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Show & Tell: Wonder Hobby 13 Photo Contest Memorial Book

So, almost a month has past since the second anniversary post, and Hobby Hovel still hasn’t resumed regular operations. By this time you’re probably driving in the last nails into our coffin, but I beseech you, be not so hasty with thy mallet — for here comes a filler post!

For those of you who don’t know, the fifth Wonder Hobby photo contest invited figure collectors worldwide to submit their photos to have a shot at internet glory (as well as a bunch of nifty prizes). It garnered 1,598 entries, 322 of which belonging to foreign contestants. The winners of the contest were announced at the winter Wonder Festival 2011 over a live webcast. All the participants were given a commemorative Nendoroid display stand, and the top 200 contestants were given photo books featuring their work.  I was fortunate enough to place within the top 200, and I was really excited when I first heard the news. Sadly, I didn’t win any other prizes asides from the photo book and the nendoroid stand, but I gotta say that having this tangible commemoration of my little achievement isn’t shabby at all.

I’ve been meaning to share this thing since way back in April, but after having coerced my friend into de-binding and scanning it for me, I realized that not all scanners are created equal, as the quality from his humble desktop all-in-one left much to be desired. Fast forward six months, and I find myself surrounded by expensive printing and scanning equipment at work — what better way to spend a lunch break?

…But first and foremost, allow me to show you the BEST page in the entire book. Beautiful, ain’t it? I wonder how many people actually followed the URL I placed in the notes.

On the left side we have the winners for the grand prize, gold prize and silver prize. The prizes were a MacBook Air, PS3 + BRS OVA bundle and a Nerf machine gun, respectively…yeah, the silver prize winner kinda got the short end of the stick, which is a shame because I really liked that photo. On the right side we have two special category winners. The top photo is the winner of the Good Smile Company prize,  and the bottom the personal pick of Max Watanabe, the boss-man of Max Factory. That photo was shot by none other than Zai from Plastic Parfait, who received a big box of figures (and a scarf!) for her troubles!

 

Here’s the pick of Masaki Apsy, as well as the picks from Type-Moon. Who from Type-Moon picked these photos? Beats me!

Of course, being the conductor to the GSC bloc’s recent gravy train, Huke also served as a judge in the contest. However, unlike the Type-Moon judges, he did not exclusively choose photos which feature his characters — and trust me, there is an overwhelming number of BRS figures in this competition. On the right side we have some people who won a figma Max Watanabe (thank you Luth for the correction!).

…And here’s more people who won Max figmas! These are either runner-up picks or the winner of the internet vote. So yeah, if you know Japanese and can read some of these category names, I’d be super-grateful if you could drop me a few clues in the comments (many thanks to Luth for filling me in on many of these categories)! The page on the right shows off the gallery of these top 200 photos at WonFes 13, as well as the winner picked by the attendees.

I won’t go over all the pages one by one, but here are a couple featuring the handiwork of two friends. On the left side you’ll find Miette-chan‘s photo of the GSC 1/8 Misaka Mikoto, while Luth‘s photo of the animation version of Black Rock Shooter is on display on the right.

As you can probably tell by this point, there was a fuckload of nendoroid photos in the top 200, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, as nendoroids are both popular and incredibly photogenic. While I personally prefer scaled figures, the creative possibilities with nendoroids and figmas are simply far greater. And besides, nendoroids are so cute that making funny photos with them is a breeze. Hmmm, maybe I should dust off that Nendoroid Saber Lion and do something with it after all…

Here are the scans of all the pages for your viewing pleasure. If you have better things to do than wait for these images to load one by one, you can download a compressed archive of these scans here. Feel free to spread the love and have this contest be known! …Actually, that would mean there would be more competition next time, wouldn’t it? Okay, scratch that — enjoy these scans as privately as humanly possible. SPEAK NOT A WORD OF IT TO ANYONE.

