Well thankfully I didn't spend as much as I did at the EMS show but had a really nice day out. It was nice to have a chat with a few of you guy and put a few faces to names!!! My highlight was getting home and finding a picture of Wolfie on facebook parting with a pound coin in the direction of Harris. In the next picture he was nearly crying!

It's a long way to drive to the NEC from Wales, and sometimes I really consider whether its worth it with the cost of fuel, the car parking, the entrance fee etc, but you know it is worth it, cos I had a great time there.

I travelled up with my wife, who has started taking a closer interest in trading cards.

First up was the NSU table, paid for my subscription, always good to talk to Harris. I travel about 120 miles and Harris a great amount more. Some of the people in this hobby are just amazing. Anyway, next up was Derek and his free promo (Red Sonja), well they call it free, but I spent $300 at his table. He had a fantastic Dazzler sketch which I could not say no to, bought a couple of Heroes boxes, a Marvel Universe box and a Prisoner binder, a few base sets. The Dazzler sketch was absolute mint!!

Now onto jason (Cult Stuff) table; we had a chat about a few things inc War of the Worlds, JD Seeber etc, and he literally flooded me with awesome promos. Thanks Jason - it was great to talk to you.

Then on to Paul Umbrella of Umbrella cards - Had a chat with him, paid him for some boxes I ordered, then went for lunch.

There seemed to be a lot of card tables there this year, but the best sellers seemed to be the miniature Dr Who figures, I would walk past and there seemed to be a table full of them, then half hour later, just the Silence ones left. Mmm now that's spooky, I bet the people buying these critters couldn't remember them being there!!!

After walking around a few times, we finally got back to the NSU table to say bye to Harris, but he wasn't there. (apparently someone had said that his fan was in the building and he was looking for him!!) had a chat with Paul Bines who produced the Philly promo, signed it and passed it over. That's got to be one of the nicest promographs I have ever seen. Nice one Cabbie!!

Wolfie showed me a really nice lenticular promo which turned from Arwen to Eowyn, really nice.

That's it really, I really enjoyed myself. Is it worth travelling all that way? Of course it is!! Hope to do it all again next year.

Another Memorabilia show has come and gone and a great time was had by all.

Saturday morning and i was up at 6.30 and getting ready for the show. A nice drive down the motorway and i arrived at the NEC at 8.30 and waited for the show to open.

Before the show even opens i have got cards. NSU member Andy from the 501st Legion has Star Wars cards in my hand and we are wishing each other a good day. Many thanks for those.

It's 9.00 and away we go, the doors are flung open and the crowd flood into the massive hall full of anticipation of what they will find inside.

My first stop is the NSU table to meet Harris who has once again come over from America for our show, it really is great that he does this and the NSU presence at the show lets the UK collectors feel as though they are still part of the hobby and it is very much appreciated by all.

I meet up with fellow NSU members and it was great to see everyone again. Paul ( call me Philly ) Bines was there ready for more podcast recording and handing out his Philly promo card, he tells me all about his trip and how great it was and how nice everyone was to him, this really was an amazing thing that was achieved.

It was great to see Paul Hart again and i'm sure it will not be long before he is at the Philly show again after a short absence. Patrick Hamill ( well known famous artist ) had come over from Ireland and it was nice to see him again.

Dave had come from Thailand ( just to see me ) and i must thank him very much for allowing me to raid his promos box, this was fantastic of him and very much appreciated. I got a lot of cards i did not have and a Hannah Montana card (for the little girl down the road ) right Dave?

There were about 10 dealers there selling cards which is very good for this show and their presence is very much appreciated.

A special mention here for Paul & Dawn James at Umbrella Cards who i had a really nice time with during the day and who's kindness to me was very much appreciated.

Next up was Manufacturers and Jason from Unstoppable cards had made the trip to the show on the train to tell us all about the cards they have planned for next year, really looking forward to their Avengers set and Night of the Living Dead, these are going to be great, the only sad thing here was the promos and preview sets which it had been hoped would be ready for this show were still at the printers but i'm sure when they are released they are going to be great. People wanting these should keep an eye on the website for developments.

Where to next?

Another UK manufacturer at the show. Jason and Liza from Cult - Stuff had set up at the show and i spent ages talking to them about all the great new products that they have coming out next year. Jason had various promos for all these sets which he was handing out as fast as he could to all the collectors who turned up at the table and i would like to say a massive thank you to him for doing all this for the show.
All the people i spoke to were really looking forward to the Rick Melton set and also the Sherlock Holmes, Propaganda Posters, j D Seeber and Matt Dixon. We are going to be spoilt for choice next year thats for sure.

Breygent provided 2 promos for the show, one for Vampirella and one for Red Sonja, a big thanks to Tom for providing these for our show and i'm sure both sets are going to be a big success. I must point out to everyone hoping for one that these were handed out strictly one card per person.

More NSU members turned up at the show, Douglas, Triple Frog, Steve J, Hammer, Graham ( don't mention Bus Drivers or Tube Trains ) John the Hat & Lyn.

I apologise for not getting to spend as much time with some people as i would have liked, i allways seemed to be where they were not. I await the inevitable comments that they must have seen me coming.

I got to meet NSU member William Logan who had come to his first show along with his family, i had to this point only communicated by email so it was great to meet him, i think he purchased half the show but he went away happy and threatning to come back again next year. Looking forward to it.

There was the usual host of guests from film and tv and also sports. I think a lot of the guests would not really be known outside the UK but people like Bruce Boxleitner and Derek Jacobi would be. Barbra Shelley and Veronica Carlson from Hammer Films were there and Caroline Munro so plenty for everyone requiring autographs.

