RobC

Got to say a massive thank you to Nick G and the other crew at the Val Killer Auto queue. You were all brilliant under very difficult circumstances. You all made my con weekend. And a massive amount of respect to Val, for insisting on coming back down to do some signing when not feeling great. A true gent, such a honour to meet him.

Awesome announcement! Such a good price too, handy as we will be wanting a Firefly pic, Stargate Atlantis pic and Firefly (Conman perk) photo book signed and a couple of photos! So happy. Just need Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin & Gina Torres now, pretty please! (And Nathan & Summer again as we haven't got the book signed by them yet!) Firefly reunion?

One of the best and nicest Cosplayers out there. I have a few of her books, excellent stuff. The first cosplayer I'm genuinely excited to meet.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed when I met her at LFCC, she was more interested in her phone than talking to me. But, everyone has bad moments, might have been an important text (don't think she was playing candy crush, lol), and everyone says shes lovely, so now I get to meet her again and hopefully get a better experience. :) And she was awesome in the rumble.

I'm going for Tom Hardy, he's not a small lad, Venom is out this year and he has a significant body of work behind him. (I even loved the tv mini series Flood) Charlize Theron with him for a Mad Max combo would be awesome. RDJ would make me very poor very quickly! (Don't think I'll have time to make my MK42 in time, which would be a shame). P.s. I personally love SM, yes the prices might have gone up (my first was collectormania in 2005) but they are still reasonable compared to others out there. And I appreciate the work all the staff do, especially the volunteers. Keep up the good work.

Only if they continue to do poor quality photoshoots.

I sent a message to Showmasters just asking if the digital copies could be given out FoC due to the poor quality of the expensive photoshoot. I'm yet to hear back but will let people know when I do. I'm hoping the digital version might be easier to adjust, but not holding out to much hope. Only so much you can polish a ........

We stayed at the K-West Hotel and Spa, excellent rooms and great facilities but not that cheap (about £120 a night). 10 minute walk. Next year we're staying at the Ibis Shepherds Bush which is just around the corner from the K-West and a lot cheaper (about £60 a night I think we got it for) With any hotels don't just go with what booking.com offers, a lot of them have better rates if you sign up to their 'clubs' through their own websites. With the K-West you get free room upgrades (if they can, we booked a junior double and superior double and they were both upgraded to Executive Rooms!), 10% off bar/food and a better rate. And as a hotel guest you get cheaper rates on the spa, if you want a sauna/snow room to revitalize yourself after the con!. With Ibis (Accor group, so also works for Novatel hotels) you get a better rate and points towards freebies (works all over Europe too). The hotels near shepherds bush has the advantage of a lot of bars/food places nearby, I'd definitely recommend the Brewdog pub and Killer Tomato (if you like Mexican).

Ok, couldn't make any improvements due to the quality, hoping when the digital copies come out it might be easier, so I've gone the other way and made it look worse.

Which thread, I can't find anything on it. Highly disturbing. She's still tweeting as of 51 minutes ago that she needs help....

I was waiting in the queue long enough before the guys arrived for them to set up and test easily....

I had a great experience with all of them, got selfies with David, Mark and Tommy, Kristen was lovely. Had a very fun bike shoot with them all (posted on another thread). While queuing for Tommy and then later queuing for Mark (on Friday) I watched them both messing about in each others selfies, and generally having a laugh with everyone. Then David came around and gave them both abuse telling the queues they were impostors and the real guys were over the other side. Then David started launching stickers over the wall from his area. Sorry you didn't have as great an experience as I did.

Now don't get me wrong, I love this pic, it's epic. But for the price that we paid I would have expected the photo to be up to the same standard as other shoots. This is just poor. Bad background, terrible lighting, poor framing, blurry, not to mention a pretty naff bike that is nothing like any on SoA. No offence to the person who took the pic, but do they use professional photographers for all the shoots? Looks like I have a few hours work in Photoshop to try and fix it.

Love the SoA guys. I told them 'no offence guys, but I'd like the lady on my arm.' (Partly due to this thread). Kristen was happy, Mark told everyone I was grabbing his ass, and, Tommy, well you can see his response!

Shame, really wanted to meet Bester. If showmasters happen to have any other Babylon 5 guests up their sleeves to replace him that would be awesome. (I know, unlikely).

Excellent guest, as soon as he was announced I did wonder if he was bringing the missus! And low and behold. Thanks SM

First ever diamond passes (x3, geek household!). Can't wait! The diamond passes are pretty good value, especially for us as we often want more than one thing signed, like this we can get the Buffy Box set and 2 photos signed, all of us in the talk and 3 photos. Plus definitely getting to meet them and no VQ.

Do we have any idea when the guests will be confirmed for the Sons of Anarchy Bike photoshoot? I really want to do this, but obviously would like it to include Ron Perlman, otherwise I'll want to get an individual Ron photoshoot. Need to do some seriously figures with the new wave of guests announced! Didn't want that new car anyway.

Yay! Another one for the buffy box set sigs! Didn't think I'd have chance to get Willow!

