Anime Central 2012- Tiger and Bunny, Tokusatsu, Toys and More!

2012 marks the 15th anniversary for the Anime Central convention, which is the largest Japanese Animation convention in the Midwest. It is held in Hyatt Regency O’Hare, in Rosemont, IL.

As always there were plenty of vendors in the dealers room, but the one that semed to grab everybody’s attention was the Bluefin Tamashii Nations booth, which was surrounded by two rows of display cases filled with beautiful toys..

,At the entrance of the Bluefin boot was an impressive statue of the Unicorn Gundam in Destroy Mode

I told myself that I was not going to spend much money this year, but I ended up leaving with 4 S.H. Figuarts. I got Kamen Rider Fourze Elek States, Wild Tiger, Barnaby Brooks Jr. and Rock Bison. They had some good prices at the con, and I could not pass up on the instant gratification of taking these guys home with me. Expect reviews of these guys to pop up in between my Myth Cloth reviews.

As for cosplay, there were several costumes that stood out as great examples of workmanship and/or show accuracy.

Knute and Biareos from Appleseeed.

There were a few Power Ranger/Super Sentai costumes.

There was also a cool WonTiger/ Tigerzord costume.

There was also a few cool Halo Spartan Suits at the con. I am by no means a fan of Halo, but I can appreciate a well built armor.

There were two Blue Rose cosplayers at the con. This was definitely the best of the two. Although the costume was missing a couple of things, she did a great job with her costume and she fits the role of the character.

There was even a Dr. Who photo shoot, which I missed. But I did get a chance to snap a picture of what I though was a Dalek Drone prop. Turns out it was costume. There was actually a guy inside moving the drone.

There was only one Kamen Rider costume at the con, but the awesomeness of his costume more than made up for it. If am not mistaken, this is Kamen Rider Kiva Garulu Form.

I got chance to talk to the guy in the about where he purchased his helmet from. Turns out his whole suit was made by Aniki, the same guy that made my Shinken Red helmet. I shared my experience about the Shinken Red helmet not fitting. He said that he had the same issue. Fortunately for him,however, he was able to remove most of the padding in his helmet, making it wearable. No such luck for me.

One of the guests of honor, Yasuhiro Koshi, is a military consultant to many of the big Japanese films. He is in charge of training the actors and extras in films on the proper way of acting like soldiers. Koshi-san has worked on many Japanese films such as Godzilla Final Wars, Casshern, and Space Battleship Yamato.

He shared an interesting anecdote with group; he let us know that the filming of Godzilla Final Wars was a challenge because all of the guns in that movie were made of rubber, which caused them to bend. So Koshi had to teach the cast of the movie to act act as if they were shooting their guns without bending them. Another big project that he worked on was the Space Battleship Yamato movie.
Here he is demonstrated the salute used in the movie, which he came up with.

Working on the live action Yamato movie was a great honor for him because Yamato was his favorite Japanese Animation when he was younger.

Another one of the panels that I attended at the con was Tokusatsu panel called " Tokusatsu Tropes". The panel was meant for advanced Tokusatsu viewers to discuss some the staples of the genre. I was surprised to see the panel run by girls. I always imagine Tokuatsu to be a much more male oriented genre. That assumption, however, was confirmed by the makeup of those who attended the panel , which were pretty much all guys and two girls (one of which was my girlfriend who came to the panel with me).
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While it was neat to share a room with other Tokusatsu fans, it was also cool to see some of the Toku toys that the ladies running the panel brought in. I actually got to handle one of the Astro switches from Kamen Rider Fourze, It was just as I expected, very toy-like and meant for little kids.

All around ,it was a pretty fun couple of days taking in the Otaku culture. Though looking back, I spent more money than I should have ! Originally I was only going to get the Kamen Rider Fouze. But who can say no to some Tiger and Bunny S.H. Figuarts?