Samphirette

The V cocktails at the bar were a nice touch. I favoured the V over the Shapeshifter. Odd because in the show I don't favour the vamps

This was my first event at the Park Inn (not my first Massive Events). I was actually impressed with the hotel and the staff. I can see why people weren't too happy when the Hub was at the Hilton. I've been to the Hilton for Discworld so I was used to the facilities. But The Park is well placed for alternative food, has a pool table (bonus!), free parking for hotel attendees (more bonus) and is easy to navigate (although perhaps they could put some extra lighting in some of the hotel rooms). The advantage also being that you are not clashing with other events or as many non-event people in the hotel. There were very few non-event people staying at the hotel - or at least it seemed like it. Excellent usage of the schedule being printed onto posters on the wall. The pole dancers on Saturday night were fantastic and if you can get them again for next year I'm pretty sure that would be a seller Queuing was minimal which was great, although I appreciate this probably was a smaller con The pack was usefully set out with the introduction notes on the back of the schedule. As usual nice to have the 8 x 10s included as this takes the edge off figuring out what to have signed. The crew as always were helpful, and the hotel staff were impressive. Always great not to have the autos and photos overlap and disrupt seeing the talks. Thank you Massive :) It's a shame that it's not possible somehow to fit in one set of guest encounters that don't overlap talks on one day (with four boardrooms on hand). Todd Lowe's numbers suffered for this. If the pairing onstage today had been Sam & Todd (as their characters interact more ... as Jim & Todd pointed out they have not had character interaction before) and Kristen & Jim perhaps Todd's encounter would have been full. If next year for example the signings finish early on the Sunday, perhaps a late edition of a chance to have a guest encounter panel for people who are up to date with the show. Given people travel from overseas, I'm sure for them (and erm .. downloaders) it would be nice to have a discrete session to chat about the current episodes without worrying about spoilers The final talk when all the guests were onstage today was a little uncomfortable. Whilst the questions were general, the guests were at a loss to answer some of them and the pauses between waiting for the next question seemed stretched. Even the guests asked for the next question a couple of times. With the opportunity for the attendees to have all the guests onstage at once, it could have been the chance to open half the questions to the floor as a way to wrap up the talks and get feedback as a group on the show. During the auction can the guys please parade the items down the aisle where possible. People around me said they would have perhaps bidded if they could have seen exactly what the items were. Jim, Todd, Sam & Kristen (and her husband) were amazing this year. Thank you Hope everyone gets back safely and doesn't get hit too hard by post-con blues

I had a feeling it would be that simple ! Thanks

Too Tall - I was talking to Jason and a couple of crew at TheHub and they said I should grab you with a view to working Collectormania. Only you were busy everytime I saw you around the event. Is there an official crewing email address I can send this to?

I was surprised when I just got the latest email update. I had to read it twice and check the website and forum just to make sure. I'm not a fan of Kirk myself, Spock/Bones/Scotty were my characters (but then again I was the same with Buffy - she was irritaing but I loved the supporting characters) T J Hooker was brilliant :) (what does Adrian Zmed look like now?) but my latest fascination is for Boston Legal which is an incredibly funny and well written show (with the added bonus of James Spader!) Anyone who hasn't seen William Shatner in this show should be kicking themselves as he plays the character extremely well. Although many factors will come into play, like the day he attends, taking out a small mortgage, being unable to lap the MK centre all morning for tickets, I hope on the off chance that you will have Boston Legal pics too as it deserves a lot of credit.

As much as I love Goonies (pats Sean Astin pic from last Collectormania) I'm really hoping that there will be some 8x10's of Robert Davi in PROFILER available (preferably cast shots with the lovely Julian McMahon and Ally Walker for future signings *fingers crossed*) as I'm just getting into the series.

