24 replies to this topic

[starhunter]

I thought it was well set out very nice and relaxed , no queue jumpers , great venue, well set out and overall fantastic ill be there next year will you?

[Count Fooku]

Very good event, once I'd got the hang of where everyone was sat! High points would have to be meeting Buzz Aldrin, although he didn't seem to be in an amazingly brilliant mood I heard he'd had a rotten flight over and had more or less come straight to the event so its understandable. Other high points were meeting Jimmy James and Jonny Johnson, both of them gave very interesting talks. I could have sat and listened to Jimmy in particular for three or four hours!

It was also nice to be at an event that was so relaxed, even when their were queues they weren't horrendous and as the previous poster said, there was no line jumping or pushing and shoving. Perhaps the slighter higher age group than a lot of other events has something to do with it.

My only slight grumble was due to the location, the onsite prices were very high. For example, the hotel hoppa from the airport was £4 each way and a pint of Guinness in the bar was £4. I know the organisers have no control over those things as they are porvided by other companies. I just wonder if any other hotels a bit further out but still close to the airport could be considered (I presume the airport proximity is a selling point for guests travelling in from abroad, particularly American astronauts).

Still to end on a good note, I'd definately come again and to get my requests in for March early, Richard Todd and James Garner please!

[zephyrbrett]

Yes all round great day.

Pros - Brigette Nielson, Location, Rusty Goffe, More personable, Parking, Calmer and less crazy. (even though I love the rush of the other shows - just nice to be calm for once)

Cons - Price for Buzz & I got all the guests I wanted today so no real reason to go back tomorrow which is a shame.

Brought my little girl to her first show today and buggie acress was poor but was a bad call on my part know not to bring her again.

Marks out of 10 a good 9.

[quote name='Count Fooku' date='Oct 13 2007, 08:38 PM' post='1127499']
It was also nice to be at an event that was so relaxed, even when their were queues they weren't horrendous and as the previous poster said, there was no line jumping or pushing and shoving. Perhaps the slighter higher age group than a lot of other events has something to do with it.

SPOT ON

[Ted Crump]

The hotel is a pain in the a*** to get to - for me bus, train, tube, train, bus. And then later in reverse

Went early on the Saturday, nicely populated, not too busy, relaxed and easy going atmos.

Dunno if I was lucky but things panned out well - I was in front for the Cernan photoshoot, went off for a couple of pints, came back just in time for the Bean photoshoot, from there into a smallish queue for Cernan's signing, went straight from that to the Buzz photoshoot which was just ending, so wasn't kept waiting too much. Photographer guy was a good laugh!

Gene Cernan is a real nice bloke, as was his wife (or was it his daughter). Al Bean is always a gent, Buzz seemed a bit tired to me. Considering all these guys are in their 70's now, I thought they all looked remarkably fit and trim. Felt a bit sorry for Al Worden - didn't seem to be getting much custom.

Funniest thing I saw was Sally Thomsett pointing at her A4-sized sign looking a bit peeved - she'd been spelt 'Thompsett'.

Organisers and crew I met were friendly and answered my queries with no trouble.

Quite enoyed it. 8 out of ten for me. Thanks Autographica.

Count Fooku, on Oct 13 2007, 08:38 PM, said:

My only slight grumble was due to the location, the onsite prices were very high. For example, the hotel hoppa from the airport was £4 each way

Aww mate there's FREE buses run to and from Heathrow to the Radisson - I took the 140, I think there's a 285 and a 105 too. Some quirk about BAA having to subsidise local transport. I made the mistake of the Hoppa bus last time

and a pint of Guinness in the bar was £4.

Yeah I got stung there too!

[Count Fooku]

[quote name='Count Fooku' post='1127499' date='Oct 13 2007, 08:38 PM']

My only slight grumble was due to the location, the onsite prices were very high. For example, the hotel hoppa from the airport was £4 each way

Aww mate there's FREE buses run to and from Heathrow to the Radisson - I took the 140, I think there's a 285 and a 105 too. Some quirk about BAA having to subsidise local transport. I made the mistake of the Hoppa bus last time

and a pint of Guinness in the bar was £4.

Yeah I got stung there too!


[/quote]
[/quote]

Curses! I'll remember that one next time!

