Wonfes 2009 Winter Canceled
Kaiyodo have made an official statement on their official site stating that the 2009 Winter event due to be held in Feb will be canceled.
I've spoken to a few folks in the figure industry and it looks like somebody needs to be blamed for the escalator accident but nobody wants to take responsibility - kinda typical behavior of the local folks here.
So looks like we wont be seeing this lovely kit of Erika for a while - or could there be something else to replace Wonfes organized by a different body maybe?
Stay tuned for more...
The escalator accident below...
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Anime Store Owner, artist, Web master
http://www.chucksanimeshrine.com
wow that really sucks ;_;
Lost & Bewildered
I most emphatically aree with you
lolinapper
http://otakai.ipbfree.com/index.php?act=home
Damn effin faulty elevators! >=O
Pseudo-Graphic Designer, 触手 wrangler, H-Man
http://lightningsabre.blogspot.com/
Osaka: "Escalator? Elevator? Escalator? Elevator?"
I can't believe they cancelled it just because of that... Why don't they fix the problem instead of trying to find blame or responsibilities. Ridiculous.
NEET (no, student, AND employed min. wage)
http://otterhangar.blogspot.com/
human nature? Do you not see the exact same thing happening in every presidential election?
Pseudo-Graphic Designer, 触手 wrangler, H-Man
http://lightningsabre.blogspot.com/
Yeah... I see that a lot during the Prime Ministerial election too, like this year. That's why I voted for the guy who's not blaming anyone else right now XD
Jalop-er
So it's due to a social problem?
freelance
That really sucks hmm malfunction or other wise.
Policy & Research Officer
http://www.alafista.com/
Haha thanks for helping me remove my duplicate post. But yeah its a really sad thing to happen.
Lurker, and part time super-villian.
http://burfordus.wordpress.com
What if I took the blame? Cant have Wonfes cancellations!
Video Reviewer of Anime Figures, Mecha and Merch (youtube.com/user/Actar576295)
http://actar.wordpress.com
Yaaaaaaaaaadaaa!!!! This is indeed sad...
Programmer Trainee
http://jointsareokay.blogspot.com
I've seen that before.
But I don't understand what's the big deal.
Can someone explain please?
Student
Its a pity for people that wanted to go
I mean some people already paid their tickets to go to Japan that season
Not me luckily
I Will go to the Summer edition next year
Also to Comiket
(hope it is in the end of August)
does anybody know the date that it is being held?
student / NEET
lynch them!
Escalator of doom! Sucks the event was cancelled though.
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/
Too bad, but am glad I was not planning on being in Japan during Feb, otherwise I'd be very disappointed ^^
Your (un)usual student
What happened on the escalator anyway???It's not that clear there,don't tell me that it's rail were broken and thus it's falling backwards???Since i'm sure to see 2 lanes of people going down(right n left)
Producer
Too many people were on the escalator. The weight exceeded the safety brake limit. It slid downwards causing a crush to the people at the bottom end.
This kind of too many people crush can be very dangerous if panic breaks out. Many have been killed by suffocation at football stadiums, the Hajj and other places.
It could easily be fixed in Japan by employing a man to prevent too many people going on the elevator.
My suspicions about the cancellation is more in line with the global meltdown in terms of economic upheaval. Going at the rate it is going, will there even be companies producing figures anymore?
Pre-Press Technician
These kinds of things have happened before and will probably happen again. The world isn't going to end ^_^
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aseps/
yeah, the world is very collapsed these days... is that a bad news...
no more figures?! OMG!!(T.T )( T.T)
student
http://zephi-san.deviantart.com/
I've been watching the economy a lot lately..Plus with all the news on TV and internet, I will have to agree with you there. Just hope that the economy doesn't end up in a recession or even worse, depression... At the rate it's going, it could happen.
