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Yes we all wait for the grand New York Toy Fair every February. However, the other very cool one is the Tokyo Toy Fair. And considering how many Internet retailers are getting this stuff, we can actually BUY IT rather than just look at the wonderful goodies and whine. Oh, and one other great thing about it; it's open to the public!!!! The last few days are open for fan-boys/girls to look and oggle. Figures.com has a terrific write-up on the fair, and here are a few observations.
1. Transformer, Takara; NO MORE TRANSFOMERS??!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!? NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! ...... then again...... I LOVE the Car Robots/2000 line; Super Fire Convoy is awesome, and Gigatron is cool... but... well, upon further review, a lot of this stuff is seen-that-done-that. Yes, Buildking has great sculpting and articulation, blah, blah, blah.... but it's still basically Devastator. Sure, the new cars look cool.... but they're just cars. Even the bad guys all look like Beast Wars rejects. You would think after all these years, you could do SOMETHING; more gestalts, maybe do spaceships.... ANYTHING.
2. Webdiver, Takara; This is the replacement for the Transfomers. Ooooookaaaaaaaaaaay. Take Optimus Prime, merge him with a Playstation and you get.... something. The robots and other toys look kinda cool, but the whole idea of being able to control a video game with your toy, well......
3. Gao Rangers, Bandai; Ah, nice to see sometthings never change. Sentai toys are out in force once again, with the King Gao out very soon, and the obligatory extra animals you stick on the giant one for weapons. The King Gao looks kinda cool; giant lion's head on the chest, crown of gold on the head. Still, how many times can you take five animals and stick them together?
4. Super Imaginative Chogokin; Unfortunately, these pieces are hard to find state side and pretty pricey. All are resculpted, super detailed retakes of familiar Japanese super-hero characters, such as Kikaider and Kamen Rider(AKA Masked Rider in US.). Terrific stuff if you don't mind spending $40.00 on a 7" figure. The hi-light was the new SIC Kikaider with his legendary Side-Machine.
5. Virtual On, Kaiyodo/Xebec; Cooool. Bad news, only two new toys in the line for this coming year. Good news, they look as awesome as the one that's already here.