quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
well there is some great guests there so i understand that. I must get to see your purchases before you leave the show.

You might want to see the three Merlin knights as they are offering signed photos at Wolfie prices .

quote:

Originally posted by Triple-Frog:

You might want to see the three Merlin knights as they are offering signed photos at Wolfie prices .

Three nights for the price of none, sounds like the Travelodge.

I don't watch Merlin so have no idea who they are but i do like their prices.

Sam Fox is charging the most for an autograph, what is the world coming to.?

Just about to set off for Memorabilia. Anyone going to the Show, see you there.

For me this was a very different Memorabilia than the past few.Normally I would spend very little time in autograph lines and most of my time at dealers tables.This time wa exactly the opposite.

I got in a bit late at 09.30 and joined the line for the three Merlin knights which was already quite long.I got my three free autos at 11.05.At that time the line behind me was probably three times the length when I joined .

I then went straight to the Primeval line and after another 45 minutes of waiting got those signatures.By now at 12.00 the only other auto I wanted was Jaime Murray and she was on a photo session due back at 12.30.

I went to check on where she was signing and it was lucky I did as ther was already a line formed for when she returned,growing every minute .There was the distinct possibility that if I had left to look at the dealers and come back at 12.30 that I would not have got her auto before the show closed for the day at 17.00 so I joined the queue and got her signature an hour later.

I ploughed my way through the very congested aisles and met Jason from Unstoppable Cards at Jason from Cult Stuff's stand only a little late at 13.10.Talked for a few minutes about Blakes 7 and picked up some cards from him and a few promos from Mrs Cult Stuff.

And that was it!I had a quick wander round the tables in the Memorabilia part of the Hall where it was much quieter,dropped off some cards with Wolfie and then went home as all that standing around had quite worn me out.I must be getting old .

Spent a lot less than in November because of the time spent in the auto lines and also because Bettie Page 2 had not arrived in the UK yet and Art of Burlesque is not quite ready.Jason did have some superb sketches from the set on display that will all be going into the boxes.

The Comic Expo part of the show was the busiest I have seen in years and several walkways were gridlocked with nobody able to move!

Thanks for the report Triple-Frog. I always feel like I'm missing things for the Spring show so I really enjoy reading the reports. Would have enjoyed getting some of those Primeval autographs if I was there too. I like that show.

I went along on Saturday too and took the wife (which stopped me spending too much), mainly to get a Dexter Auto of Jamie Murray - and I did, She is absolutely lovely, I also purchased an Auto from Gary Dourdan who was very nice as well. I did look at the line for Merlin at 9.30 but couldn't be bothered to queue up, back at 12ish and the line was closed. The afternoon session started at 2.30pm and the queue was huge at 2.00pm so I didn't bother.

Had a look at the dealers tables but there was nothing new to interest me - I think Novemeber will be the expensive one for me. Saw Jason, Mrs Cult-Stuff and Carolyn Edwards(I did commission a quick sketch from her) at the Cult-Stuff stall, some GREAT sketches for War of the Worlds and the Burlesque sets. I also saw Paul at Umbrella Cards and treksercher!

As Triple-Frog said the Comic Con/Expo was packed solid and the Memorabilia I thought was busy. Still without NSU and the bunch of Merry Men that support them the show was nowhere near as good!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hammer,

I'll see you in November, Hammer. Hope so, anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:
I'll see you in November, Hammer. Hope so, anyway.

Might see you in May first!!!

Went to the show on saturday even though outside forces seemed to be doing everything in their power to stop me from doing it. So many things happened last week it was if someone somewhere was desperatly trying to tell me not to go. Us wolfies laugh in the face of fate.

This show has changed so much over the years from when you used to just roll up, park your car and stroll in, there is now so much security it is like trying to get into fort knox.

It is now two shows in one and is much better for it, the whole thing is really fantastic, guests around every corner, dealers everywhere, so much to see and do, so many things to look at and so many tables to search through.

Of course the downside to this is that far more people are there so everything is packed out, queue's everywhere and the aisle's so full it was at times impossible to actually move anywhere. This was far worse in the Expo part of the show than the Memorabilia side but both were very busy and i hope this resulted in great sales for the dealers.

It was really great to go for a stroll around the Expo and see all the artists and the Cosplay people in all their costumes, i had no idea who any of them were as i think they are all manga characters but they were all great to look at and they seemed to be having a superb time.

Some of the queue's for the autographs were crazy and the free autographs on offer from the Merlin people meant a wait of many hours with no gaurantee that you would ever get to the front. Long queue's of people also for the Primeval stars and Jamie Murray added to the difficulty of actually moving around the halls.

