‘Armored Core’ And Flame Toys Dominate ‘Wonder Festival 2022 Summer’

Games ‘Armored Core’ And Flame Toys Dominate ‘Wonder Festival 2022 Summer’ Ollie Barder Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I cover gaming in Japan as well as the pop-culture here. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience.

Got it! Jul 25, 2022, 12:34am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Wonder Festival 2022 Summer had a lot on show, despite the heat and humidity. Ollie Barder Due to the pandemic, it’s been a good few years since we had a proper Wonder Festival in Tokyo. Thankfully, one of the best events in the otaku calendar returned this Summer and it didn’t disappoint.

As with prior Wonder Festivals, there were three main halls at Makuhari Messe taken up with wondrous new figures and toys. What was a little different this year is that the first hall, for commercial releases, was a bit lighter than usual. This was mainly because Sentinel, Good Smile Company and Takara Tomy were absent.

However, there were still plenty of companies present to share off their wares and one of the main standout booths was that of Flame Toys . From a variety of very nice and highly stylized Transformers figures, including Victory Leo from Transformers: Victory , to some surprise announcements for Gurren Lagann and the Super Robot Wars series. Flame Toys had some impressive ‘Super Robot Wars’ figures on display.

Ollie Barder MORE FOR YOU ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Finally Has An Actual 2021 Release Date Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Not A Sure Thing, Says Director ‘Genshin Impact’ Still Refuses To Increase Anniversary Rewards, Despite Fan Outcry Flame Toys make some gloriously ornate and complex figures, but it looks like they are finally branching out and covering some other anime and gaming licenses and that is something I can happily support. Following that, there was QuesQ and their new R-Type toys. Now, I’ve already picked up their R-9A Arrowhead and that is very nicely done.

We also have the R-9/0 Ragnarok from R-Type III on the way, but the real surprise was the reveal of two new fighters from R-Type Delta . Namely, the R-9aII Delta and the R-13 Cerberus (shown below). These both looked excellent and I only hope that QuesQ continue down this route and cover other fighters from the R-Type series in the near future.

The new QuesQ toys for the R-13 Cerberus (left) and the R-9aII Delta (right) from ‘R-Type Delta’. Ollie Barder It was here the fan side of things kicked in and it was pretty clear that there is still a lot of love left for the Armored Core series. From a giant cosplay of White Glint from Armored Core For Answer , to a more subdued but equally amazing Armored Core V head cosplay, activated as per its Ultimate Weapon usage.

There were also a lot of fan made kits available for Armored Core , covering the entirety of the series, even from some of the novels. Apart from that, there were quite a few VOTOMS kits on show, including those from the lesser-known Shining Heresy OVA. All told, it was a good Wonder Festival and reminded me that fans haven’t been at all idle over the past few years and that even the commercial side of things even had some nice surprises.

With any luck, the next Wonder Festival will still be held early next year, and hopefully some of the bigger toy and model kit companies will have something to show as well. In the meantime, check out the gallery below to see more of what this year’s Wonder Festival had to offer. Wonder Festival 2022 Summer Ollie Barder Wonder Festival 2022 Summer Gallery Date: 24th July 2022 Entrance Fee: 3,000 yen Follow me on Twitter , Facebook and YouTube .

I also manage Mecha Damashii and do toy reviews over at hobbylink. tv . Read my Forbes blog here .

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