Awesome time

[Purple Cheese Monkey]

I have mainly been a reader on here the last year or so, but I wanted to put down my thoughts from this past weekend, well mainly the Saturday.

 

I had a great time!

 

I went with a friend who had never been to a con' in her life. She loved it all!

 

I was amazed at how long the 11am queue was - I don't think I've ever seen a queue that long, and I've been going to all the SM/ME [general] events since CM:2. But, this isn't a complaint.

 

I found that the queue moved very quickly, which was great, as I had spent 3hrs stuck in a horrid queue to get into another event run by 'the others'.

 

Coming into the show to see the Batmobile upon entry was awesome. Such an iconic vehicle, no matter how camp the show was It was so shiny I found it hard to photograph! Anyways...

 

I went in with the plan of meeting the big two: Karen and Chris Lloyd.

I mean no disrispect to the other guests, I just mean these were the big two for me, and by the queues, the same could be said for many fans.

 

While waiting for my VQ ticket numbers to come up, I'd gone with my friends to the DeLorean photo op area, and although that turned out to be a bit of a disaster (with their bad batch of ink problems, and my friend not getting her photo) it was still fun.

 

I went to meet a few of the guests from Harry Potter, who were all very nice and chatty. I also got to meet (again) the guys from 'Electric Man' who are just brilliant. A big hello to Emily, Toby, David and Scott!!!

 

I'd also met (again) Jeffrey Weissman, who is such a nice guy. I was starting to chat with him when a guy from the press came over and asked Jeffrey if he could take a photo of him signing. Jeffrey said to him that he was currently talking with me, and asked if I minded, to which I said no. The press guy did his bit, and then started talking about News of the World. But the guy kept talking and talking. Jeffrey kept looking at me as if to say 'sorry' or maybe it was 'help me!' ...

 

After a bit, the press guy went off and I continued talking to Jeffey. We chatted about the original lobby card I had asked to get signed from BTTF2, and he was amazed at how great the condition was. He told me that I must go and show it to Lea, which was my intention anyway... as she was on it (to get it signed).

 

I then urged my friend to come over and meet him, too. She was a bit shy, but Jeffrey asked her to come say hi, too. He then told us about his time (17 years!) working at Universal on the BTTF ride. He asked us if were planning on meeting Christopher, and I said we were, but our ticket number were over the 1000 mark, so it probably wouldn't happen. He told me to go up to Christopher queue and tell the crew members to let us jump the queue, because Jeffrey had sent us! (We didn't try this...!). But before we left Jeffrey he shook our hands and gave my friend his last trading card, for free, as it was her first convention and he was the first guest she'd met.

 

My friend and I then went to meet Lea, who like Jeffrey is great to meet - she has loads of time for her fans.

I showed Lea my lobby card and asked if she'd sign it, telling her that Jeffrey told me to bring it around and show her. She said it was great and asked what I'd like signed and where. My friend also got an auto' from Lea. Her first one, which she is still chuffed about now

 

Well, the day was drawing to a close, and I knew that I wasn't going to be meeting Chris this time around. I thought I go and have a last look at Karen's VQ numbers, just to see what she'd gotten upto.

 

There was no queue there, but it was about 5.57pm. I spoke to the crew guy there about the numbers, and even though my number wasn't up he said that if I could make it passed the 'doorway' within 2 minutes I could meet her. The last few people infront of me had just moved forward and... I made it in!

 

I picked up an 8x10 to get signed and took along one of those 1mtr long poster prints (that I already had gotten signed by Alex at CM) to get signed also. But as the last of the fans were moving forward I notice on Karens desk she only had black or blue pens, and my poster was mainly black. Luckily I took my own silver sharpie (just incase).

 

I asked Karen's crew assistant if Karen could sign in silver, which was no problem. The crew member took my pen and passed it to Karen, saying 'special pen', to which Karen repeated in a comedy way "Special Pen!". Then the crew passed Karen my photo, saying 'photo', to which Karen did the same again, and then again with my poster.

 

I said to Karen thank you for coming and signing my stuff, and she said thank you to me, and passed me my stuff saying "Photo! Poster! Special Pen!". Although there wasn't really much said, I found the experience of meeting her pleasent and it didn't feel cattle-herded rushed (like meeting the Shatner years back in MK).

 

That was pretty much the Saturday over with. We had a brilliant time. My friend loved it and wants me to take her to more SM events. Although she's not a massive fan of cult tv/film, she said that she just loved being there.

 

I went back on the Sunday, alone this time, as I was mainly going for my prebooked Chris Lloyd & DeLorean photoshoot. Due to the trains and the 11am queue, I only just made it into the con' with 5 minutes to go until the shoot started.

 

Although I love my photo with Chris (it turned out awesome) I was a bit dissapointed, like a few others in the queue infront of me, that the shoot would have us kneeling next to Chris in the car. I, like the others, were kinda thinking we would be recreating the iconic image of Marty and Doc next to open door looking at our watches. But I can understand that this pose would be very tiring for Chris, and possbily take up too much time getting into 'pose' for the photographer.

 

After the shoot I went to get another VQ ticket for Chris, and then spent most of the afternoon looking at all of the stalls (as there weren't so many fans, I could have a good, proper look) and went to see the guys at Electric Man again.

 

Well I did manage to meet Chris, after asking Too Tall if I should stay for the last 20mins before closing time with the number ticket I had, to which he informed me that it didn't look to matter what number I was as people had just formed a massive queue which almost stretched from Chris's table to the entrance doors!So I joined the queue, and about 5mins into my waiting crew members were coming up line saying we should stay in the queue as Chris was kind enough to stay past closing time to sign for all the fans.

 

So I managed to meet him, say hello again, got my poster signed and got a signed photo for my friend who came on the Saturday.

 

After that I went to collect my photo from the shoot, and was amazed to find there were two printed of me. So I got a bonus one! Cool

 

I had gone to the table a few times to find my photo, but couldn't be bothered with all the pushing & shoving at the time. I don't blame SM or the crew for this, just the fans.

 

Well, that's pretty much it from me. If you've stuck with reading my thoughts/comments, well done, I do go on...!

 

I want to finish by saying a big thank you to Jason and all of his team, and to all of the guests, even the ones I didn't meet! I had a great time!

 

- Richard (PCM)