On the Memorabilia side most of the usual card dealers were in attendance with Umbrella Trading Cards having an exclusive promo card for their customers, the first part of a 4 card puzzle with art by Veronica O'Connell, limited to only 200, many thank to Paul & Dawn for taking the trouble to do this, well worth buying something just to get one of these. Applecards had a great offer on boxes of Ultra pro 9 pocket pages at £10 per box, even i had to part with wolfie pounds for those.

Cult - Stuff were set up at the show with Jason & Liza welcoming all to their tables. They had lots on show from their sets new and old which are allways great to look through and the quality of the products they are producing just gets better and better. I got the new Sherlock Holmes set and am happy to report that it is superb as usual. Jason had new promos to hand out for new sets which are on the way like War of the Worlds, Civil War Chronicles and Contemporary Erotica, the Erotica set should go nicely with the Art of Burlesque set which is due out anytime now. Cult - Stuff binders are at the being discussed stage and i know a lot of people hope that these happen, in my case especially for the Dracula set. Many thanks to Jason & Liza for their kindness on the day.

Some of the artists who work on Cult - Stuffs products were at the show including Carolyn Edwards, Aly Fell, Matt Dixon and Al Davidson all of whom had great stuff on show and were happy to autograph my promos which look very nice in my binder.
Looking through Carolyn's sketches i find it very difficult to believe that she is not better known and her sketches are not in more demand, we will have to work on raising her profile as she really deserves it. I hope the other artists had a good weekend as they also had some great artwork on show.

Jason from Unstoppable Cards was spotted walking round the show and reported that their new set of Blake's 7 is getting close to release with the usual problem of approvals causing slight hold ups again, it must be really frustrating for manufacturers to keep coming up against this stuff when trying to make sets. Many thanks to Jason for the cards he had for me, they all look great.

Many thanks to Richard ( triple-frog ) for the cards he brought along for me, i will sort through these during the week, i think he needed new feet at the end of the day due to all the queueing he had been doing to get his autographs.

A noticable quirk of the card collecting world i noticed was that in a dealers case there was a Jamie Murray autograph card from Spartacus priced up at £85 and yet just a few yards away was Jamie Murray herself who you could chat to and get an autographed photo from for £15. As i remember someone saying "i collect cards not autographs", makes you think though.

The show was at an end and i had a great day, it was time to say goodbye to everyone and make my way home, that thing that had been trying to stop me from going must have been wrong. I waited on the car park for a while listning to the sports report and then drove out of the NEC and down on to the motorway where a big flashing sign said there had been an accident a few miles further on

Wolfie had dodged fate again and lives to see another show.

Many thanks to everyone for the day, it was a fantastic show, we will do it all again next time.

Enjoyed reading these show reports & perspectives... Thanks!

Sunday before 10am and the queue to get into the Memorabilia show stretched well into the end ( unused ) hall.

Today was mostly about autographs for me but I did pick up some Game of Thrones auto cards from Umbrella and yes the first quarter of the promo puzzle is stunning.
Next Cult Stuff where Liza was celebrating her birthday and had an open box of Malteasers. There I bought a factory set of "The Advenures of Sherlock Holmes" and the last 2 packs ( B and C ) of the same.
Carolyn Edwards turned up with my latest ebay win and I did buy a Robert Downey Jnr card from her too. Colin Baker signed one of Carolyn's images of him and said how good she is.
I was surprized at the long queue for Shani Wallis and was won over by the friendly cheerfulness of Sam Fox and the range of roles of Ian McNiece.
Artists visited included Al Davison, Matt Dixon ( who really can sign his full name ) and Aly Fell ( who turned out to have gone to school with both my brothers-in-law )

Great report, Wolfie!

Ooooh, a Cult Stuff binder! I would definitely shell out for that, especially a Dracula binder!

quote:

Originally posted by dis68:

Next Cult Stuff where Liza was celebrating her birthday

Nooooooooooooooo, how did i miss this?

quote:

Originally posted by dcole:
Great report, Wolfie!

Ooooh, a Cult Stuff binder! I would definitely shell out for that, especially a Dracula binder!

Thanks very much, had a great day.

I must stress that any talk of binders is purely at the talking about it stage.

quote:

Originally posted by dis68:

Next Cult Stuff where Liza was celebrating her birthday and had an open box of Malteasers.

Thanks to everyone for posting reports. Sounds like it was a fun show but I have to ask....what are Malteasers?

quote:

Originally posted by WandringRebel:

I have to ask....what are Malteasers?

Chocolates, little round balls of honeycomb with a chocolate outer layer.

quote:

Originally posted by dcole:
Great report, Wolfie!

Ooooh, a Cult Stuff binder! I would definitely shell out for that, especially a Dracula binder!

Wanted one of these for ages. Would be happy with a Cult Stuff logo binder rather than one per set. Anything would be great though.