Jokes aside, I’m not even sure if I’ll have anything to submit for the next contest. I guess I’ll go with one of the shots in the outdoor World is Mine Miku set, but I’m not terribly confident with those. I actually haven’t bought anything new from the GSC bloc in the past year at all. I was supposed to get the Nendoroid Cirino, but then I ran out of money. There was also the figma Michael Jackson, but the five-month delay gave me plenty of time to reconsider. But hey, as long as there’s a participation prize, I’m sure I can figure something out.

Hope to see you in the next contest! =)

22 replies on “Show & Tell: Wonder Hobby 13 Photo Contest Memorial Book”

Oh god, I remember being all excited about this contest once I found out I was in the top 200. Alas, I did not win anything and ended just like you. It is cool though that people I know such as Zai won stuff, it’s like hey, I know someone famous.

I was a little disappointed at my picture in the book though, how dares GSC block a part of my photo XP. You know, I should have added my blog address in the comments, didn’t occur to me until exilehero pointed out. I wonder if anyone would have gone to it too.

Although the most surreal experience was when a Japanese acquaintance send me a tweet with a picture… of my picture…  from the actual Wonfes. Good memories, I look forward to whenever GSC does another one of these.

Now then… I wonder where I left my copy of the book…

Oooo! Do you have the link to that tweet? I don’t think I’ve seen the top 200 display at WonFes before. But yeah, the thought of my photo displayed at WonFes was pretty gratifying for me as well. I also really like how it riled up the community as a whole. It was cool to see other bloggers posting about the contest. The enthusiasm was contagious, and it really did feel like a part of something larger — it was like POTD on crack!

Come to think of it, when did GSC start to accept entries last year? Wasn’t it around this time? I still haven’t heard anything about it. Hopefully the details will be announced soon, because I’m getting a bit restless. =/

Good to see you’re getting good at your job heh.

I remember hearing about this contest way back before I started with this figure business. Miette said he was a finalist or something and that I should vote for him. I responded with something like “I can’t just vote for you it would be unfair for the other participants.” Then I was told that you got 5 votes and I was ok with it. I do remember voting for that Miku in the grass.

I didn’t know you were in it too Chag, or other bloggers I know for that matter. I think it’s for the best, I would be at such a conflict of interests! It would be unfair to the other photos, I must be impartial!

Feeding paper into a machine is a VERY technical job! In these past 3 months I have mastered what takes normal people GENERATIONS to learn! Yep, I sure am amazing.

Screw impartiality, you must support your allies in times of need! Personally, I just like bettering the chances of my friends, because if they win, then I’d also feel pretty happy by association. And besides, all the major categories (i.e. the ones that actually matter) are picked by judges, so voting your fellow bloggers isn’t really compromising the competition. tl;dr VOTE FOR ME, I DEMAND IT =P

Man, it seems like pretty much everyone else did better than me, as I merely got to be buried in the “here’s all the other entries” piles.  But then, I suck at photography.

I wonder if there even will be another contest, they didn’t do one for the Summer Wonderfest.  Unless they only do it once a year at the Winter one.  I think I have a few more pictures now that might do well, especially since apparently photoshopping is okay.

Daww, well, if it makes you feel any better, I had a very fun time playing where’s Waldo when looking for your photo in that gigantic spread behind the front and back covers.=P

I would assume that the contest is annual, though I haven’t actually looked up the dates for the previous competition. In any case, you have a foolproof way to assure victory this year — just take that CAT picture and chance some instances of CAT to “NEKO” — the Japs love cats, after all!

It only took me like five minutes to find my picture.  I spend a lot of time staring at aerial photography trying to figure out what things are, for work and for fun.  I should ask the NSA for a job.

Cat + Nendo certainly is an exploitable avenue.  Though I’d need to re-take the picture so I could release it as “Kuroneko cat CATCATCAT HD Special Edition JP Velsion”!