[m4sure]

I thought the event was very relaxed & had a good atmosphere.
My only moans were the lack of information ie I found the map
a tad confusing so I had to keep having to ask people where to
go. But the thing that really upset me very much was having to
wait many hours to get my photo back from the Fawlty Towers
cast shoot which was from 2.25-35pm 10 mins! It says in the
show guide that the photos are normally back around an hour
after the shoot & I really wanted to get my photo signed by the
cast, but I ended up feeling really peed off that I had to wait till
after 6.30pm to get it back...long after all the guests had departed.
It wouldn't of been so bad if I was staying there, but I was only
there for the day & was extremely annoyed at having to wait. I
really think that SM have to sort this out because this seems to be
happening all too frequently with the photo shoots.    

Other than that I enjoyed the event & thought the guests & crew
were all friendly.

[samlou]

Just wanted to say me and my daughter had a brilliant day. Meeting Buzz Aldrin,Al Worden, Scott Carpenter ,Gene Cernan and Alan Bean were top highlights for me, but my daughter spent most of the afternoon talking to her new best friends...the oompa loompas!! Rusty was an absolute gentleman, and we had a good old chinwag. He made a real fuss over Laura, and even sang to her!!!! They were such lovely guys, and made a brilliant day even better. Johnny Johnson and Jimmy James were lovely too, and charmed me and Laura again!
All the stars were so approachable and happy to chat, that it made it all worthwhile. Really really loved it, just wish id had more money!!! i will be prepared for next time and save like mad til then!!!

sam

[disurmston]

I'm sorry but I do think just 1 a year would be better - 2 is just stretching things too far in that awkward hotel location

Today was OK but started off chaotically when the desk couldn't find any reference for us but did accept ( and keep ) the Paypal receipt. Thankfully I got VQ ticket 42 for Gene Cernan so went straight there. The astronaut room seemed deserted compared to previous shows - whilst there I did not see Worden nor Carpenter and the number of space dealers seemed way down

Having all the rooms on one floor was a great improvement and having the Atrium bar available for coffee etc during the day was excellent.

It just seemed smaller - I know the number of guests was supposed to be well up but there seemed less dealers in general, less guests actually there and far less people - only Cernan, Bean and Nielsen ever seemed to have queues

Oh well roll on March 1 ( not May 1 ) and Tony Curtis

[Kiwi 7]

I have now been back home for 6 hours and am still on a real 'high' after Autographica 10!

From my point of view I thought that it was a wonderful event - the best that I have attended so far!

There was so much that excited and interested me, with so many super guests to meet and talk to!

But how could anything be better than sitting next to Jenny Agutter at the dinner, with a whole evening to chat to her!!!    What great memories I will have to look back on!!

I want to say a huge 'Thank You' to Dave, Garry and everyone else who worked so hard to make the event such a success.

[rich5wolves]

Kiwi 7, on Oct 14 2007, 11:35 PM, said:

I have now been back home for 6 hours and am still on a real 'high' after Autographica 10!

From my point of view I thought that it was a wonderful event - the best that I have attended so far!

There was so much that excited and interested me, with so many super guests to meet and talk to!

But how could anything be better than sitting next to Jenny Agutter at the dinner, with a whole evening to chat to her!!!    What great memories I will have to look back on!!

I want to say a huge 'Thank You' to Dave, Garry and everyone else who worked so hard to make the event such a success.

Ive considered the Autographica event to be showmasters finest since the one with Ursula couple of years back.
Good to see the guests back on form and cant wait to meet Curtis. Thats a great guest.

[ForAllMankind]

In a nutshell,superb and thanks to Dave,Garry and Showmasters I have past a little set target of mine  which was to meet a crew member from every Apollo crew.

:pyth:

Edited by ForAllMankind, 16 October 2007 - 10:12 AM.

[sparks]

m4sure, on Oct 14 2007, 12:37 PM, said:

I thought the event was very relaxed & had a good atmosphere.
My only moans were the lack of information ie I found the map
a tad confusing so I had to keep having to ask people where to
go. But the thing that really upset me very much was having to
wait many hours to get my photo back from the Fawlty Towers
cast shoot which was from 2.25-35pm 10 mins! It says in the
show guide that the photos are normally back around an hour
after the shoot & I really wanted to get my photo signed by the
cast, but I ended up feeling really peed off that I had to wait till
after 6.30pm to get it back...long after all the guests had departed.
It wouldn't of been so bad if I was staying there, but I was only
there for the day & was extremely annoyed at having to wait. I
really think that SM have to sort this out because this seems to be
happening all too frequently with the photo shoots.    

