexy im looking forward to see the painted version.
So that was my personal winter Wonfes 2012 coverage post, I didn’t wrote about everything just about the things that really interested me, overall it was a nice Wonfes with a lot of pretty figures. Nearly everyone of the manufacturers announced something good and interesting.
Some things I missed was a new casual dressed Soniko figure, there was also no new Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Vallière figure and no figure of Saya from Blood-C, maybe next time 🙁
What was your impression about this event, anything you would consider to buy?
feal87
I approve of that Madoka! She’s a worthy mahou shoujo! 😀
I wonder how much she’ll cost though…:|
wieselhead
Good that Kyuubei approves
She’ll probably costs less than vroom vroom saber on her bike ^^
Nightmare
Alter had a very impressive lineup this time around. If I had to pick a favorite it’d be Kongiku provided they succeed with the paint job similar to Momohime. It’s great to hear that Momohime will be re-released, perhaps it’s time to actually buy her this time.
It’s hardly surprising that Good Smile keep milking the popular stuff (and why shouldn’t they) with tons of scales and nendoroids from the Madoka and *monogatari series. I actually really dig the adult version of Shinobu, of who’s real name I’ll skip to type.
A rather small selection from FREEing, I would’ve liked to see the prototypes of their upcoming 1/4 scales.
Clearly you must grab Maria and Kobato, they’re such Wiesel fodder. Hopefully we’ll see more scales from Max Factory in the future, they’ve improved a lot in recent months.
I share your interest in Kotegawa and Blanc Neige but also in the entire lineup from Orchid Seed who really showcased a lot during Wonder Festival. And yeah, sadly they’re on the slow side, probably because they spend most of their time thinking of new color combinations for older figures. It’s really too bad when we’re forced to wait over a year from prototype to finished product.
Overall this festival was a pleasant one with plenty of stuff from the major manufacturers, although I would’ve liked to see more figures from Native and FREEing. From your list I’d probably buy three figures even if most of them look great.
wieselhead
I guess the paintjob shouldn’t be the problem, she’ll probaly look fantastic if they keep the same style.
Oh you haven’t already bought Momohime? Don’t miss her this time, she looks great 😉
Well, they can do what they want, it’s just that they could use use their skills at one of the second popular franchises more often.
Has Freeing more 1/4 stuff up their sleeve?
Yeah something really says I should get them, figurewise I like Maria more, but when it comes to character Kobato is my first choice 😀
They are interesting, Im curious about Kotegawa’s cast off option and Blanc looks just beautiful and elegant like that.
Hope they can finish their half finished figure queque soon, so that they can start to work on cheerleader and AKG Soniko ^^
thx for your comment
Dinara
The witch loli from Yuri Yuri will be joining our collection, and Meiko in the swim suit. My husband and I cannot pass up such cuties.
wieselhead
She’s so cute, isn’t she? XD I will start to watch the anime the next few days ^^
She a lovely petite beach figure, the ice in her mouth is a nice detail.
Adam
Lots of interesting stuff coming out of WonFes, as expected. 🙂
I think Alter’s Mistral from Shining Hearts might be the most pleasant surprise for me from the show. I was hoping they’d have swimsuit Naoe colored for the show, but that didn’t happen. :-\
Most of the GSC reveals were teased and identified by the community ahead of time, so seeing their stuff was a little less exciting. Shinobu and Madoka both look very good already and Cheerful Miku is surprisingly dynamic, but I’m a bit annoyed at GSC for turning around and doing another Madoka right after they released their first one, which I went ahead and bought.
I’m pretty disappointed with Luka’s face. I liked the source artwork and I liked the teaser shots until they revealed her face, which looks way too chubby to me. 🙁
Orchid Seed’s Blanc Neige looks like a figure I’d buy. I like the colors and I really love how the base design looks in color. Seems a bit out of Orchid’s element to be doing a figure like this, though.
wieselhead
Ah this one, she looked interesting with her dress and the pretty cleavage, they only had a few painted things, but thats Wonfes.
Well it were only small thumbnail crops, so seeing the full thing was a joy for me 😉
Maybe they weren’t that satisfied with the first one, but its a little bit mean to announce a more jimpressive one just after the first one.
Some people actually said that, I don’t know the Luka character very well to be bothered by th different face. Shehe will have the same sculptor as our Asuka, so theres still hope.
Orchid Seeds Seena Kanon had a similar more tame than ecchi appearance
tanoshimini
Alter’s menma! so lovely!!
Milla from Tales of Xillia is definitely a get for me. I loved her character and do hope they make other Tales of Xillia figures.
