This was the first time that I went to the Asian Fantasy Film Expo held in Saddlebrook, New Jersey. It was an experience that was worth the 11 hour drive that my brother and I had from Ohio. Upon arriving on Friday afternoon we met up with a lot of our friends that we had met at conventions past. I even met quite a few people who I had not seen before. It was not hard for anyone to find a fellow fanatic to chat with, even though it was a good four hours before the convention started. I joined others in setting up for the convention and had a good time right from the beginning. If anything, that was what made this trip fun, getting to just hang out with our friends.
The guests were fun to watch and all gave great presentations. Shinichi Wakasa gave a great show on suit building with a lot of great slides. Nobuhiro Arai also gave out a lot of great info on previous and upcoming Bandai products. It was great to here about the plans for upcoming figures that will be released to coincide with GMK. I personally am excited that they are returning to the 8-inch scale. He also got my hopes up after I asked him if they would ever make a figure of Ichiro from Godzilla's Revenge and he said it had already been done. Unfortunately he was just talking about the baseball player. Oh well, I'll continue to wait and hope. I also really enjoyed watching Bob Eggleton work on and talk about his wonderful works of kaiju art. I stopped in every once in a while and watched him progress through an awesome drawing of Gamera '96.
The model contest at AFFE was very well done. There wasn't a huge turnout of kits, but there were certainly some awesome pieces present. Robert Troch's Godzilla vs. Gamera, with the burning Godzilla lighted from the outside was an awesome sight with the lights turned down. Seeing the replica of the Gamera 3 suit's head was great too. It looked very detailed and I think would look better mounted on the wall of my room. If you wanted to find out how to build a Godzilla model, whether resin or vinyl, this was the place to be. There were plenty of display pieces and an ongoing model building presentation that was very well done and informative.
I did sneak into the film room every once in while to see what was showing. There was a good variety, with plenty of stuff for both Ultraman and Godzilla fans alike. I watched the first episode of Ultraman, staring the transformed Godzilla suit in the form of Gomess. A good presentation, considering the event exclusive Bandai's for sale downstairs. Speaking of which, these two toys looked pretty cool. My personal favorite between them (and I think most people would agree with me) was Gomess. The toy already looked great and the clear smoke color only made it that much cooler. There was also a showing of Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II, which I did not go to. I heard it was fun, although it seems that the theater was more like a sauna, since the air conditioning was non-existent.
Personally, the best part of the whole show for me was hanging out in the dealer's room. It was pretty big and had a great variety of Godzilla and related merchandise for sale. I perused the isles several times and saw a lot of stuff that I'd love to have. All of the dealers were easy to hang out with and get to know. And they had a lot of great deals on the stuff they were selling. Heck, I even got to play dealer for a while when Greg left his table (which happened quite often).
All in all, I had a great time, and it was worth the trip. I think that as things progress AFFE will get bigger and better. Let's hope that Jim and all the great people that put this show on can find the inspiration to keep it going. I for one am looking forward to an AFFE 3.
P.S. The real excitement was after the show when Gojigirl layed the smack down on both Greg and Dutch. It was a priceless moment that I wish I had on tape. But if you want the whole story, you'll have to ask them about it.
Model contest entrees by John Parkinson.