I was looking on the main website and couldn't see if there are charges for the talks. How do you go about getting tickets to these (been to a Collectormania, but not a LFCC before )

I always make sure that my husband and I get tickets to go down the same queue because we like to go down together, and sometimes I con myself into getting an extra auto because I stare at the pretty pictures for too long But mainly also because you never know how long you'll be in the *real* queue once your number arrives and as I'm disabled it's nice to have someone to lean on. Anyway enough waffling, the reason I was replying is that I understand why the rule was bought in for each person intending on going up to the guest was introduced. The problem is all down to the length of area that you have for queuing. If you called the first 50 ticket numbers and each of those people intended on taking one extra person down with them (where photos are allowed for example) then that's suddenly 50 unknown peeps on top joining the queue. It really defeats the whole number system if you suddenly have double the amount of people. I've been to a few events and I've seen one guest as an example where tickets were handed out and then due to whatever factors he was still only on number 500 by 4pm, and others who've soared through (not necessarily because they were rushing but because they paced themselves better!) Some guests are always going to be more popular than others which is why the ticket system is helpful. If the queues are moving nicely, and the numbers go through quicker from doubles really becoming singles (as in yours and my cases) then it gives the crew the chance to announce an open queue earlier or even to start re-handing out tickets if the chance arises.

It must be my age I'm getting easily confused. On the 23rd April it was saying both Jamie Bamber & Katee Sackhoff were going on Friday & Saturday Now the update email says that Jamie is Fri/Sat and Katee is Sat/Sun Is this an error? Or has Katee's schedule been changed again?

Goonies was the first film I bought on video (after renting a betamax version!) I still have that and the book (childhood memories ) The only bug bear I have is that the octupus scene was never restored into the movie. I believe it is on the dvd but only as an extra function. I'm sure someone will correct me on that if it isn't true. One of the funniest scenes when Mouth does the translations with the maid forever got altered on the tv versions which was always irritating. Although the year I saw ITV cut/change things in Ghostbusters I found highly weird .... I mean why mess with a classic You just can't compare some movies with others sorry Anyway, I missed Sean Astin and Corey Feldman at one Collectormania, so I'd definitely be up for it.

Well there's mood lighting at a party and there's just plain dark. This weekend was just dark! Were you using infrared? It was lighter outside on the hobble back to the hotel! I'd agree that dancefloor area should be a little darker (but I didn't get down there), but there was no reason not to light up the other areas of the room (unless the lights were all interlinked and not separate) At other parties and/or conventions, you can at least see what you are tripping over or recognise people from across a room.

I have to agree with you there, we were standing at the bar end quite a while after common rotation were on stage. I was trying to figure out the base line to the music playing and was surprised when someone I knew walked past and said Common Rotation were still on the stage (how long did they play for?) You certainly couldn't hear a thing at that end of the room. I know there were loads of bits and pieces advertised for the party, but most of those didn't bother me (not even the guests really so I wasn't hugely disappointed to only see one guest wandering around) My main things that threw me were the lack of chairs and (any) tables, and the awful lighting!! I use a stick so I can't stand around all night and did actually ask someone if there were any other chairs available (to be met with a very blank look) Finally found one out in the corridor by the loos so camped out there for a while just pleased to get a sit down (oddly you could hear the band better out there ) Certainly minus tables, people had nowhere to stand their drinks and throughout the evening, coupled with the bad lighting, I saw loads of people tripping over plastic cups and bottles that had scattered after chairs had been moved about. After moving to chairs by the windows (after all the people standing on them to see common rotation had vacated) I got chatting to a guy who said he probably knew loads of people in the room - but due to the lack of lighting, you wouldn't know where they were unless you fell over them. I thought that was a very true comment - the only time I found people I knew to talk to was out in the corridor areas. I really felt gutted with the set up, I've been to parties with great atmosphere and I just didn't feel comfortable all evening. Never mind getting close enough to see the dancefloor or the costume "parade" The worst thing was I only booked a hotel the day before to get party tickets, so I feel like I wasted £90 on hotel/tickets (not to mention the horrid drink prices!!) that I could have put towards autos. Anyway, you live and learn I suppose. But the cars were pretty - and the costumes I did manage to see in the corridor areas were superb, well done all of you for fantasic efforts Maybe next time you'll get the parade you deserve

AH But which catwoman? the purple comic one from the day or the grey cartoon one from the night? i was the grey..my friend was the purple who also did Elektra during the party. I never even saw the full Elecktra or Hellboy costumes at the party, but looking at your pics they are stunning. How long did you manage to stay in your catwoman outfit before it became too hot? Perhaps it's a good job the party room was so dark so that people having convos with me didn't see how bad I looked until your flash of the camera caught me. I see you have a picture of the Stormtrooper (the one you were pimping for pictures at the show ) I recognised him at the party and was having a conversation for a while with him.