I just spotted Harris tucking into his fish and chips, ( i knew i should not have given him a wolfie pound ) this may be the real reason he comes over each year. We must get him some mushy peas next time for his chips. The Good Food Show is there next weekend, now that would have been fun, just try this Harris you will like this.

An announcement says the show will close at 5.00 and that is only 20 minutes away, how did that happen? Where on earth did the last 8 hours go to?

You know what they say, time flies when you are enjoying yourself and it has so it is time to say goodbye and wish everyone a safe journey home. Another show is over and the doors are being closed.

Until the next time and we will do it all again in our pursuit of strange little squares of cardboard.

See you all next year.

Another one down! Had a really good show once again. I'd love to do a report like Wolfie did above but I know I would miss a lot of names so I better not. Wolfie's report is very good.

We had a great spot, right up front and a bit to the right. Not sure how we got it. I thought it might be even better but once the crowd came in, I realized Brits go immediately to the left upon entering rather then the right like they do at American shows. D'oh!

Saw lots and lots of now familiar faces. Really enjoyed dinners with Paul Hart and Mike and Dave who used to be D & M and who are now just D and M. It was great that Dave, Paul and Patrick got the band back together again. My friend Anne from Twitter brought me snacks so a big thanks to her. And I was introduced to banoffee pie this year, which is awesome. I never heard of it before.

I really enjoyed speaking with Jason from Cult Stuff and meeting Jason from Unstoppable Cards. A big thanks to Cult Stuff for the exclusive promos and to Unstoppable for the sketch cards. Both were a big hit and helped make it a successful show.

I've got a bunch of pictures to post and more to say. Will do soon.

Had a very long but fun day yesterday. Started at 4:30am, in the car at 5:15am and off to Birmingham we go.

Spent a while away from collecting cards mainly due to other things stretching the funds too far but was back in the position of having a bit more "me" money so decided to dive back in. And where better than Memorabilia?

Had a couple of long chats with Jason @ Cult Stuff (and was almost buried in the amount of promos and other cards he was giving away), purchased up a couple of boxes which turned out to have really nice sketches in them (posted in the breaks threads), FINALLY found the NSU table after probably walking past it half a dozen times (my observation skills & directional sense are severely lacking, missed out on the signed Paul Bines card though as I didn't open my promo packs til I got home), picked up a set of Matt Dixon's cards (highly recommended set and a really nice guy).

All in all a highly enjoyable day

I knew there was something I forgot to post (and probably a lot more). When Jason from Unstoppable handed me sketches, he surprised me with the Andy Fry sketch below:



A big, big thanks to Jason and Andy!

Now that's a Celebrity Sketch!

Sounds like everyone had a good time. Thanks for the reports, I'm looking forward to seeing the photos.

I was there on Saturday at 9am.
When the doors opened I went straight to the NSU table and renewed my subscription.
In return I was given a few promos.
I asked Paul nicely for a autographed philly show promo which is was happy to do so (which increased its value to more than a Jolie auto ).
Went over to cult stuff and I was given so many promos. Thank You
Picked up a few chase sets, sell sheets and 2 base sets.
Both base sets are missing a card each
So if anybody has any of these 2 please let me know:

Topps Planet of the apes card #31
Stargate Season 1-3 card #19

At about 3 o’clock I stopped over at Umbrella Cards and spoke to Paul and got some goodies and caught the train back home.

Overall experience was good but there seem to be less stalls compared to the show in March.

Got to the show around 08.45 so spent 15 minutes reading a bit of "A Clash of Kings" by George R R Martin.

Once inside I found out where the actors for "A Game of Thrones" would be signing and then went to the NSU table and renewed my subscription.Also took advantage of the special offer when buying both sets of Philly promos to get a free sketch card .



Went round the card dealers and got all the promos apart from the Red Sonja UK one.No idea how I missed that .

Special thanks to Jason at Cult Stuff for the deal on the Age of Sorcery pack and the excellent freebies he gave me as well .Hopefully his experience has not put him off attending future shows as he was stuck in a very small space and was constantly being hassled by people trying to buy cuddly toys from the stall next door.

Went and got the signatures I was looking for from James Cosmo and Miltos Yerolemou(Roxanne McKee had to pull out due to a job in the USA ).

I was on my way home by 12.30 as I wanted to catch the end of the football matches but thought this show a distinct improvement on previous ones.

quote:

Posted November 20, 2011 06:48 PM Hide Post
I knew there was something I forgot to post (and probably a lot more). When Jason from Unstoppable handed me sketches, he surprised me with the Andy Fry sketch below:

but who is it?

quote:

Originally posted by john the hat:

quote:

Posted November 20, 2011 06:48 PM Hide Post
I knew there was something I forgot to post (and probably a lot more). When Jason from Unstoppable handed me sketches, he surprised me with the Andy Fry sketch below:

but who is it?

The Stig has been unmasked!!!

anyone ?

JTH, It's Harris!

I'll be posting pics later (Tuesday) and adding what I can to the already comprehensive show reports!
Au Res.,
Paul

I sent Andy a photo of Harris from Last years Memorabilia when he was standing next to the Stig, I couldn't find a recent one!!

quote:

Originally posted by G6ADC:

Both base sets are missing a card each
So if anybody has any of these 2 please let me know:

Topps Planet of the apes card #31
Stargate Season 1-3 card #19

I have got a spare #19 card if you still need it.

Here are a few cell phone pics. I'll most more pics later.




Artist Matt Dixon. His artwork has been used in a set from Cult Stuff.

John the Hat

Not to be outdone, here's Paul the Hat

A great Weeping Angel costume