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My Saturday


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My Saturday, the good the bad & a few suggestions.

 

Bad: my knee.

 

Suggestion: don't bang your knee into a door frame, it hurts like hell.

 

Bad: not being able to do the full day again. One day I swear I'll make it for a whole weekend.

 

Bad: it's June so of course it rained.

 

Good: the free bus worked well with the designated drop off/pick up point outside the stadium. A vast improvement.

 

Good: the Early Bird ticket allowed me to get a low numbered VQ ticket I needed (more on VQ's later). If the small price for the EB ticket helps improve the show in the future I'm all for it.

 

Good: the shows layout worked well but there were a few choke points. Not sure on the marquee though. It felt like the stalls in there were an afterthought.

 

Suggestion: bigger, better, more visible signage.

 

Good: finally getting to meet Frank Bruno. For whatever reason I've been able to miss him at his previous appearances. Top bloke.

 

Good: finally getting Sir Geoff Hurst to sign the last piece I need his autograph on. Like Frank I managed to miss him the last couple of times. Also a top guest to meet.

 

Good: Willie Carson was a laugh & looked to be enjoying himself.

 

Bad: what looked like a complete breakdown of the VQ system for Anthony Joshua. It's annoying to see people push, bully & BS their way into the queue while those of us who 'play by the rules' miss out. Also have the impression the 5 item rule wasn't enforced because that queue didn't get moving for along time after Anthony arrived.

 

Suggestions:

1/ don't leave an inexperienced crew member to man the queue & handout VQ tickets by themselves. The poor guy looked shell shocked. A popular, rare, first time signer should have been crewed by more people so the queue was managed properly, questions answered & the scrum of people hanging around moved on.

2/ have an explanation of the VQ system printed in big letters (not the standard A4 signs normally used) or hand out flyers with an explanation so the poor solitary crew member doesn't have to explain the system to every single person taking a VQ ticket. Remember that not every person at the show reads this forum so has no idea how things work.

3/ enforce the VQ rules. I saw many people who had higher VQ numbered tickets get in before their number was called. Maybe I should have been as cheeky as them & push/BS my way past the crew member but that's not how I roll...unfortunately.

 

Bad: missing out meeting Anthony Joshua. I hope his popularity will persuade SM to get him back again soon.

 

Bad: rude smelly people.

 

Good: the popularity of this event. I haven't seen it that busy for a while.

 

Bad: so many people meant very little space.

 

So I missed out on a big guest & couldn't do the show for the whole weekend but overall I enjoyed today. This event is getting bigger & bigger. At this rate SM will have to build their own purpose built arena.

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Mate if you see people Q jumping let them crew know. There's security for the sports guests and they'll send them to the back. Are you sure you didn't see people with Gold passes or people with disability passes? I've got to agree about a few people lacking in hygiene, tesco has got 99p right guard people!!!! The rain was proper bobbins, in the 50 feet from the gate to the car I was drowned lol. Also I've got to agree with the fee being a good idea. Only used it to get VQs but I bet it saved me an hour of queues

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My first Collectormania and really enjoyed it! Got autographs from everyone I was planning on meeting - Gazza, John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, Velvet Sky and The Dudley Boyz.

 

I did though find it a strange layout. It was very squashed round areas especially of the more popular guests. This though is my only complaint of a very enjoyable day.

 

Oh and a special mention about the free bus service. Despite people's previous experiences I thought It was very well run and the driver pleasant.

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Yeah I thought the bus was a marked improvement. Enjoyed my day, but one point. this event was popular, but would of been even busier if they had replaced the calibre of guests that had cancelled. Hope they will expand the media guests next year.

Yeah the event was lacking in the media guests department. Luckily for me though I like my football and wrestling!

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went today and got autographs for, Christine Adams, Samuel Anderson and Rupert Vansittart, All where very lovely guests!!! and I got a photo done with Samuel!! I also won a signed A3 picture of Eve Myles on the bidding section... My first time bidding and it was fun!

It got very busy after 11am and the stalls in the marquee was so cramped no one could move or even look at the stalls, I did manage to buy 2 Doctor who pictures from this stall that does his own pictures. really good!