Man, looking at these photos make me wanna kill myself for having a shitload of figures just sitting there in their respective boxes (yeah, I don’t even have a cabinet for them). But then, I don’t know jack about photography, and I don’t have a decent camera, either…

Anyway, I think you should submit your Sabre summer shot for the next contest, man. If it wasn’t for the fact that the shot was in portrait orientation, I’d already have made it my permanent desktop wallpaper =)

Hey, don’t go off thinking that just because you can’t make good photos if you aren’t a photography expert with an expensive camera. Ashlotte shot with a simple point-and shoot for the longest time — in fact, all the reviews he did prior to the Griffon Yukari review were done with that camera. I think a cheap camera narrows your creative options somewhat, but there are plenty of ways go circumvent those limitations. As for photography knowledge… well, I’d like to think of it as an extended practice of trial-and-error. =)

Dawww, thanks! I’m pretty happy with that Saber shot as well, but I can’t submit it since it’s not made by GSC or any of its affiliates =(. If only Alter had a similar contest~

I didn’t participate, because I’ve missed the deadline, the limitation of GSC made products sucked as well XD
But I liked to look at all these submissions fron other people, I liked quite a number of Nendoroid related pictures.

Next time I will take part in it and win a prize ^^

Thanks for the shout out! But damn, I’m kinda regretting not putting comments in our entries, especially Zai’s. That photobook is so awesome, I kinda wish it was hardcover like the year befores but its the content that counts.

I believe the photo above Zai’s is the GoodSmile Company’s pick, I’m guessing by Aki Takanori himself and probably won a bunch of Nendos and GoodSmile figures. I’m curious to see what the runner-ups won, somehow I thought they got Max Watanabe figmas http://myfigurecollection.net/item/6444 but Black Rock Shooter figmas sounds more likely. I believe there was a prize given to Masaki Apsy’s pick, that might be the Index one?

Anyways, you don’t need new GSC figures to take awesome pics for the next contest, you can still use old ones! Like your WiM Miku, Rin and Len, or even good ol Rize. 322 foreign contestants is quite a lot, but there needs to be more!

Hehe, I definitely remember being a little buttsore over the fact that it wasn’t hardcover, but I think it’s more than justifiable, given that they sent Nendo stands to everyone. Not that I have a use for Nendo stands. >_>

Whoa, you’re right about the prize for the runner-ups. I think I just assumed that it was Black Rock Shooter when I saw the long-ass name! Well, that certainly is a more interesting prize. I have a feeling it would pair with the Revoltech Woody or figma Billy very, very well ;D. Anyhow, many many many thanks for filling me in on all that delicious info, Luth! =D

Yeah, I’ve been thinking of doing some more shots with the Kagamine twins, since they are my favourite figures. I rather like the photo I took for the blog header, but I doubt a shot like that would be what a contest like this is
looking for. I’ll try to think of a stage effect that I create on the cheap. I’m also thinking of using confetti, but I’m not sure if I can manage that without using my dad’s flash. Decisions decisions!

I remember this contest, I wanted to participate as well but then completely forgot about the deadline. Congrats on actually making it into the top 200. A stand and photo book are better than nothing.

Hopefully I can remember to take some pics for the next contest.

Wow, out of 1,598 entries, you manage to have a spot on the top 200? awesome!
It must feels really good to know that your photo is being appreciated in such way 😀 Are those Photobook available exclusively for the contestant or is it being sold to the public?

Look how late I am! And I even got a shout out, shame on me!

I agree with you on the best page. It’s because my photo is on there twice, right? 😀
I love that I can recognize the photographs of quite a few people in there. I was surprised by how big the book actually was, I expected some tiny little thing for some reason.

Are GSC ever gonna have another one of these things?

Bleh, it’s the end of December and I still haven’t heard anything about it. I hope they’re just dragging their feet instead of actually giving up on the contest. Wasn’t there some plagiarism drama in the last contest? I hope that doesn’t have anything to do with this!

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