On Aug. 9, 1998, The Summer 1998 Wonder Festival took place. As mentioned previously, GAINAX took part this time, in a revival of the days of General Products. What follows is the report of that event.

Modeling in Japan has seen a boom in figure models in the past several years, and Wonder Festival has been rapidly increasing in scope in response. Compared to this year's Winter Wonder Festival, held in February, the number of booths and attendees were both nearly double, with a liveliness the likes of which had never been seen before.

When the event hall opened at 10 AM, the crowds swept into the place, and before you know it, there was a line at the GAINAX booth. There were kits that had long been unavailable, and they sold like hotcakes. The staff were moved to tears by the sight of how much productions such as Nadia and Top o Nerae! were still loved, even after so many years.
Everything was gone by just after noon! Our thanks to everyone who made us such a success!


This is an exhibit of the garage kits which were on sale. The decision was made just prior to the event to have Nadia-related kits on sale too, making for a pretty wild lineup. The 1/5 Takaya Noriko High-Grade kits were particularly popular.

These are other General Products items which were not for sale. Older customers got nostalgic looking at them.


We not only had General Products garage kits, but also the latest GAINAX CD-ROMs for sale. The ones that really got people's attention were "Bukun", which was here for a special advance sale before its official Sept. 11 release, and a limited edition Evangelion Collector's Disc made specifically for this day.
Badges with character prints were also highly popular. Nearly all of them disappeared at once, and there was even a scene of trying to produce more at the back of the booth.

The CD-ROMs were also a hit.
There was a demo section, showing "Bukun" and the Otsuka Yasuo CD-ROM.

We had a cel exhibit too. Many people feasted their eyes on priceless cels from Eva, Nadia, Top o Nerae!, and The Royal Space Force.		 Here's a badge for "Yookai Kazoku" (Demon Family), illustrated by Morino Tatsuya. How sweet!

One other name that must not be forgotten when speaking of General Products and GAINAX is DAICON FILM. The whole story begins with DAICON III, the third Osaka SF Convention, in 1981.
At the booth, we screened the works of DAICON FILM on a big-screen TV, including the DAICON III and IV opening animation, Kaiketsu Nootenki, Aikokusentai Dai-Nippon, Yamata Orochi no Gyakushu, and one other feature which must remain nameless but which is renowned for Anno Hideaki's leading role.

There was an exhibit of items connected with DAICON FILM. Here, for example, are costumes used in Dai-Nippon.

Here are items from Yamata Orochi no Gyakushu, including the alien puppets.
The DAICON III and IV opening animation, Kaiketsu Nootenki, Aikokusentai Dai-Nippon, Yamata Orochi no Gyakushu, and other classic features were screened on a big-screen TV. There were easily 100 in front of it at any given time.

And thus ended the Summer 1998 Wonder Festival on a very high note. The staff got to feel the passions of garage kit fans for the first time in years, making for a very fulfilling time for all.

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