Anime Festival Asia 2013 (AFA13)

Before writing this, I read my old posts on previous AFA that I attended in 2010 and 2011 and I am amused with myself. It seems that I always have bad things to write about AFA but every year, I am always excited to go. Lol. This anticipation for this year was even bigger because I missed AFA 12 as I was too lazy to travel to Expo.

I was lucky that today was also my off day so this was my first time going to AFA on a Saturday. Unfortunately, it was also my first time going alone and I can tell you, it sucked :( I will tell you why later. Ironically, I took more pictures then I did for the previous ones. Haha..

If my memory does not fail me, it seems that more people are attending AFA. I honestly did not expect that it would be THAT crowded on a Saturday late morning-afternoon. I can't imagine what will happen tomorrow. 

Hmm.. why did they ditch the usual red-coloured theme to suit the mascot sia??? I hate yellow!

Valvrave 01 which welcomed me as I entered the hall. And damn it, this picture is blur!

I started with Bandai booth which is no longer dominated by One Piece. There are still a lot of One Piece things but it is no longer dominating considering the whole Bandai area. Thank goodness I am not a fan of One Piece. I never like the characters but I can't help but find the ship miniatures rather cool. Not cool enough to make a non-fan to purchase, though. Haha..

Saint Seiya Cloth Myth series is celebrating its 10th anniversary although unfortunately, their display was not even as cool as what they had a few years back. The first thing that caught my attention was this huge door pasted with the history of the series. Considering the prices, I am quite amazed that so many hundreds of millions have been sold!! And I am impressed that as the time goes, they improve on the pose-ability of the figures instead of just reproducing the old ones and making new characters.

10th Anniversary edition, including the cool display stand too!

I am pretty sure only these 10 were present!

The salesgirl gave me Saint Seiya brochure after seeing me taking this picture

I love the brochure! Made of thick paper, full of colour, and full of information. While it is impossible for me to collect the figure, I will definitely keep and treasure this brochure!

More interesting things from Bandai..

Damn! This looks much better and bigger than the S.H Figuarts series that I am collecting :'(

Tempted to cancel my pre-order as Megahouse produced much better pose of Kuroko. But after seeing the expressions and the cool bases, I am tempted to also get Aomine and Midorima too!

The area occupied by aspiring artists who sell their fanarts sketches is getting bigger and surprisingly, people were also flocking them! I gotta admit that some of them really did a fantastic job with their fanarts. Wanted to buy one with Chun Li but then I guess I had no where to keep it and I let it go. Haha..

At the center of the hall is where all the human traffic jam was. With shops from Latendo, Muse, Attack on Titan activity area, Sega, Good Smile Company there, it seems that 70% of the people in the hall were here and that was why the Microsoft area was rather unpopular. Haha..

A few pictures from Good Smile Company.

Miku going R-rated soon

So difficult to get this picture without people walking at the other side!

Although Shingeki no Kyojin is currently the hottest anime, none of its figures are ready yet. Lol.

Microsoft's not-so-cute mascot girl. Honestly, even Miku looks cuter.Failed marketing ploy!

SD version of the mascot.

In summary, it was all about Free!, Kuroko no Basuke, and Shingeki no Kyojin for this AFA. Surprisingly, I actually already finished watching the first 2. Haha.. Shingeki no Kyojin is still ongoing and there is not many figurines yet so my interest was still low. Haha..

I am quite sad with the lack of toy shop this time around. I was looking for risers or display cases and I saw NONE! Two years ago, everyone was selling them T_T Having said that, ironically, I spent quite a bit on the "useless" merchandises. Well, when I go for this kind of event, I will definitely try not to go home empty handed! Lol.

I am quite surprised that Kinokuniya is bringing in Animate products which are not even related to books. Haha.. The small kiosk was mostly filled with Kuroba merchandise. Kuroko plushie was sold out while 2 Kagami plushie remaining when I was there. Not really bothered about plushie of human characters but if there was Kuroko 2 (the dog) plush, I would have snatched one. Lol. I just bought a mini clear folder because they came as a set. 1134 yen for $15.60 does not seem too ridiculous anyway.

Front image

Back image

The other item I bought is Free! Jumbo Carddass by Bandai. They are basically A5-size slightly transparent plastic sheet with pictures. I am not too sure about their purpose. Original price is 200 yen and it was being sold for $4 each. Quite expensive but then, you know, it's Free! Crazy fangirls will fork out money for these hot shirtless swimmers. I own Gundam SeeD Destiny Cell DX Photo Collection which is similar to these Jumbo Carddass but much bigger in size. I did not complete the whole set and am regretting it. To prevent future disappointment, I immediately bought the full set for Free! Haha..

The full set should have 10 pieces but the uncle gave me a plastic bag of 15. I only checked it when I was far from Suntec so I did not return the extra 5. I feel bad about this :( Sigh.. I cheated someone today and surely bad karma will strike me another time :( The ones I had extra are the less nice pictures too! Damn! But at least I got all 10. It would be a nightmare if the uncle did not give me a full set.

AFA 13 loots ^^

It sucked to go alone this year as there were a lot of photo-taking opportunities which I could not do because I was alone. Other than Attack on Titan exhibit, Sega had this huge Sonic the Hedgehog mascot!! I also want to take picture with him leh :( There were a lot of Sword Art Online standees and most importantly, free digital photo taking at Animax booth: choose a background, pose in front of green screen, and a few days later download your photo. Embarassing to camwhore alone mah.

Talking about Sega, they also brought in Sonic figurines by First4Figures. So unfair!! I want Zelda (Link on Epona) statue but no Nintendo :( Sonic figurines were being sold for $159 or $169 which is very cheap considering First4Figures website listed it for USD 199.99. Too bad I am not a Sonic fan.

And lastly, I had fangasm when I saw Shurato action figure!! Gosh!! It is such an old anime and I did not expect that it would be ever be popular enough to get action figure! There is Shurato wearing battle armor as well as the Valuda or the mobile platform. I am crossing my fingers that it will not be like Saint Seiya figurines where it comes with only 1 set and you have to choose either to put it on as a battle armor or display it as the mobile platform. Slim chance but no harm dreaming right? Hehe..

Will be cool to be able to display them both

Shurato is produced by Kidslogic. That's my first time coming across this company. Apparently it is a Hong Kong-based company. Based on the news, they had announced this figurine since 2012. What a long delay. I doubt that they would ever be done with all 8 Hachibushu. Unfortunately I was too shy to ask for the price and to do pre-order. Now kinda regret it.. If it is made by a Hong Kong company, it will be difficult to buy directly as I will never be able to tell whether I am getting the authentic or the bootleg version. For Japan-made figures, usually I avoid those Hong Kong and China-based sellers as bootlegs are likely coming from them. Sigh..