Anime Festival Asia 2010 AFAX Part 1: Bandai

Halo pple.. ren here. Its time of the year again! tt's right, putting my JLPT studies aside.. Anime Festival Asia is back in Singapore again!!

3rd year running i presumed... it surely does draw alot alot of crowds from all over South East Asia. wooo. Before i give any of my own 'input' on this year's event, i'll give a brief introduction to AFA. As usual, AFA is 2days event, held 13-14 Nov, both saturday and sunday, where there's a relatively huge exhibition area and a single hall for live concert!

Exhibition area is where varies companies come together and show wad new products they have (actually singapore is real slow to see any 'new' products, usually 1-2mths after the news spread), and local distributors and hobby/anime merchandise shops gathered to sell merchandise to the public, usually having sale of 10% or more. There's also alot of activity areas for the goers to experience, i.e: Karaoke, Maid Cafe, Card Tournaments, Arcade etc...

The concert hall, on the other hand, holds a Pay-Per-View live concert each night featuring singers and bands from Japan, usually singing popular anime tunes. Its also used for talks given by special guests, topics could range from cosplay to blogging, business opportunities and so on.. and last but not least, the Regional Cosplay Championship is held in here too! Countries all over South East Asia sends their best cosplayers to AFA to compete, and the winners get to travel to Japan - all paid for!

Alrights, enough of introductions.. time for business. As before, like last year's AFA coverage, i'll break this event up in to several posts, mainly due to the fact that there's close to 300 photos.. it goes smthing like this..

Part 1: Bandai
Part 2: Goodsmile Company
Part 3: Shops & Activities around AFAX
Part 4: Regional Cosplay Championship '10
Part 5: Cosplayers around AFAX


----------------------------WARNING: RANTING AHEAD. Skip to the next header if you dun wanna read this.----------------------------

Before i start the coverage, pls allow me to express my thoughts on this year's event.. Named AFA X, short-form for AFA '10, the 'X' here can mean alot of things.. 'X' could be the roman numeral of 10 or it could mean that the entrance tickets are EXpensive. XD tt's right, priced at SGD $15 (including 'stage pass', which was unheard of last year) this year's tix cost nearly TWICE of last year's!

'Well, maybe this year's event is bigger?'
'Maybe they brought in more new stuffs?'
'Maybe they got a bigger hall for exhibitions?'
'Maybe there's better security?'
'Maybe there's more teams competing in the championship?'


The answer to all of the questions above is a flat 'No.'

In fact, the area for exhibition shrunk by nearly half of wad was last year's! Equally, that means that only half the companies get to exhibit their stuffs. Similariy, big companies like Bandai and Goodsmile Company that exhibited last year, the exhibitions now are run by local distributors with little resource. its really quite disappointing. You can compare the items displayed in my photos, between last year's and this's, and you'll understand. Ticketing services wise were also not handled well, little information was given to any enthusiastic goers. Me and Tako decided to go only a day, instead of the usual two, seeing how ill-prepared the community was. Hence this led to me thinking, where's all the money going to? i'll let you ponder about it. its not that hard, really.

Enough of the grumbling, some good points i've seen this year, actually came from the goers themselves! there's actually an overall improvement in the standard of cosplaying this year! you'll see more wholesome costumes and intricate designs, with much effort put in for this event. There's also scores of cosplayers ard, everywhere! Close your eyes and point, chances are you'll see 2 in the same direction! lolx. even at the food court. its like there's a dimension gate opened somewhere. If you're one of the cosplayers that went AFAX today, i salute you. KUDOS. you make singapore's cosplay society proud! =)

-------------------------------------------------------------------END OF REN RANT-------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright! time for some real posts and photos! Basically, wad i did was jus point and shoot.. so some photos might not turn out as good as it shld have. pls pardon me and my camera. thanks for reading thus far! XD

there's gonna be lots of photos.. warning!


-Gunpla Corner-


PG Strike Freedom

i wan one tooooooo.. let this christmas be a white 'Strike' christmas! XD hurhur.

