Wonder Festival 2012 Summer and DD Festival

As mentioned in the last post, me and a few other guys went to the Wonder Festival Summer 2012 held in Makuhari Messe yesterday. Wasn’t with my usual doll group but I did meet a few other doll owners I knew from twitter and such. Some were carrying dolls so they could attend the DD festival (Miss Contest & Group photoshoot) held in Akihabara Volks later in the day which I also dropped by near its end. Must’ve taken over 200-300 photos in all since this was a very special occasion but had to flick some away due to blurriness or restrictions. Still, there’s loads of images up ahead so I’ll keep my usual blabbering very brief (‘ω`)

（先日開催されたワンフェスのレポです。個人的に気になったフィギュアやドールしか撮っていませんので完全版はakibablog様等をご参照下さいませ。）

Idoll 35 有料卓

Apologies for the lateness but here are a couple of pictures taken at Idoll 35 last Sunday. Lot of things came by and went last week like for example the new job that started on Monday which made updating a bit difficult. Work is very interesting, has good work-life balance and involves things I’m passionate about but since waking up as early as 6am has never my bright side, I just drop dead upon arrival at home ;3 The pics taken on this day didn’t come out as exactly as I had hoped for so that also took a while to fix-up. F*cking computer decided to crashed on me a couple of times so yeah :/ Should be able to get back to updating at least once a week once I’ve gotten used to the new working environment and receive my personal Macbook Pro from the boss. Heard it comes with a Lightroom 3 or 4 that I’ve been using on the other machine at work so editing will be super easy and fast compared to Picasa :3 Good practice to experiment with too maybe.

As I was saying, me and the usual doll group gathered at Hamamatsucho to shop and went down to the second floor to rent a display table. The doll you see on the first picture below belongs to Lastnostalgic-san (Saber Alter), Ento-san (Marisa), Baradanji-san (Saber Extra), Torte-san (Custom DDH06), Panda-san (Custom DDH01 with katana), Me (Sora, Aura and Xera), Yumemi-san (Custom DDH01 with pink dress, Custom Latooni with sword, Etheldreda), Arab-san (Sakuya) and Tehuo-san (Niimi Haruka). Couple other guys came in to our table with their daughters and turned out to be quite lively near the end^^; Anybody is welcome to join our table tho so if any of you happen to be attending these events, please feel free to drop by and give us a word :3

Xera’s Day Off セラの休日

Kinda felt like I’ve been neglecting Xera as of late – like not bringing her to the studio photoshoot, not making a post about her for over a month…etc – so figured it’s time I put the spotlight on her for a change and take her out. Looking at her wardrobes though, everything seemed a bit too stuffy and the weather we’re having here in Japan would likely give her a heat stoke if she went out ^^; Given that gothic lolita fashion or dress with good breathability are hard to come by, casual fashion seemed like a good option.  Haven’t been very partial to casual clothing due to my low coordination skills and the lack of decent clothing in the market but with some luck, I was able to come up with a new image for Xera after spending several tens of minuteｓ rummaging through clothes at the Akihabara Azone store.

Newly bought items were the  black punk-style skirt which was 2100 yen-ish and the white blouse (?) 1500 yen-ish. The hair bow, choker, thigh socks, and shoes are something from her previous dress and the red glasses and bag you’ve seen Sora use them a while ago. Took her to Volks Yokohama for a short photo session but before we move on, here’s a few photos of Xera’s new look (‘ω`)

（暫くセラに構ってあげられなかったので本ブログでは滅多に載せないカジュアル服を見繕ってみました～。服の殆どはアゾンで調達。それ以外の小物は過去服の流用です。折角だったのでついでにセラと一緒に横浜某でデートしてきました(‘ω`)ﾃﾞｭﾌﾌ）

その体は、きっと剣（とか）で出来ていた

So I recently found this shop in Akihabara called “Bukiya” that sells 1/3 sized swords and decided to let Sora play around with them a little. It’s only 1500 yen each and is considerately cheaper than the ones sold at doll events which, despite being almost identical, fetch up to 5000-7000 yen. Quality is pretty nice too since it has detailed engravings, doesn’t have that cheap plasticky look most has, comes with a sheath and fits DD hands perfectly. Well, maybe not too practical though because of its weight but nothing too major to keep me from buying 5 of them XD Was planning on buying more of them to replicate the situation I had in mind if only the store had more than 4 types in stock. These “Denix” sword series had lots of other variations like Excalibur so might look for them someplace else later on when I have more money. Btw, this “Bukiya” store itself is a quite an interesting place to visit if you’re a fan of 1/1 scale imitation sword (like me) and happen to be around Akihabara. Would love to start collecting them again and swing them like crazy in the backyard like I did back in the states when I was a wee lad. Good times…:3

（知人の勧めで秋葉原の「武器屋」という店でデミックス製1/3スケールの刀剣類を購入してきました。ディテールは細かくDD持ち手にはぴったり。値段もお手頃だったので某シーンを再現する為に数十本は欲しかったのですが5本くらいで自重しました・・・というかそんなに金ねぇw）

Group Doll Photoshoot @ Hotel Geihinkan (ホテル迎賓館)

Daughters were getting tired of having their pictures taken on my desk and so was I. Since outdoor wasn’t an option as Japan was in midst of rain season with serious mosquito infestation, an indoor photoshoot at a photo studio was exactly what me and my girls needed. When I heard that our small doll group was planning one to celebrate the coming of one of the member’s 1st daughter (Saber Alter) and saw the setup on the hotel’s homepage, there was simply no way I could miss this one out.

The Geihinkan Hotel has a couple of rental studios in their rooms and their price for a one night rent (20:00-10:00) fetches around 3-40000 yen. The studio/room we rented was a western style type that had two floors, 3-4 rooms, stair-case, chandeliers and also free lighting equipment/reflectors which I will touch up on later in the post. Wasn’t as expensive as we had 8 participants with over 20 dolls. Those participating were the usual Baradanji-san, Monokok-san, Arab-san, Yumemi-san, Last Nostalgic-san and some new faces such as Panda-damepo-san and Ento-san from twitter. This is probably my girl’s 2nd time at a photostudio but unlike last time it felt more “fun” orientated. Could be because of the rather eccentric members this time and also the fact that we were taking photos in the middle of the night XD Both were interesting to attend to nevertheless and there are always new things to learn :3 Not much Aura pics this time because she had her turn in the studio photoshoot last year and also because I forgot a couple of important accesories XP

（という訳で先週末は普段のメンツ＋新メンバー2人の計8人でスタジオ撮影してきました。集まったドール数は20超。壮観也）