The event is going on right now and thanks to Danny Choo, we are getting live feeds and images straight from the event. For those who maybe don't know, Wonfes is the largest figure and custom figure kit convention in Japan. Most if not all of the major anime figure manufacturers are there showing off the newly announced pre-orders as well as some surprises.
If you've been keeping track of the numbers on your Good Smile Company Nendoroid, you'd know they are close to their 100th figure. That figure has been announced and it's actually a non-anime character...Mickey Mouse. You heard me right, the 100th Nendoroid is Disney's Mickey Mouse. I'm fan of him...don't get me wrong but I would have so wanted a Nendo Tifa Lockhart and expected one to come before a Mickey one. Oh well, "a man can dream...a man can dream"- Futurama
It gets weirder than that. Of course for every new Nendoroid figure announce, a new Figma isn't far away. Yesterday Good Smile announced the figma K-On! Yui...but sdly, like ALL the other K-On! figmas...some sort of ass-backwards licencing embargo prevents even ME from snagging them for my store -_-
Anyways..this newley announced figma figure will surely be available in the US. That's right, you saw that link correctly from Danny Choo, it's a Michael Jackson figma.
Probably more figures to come, more anime news and more on that K-On! licensing mess in a few...for now let this news populate your mind and try not to hurt yourself with any blunt objects.
-pictures are all from Danny Choo, please visit his site for more images and info (gt to give the credit where its needed ^^)
What a week. Been sick most of it (today included) and yesterday Danny Choo announced the new Nendoroid Nakano Azusa. Sadly, Good Smile Company decided to tell only HobbySearch and Amiami of this figure and they simply bought them all -_- and pre-orders were sold out...before even I could get dibs on them (another even madder face -_-).
Well, thankfully Good Smile Company just announced a second production release and I wasted no time in making sure MY STORE gets the rights to sell her too -_-.
...Yeah, there ARE other anime stores out there that are legit, guys.
Anyways, this is of course the Nendoroid figure of Nakano Azusa with her having the nekomimi ears as well. A very, very cute figure that even I will be keeping for me and my fiancee Danielle (she just melted from the cuteness when she saw it).
I reserved quite a few so you can go to her page in my store here. Be sure to chose "Cash/Money order" choice at the end so you don't have to pay via paypal until she arrives.
Unless stated otherwise, unless something terrible happens, you are pretty much guaranteed to get one; but only if you act quickly. Once all the quantities that I ordered for the store are used up, the only chance you have of getting her is to hope for a cancellation from those before you.
This batch of Nakanos will be in some time in late June or so. For those lucky enough to pre-order from Amiami and HobbySearch, those will be in some time in May.
For those worried about bootlegs, be assure I DON'T EVER stock bootlegs...only the real deal. Still worried? Check the list of legit stores on Danny Choo's blog. My store won't be on that list till I pay for advertisement on his site, so it's why I'm not on that list yet -_-
After seeing the craziness behind anything K-ON!...why the hell the series isn't officially here in the states is beyond me.
Saber and Fate fans are going to be once again happy to hear of some more great news from Good Smile Company. On top of the amazing Excalibur Saber figure announcement, there is also this wonderful Petit Nendoroid set that was announced back before the weekend...
As the picture shows, there's a couple versions of the figures included in the set and supposedly a secret figure as well. I'm so keeping a set myself ^^.
Of course, you can find them for pre-order in my store (or you can email your reservation). There's 12 in the set and they go for $90 altogether so not bad at all. Expected to come stateside in August; could always be sooner or later ^^;;
Wanted to congratulate the winners of the Nendoroid Kureha contest. To no surprise, it seemed like of the 11 or so people that signed up for the members blog, only 2 people decided to post anything on the site and they were @nekozawa and @Zero6699 was split on who to give this wonderful Kureha to but thankfully they live together and (hopefully) can share the winnings. Congrats to you guys for the win.
For those who signed up on the member's blog and didn't write anything, sorry, you snooze, you lose ^^;; but, don't fret you and as well as anybody else who joins in the blogging will surely be up for any future contests. so not only will posting you own blog posts here help get your blogs some traffic...you might get a free figure too ^_^
Here's another rare Nenodoroid I am lucky enough to eventually get my hands on, Nendoroid Sanae Kochiya from Touho Project. Thanks to figure manufacturer and wholesaler, Mile-stone.jp, this Japan-Only exclusive Nendoroid will be stocked by me...
Some of you might have noticed the price is up there at $60. Though the regular retail price is actually 3000 yen in Japan, even as a store owner, I wasn't able to get her at that price...but a good amount higher -_- This is the kind of figure that will probably be on eBay and other sites for $200+ down the road. That insane price you will never see me do so hopefully my price is still a bargain for such an exclusive figure.
Sanae Kochiya is the kind of anime figure where you usually ONLY see in selected shops in Japan so if you are in Japan, grab them at the better 3000 yen price before it's too late.
Recently added the Nendoroid: Fate Testarossa The Movie 1st Ver. Figure to the store for pre-order and with in no time been getting requests to reserve her for when she comes out. A cute figure indeed, this figure is based off of Fate Testaroassa in the up coming Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st anime that'll be in Japanese theaters. Thought I'd blog about her not just because she's absolutely adorable, but this one might be another one of those Nendoroids that become unavailable and then some crook on eBay sells them for $80+ -_-. So, I'm just getting the word out there before her release date of somewhere around May/June 2010
I only have 3 reservations available (as of the time of this blog post) but until December 15th (or until Good Smile runs out of reserves) I could maybe increase that number. As with all pre-orders on my site, you can either pay for the pre-order in the store or ask to be on the waiting list. If I say you are on the list; I guarantee to get you one, so none of that "you may not get one" crap you see at other anime stores.