Some points tt i wanna point out.. is that most of the gold parts i see is the same dull gold you see in MG Strike Freedom.. the only painted parts i see is at the elbow and knees... and the 'vents' on the funnels, the dull grey parts you see above, are actually stickers... hmmm, wonder will it be on the final product. and will there be a SUPER HI-MAT FORM WINGS???? similar to Tamashii RD Strike Freedom?? i'll definitely order one straight away. but tako says this 'thing' is too big for its own good. lolx. no place to display. XD

Kits from Gundam UC Series
-Master Grade kits-

From left to right: MG ReZEL, MG Sinanju Titanium Ver., MG Unicorn Gundam Titanium Ver., MG Unicorn Gundam HD ver.

-High Grade kits-

HGUC Kshatriya

HGUC Sinanju & Delta Plus

Kits from Gundam 00 series

HG 00 QAN[T] Gundam & Zabanya Gundam

Event exclusive: HG 00 QAN[T] Gundam Clear Ver. its the same kit released in Japan during the premiere of the movie. 

HG Harute & Raphael

HG 00 Raiser Gundam Condenser Type

MG 00 QAN[T] Gundam. looks nice... i may grab this one day.. ^^

Event Exclusives left to right: HG Gundam Exia Repair II & 0 Gundam A.C.D Type Clear Ver., 1/100 00 Raiser Gundam Clear Ver., SD Gundam Exia Repair II & 0 Gundam A.C.D Type Clear Ver.

 1/100 00 Raiser Gundam Clear Ver.

Real Grades & MegaSize kits

Char's Sakusss

RX-78-2ss

Somehow the RG Zaku doesn't have as much color seperations that i tot it would have.. nonetheless its still sweet. =D

looking forward to build you, my friend. ^^

-New released/upcoming kits from Bandai Hobby Divisions-

Digimon Series OMEGAMON!! used to watch this anime years back.. finally its made into a model kit! hell yaaaa!

Tako disturbing my shot with her tentacles.. \('o')/

HGUC Gouf Custom

1/8 MG Figurise Kamen Rider Luna Trigger

1/8 MG Figurise Kamen Rider Cyclone Joker. im kinda drawn to this series of model kit even tho i've not watched this series yet. the colors are really vivid.. yummy.

-TAMASHI NATIONS Corner-

Evangelion! too bad i got the Revoltech versions alr. XD

the ring of funnels.... i wanna make smthing like tt too for my HG kit.. *puts thinking cap on*

i apologise for this blurred image. OTZ

If you're lazy to build the HG Sinanju. here's your answer. XD

If you're lazy.....

Super Imaginative Chogokin S.I.C Products

though i cant tell you their exact names.. Kamen Rider Ixa, Kiva and Kive Emperor Form?

Kamen Rider KABUTO!

Kamen Rider Den-O. i like how they arranged the Riders.. this should be set as an example..

SHFigurarts Products

Kamen Rider W Series. Nice arrangement too!

KR Kiva Series.

KR Faiz Series

KR G3? hah.. its way beyond my leaguee..

ah~ this i know.. KR Kabuto! yes i see my fingers too.

One Piece!

SOUL OF CHOGOKINNNN.

A big display area for Chogokin.. MAZINGER ZZZZZ!! no he's not slping.

i apologise for the blurred photo again. OTL

Giant Mazinger!!!

Box Covers...

Some of the Chogokin series products.

these chogokin fits you jus right if you dun wanna spend a bomb on their bigger counter parts.

Event exclusive: Mazinger Z ATARI Night Ver. dark bling!

This is where they're selling the Gunplas.. do you see Dan from Street Figher? XD

They're selling the exclusives that's autographed by the designer i think..

there! the man in white coat.. he's signing the boxes.. lolx. unfortunately i dunno him...

-Super Saint Seiya Corner-

if im not mistaken, this is the Gold Saint Campaign Figures.. really a sight to behold. it'll be cool to have them displayed at home like this. ^^

New items for SSS!

Event Exclusive: Super Saint Pegasus Seiya.

Okays.. this concludes my Bandai coverage of AFAX this year.. really, there's not much gundams to see. Except for the PG Strike Gundam. Now im considering whether to go for AFA next year.. hopefully it'll turn out for the better. alrites.. i'll hafta start preparing for the next post.. Part 2: Goodsmile Company! thanks for reading! =)


(^^)"　　　　　レンです！　　　　じゃね！