Menma from max factory might be a get for me, as this swimsuit figure feels somewhat different from what we get normally.
Chara-Ani’s erio does not really make me want to buy it. Something just feels off about the figure but I love the pose that they gave her.
Madoka figure looks amazing but definitely different from the madoka that we normally see. I love the pose
I really want to get all the idolm@ster figures by kotobukiya, they look really well down and poses that I like that work well together with the other figures.
wieselhead
I also like the base a lot, the paintjob on it will look awesome ^^
A quite interesting one, but unlike you I don’t know her origin, well that doesn’t bother me, since Im always more interested in the design of a figure.
Menma 2 looks cute, but also a little bit illegal to me, but I guess I like her petite loli appearance very much XD
At least the pose is cute, too bad that there are more decent han very good Erio figures, I want my Ryuuko and sexy aunt Meme figure 🙁
This is finally an epic Madoka, maybe they’ll create more interesting figures of the other characters as well.
Makoto ♥♥♥♥ Haruka ♥♥♥
Hoshiko
I was very surprised about Maria and Kobato’s figure. Never imagined them to be in that outfit, really. Personally, I think Luka was the best looking figure among all. >.<
wieselhead
Same here, maybe I would feel more comfortable with their usual dresses 😀
She looked very nice, I don’t know much about her, but outfit and pose are great.
BioToxic
Warning: Incoming text of the wall variety.
For me Orchid Seed had the best line-up, and future line-up. Yui Kotegawa will hopefully turn out really nice, I’m pleased they are including a cast-off type feature. I’ll definitely pick her up unless something horrendous happens. I’ll be following Yuu Fujikura from Princess Lover and Maid Yome – Yuki too. Orchid Seeds wall of “coming next” certainly shows promise. Some really nice illustrations there, hopefully they translate to figure form well.
Naoe Kanetsugu swimsuit ver looks really nice. I’m going to try get hold of her. She’ll be my third figure of the character if I do :X.
You liked Inia Sestina, I liked Cryska Barchenowa with the santa bikini. She’ll be a definite get :D. I wonder if the hat will be fluffy material or just plastic.
I thought Lat ver Miku was cute, but this Cheerful Japan version of her surpasses the Lat version imo.
If you’ve not played God Eater Burst I’d recommend it. Alisa looks nice here, but I probably won’t pick her up.
Some other figures I’m interested in but weren’t covered here:
MegaHouse presented a sculpt of their next Queen’s Blade figure – Izumi.
Natives “next product” illustration looks promising – both the cat girl and big breasted chick. Hopefully they can capture the art style of Misaki Kurehito & Kizuki Aruchu.
Zigz Toys show cased their Sonken (Renfa) figure from Koihime Musou which I’m excited for.
So yeah, loads of interesting stuff this time round. I was expecting to see hints of a Shining Hearts swimsuit line-up from Max Factory though. I guess I’m kind of glad they didn’t show anything otherwise I’d have to add them to the ‘want’ list.
wieselhead
No problem, I’ll read it with pleasure 😉
Their future lineup became quite huge, I hope they will be able to turn most of their planned illustrations into figures.
The cast off feature will be interesting I guess, its easier to implement a cast off option for scanty dressed figures than for fully dressed ones.
Im more interested in the Soniko stuff, but if the other things turn out nice I might pick them up as well, I already ordered the Kurumu maid.
Aside from that I really hope that they can finish Chouhi Ekitoku, I really want this figure. Ichijou Manami is also quite appealing.
The third one? hehe have you also ordered the one with the mop? But I also like her character a lot, Naoe is cute 😀
In terms of sexy body Cryska has the better arguments, her but is too good. But Inua looks so cute and I have a weak spot for the stockings + swimsuit outfit.
Izumi? I haven’t seen the illustration of her to be honest, where have you seen it? She looks a bit like Azusa from K-on.
Im not really a Native customer, cause their always a bit too bold, haha well the shimapan catgirl maid might be ok XD
Mhh I also haven’t noticed Sonken, I hate that must sources only focus on popular stuff and ignore the rest 🙁
I also missed a few things on Wonfes, but you can’t have everything I guess.
Nopy
I’m definitely going to get that Madoka figure from GSC, she looks so cool in that form. The Sena figure from Kotobukiya also looks cute, but I want to see it painted first before I decide to get it or not. Other than those two, I don’t think there’s anything else I’ll be getting, but that CM’s Corporation Erio looks very tempting as well.
wieselhead
Ah I see she looks quite impressive. Yep the paintjobe will be important, I hope they follow the Buriki artstyle more closely than GSC.