Free Thinker
It's difficult to tell which industries will suffer the most. When people have less wealth to spend, what do they choose to spend it on? In the case of typical figurine customers (which I guess this website typically represents), we will have to survey them. Maybe Danny's next poll could pose this question to all visitors. There are many types of figure buyers. Some buy a few or one expensive item infrequently, others buy many items that are less expensive regularly. And others are a mix of the previous two. Spending on entertainment can fall in a depression, however some forms do increase. How about you Shades of Mundane, will your spending habits change?
figs seller , photographer
http://exelica-meteor.com/
Really bad news :(
software manager
http://wawawawasuremono.com
nooooooo that's when i was planning a trip ;_; どうしてこんなことに？！ orz
http://tenori-taiga.blogspot.com/
that was an unfortunate accident but canceling the event is sad news
A Real RocknRolla
the worst part is that instead of the people watching the thing go and help the people who where injured they were all going for their stuff to steal... Japan is the last place i would think that this sorts of things happen...guess we aren't all that different from the Japanese that they so much claim.
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/
Where did you see that? The YouTube vid, being Youtube, is very crappy quality, so it is hard to see anything clearly. Pretty sure nothing like that was reported anywhere, at least. Japan *is* actually a much safer place than virtually all western 1st countries.
hai....that is sad news, hope there are changes made soon.
Art Student
http://roxyssketches.blogspot.com/
seriously!? This is terrible news! How are we going to know about all the upcoming figures ahead of time now T^T
Also, the accident was an accident cause by overzealous event goers, how is it a particular company's fault???
mahou kishi
http://www.animedia.com.mx
the only ones who have the fault are the owners of the building, because it was something in the building that did the failure
http://tenori-taiga.blogspot.com/
well, normally they have staff directing traffic at big events so it is possible that someone broke the rules and let too many people on the escalator?
well now that just sucks....
Student
They will cancel the show because an accident what happened on the last show? Strange...
http://animaticfigmation.com/
how lame... has it been canceled ever before?
Loli Hunter
i'm actually happy because they cancel the event
with this we will not know what figure will appear
Service desk support
http://lookingglass.kokidokom.net
Aw Sh*t...
guess the vendors will have to rely on other smaller shows, but what is there for resin kit builders to sell their wares now that WHF is no more?
the 2 biggest events aren't happening this winter. That really really sucks. PVC figures are fine since they have other smaller events but what bout the rest of us?
Student, Otaku, She-Geek(Sheek lol)
http://meimi132.wordpress.com/
That sucks.... like mega sucks.... I can't believe they cancelled it...
Student
Why don't they just shut the escalator OFF, use it as a stair, the flow will be more controllable then...too bad they had to cancel something due to something like an escalator accident, which can be prevented with proper measures...
university film student | ecchikid | the Archivist
http://www.vimeo.com/longhim
Wow. Never thought it was that big of a deal when we saw it last. Can't really fault people for not wanting to take the blame though.
Informatics(ComSci-ish) student/self-taught graphic designer and illustrator
http://picchar.cerestia.net
Can't understand Japanese but I hope no one was seriously injured >.>
Dirty Gentleman
http://cantstanzya.wordpress.com/
What a logical fallacy. Wonderfest is done in by an escalator. I never realized displaying anime figures and items had a correlation with escalator malfunction. Someone must be arguing the Chewbacca defence: "Chewbacca lived on the planet Endor... that does not make sense" -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjtGFg7gHho
IT-Architect, SysAdmin, WebDesign and Coding, Virtualization (VMware + NetApp)
http://www.milkdrop.de/
I agree FatB.
It's just ridiclous to blame the event being held at the moment to be at fault for a malfunctioning device which is owned by the location and not the event.
I can understand that no one of the event organizers want's to take the blame because it's just stupid... the people of BigSight should take it, if at all... it can always happen that machines go poofz. -_-; (specialy if you consider the load that thing has to handle on those events)
And now they go and just cancel it instead... so... the fans get the hammer in the end, great. oO;;
BioResearch Assistant
True. It seems very unreasonable especially given the time-frame. February is 4mos away and they cancelled it now due to a past safety issue that could be easily remedied. This event is a major advertising point for many companies. I doubt they would toss it aside this easily.
There's some underlying crisis to all this.
The Sword of Magus
http://daichouginga.blogspot.com/
I agree with you all. I can't even find a logical relationship between an escalator malfunction and a figure convention. Maybe they want to blame the malfunction to the committee for letting so many people in an escalator, maybe that's how their logic works. But I think it doesn't still makes sense because remedy could work within 4 months.
part time illustrationist, doll clothing seamstress
http://puppy52art.com/
So sad :( but I have to agree about the particular mentality ^^; encountered something like that on other event before :P
Dropping computers, starting all over again at Journalism
http://xspblog.com
:( I was looking forward to see the coverage of it...
