Tokyo Figure Show

Sorry to have kept you waiting - announcing the details of my first figure show - the Tokyo Figure Show. Details below copy pasted from the official site.

Why

I've been collecting and writing about figures at dannychoo.com for quite a few years now and through working closely with the figure makers, I can appreciate the effort, skills and know-how that goes into creating them.
Through dannychoo.com, I've been able to bring the world of figures to those who did not know about the existence of them and wish for more folks to learn about and appreciate the artwork of figures.

Through the Tokyo Figure Show, I hope to expose the artwork of figures to a wider audience which is why we have chosen to work with GLACEAU popup & GLACEAU gallery to share this fascinating world with a completely different demographic in the heart of Harajuku.
But of course our regular figure admirers should come along to the show too ^^

What

The Tokyo Figure Show will showcase figures by Good Smile Company which will include the first public showing of the decoration master figma Mirai Suenaga - the mascot character for dannychoo.com. The latest progress can be seen here.

Included in the showcase will be Black Rock Shooter, Saber, Nendoroids, Figmas, scale figures and more.

Where

The Tokyo Figure Show will be held at the H&M building in Harajuku from the 4th until the 9th of August every day between 13:00 and 18:00.
Go up to the 8th and 9th floor to the GLACEAU popup & GLACEAU gallery where you can pick up some free vitamin water at the same time.
Admission is free and you get free drinks too! ^^; No need for reservations and no tickets involved - just show up.
Address: 1-8-10 Jingumae Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan 150-0001 ( Google Maps )

Who

Klein Dytham architecture - Tokyo based architects and founders of PechaKucha Night are managing the interior design while Good Smile Company is managing the figure display areas. You can also read up on me in my profile ^^

The gallery is being curated by Maru Gallery who have coordinated other exhibits at the GLACEAU popup & GLACEAU gallery until the 25th of August.

So now you have the background, lets look at part 1 of "the making of" the Tokyo Figure Show. Part 2 will be photos taken on Monday 3rd August where we will spend the whole day setting up the displays.
First up are a few meetings at the offices of Klein Dytham architecture who done the interior design of the venue.

Klein Dytham architecture is run by Astrid Klein and fellow Brit Mark Dytham who have handled design globally including Selfridges in London. They were also in the 3 sets of Nikon commercials that I was in.

Looks like we've been able to convert more folks at Good Smile into Mac users - Akiyama whips out his MBP and iPhone - before he was a Vaio user ^^;

Many stakeholders and artists are involved in this project.

The proposed layout of the 8th floor.

Then its off to check out the venue with the boss of Good Smile Company Aki-san and Akiyama-san.

A most excellent location to bring the world of figures to a completely new audience. Harajuku is dominated by a predominantly young female audience and one can see many couples together on the weekends. Will go strong on the Nendoroids and tailor the items on display to fit the crowd.

If you are in Tokyo between the 4th and 9th of August then do drop by Harajuku to see us. Harajuku is also a great place to do a load of apparel shopping, eat great food and they also have one of the biggest toy stores in Tokyo here - Kiddy Land.

If you come on a Sunday then you will also see many Goth Loli girls near the station.

The H&M building in Harajuku Meiji road. Get off at Meiji Jingu Mae station and ask anybody for directions. You can also get off at JR Harajuku on the Yamanote line. The Volks Dollfie store Tenshi no Sumika is also located in Harajuku.

Next door to H&M is the Forever 21 store which nearly always has queues of young females outside in the day.

Folks attending the Wonfes this Sunday may still like to come down as there could be more unannounced stuff other than just the Figma Mirai that goes on display ^^;

This is what the 8th floor looked like a few weeks ago before any of the interior was done. In Japan, when you move out of a place, you have to take *everything* with you and leave it bare just as it was when you arrived. This is the same for shops and apartments.

As you can imagine, it costs millions of yen to do up a place and also costs millions of yen to strip everything down. For this reason, shops who go out of business can sell their entire shop as-is on auction sites like Sono Mama (meaning "as-is" or "just as it is"). This means they don't need to pay to get rid of everything.

The view of Harajuku from the 8th floor. On the night of the 4th will be an invite only party for folks in the figure, anime, game and entertainment industry to network and celebrate the launch of the Tokyo Figure Show.
Folks on the CGM Night mailing list will be given priority to get in.

The spiral stairs wobble as you walk up or down ^^;
There are no press invites - during the event period, anybody can come along and take photos of anything they want.

Up on the 9th floor where the main gallery will be.

A look at the display for the first week of the gallery by Akagi Shigure-san.

Akagi-sans work involves 1/1 scale dolls and doll parts with a fusion of other objects.

Wonder if anybody has done this to their Dollfie daughter.

Some more of Akagi-sans work.

Our Good Smile related items wont be displayed as "Products" but as "works of art" which the gallery is all about. For the 4th through to the 9th, there will only be Good Smile related items on display.

Zooming forward in time to yesterday afternoon. When you arrive at the H&M building, you wont see anything to do with the Tokyo Figure Show at the bottom. Look for the GLACEAU popup sign and let one of the staff guide you to the elevator which will take you to the 9th floor.

H&M Building by day.

Depending on the time of day, there maybe a little wait to get upstairs.

On the 9th floor with Akiyama-san and the rest of the folks involved with this project - the printout shows the main display at the figure show.

This is actually a clone of Akiyama-san. His other clone is working on the Wonder Festival.

And this is the 8th floor all done up. You will first arrive on the 9th floor to go through the gallery. Then you can come down to the 8th floor to get some free vitamin water and look at more figures on display.

We plan to have figure displays on the black boxes dotted throughout the 8th floor.

Many flavors of GLACEU vitamin water to be had. Not sure how many you can have for free though.

Some game going on here but not sure what.

Probably going to have some posters up here too.

The stage area was originally going to have some live sculpting but instead I'm going to dance there. Not.

Instead we are going to have more figures on display.

Mark, GSC and the rest of the team. And yes I do wash that Firefox T-shirt (I have many ^^;)

Am just soooo excited!

And when you get bored you can always go and look at the people queuing up outside Forever 21.

The main crossing at Harajuku. Follow the orange taxi that you see in the middle of the pic and you will see Kiddy Land on the right.

My gallery finishes on the 9th but the gallery will feature other artists until the 25th of August.

And the official site for the Tokyo Figure Show will live at Figure.fm using the co-branded feature. If you are interested in a co-branded project with figure.fm then contact me through my profile page.

As for pre-orders for figma Mirai - to be announced before the Anime Festival Asia ^o^