Other than that I enjoyed the event & thought the guests & crew
were all friendly.

Just a quick note about the turn round on the photos. Sorry if you didn't get them back as quickly as you'd have liked. We had to use a printing lab that was open on both days (obviously) and this meant using one a few miles away. I was the guy tasked to transport the memory sticks to the lab and the photos back.

We did average a turn around of an hour on the trip and believe me It wan't as if I was hanging around. The traffic was particularly bad on Saturday (apparantly partly due to the match at Wembley). I have to say I was not enjoying the experience of riding the bike (and I never would normally say that!) in London. I've never had the bikle overheat waiting at traffic lights before but it was a constant problem due to the long "red" sequence in nearly every light between the Hotel and the Lab. I did manage to get the round trip down to about 40 minutes on sunday but i'm looking forward to the speeding and jumping liht fines that I think I may have got.

Although I know Malcolm the photoigrapher tries to find a suitable lab within  areasonable distance we are beholden to them being able to produce the goods, that with the lousy traffic condition on Saturday meant that the turn around wasn't quioete as slick as we may have wanted.

[von Dawson's Express]

About the photos, would it have been possible to set up a computer and printer in the hotel???
Surely a really good quality printer with decent archive paper could be bought by you guys who run the event and use it over a couple of years? Must be cheaper than the poor chap on the m/bike (sorry mate, don't know your name, hope you don't get any unwanted mail...).

About transport, I felt a bit guilty going in an empty car and thought I could have given some one a lift. As it happened I did meet some friends and afterwards drove them to the airport drop off point  for the UG. I passed the hotel on my way back to London and wondered ya, there must have been some one wanting a lift. Next year why not have a flip chart   in the entrance/desk area so people could post messages asking for rides/or offering lifts? With times, number of seats, etc, I would love to help out, plus its a great way to meet other collectors. As long as they don't smell of BO/Smoking!!!

Your thoughts people, please.

Regards and bests to all esp the m/bike rider....

von Dawson's Express

Edited by von Dawson's Express, 17 October 2007 - 03:42 PM.

[Too Tall]

von Dawson's Express, on Oct 17 2007, 03:25 PM, said:

Next year why not have a flip chart   in the entrance/desk area so people could post messages asking for rides/or offering lifts? With times, number of seats, etc, I would love to help out, plus its a great way to meet other collectors. As long as they don't smell of BO/Smoking!!!

That's the issue with the idea. It's very hard to say "God you're not getting in my car you smelly git!", when the person is there in front of you.

Also the issue of someone turning out to be a complete psycho kidnapper (either the driver or passenger).

[oldnick]

von Dawson's Express, on Oct 17 2007, 03:25 PM, said:

About the photos, would it have been possible to set up a computer and printer in the hotel???
Surely a really good quality printer with decent archive paper could be bought by you guys who run the event and use it over a couple of years? Must be cheaper than the poor chap on the m/bike (sorry mate, don't know your name, hope you don't get any unwanted mail...).

Past experience has shown that although photos printed this way look nearly as good as lab-printed ones, they fade badly with time. Given the high value people place on these photos, especially when signed by a major (and expensive) celebrity, it would seem to be a very false economy to risk this. Other shows have had this problem.

The alternative would be for Showmasters to have a lab-quality set-up, printing durable photos, but I can't see this being an economic action, when used for about 10 weekends a year, when these machines are intended for use 6 days a week, 52 weeks per year.

[von Dawson's Express]

Too Tall, on Oct 18 2007, 01:48 PM, said:

von Dawson's Express, on Oct 17 2007, 03:25 PM, said:

Next year why not have a flip chart   in the entrance/desk area so people could post messages asking for rides/or offering lifts? With times, number of seats, etc, I would love to help out, plus its a great way to meet other collectors. As long as they don't smell of BO/Smoking!!!

That's the issue with the idea. It's very hard to say "God you're not getting in my car you smelly git!", when the person is there in front of you.

Also the issue of someone turning out to be a complete psycho kidnapper (either the driver or passenger).

Ha, ha, ha, Too Tall, you said what I thought and darn't write....
You are right though, then theres a mentalist government banging on about globel warming and car sharing!

and as for psycho kidnappers :firedevil: !!! guess theres a song in there some where....   or was it psycho killer....

