18blue78

It's been about two years since I was last at an event and I had a great time on Saturday. Like everyone I was disappointed when Ruther Hauer cancelled but I've been going to these events long enough to accept cancellations. Guests will always prioritise their careers, and so they should. That left only one film guest for me to meet. Dermot Crowley was excellent and I was able to spend time chatting with him about some of his experiences shooting Star Wars. With the sports guests only arriving after 11:00 that gave me time to hit the stalls for Xmas presents (I realise it only June #$^%!!!). Then I was over to sports guests area. I noticed Showmasters has teamed up with a sports memorabilia company. This may have happened a while ago (I'm nothing if not observant) and is good news for us sports fans as it will hopefully generate more new guests from a variety of sports at future shows. For example, I doubt Curtly Ambrose would have been to one of these type events before. I'm glad I got to meet one of the most devastating bowlers ever to play cricket and I found him to be a very humble gentleman. John Stracey was a bundle of energy and he suggested we take a photo with his World title belt. I only half believe he momentarily forgot who owned the belt as he passed it to me and walked away a few steps before turning back and taking it from me. Alastair Cook was another new guest for me and he looked genuinely happy to be there, taking time to engage with everyone he met. The big draw to this years event was Duncan Ferguson. Being a lifelong Evertonian, for me, meeting Dunc was the equivalent of a Marvel fan meeting Robert Downey Jr. It was priceless to spend a few minutes talking about our club and the future. They say you should never meet your heroes, well I'm glad to have met one of mine. With that I was all done and on the train home by 11:30. Like all Showmasters events the show was excellently organised and all the staff and volunteers I spoke with were very friendly and helpful. The space in Hall 5 is huge and the layout made the most of it. There is plenty of room to wonder around without constantly bumping into people. I did feel numbers were down especially with the Early Bird tickets. That's possibly a reflection on the limited number of big name film and TV guests. But with that said, as I left the show there were still crowds flooding in, so hopefully the show is a financial success for the organisers. As always it's a big thank you to Showmasters, the staff and volunteers and the guests for putting this together.

Free autographs from Bobby is very generous. I hope people appreciate the gesture from a true gentleman.

Possibly the best guest ever announced!

Sad news about Stan. Like many here I was fortunate to meet him when he came over to LFCC and that priceless interaction will be a memory I will treasure forever. Today the world seems a little dimmer.

Unless Showmasters have some radical plans I think Autographica might not happen again. The Bond girls are now headlining another Showmasters event and unfortunately astronauts not involved in Apollo don't seem to draw the crowds, unbelievable as that sounds. From a business perspective it makes sense to concentrate on profitable events, that said, I hope I am wrong because I also miss the Autographica events.

Just want to pass my thanks on to the guys and gals in the Pre-Order office at Showmasters. Nothing will ever beat meeting a guest face to face. Some of the interactions I have had with guests over the years have been priceless. But priorities change and long gone are the days when I can justify traveling the length of the country to meet a couple of guest (being an adult sucks). So this year I thought I'd give pre-ordering a go. I made two orders, one was a send-in photo the other was a photo from the pre-order site. Both have arrived in perfect condition, signed where I wanted and how I wanted. A fantastic service and something I will definitely be using again.

There are a few I've missed, for one reason or another, and regretted. At Autographica (can't remember which one) I decided not to meet Scott Carpenter as I couldn't afford his autograph at the time. It would be his last appearance in the UK. I also decided not to meet the stars of Buck Rogers, Gil Gerard and Erin Gray, when they came over. Still don't know why I swerved the stars of one of my favourite childhood shows. But my biggest regret was not hanging around to meet Kenny Baker one last time. I had met Kenny at a few shows over the years, got a couple of autographs, and was even lucky enough to have a quick conversation with him and his wife. But I'd never found that one special image I wanted him to sign. I had finally found that special R2-D2 image, got a copy, and took it to an LFCC (the one John Ratzenberger was at). After meeting all the other guests I wanted I got into Kenny's queue. As I got near the front Kenny was lead away for his photo shoot and I was told he wouldn't be back for an hour. I had the choice of an hours wait, missing a train and not getting home for another six hours. Or to hang around, meet Kenny, and get home very late. My justification for leaving was I'll catch Kenny next time which sadly never came.

That's two massive announcements. Well done for bringing two big sports personalities. Fingers crossed for a few more.

Congrats SM, this is a big sporting announcement. Keep these big names coming.

I got to meet him a few years ago, he is a genuinely nice guy. Good announcement.

I believe Usain Bolt might looking for a new line of work in the near future.

Just seen a rerun of his Frasier episode. I dear someone to ask him to do thier kids party.

NFL stars is a great idea. The sport has grown bigger over the last decade &, if marketed right, bringing NFL legends to the UK could generate lots of interest.

Think they were called 'Midlands Framing & Memorabilia' but I can't find a web site for them.

You'll have to go some to better Pele but some sports legends I'd like to see; Martin Johnson Johnny Wilkinson (or any of the 2003 winning World Cup team) Lennox Lewis Sir Bobby Charlton Maradona (hey, who thought we'd ever get Pele?) Nigel Mansell