Model mania sweeps wonderland
Thousands of fans head to festival to indulge their passion for figurines from the worlds of manga, movies, games, comics and novels, Wang Xin reports in Shanghai.
While millions of people traveled to tourist spots across the world over the recent National Day holiday, thousands of model figure enthusiasts flooded into Shanghai for a shared passion.
The Shanghai Wonder Festival 2025, one of the world's largest exhibitions of garage kit figures, was their destination. Garage kit figures refer to model figures portraying humans, fictional characters or creatures, and are especially popular among ACGN (animation, comics, games and novels) fans worldwide.
The Wonder Festival began as a biannual event in Japan in 1984 to celebrate the world of figures and model kits. It is often regarded as a paradise for collectors and hobbyists, as well as fans of animation, manga, video games and movies. Extending its footprint to China in 2018, the festival entered into partnership with the popular Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili to organize the annual Shanghai Wonder Festival.
Held in the city from Oct 2 to 3, this year's event attracted over 400 business exhibitors and more than 2,000 individual creators globally, showcasing over 100,000 exhibits and drawing in excess of 120,000 visitors over the two days.