Regards all

von Dawson's Express

[sparks]

von Dawson's Express, on Oct 17 2007, 03:25 PM, said:

About the photos, would it have been possible to set up a computer and printer in the hotel???
Surely a really good quality printer with decent archive paper could be bought by you guys who run the event and use it over a couple of years? Must be cheaper than the poor chap on the m/bike (sorry mate, don't know your name, hope you don't get any unwanted mail...).


Regards and bests to all esp the m/bike rider....

von Dawson's Express

Thanks, It's nice to be appreciated. I think the point of using a lab is that the turn round time for the number of photos that have to be printed is still better using a lab and a courier. The labs tend to have specialist printers that can deliver the large number of high quality prints. Even with the turn around time on the journey I'm not sure we could have printed the photos out in the same time using even a high quality printer at the hotel. (I'm pretty sure this would have been considered, but I'm not an expert on this.)

[machbusterman]

I thought the show was superb... All the guests I met/got signatures from were outstanding. I thought Brigitte Nielsen was amazing... she was really friendly and genuinely seemed to enjoy meeting her fans and was just so happy to pose for photographs. All the Bond girls were wonderful too and I thought that Caroline Munro was really sweet and took a lot of time to talk with her fans. I thought the dinner was superb too and the service was really quick.

Kudos to Dave, Garry and the crew for putting on such an excellent show. I have one request for next year..... Can you PLEASE get some MORE page 3 girls to attend.... makes me smile every time I see my photos with them.

Regards to all, Derek

[m4sure]

sparks, on Oct 18 2007, 07:16 PM, said:

von Dawson's Express, on Oct 17 2007, 03:25 PM, said:

About the photos, would it have been possible to set up a computer and printer in the hotel???
Surely a really good quality printer with decent archive paper could be bought by you guys who run the event and use it over a couple of years? Must be cheaper than the poor chap on the m/bike (sorry mate, don't know your name, hope you don't get any unwanted mail...).


Regards and bests to all esp the m/bike rider....

von Dawson's Express

Thanks, It's nice to be appreciated. I think the point of using a lab is that the turn round time for the number of photos that have to be printed is still better using a lab and a courier. The labs tend to have specialist printers that can deliver the large number of high quality prints. Even with the turn around time on the journey I'm not sure we could have printed the photos out in the same time using even a high quality printer at the hotel. (I'm pretty sure this would have been considered, but I'm not an expert on this.)

Hey I didn't mean to appear unappreciative. I realise you went beyond duty to get them photos printed. I think the problem lies in what was printed in the programme ie - "photos available normally around 1 hour after the shoot; so you can then, if you want, get the item signed." I think that kind of information is very misleading. I was going to ask Bernard Cribbins to sign my photo, thinking they would indeed be back in time. If I had known the photos weren't going to be ready till much later I would of met Bernard without it. Was very upset about that. The lack of information is the real problem I think.  

[Ted Crump]

m4sure, on Oct 19 2007, 01:32 AM, said:

sparks, on Oct 18 2007, 07:16 PM, said:

von Dawson's Express, on Oct 17 2007, 03:25 PM, said:

About the photos, would it have been possible to set up a computer and printer in the hotel???
Surely a really good quality printer with decent archive paper could be bought by you guys who run the event and use it over a couple of years? Must be cheaper than the poor chap on the m/bike (sorry mate, don't know your name, hope you don't get any unwanted mail...).


Regards and bests to all esp the m/bike rider....

von Dawson's Express

Thanks, It's nice to be appreciated. I think the point of using a lab is that the turn round time for the number of photos that have to be printed is still better using a lab and a courier. The labs tend to have specialist printers that can deliver the large number of high quality prints. Even with the turn around time on the journey I'm not sure we could have printed the photos out in the same time using even a high quality printer at the hotel. (I'm pretty sure this would have been considered, but I'm not an expert on this.)

Hey I didn't mean to appear unappreciative. I realise you went beyond duty to get them photos printed. I think the problem lies in what was printed in the programme ie - "photos available normally around 1 hour after the shoot; so you can then, if you want, get the item signed." I think that kind of information is very misleading. I was going to ask Bernard Cribbins to sign my photo, thinking they would indeed be back in time. If I had known the photos weren't going to be ready till much later I would of met Bernard without it. Was very upset about that. The lack of information is the real problem I think.  

Yeah I thought it a bit misleading too, if it had been more 'your photo will be posted out in a couple of days time, but there's a chance they might be ready in a couple of hours so you might be able to get them signed' then that could have worked better. Nevertheless thanks to all the photo staff (and the poor lad carrying everyone's kit around at the shoots) for their efforts.