Im so dissapointed with their Yozora :p Will you get some of the Nendoroids from Wonfes? I also liked that one a lot ^^
exilehero
I keep forgetting about that Xillia girl figure. She looks really nice. Though I wish they’d make her in some other outfit since I don’t like her original costume design that much haha.
I hand’t looked at that Last Exile figure before. I think they really nailed the look of the show. The bench even has rivets! Very steam punk.
I wonder how that grown up Shinobu will turn out. She looks good right now but the illustration has a lot of color so it’s gonna be all about the shading for me in this one.
Koto Meat looks delicious :D. I like that they also included a butterfly sitting on her knee. Gives a nice contrast to the fanservice hahah.
Definitively getting that Tony Taka Luka. I’ve been eyeing her for a long time now. Think this is the first time I look forward to a figure for such a long time.
Orchid Seed’s Yui looks very damn nice. I like how the swimsuit digs into her hips. She looks so.. squishable!
As expected, more Sonico! That was my favorite illustration from the book you scanned so it’s nice to see her being made into a figure in that outfit. Swimsuits + thigh highs are an instant favorite for me.
wieselhead
I don’t know anything about her origin, I just liked the style. were there more outfits for her?
The Last Exile combination figure is quite appealing, im curious about the size of it.
The paintjob on her will be important, but thats probably no problem for GSC, I hope they can recreate the sinister look of her face as well.
I ordered the cute Shinobu, but after she talked in Nisemonogatari, it doesn’t seem right anymore, I want a figure of nasty loli Shinobu :p
Yeah indeed, have you seen the illustration she is sculpted after? quite hot ^^
She looks great like that, Im mainly enchanted by her dress, but also the rest of her looks convincing.
The castoff of Yui looks interesting, if the painted face turn out nice, theres a high possibility for me to get her.
Unfortunately there weren’t more Soniko figures, from other manufacturers, but better quality than quantity I guess.
Its cool that Orchid Seed decided to make a figure of this illustration.
Tier
I think I liked Orchid Seed’s lineup best. I was happy to see the Sano Toshihide figure and the girl from Menkui! get sculpted prototypes, though I’m still wondering what’s up with the Lineage II dark elf figure they keep teasing. I guess they’re also not making Sister Hell anymore, since I didn’t even see her picture up in their display area.
I also liked a lot of stuff from GSC, though as usual, they had way too many nendoroids. Inori looks great even if Guilty Crown is a really bad show, and Yozora looks pretty good too. Offhand, I don’t think they showed any new stuff from the Fate/stay night franchise, which is a bit surprising given how popular Fate/zero seemed to be.
I also like the Total Eclipse girls though I’m still really hoping to see some figures of them in their pilot suits. Hopefully the anime will be decent and that’ll get some figure maker to make more figures of them.
wieselhead
They had a huge lineup with a lot of the stuff from previous Wonfes, but also showed a few new and painted figures and illustrational announcements.
I think they piled up too many illustrations, they won’t be able to get them done on time, even a company with a bigger production would have problems to keep up with all of that.
They should make more figures instead, I agree, haha I haven’t written about about any nendoroids this time.
Really ? I don’t like their Yozora at all, she looked so low budget and had only a bit of Buriki’s style, imo.
Maybe they couldn’t made it on time, I would be dissapointed, if they’ll have no Iri figure someday.
Both were quite nice, one of them is very sexy, while the other one is more on the cute side.
Im curious about the anime, hopefully it will be 20+ eps in length
Yi
Lots of really promising figures!! I think my favorite here is Milla Maxwell, although I’m interested in Kongiku as well. Her character design is lovely.
wieselhead
Indeed will be bad for my wallet, but who cares XD
If the paintjob of Kongiku will be as well done as on Momohime, she might turn out great.
Miette-chan
That Menma figure from Alter looks nice, sadly I have yet to watch the show. Once I do though, it might be what makes me become interested in buying it or not depending on how much I like Menma. I’m unsure if I want Kongiku, I loved the game and the characters and buying her would complement Momohime for sure. Decisions, decisions. I’m a little disappointed with Milla getting a figure, not because I don’t like it but because that mostly means that ASlter might not do more Vesperia figures. I would have loved for the other girls to get figures. Still look forward to seeing MIlla colored.
Still haven’t seen a figure that captures Erio as I wished. So far I’m debating whether to get the Koto or Plum version but now gotta add the CM Coporation version into the mix.
Finally, a fortress Nanoha been wanting for I don’t know how long, Bit disappointed it wasnt Alter who got around to doing her since I love their Nanoha figuires. Still FREEing seems good on my book and most than likely might buy it. Giant 1/4th loli Nanoha wearing a swimsuit? Consider this one bought already XD.
