31 July 2012

ACGHK 2012 Part 1

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End of July, and it's time for the annual ACGHK (Animation-Comic-Game Hong Kong) fair. Originally a fair for just selling comics (of various kinds), it now evolves to selling all sorts of ACG-related items. Let's see how this year is like!

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Venue

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XBOX stage.

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A 3D sculpt entry for original character design competition

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An sketch entry for original character design competition

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Hot toys display booth. The queue is incredibly long that we gave up going in -_-;

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1:1 scale Spiderman statue posing next to the Hot toys sign

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Ladies showing off the latest Hot toys figures

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Arale Norimaki cosplay from Dr Slump

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Cosplays

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Booth from Muse, an animation-related distributor based in Taiwan

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Ack, there are quite a few publishers called 天下, but I think this is called Jonesky, which usually focuses on local manwa but also has a side branch for Japanese manga too

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Rilakkuma shop. Rilakkuma has become increasingly popular these days

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Kadokawa shop. There is a massive queue for it just like previous years

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Closer look at the big posters at Kadokawa shop

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Various anime stuff sold at smaller shops. Hats, swords, plushies, t-shirts, and posters are common sight.

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B. Duck is getting more popular these days too

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Shop from MightyMedia, another anime distributor based in Taiwan

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A maid posing for the photographers

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Clown and sosad GIF icons in plush forms. These icons are a common sight in the local Hong Kong Golden Forum, one of the largest online communities in Hong Kong, which has developed quite a bit of web culture of its own in there.

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Putting the local stuff aside, we're now onto Kotobukiya shop.

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The mecha models, ranging from Zoid to Zone of the Enders and even Danboard of Yotsuba!

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Jehuty model

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Blanc Neige and Maxima figures

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Black Widow and X-23 figures on display

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Saber Lily model (yes it's a model)

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Danboard model

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D-Style (akin to chibi / super-deformed) Star Gao Gai Gar model Overseas Event Exclusive Edition

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Alternate Hoihoi-san hair colour parts, which I think are event exclusives

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Zoid models

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Q Block One Piece mini figures

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Monster Hunter merchandise

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Pokemon plushies

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Animate shop

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New Doraemon movie

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Mameshiba

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Various swords...

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... And sword-shape umbrellas avaialable for purchase ^^;

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Various anime t-shirts, though their authenticity is questionable (which is the case for many other stuff at the smallers shops unfortunately). The game t-shirt that Rider wears in Fate/Zero at the bottom left does draw my attention though.

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Bandai stuff sold by Toys 'R Us. There are no event specific exclusives being sold this time, which is a new regulation set by the organisers this year. It is most likely to tackle those who horde them and resell to others at a higher price.

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Large poster of Banshee and Unicorn Gundam at Bandai's display booth. Would love a poster or a wallpaper of that~

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Gundam AGE and SEED posters on the other side of Bandai's display booth.

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HG 1/144 Gundam AGE-3 and Gundam AGE-FX, which are to be released in August.

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HGUC 1/144 GM Sniper II White Dingo Team Custom which I blogged about earlier. It is a web shop exclusive item that will be released in September and October in Japan and Hong Kong respectively.

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Other web exclusive items on display: MG Figurerise Barnaby Brook Jr Prototype Suit & RG 1/144 Justice Gundam Deactive Mode.

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A long row of gashapon machines outside Bandai's booth


Gundam model entries for this year's Gunpla modelling compeition will be up on a separate post soon!

ACGHK 2012 Album
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quentinlau/sets/72157630858973250/
Read More!

30 July 2012

Nyanko Type Earphone Jack Covers

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Earphone jack covers have recently become a popular phone accessory to protect the dust clogging up the earphone jacks when they are not in use. Recently NicoNico Shopping has released Nyanko Type Earphone Jack Cover, which are cat shape earphone plugs inspired from sketches drawn by a twitter user.

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The concept was first drawn by @nekomura_otako, who posted it on twitter via twitpic wishing someone would materialise it. It attracted a lot of people's attention and interest, and not long later a trader approached the user and offer to merchandise it, which later became available as pre-order only on NicoNico Shopping.

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Editors from Gigazine got all seven of them (6 + 1 bonus). Let's see what they look like :o

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A ginger cat sitting on the phone

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A grey cat clinging on the phone

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A lazy bicolour cat lying face down

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Another lazy lying (and sleeping) face up

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A calico cat posing like a maneki-neko

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A pair of kitties

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And finally the bonus cat that only is available when pre-ordering the full set of 6 as seen above, which is a re-coloured version of the grey cat clinging on the edge but with black coat and yellow eyes.

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Do you have a favourite out of the seven? It's hard for me to pick one as they're all pretty cute, but I think I like the ginger one the most ^^


Too bad these covers had to be acquired via pre-order, and it's no longer available at the online shop (and for Japanese residents only). They were sold for 500 Yen each, with the full set (+ bonus cat) for 3000 Yen.

However, just like many popular things, I have a feeling that replicas of them may soon spawn here and there. What I find interesting though is how more and more things on the Internet, no matter how small it may seem at first, grows into something much bigger, much like Hatsune Miku and Black★Rock Shooter. The power of Internet surely isn't something to be underestimated these days! :o


Images are from Gigazine via NicoNico Shopping:
  • http://gigazine.net/news/20120730-earphone-jack-cover-cats/
  • http://gigazine.net/news/20120601-nyanko-twitter/
    Read More!