Yes, Jason did write a very lengthy post about that. That's good to know. I haven't ever been charged for a table picture at any SM events. My only experience was elsewhere when we got an autography from a certain person and 2 seconds after we walked away my daughter popped back to ask for a selfie and he told her he charges for them, whereas his on screen (and previously off screen) dinosaur chasing other half was more than happy to have a selfie (and much happier to be there seemingly). Got a great one with Julie Caitlin Brown (I'm a massive B5 fan), when she was signing. Great as a guest, terrifying as an Agent! I have seen plenty of the guests ignore the no posed photos too, it is often an Agents decision and the guests don't agree. To be honest I don't mind waiting the extra time in the queue if you know it will be a good experience when you get there. (Like Robert Englund, long queues but such a great character it's worth the wait.)

Thanks for your response Queen. I will drop the powers that be an email. I do get it's not an easy subject where said powers could just go "Damn, your right, lets do that" Just as a quick note on this point, my original point would cover it, I wouldn't differentiate friends or family to be honest. if 2+ friends want to be in the shoot and only want one copy of the photo why pay twice? If you want an extra copy, you pay. And if 2 friends only want one autograph to both of them, why pay twice. :) A staggered pay scheme would also be better than the current system, so +£x per additional person in the shoot (with a max obviously so you don't crush the guest!). I do understand there would be issues with ticketing systems etc, but nothing is impossible these days. Thanks again Queen, really looking forward to LFCC.

I have taken a couple of photos with the guests at the tables, but normally only the less busy ones. Some guests charge for a selfie, which is fair enough as people pay for the photo shoots. I would think Steven Yeun will be very busy as it's his first signing over here I think so I doubt you will be able to take posed photos at the table, but you never know. Some big guests end up open queue by the end of the day so you might be able to, but would you want to chance it? That said, by the end of the day they might be tired and still not want to do selfies anyway.

My better half and daughter have been going to showmasters events since the good ol' days of Collectormania in the shopping centre in MK. Now I love the events and think you guys who run it do a great job. Pretty much the only thing that bugs me is that you can only have one person in a photo, unless you buy 2 tickets and get 2 photos the same. Now if you are having the pic with a friend then it's not so bad as you'd both want a copy, but when its family it makes it very expensive to basically get a duplicate. (Yes I know we could do different poses or something, but that isn't really 'us'). It wasn't so bad in the days when a lot of the celebs charged £15/20 for autos/photos and at most £40, but now were looking at £60 plus for quite a lot of guests it's getting crazy expensive for a family to enjoy it. Thing is, have 2+ people in the shot shouldn't extend the time it takes (maybe by a few seconds at most) and you only want one print, so no extra cost on SM part. Same goes for the diamond passes, We meet all the guests together, take the same time (or less if starstruck!) as a single person getting an auto, and often don't want more than one thing signed. But yet if we want to get a diamond pass then we pay double for extras we often don't want. Just a suggestion. Keep up the good work. :) **Rob - I've edited this post slightly, unfortunately discussion of other companies and events is not allowed on the forum - Thanks**

This year was a lot better than last year and obviously 100% better than the year before that! I would like to mirror the positive comments about the showmasters staff who were all great with me and others around me. (Apart from one blue shirt guy who I guess was escorting a guest and shouting very loudly for everyone to clear the way, when there wasn't actually anyone in his way... ) I'd also like to say how good the security around the building, on the doors, etc, were. It's quite rare to find security who are so friendly, helpful and chatty. Good work. The only down sides for me were again the busy signing areas, surely some roped off S shaped queue lines with a route down the middle for people to get past and cap the queue's at the end of the S, I'm sure that would only take up the same room as the 4-5 abreast lines with loads of people walking through and sometimes 2 lines to the same place. And the posts with the attached extendable cords can easily be rearranged depending on how busy the person is (so people don't have to walk miles if it's an open queue, etc, or they can be moved quickly in case of emergency). The only other oddity I found was the lifts down either side of the cafe/suicide squad area, which go down to reception/exit, but there didn't seem to be a way around to the lower floor (trader area). There were comfy seats down there which were a godsend, but while sitting there for a while we noticed quite a few confused people with wheelchairs trying to find a way, some of whom then went back up the elevator, some didn't return so I guess there must have been some way around. Maybe some better signs down there for next time. All in all, well done. A vast improvement, keep up the good work.

We weren't sure if we were going to meet him as it was the most expensive autography we've had, but as Ron cancelled we thought we'd see if we could. In on sat but didn't get good VT's on many of our guests, saw that he was on 1-100 at about 3 so gave up for sat and didn't think it would happen on Sunday. Rushed in on Sunday and got Rutger and Dominic tickets first, then thought we might as well try Jeremy again, just in case. Got a lower number than we did for Rutger, which surprised me and then by 2pm he was pretty much open queue. Really pleased we did get to meet him, really nice guy and quite chatty too, I said that there should be a Hawkeye solo movie, to which he said he wished he was able to decide that and I told him I liked how they had developed the character in the newer movies and he was saying how fun it was to play now. Great guy.