As of late however (like with the Mio nendoroid -_-) Good Smile Company does seem to delay their official release dates so please, please, please don't quote me on the release date as being exact. Good Smile comes out with the best anime figures but sady, us US anime store retailers are sometimes the last to second to last to get them in. The ETA on my store is what "ETA" means, "Estimated Time of Arrival" There are times Nendoroid figures like Fate, Mio, Saber, etc come out earlier or later than what Good Smile says they will but if I reserve one for you, they are guaranteed by my wholesalers (aaaanime.com, yesanime.com and mile-stone.jp) to come in.
Anyways, here's some more images of this oh so cute Nendoroid:
Of course I make sure to talk about Mio but let not forget Nendoroid Yui. Recently she became available for us USA anime retailers to pre-order...sadly though, looks as if her official US release won't be until Feb 2010 o_0. Darn it! Like anything K-On, we here in the West are getting the scraps...or of course using the power of the internet to bypass silly delays and red tape. As Sony just found out with the spike in sales of the PS3 Slim, you gotta just listen to the fans and customers. Hopefully Studio Blue gets that about the K-On! popularity here in the states -_-
K-ON! and especially Mio fans (like myself) will be happy with this bit of news. Up for pre-order is the Good Smile Company Akiyama Mio Nendoroid figure. The official Japan release date will be some time in November, so for us anime fans here in the US, chances are December is when we'll have her officially released in our neck of the woods. If any of you have been keeping track on dannychoo.com, you knew this figure has been in the works. Hopefully we can see the other girls from K-ON! soon as well ^_^
(I made sure to put her in my store. Click here to go to the pre-order page or email my store's account to be put on a waiting list. She'll be at $39.99USD plus $5 shipping for local, US buyers. If you are overseas, shipping will be rougly $15-$20 or maybe cheaper.)
Ok, a big, big pet peeve of mine as both an anime figure collector and as an anime figure store owner has been the slew of cheap, fake and inferior Good Smile Company Nendoroid figures. As somebody who both collects and sells the real deal, just thought I'd give some examples of what to look out for. I will be using the most commonly bootlegged figure, Miku Hatsune, as my example.
Here, is the real one:
Here's an image I took from my stock of the back of the figure.
Here is a list of ways to almost be certain a figure is a fake.
Very cheap price. Explore the web and places like eBay with caution. If you see a seller claiming to sell a Nendoroid ata Buy-Now price below $25USD, it's most likely a fake since no official seller can sell one below that price without losing money.
Different facial expressions from original. Miku Hatsune's smirk for example is different and less smiley on a fake one than on the real one. Other Nendoroids will be the same.
Cheaper look to the figure. This is a given. Good Smile Company is one of those anime figure companies that usually make sure their final product matches the original image. In this industry, it is tough to do so but if you see a decent difference, you'll know there's something up. Fakes have been known to fall apart easier, also.
Seller is from China or Hong Kong. Please note that anime figures both fake and real are made in China and not all China sellers are selling fakes, but sadly many are.
Buying from a US seller?
Make sure the Good Smile Company figures come from AAAanime.com, Mile-stone.jp or Diamond Comics. These are the official wholesalers of anime figures in the US and where I get mine from as well. For Nendoroids, practically all come from AAAanime.com. Don't see a AAAanime sticker on the back of your Nendoroid box?...it might be a fake.
Ask for a copy of the seller's Certificate of Authority. This is the identification all sellers need to proved they are verified by their state to sell products in a legit business or one that isn't an MLM (they have different forms of identification). I have a copy for my anime store and Swaorvski figures selling. The seller should not show their ID number and other personal info that is on the form but their company name and the state they are locaed in is on the form. With one, I have to report sales tax to my state and my sales figures to both state and federal taxes. Sellers of fakes of course wish to bypass this responsibility and will buy cheap bootlegs from fake factories in China without the need to show any other identification, other than $$.
Hope this bit of info helps in your shopping and I've also provided images of more-than-likely fake I spotted on eBay in the post. Please note, the name of the seller, if on the image, has been blocked out to prevent slandering and to not falsely accuse them since some sellers take images from others and might not be selling fakes but show fakes in their images...of course, the opposite maybe true too.
I had a bunch of items not yet listed in my store for pre-order, so I went and got the store up to date. I also got the clearance today to set up pre-orders for the very cute and lovely Saber Lily Nendoroid figure. Saber is the background to my dual PC set-up at home still so I'll probably snag one for myself to add to my collection ^^. With my listings mainly up to date, I'll be sure to post the newest figures first now. Every single day there are new and amazing anime figures that get on the pre-order list and if I'm to be up there with the other anime stores...I gotta keep up ^^;;
Check out some more pics below. I also added these pictures and the pictures for my other recent figures additions to the anime figures part of the anime gallery.
Today I got a big shipment of new anime figures from the new Kingdom Hearts Cloud and Sephiroth; not to mention a bunch of Haruhi Suzumiya Extravaganza figures, just to name a few. I also got about 12 Nendoroid figures. Just wanted to use this post to show them off before they are taken away from any of my customers or before I add a few to my own personal collection ^^;; I definitely could use some di:stages for these guys.
Anyone got a favorite Nendoroid?
A wonderful site
Itoshiki Nendoroid
Going to be giving most of them a new home soon. I might keep one or two but...gotta run the biz here ^^'
