Does anyone know, if possible at all,how to buy these? If I understood correctly at Wonfes there are various artists selling their own made merchandise from different IPs, except it's actually official and endorsed by the company who owns said IP.In this case, I discovered that there's whole new fucking world of Fromsoftware figures, and the motherfucking carian knight figure you see there in pic rel is one of my of my most wanted figures ever. I NEED this fucking figure. But how???? Do they allow foreigners buying their stuff online?? Anyone kind enough to enlighten me??? Or can I only get it by myself on person in japan????
>>11136172>step 1 prepare to be disappointed >step 2 find the artist's social media>step 3 find out if they sell their products anywhere outside the wf booth99.9 times out of 100 the answer is no, especially for licensed garage kits.
>>11136198Obviously I'm gonna one day, but by the time I get there who knows if it's gonna still be sold? Life is full of mysteries and I'd like to cave in to my impulsive purchase needs NOWWW
>>11136202I knew it. There had to be a reason why I only discovered those now. I'll be sure to pack 500 extra vbucks with me on my destined trip to japan.
>>11136172there are some instances where it's wholly unlicensed, but others where they buy a license that effectively says "We'll make 200 garage kits and only sell them at Comiket/Wonfes/etc. on this year"but in both cases they very rarely show up elsewhere; i think japan just has a kind of strong compulsion towards keeping event exclusive stuff really event exclusivethe only other option that i know of is to check Mandarake and Suruga-ya, they're general merchandsie resellers and occasionally they'll have a garage kit show up in their inventory (but not very often)
I agree witht the rest of the posts in this thread. I'll add that I've managed to track down a couple WF kits years after they were sold at the event on Yahoo Auctions. It takes a lot of luck and patience (literally checking now and then over the course of years) but it IS possible.Another option is recasting sites, like e2406. For more popular kits of notable IPs, there's a better chance of a recast being available.Also, so it's clear, these are usually unpainted resin kits, meant for experienced model builders, so what you see in images are fully assembled, painted examples.
ARE THERE any Giant Dad kits out there
>>11136172I used to make kits like this. I recently got a bunch of my tools out of storage recently. I am "crypto rich" at 40 and have kind of retired from everything else. I may try and start this back up, but it takes a very long time and a lot of work to make just one sculpt, make a mold, then you only get so many pulls from the mold. The cost of the material, plus time normally is not worth it if you're trying to support yourself on it. There is a "WonderFest" in the USAhttps://www.wonderfest.com/I think the 3D sculpting and 3D printing for kits / statues has made them SERIOUSLY degrade in quality. So I have an "artistic bent" to try and show off some old school hand sculpting vs the 3D printed shit out there now. How much do you guys pay for these things? How many do they seem to sell? With inflation, it would be hard to not make it basically a charity without charging 3k per painted sculpt. I could probably get the price of a painted sculpt down by doing them in bulk, or out sourcing the paint jobs, but that seems like it's degrading the quality and defeating the purpose.
>>111380123k sounds pretty high to me, even for a fully painted and completed model. Unless we're talking about something crazy intricate and massive, but even then that sounds high.Like check this one out: https://www.stannarts.com/product-page/bruce-the-mechanical-shark-paintedOtherwise, I'm not very knowledgeable about western GK makers, but perhaps check out Black Heart Enterprises for some price references. I think some of their stuff uses 3D printed elements, but others are standard casts to my knowledge.In general, I suspect you'd do better selling unpainted kits if you're looking to turn a profit
>>11136172>figures>wonfesohhh boy are you gonna be mad
I wanted to add context: Usually the reason for limited sales time and low numbers is because they buy a one day or whatever license to officially sell products for said figure. Japan is much more strict with licensing than most countries, so getting in trouble there isn't a slap on the wrist. The one day license allows them to sell merchandise for just that day, which means they only make low numbers since they can't officially sell them outside of that day. It isn't meant to be an intentional 'only 50 are made for the convention so come buy it before it sells out!' thing, it is like 'if I try selling these tomorrow I'll be heavily fined' thing.At least that is how I understand why it is like this.
>>11136172>>11137210>>11139645I don't think it's been adequately explained, OP, you know what you're looking at right?
>>11136247>keeping event exclusive stuff really event exclusiveOne of the worst things the west does is not keep that same mindset. What the fuck is the point of calling things event exclusives and then selling them online? Fucking retard crybabies obviously love it but that's against the whole concept of the name and idea.
>>11136202step 1 is my daily mantra
There are people who will go to Wonfes and pick stuff up for you for a fee, but the fee is usually hefty. Think a couple hundred bucks.Plus if that figure is actually a GK, you'd have to also commission someone to professionally paint and assemble it for you, so add another couple hundy for that.
>>11138012>I think the 3D sculpting and 3D printing for kits / statues has made them SERIOUSLY degrade in quality. 3D sculpting is inarguably more precise and higher quality. There's nothing you can do with physical materials you cannot do with digital sculpting tools.>but the feel and the soul! Tradition is well and good, but 3D sculpting hasn't caused a quality degrade. The idea that it has is unfounded and borderline crazy. 3D resin prints make getting the initial physical proof far easier, and kits are often made with a 3D-printed proof, cleaned up and then turned into a cast for traditional resin molding (because it's faster than 3D printing 100 fucking kits piece by piece)
When is the next WONFES anyways? I try to do a yearly trip to Japan when it's colder over there and if it lines up I might make a thread for grabbing you guys some stuff