I was very disappointed about the costume competition, at conventions it's the one thing that highlights the evening when you know people have spent ages making them. We were at the bar end when it happened (not trying to get drinks thankfully ) You could barely hear anything at that end the acoustics were really poor Suddenly it was like "and the costumes are for those of you who can't see" .... we heard loads of names called out like Queen Amildala, Electra, Tron, Catwoman, Hellboy, Kitt car, etc etc Apparently the people in costume were all shunted in shoulder to shoulder, hardly any of the audience could see (I'm guessing unless you were already down the front for the band ) and voting was just on the loudess audience shoutout. With the poor lighting in the room, you couldn't even see anyone walking around much, never mind if they were in costume

That was something we thought as well when after Dirk and Richard to sign the BG dvds We had quite a funny moment with Dirk in particular as he held up the dvds and said he really liked the packaging and presentation, to which hubby responded that he'd had them bought for him a few months back but hadn't had the chance to sit and watch them (in fact we'd only taken the wrapper off that morning ) Of course he'd already seen the series before, but I winked at Dirk and said I'd sort him out. They already had the no posed photo sign up really early Saturday (we saw Dirk around 10am I guess). I managed to get a casual shot of Dirk, Dwight and I think Sam whilst I was standing in the queue. I'm not really one for posing with the guests anyway so that suits me. Gutted I didn't have more funds, as I really would have loved to have got some A-Team 8x10's .... really wanted to meet Dwight. Hopefully there will be a next time.

I sent an email really early Friday morning but haven't had a response yet. I was wondering if the person dealing with emails it is attending a different event this weekend and is away.

I work evenings so didn't get a chance to call tonight. Can someone clarify that all 200 VIPS have gone? The events page isn't very clear, if you email, do you have to include all your payment details - or can you send an email to reserve tickets to post a cheque off? Also are there any cards you don't take?

That made me smile, certainly would be a jacket worth sneaking under Really crossing my fingers that he makes it back another time

Absolutely priceless! Must say I went Friday through to earlish afternoon and don't remember seeing anyone walking around in costume which was disappointing.

There were so many pretty things I could have bought if I'd had the money - must be the first fair I've been to with no money to spend on trading cards or Duncan pictures (his Pirates Johnny Depp was beautiful but alas will have to wait for another time) So I ended up spending £15 on the lovely Corin Nemec to auto my stargate book £15 Kristy Swanson auto £13 on my Dad's birthday present of Red Dwarf 3 and strangely the rest wasn't at the show at all, bargains were found in WHSmiths £ 3.99 Farscape 4.4 dvd £ 3.99 Andromeda 2.4 dvd and some money on a vile market hotdog which tasted like it was a week old(never again!!!)

I would have loved to have met Joe, unfortunately timing was really bad for us when I went on Friday as we took my in-laws along for a browse which meant we had a deadline for getting home. Joe was delayed arriving (flights perhaps? - speculating) and when he did start up as I was just walking pass and he looked exhausted already. By the time our numbers got called he was just taking an hour lunch break (can't blame him everyone has to eat) but we were due to head back in an hour so I crossed my fingers and hope he will be back again. I'm guessing he was probably one of the busiest with the variety of films and tv he's been in recently so I guess the weekend was quite hectic for him. The only other thing I find at some signings, are the guests can be just as shy as you are if there isn't something witty you can start a conversation on (something I lack in greatly As for 8x10s I suppose a guest can't carry a selection of everything they've been in. I was going to get one of my dvds signed, but as an afterthought I think pictures are nicer and easier to store signed. The only way to get a particular picture that you want signed would be to source it beforehand at other fairs or merchandise places.

I would class JRD as a major character in LotR (ok he *was* a dwarf) But perhaps people are thinking along the lines of a major annoucement that hasn't already been at Collectormania for example :) (although we did miss that year )

There's also a Premier Lodge right next to the Wembley Park tube station That's £58.00 a night http://www.premierlodge.co.uk

ditto :) Must admit I never thought that was a great episode of SG1 either

OK its late, but now I'm confused. I always thought ratings went from the lowest cell up to the moderator/admin/god status. Surely Showmasters who's an admin should have more pretty blocks than the members regardless of their posting ability (does ability come into this I wonder )