This year, MomoCon, Atlanta’s annual celebration of gaming, comics, and anime, has a new partner on the docket. Wonder Festival, a renowned Japanese figure and modeling event, will hit the floor at the Georgia World Congress Center.
Sponsored by the Kaiyodo manufacturing company, Wonder Festival focuses on “garage kits,” or assembly-scale model kits, and collectible, handmade figurines. These figurines run the gamut of characters from anime, gaming, and more, and are ultra-detailed and unique, made by artists without the backing of mass production behind them.
“It’s very artisanal,” said MomoCon cofounder Jess Merriman. “They sell very few items at the show, because it’s just very difficult to make these … You don’t have a lot of facilities, like a big toy company would have.”
The scarcity and the handmade quality of the figures makes them a must see, said cofounder Chris Stuckey.
“There are a lot of people who are very talented at making these figures, and they do so in such a unique way that there’s just not really an equivalent elsewhere,” Stuckey said. “I think everybody that goes and checks it out will be surprised by what they see.”
Merriman and Stuckey both started out as members of Anime O-Tekku, the anime club at Georgia Tech. Out of that club came MomoCon, which now brings tens of thousands of people to Atlanta every Memorial Day weekend. Wonder Festival represents a leveling up, of sorts, for the convention – this is the first time the festival will venture into North America.
Stuckey said that MomoCon was introduced to the team at Wonder Festival through a mutual partner. In February of 2025, Merriman and Stuckey went to experience the festival for themselves. They loved what they saw, particularly the focus on community and craftsmanship. They spoke with representatives of Kaiyodo, and invited them to come out and see MomoCon that May.
“After they saw the event, they understood the similarities that we had between a lot of creator focus at our events, and a lot of community focus,” Stuckey said.
Merriman likened what they saw at Wonder Festival – rows and rows of creators, all with different styles and creative processes – to the Artist Alley at MomoCon. The Artist Alley is a place for artists to sell original, handmade products as opposed to licensed or mass-produced goods.
“It felt very much in the same vein as that for us,” Merriman said.
Stuckey said that Wonder Festival at MomoCon will feature 30 creators total, with four brought in from Kaiyodo. There will be an educational aspect to the setup, with panels and demonstrations to showcase the artists and their work.
“We really want to make sure that this feels like its own thing, but something that is very accessible for the MomoCon audience coming through to take a look at,” Stuckey said.
Merriman and Stuckey want to continue to feature Wonder Festival annually at the convention. MomoCon runs over Memorial Day weekend from May 21-24.