I doubt it was only because of the escalator problems. This is easily solved with some safety precautions.
I bet there are lots of other reasons, or at least one other very big reason for it not to happen...
Student
http://anime.scripts.mit.edu/miteiru/
They didn't even have reasoning behind it... :/ Geez and it's not like everyone died from it.. honestly i think there's hidden reasoning behind it that they don't want to reveal.
Programmer/IT/Student
http://wickedotaku.blogspot.com/
Really they should just fix the problem and get on with Wonfes, whether someone claims responsibility or not shouldn't matter. Now that they know what can happen, they should take precautions to prevent it. Remember "hindsight is 20/20." Besides, whoever was in charge of controlling the flow of people is at fault. If they really need someone to claim responsibility, why don't they find that guy? If there was no one hired to control the flow of people, then whoever organized the event is at fault for not hiring that person. Simple. They should simply find the person and charge them a fine.
Otaku/Student/Worker
yes i blame the people it was overloaded. Common sense people! they should have seen this coming.
http://yuuwaku.wordpress.com
Balls -_-
Worker
http://wbd.deviantart.com/
That's a real shame, not just for the interested fans, but for all those sculptors and garage-kit makers. A lot of up-and-coming talent is going to be hurt by this.
Blackjack dealler & Anime Otaku
http://bakaitsanime.com
well now that just sucks!! O_0;
Especially since I now what this Erika figure really really really bad. Darn those responsible for breaking things and not coming forward!!!!
http://thetruemelody.wordpress.com/
D:
I remember at Comiket last August they had somebody at the escalators making sure people only went on ever other step, and made sure that we didn't move while on the escalators. Why don't they just do something similar?
Student Otaku (ITM Student) and ACG NA Staff
http://koiaichaku.com/
Ah, I wanted to go to Wonderfest...
I wonder whould they have it in the summer of 2009...
It would suck if wonderfest stopped completely due to the accident...
???Confused???
Yeah, that really bites...too bad they couldn't find another venue for it...
Engineer
Pretty bad accident. Sorry for those who got injured.
Eternal Dreamer
It's an absolute outrage to cancel Wonfes Winter 2009!
I expect someone to take responsibility for this!
University's Slave
They didn't have anyone regulating the number of people on the escalator? I would have thought the organizers of WonFes would be held responsible for that. . . Now I know the benefit of having people check badges before attendees go into the vendor hall at AX. Not only does it make sure that they paid to get in, but it also slows the crowd down just enough to prevent stuff like that!
But seriously, canceling it? That seems a little extreme to me. I hope something else gets organized; the lack of such a high profile exhibition is going to hurt manufacturers and hobbyists alike.
University Student
http://plurk.com/Fuyumachi/invite
Prepare for surprise attacks! Now that we haven't seen any prototypes..
Hikikomori in the making
http://supermariabros.deviantart.com/
I knew it, life's not fair! hope they get a new place to hold the event or something...
24/7 Otaku / 100% Haruhiist
http://www.zeroaquaduct.com
Oh, damn it. I was thinking about visiting Japan for the first time and going to Wonfes. I guess I'll have to delay it. But this is weird -- it's a faulty escalator and craps happens.
All you need is to have staff funneling people through the escalator next time so the weight isn't too heavy. Sorta like what stores do during Boxing Day to prevent too many people being in the store at the same time.
Graphic Design student | Receptionist | Otaku
http://sukidesho.blogspot.com/
Ouchies, that's not nice at all...
Student & Otaku
I'm sorry, so what happened to the escalator? It seems that it failed and just under the weight of everyone decided to go really fast as people crowded it and couldn't get off in time. Is that what happened?
Either way, that sucks. People will be expecting the Wonfes but man... what a way to go. It's too bad they can't fix it or anything
Glaring at you *_*
lol now thats a scene u dont normally see...next time im guessing alot of those ppl will learn not to crowd an escalator even if it was faulty supposedly =.=