One of the oddities about TGS when compared to game shows elsewhere in the world is that TGS organisers allow, if not outright encourage, “booth babes.” Every single major booth at the show had brightly costumed men and women handing out promotional material, posing for photos, and otherwise being of assistance to passersby.
I’m not going to comment much on the practice. I know other game critics will (or already have), but I’m not a big fan on passing judgement as someone from the west on the cultural context that leads to something like “booth babes” at a gaming expo. What I will say is this: they liven up the place. They are part of the fun. The crowd themselves during the public days do exactly the same thing in dressing up as cosplayers and the like, so to me it rings very hollow for those conventions that encourage cosplayers then ban the exhibitors from hiring people to dress in costume.
But moving on from that, I took plenty of photos of the booth models and characters while I was at TGS, so over the next two days I’ll post up galleries of my favourites. Apologies for the slightly low quality of some of the photos: it was very dark in the halls, and there was a lot of inconvenient backlighting going on, so they’re not my finest work (not the fault of the camera, I promise!).
So, without further ado:
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| Zodiac. They wouldn’t let me take the statue of the flying thing as a souvenir. I am sad. |
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| In the romance/ dating game section, there was a line up for about 50 minutes for some dude to come down from a staircase and whisper sweet nothings in an attendees ear. No, I didn’t line up for 50 minutes for that. |
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| The Namco Bandai girls were kitted our like beer girls from the baseball. I think I’m quite in love with the one on the left. |
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| I just wasn’t sure how to point out to this lady that her fly was unzipped. |
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| Easily the sexiest model at the show. |
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| Not even sure who this model was meant to be, but it looked vocaloid enough I had to take a photo. |
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| The Japanese love alpacas for some reason. I’m still not sure why these two were even at the show. |
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| I bet you $10000000000000 when this dude came to Japan he didn’t figure he would be wandering around shirtless at a gaming convention. |
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| The quickest way to my heart is to have someone pose as an Atelier character. I do <3 you so very much, Koei Tecmo. |
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| No idea what this is, but the model perfectly suits the character on the sign, don’tya think? |
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| This girl’s job was to throw giant inflatable balls at people down a ramp, with the game being those who could stay standing would win. I… didn’t win. |
– Matt S.
Editor-in-Chief
Find me on Twitter: @digitallydownld