Finally, GSC’s Madokami is what I expected from their Madoka scaled figures which were underwhelming in my opinion. Now I wonder how much will GSC go out when it comes to painting this figure.
That Koto Sena looks just plain delicious, can’t wait to see more of it.
Max Factory is making some nice figures, exilehero will take care of Luka so I will probably get to see that one up close. Much like Alter’s Menma, I like figure as it is but it depends on the show as well. That Kobato made me realize one thing, I really one a figure of her in her goth loli outfit. That Samurai girl is on my list for sure, I like the art style, wish I could play the game in English.
Man, so many things I’m interested in, and this list doesn’t even include things like figmas and so forth. Oh god, empty wallet galore for sure.
wieselhead
sry I wanted to reply earlier, but I couldn’t made it.
I watched and also it, but Im not really interested in a Menma figure, she’s cute and petite.
The figures also look promising but somehow Im not planning to buy any of the two.
If at all, I probably would prefer Max Factories figure, because they made a hot loli of her,
I don’t know if it’s just me, but she looks more illegal than innocent XD
Maybe I should take a look at the Tales of Visperia character chart, I don’t know the game, but Millia looked quite appealing.
It’s actually sad that there are so many Erio figure attempts, but nothing feelt really satisfying so far, The three you’ve mentioned are a bit more promising, though..
I hope Freeing is able to make a good job, I think they aren’t bad at making figures. Nanoha loli never loses her charm, she’s looks damn cute, 1/4 is quite extreme imo XD.
Quesq also announced a loli Nanoha figure, with my favorite bikini, lets see which one is cuter ^^.
The first Madoka was quite boring, I would like to see that GSC makes a second Puella Magica figure line with more interesting poses for the other characters as well.
Sayaka was already a nicely designed figure, but Mami, Madoka and Homura are giving a quite underwhelming look.
Max Factories creative attempt is a bit daring for girls of this age, but if sold seperately I would like to give Maria neko a new home.
Otherwise I’d get both. I think Kobato’s goth outfit suits her very well, even more with the bicolored eyes.
Thats for sure, but I’ll to focus on the stuff I really want, nevertheless it will give me hard decisions.
Luth
That Kongiku figure actually had a sculpt, people just weren’t allowed to take pictures of it http://myfigurecollection.net/item/98783_oboro_muramasa_kongiku_1_8_alter_marvelous_enterta. Looks alright, definitely waiting to see it painted though.
Man, GSC/Max Factory/Native, why do you guys come up with so much good stuff? I’m interested in so much of their lineup I need to start being selective. Luka, Cheerful Miku, Adult Shinobu, Godoka, all the Native stuff, scaled Inori, Racing Miku 2011, it just goes on and on and then the figmas. Oh god. I’m really impressed with Orchid Seed’s stuff too, they seem to be really stepping up their game. You can really start seeing the difference in figures coming out from the upper tier manufacturers even compared to a year ago, I’m loving all this flying hair and crazy posing
wieselhead
I know therefore I just posted the illustration ^^
It would be cool if the lantern she is holding could glow
Yeah thats a big problem when nearly everything is so damn tempting, I don’t want to pass 😀
Nice that you enjoyed the Wonfes stufff as much as I did, it’s nice to see better quality figures each year.
Xine
Haven’t seen Last Exile but those girls based on Range Murata’s illustrations sure look great! I’m loving that sorta steampunk vibe. ^^
Menma is super cute! I’d like to get just one but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to resist another. Lol.
First time to see Milla Maxwell and I like the details. Blanc Neige is pretty as always. ^^ Tony Taka’s Megurine looks good too but the teeth is a bit of an issue for me. Lol.
wieselhead
I also like that they created a combination of 2 figures on a bench, I always wanted something with two figures together.
The price will probably be a bit high, but I don’t mind 🙂
Both are nice, when getting both you don’t have to make the hard decision between both of them.
The face is a bit different then in the illustration of Luka, atm I don’t know if I like or dislike it.
Duqs
So far, the sure get for me would be the MF Luka and the Kotobukiya Sena. Not sure about getting the others XD
The Millia Maxwell,Miki Kotegawa Yui, and adult Shinobu are all looking quite the good gets
*Sigh* WonFes. Why’re you a bane to everyone’s pockets?
wieselhead
I would also consider to get Sena, but Im not sure about Luka anymore, I will give it a few more thoughts ^^
So many nice things again, I’ll try to restrict myself a bit more this time… I’ll try *lol*