Didn't like the fact that the cosplay stage took out part of the concourse as the very small part to get though got harder and harder to get through as it got busier... I felt really sorry for the disabled people in wheel chairs getting through that cause their wasn't much room and also held everyone up (No fault of their own of course)

apart from a lack of guests I have had a really good day!!! :-) Bring on tomorrow, (Hopefully it will be quiet in the morning from 9-10 so the early birds can brose without being pushed and shoved!

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Good points

 

Guests

 

Staff

 

Dealers

 

Photoshoots

 

Bad points

 

I agree that there were some very rude attendees some of which did smell slightly.

 

Lack of seating - stadium seats seemed to have been blocked off.

 

Dealers seem to have been treated badly and put in a tent out the front.

 

Underwhelming gold pass goodies.

 

Lots of bottle necks on the concourse.

 

Why was the cosplay seating put in the middle of a walk way?

Edited by Avengers7
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I stayed until about 11:15. As no photo ops this time (I need to lose weight ha ha ha) I could get my autos and leave. I was there for sports guests too, but my personal opinion was the movie and TV attendees are generally more friendly, not saying sports attendees are rude, but a few are there for business so suppose it's a different morivivation.

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enjoyed the day despite a lack of big names ( for me ) in the film/TV area. Mainly went for the boxers and as usual they were all super friendly.Big shout outs to Kevin Mitchell and Anthony Joshua, what nice guys. Concourse was too congested which was a pain at times.photoshoots were run superbly, another shout out to the Welsh guy at photo area A. good job in organising.Outside Tent was a bad idea for dealers. too cramped and poorly signed.I walked around for 2 hours before i even noticed it. gave up after 10 minutes trying to get around it. Buses were on time and drivers much better and the drop off and pick up point next to the ground is much better than dealing with that busy road like last year. all in all , enjoyed it but needs better guests.I know lots of people who just didn't come, never seen the entry queues so quiet.

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Good points:

 

- the guests (super friendly ones I met were Samuel Anderson, Christine Adams, Nick Blood, Alexandra Downling, Charlotte Hope, Toby Sebastian, Art Parkinson (and his lovely mum!), Rupert Vansittart and Eugene Simon). They all posed for photos over the table, all were chatty and smily, and all seemed happy to be there. What a great bunch.

 

- the staff - great bunch of Showmasters staff managing queues with a particular shout out to the guy looking after Photo Area A who really made it easy for everyone to know where they were standing and what was going on

 

- the dealers - friendly as ever, good selection of stuff. Quite surprised to see Cats Protection there, but a nice idea, I certainly gave them a donation :-)

 

- generally it seemed better attended than the last one, and this despite the lack of guests compared to other ones

 

- early bird tickets - kept the place manageable to get around for a couple of hours, what a great idea

 

Bad points:

 

- concourse area being a crush in certain places, particularly going past guests with a queue or the cosplay area

 

- as usual out on that concourse it was drafty in places because of the weather

 

 

Overall I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, after guests cancelled that I wanted to see.....

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Mate if you see people Q jumping let them crew know. There's security for the sports guests and they'll send them to the back. Are you sure you didn't see people with Gold passes or people with disability passes?

Think I didn't explain it properly, these people were bullying the crew member to be allowed into the queue. I know a few had higher numbered VQ tickets then me because I saw them collecting tickets after me & they had to have the system explained to them.

Yes I could have caused a fuss & maybe pushed/BS'd/complained or just out-&-out bullied my way past the young lad managing the queue, but like I said that's not my style. More fool me I suppose.

By the way this is by no means a criticism of the crew I just feel they were poorly supported.

Edited by 18blue78
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My only complaint was the fact that it was so cramped and crowded. Very little room to manoevre in such narrow spaces, and I had to wait until 5 o'clock to have a proper look around the stalls because I just couldn't get near enough to anything to have a look at stuff. If the arena hadn't been double booked, there may have been more space, and the rain meant everybody was packed inside. Very claustrophobic and not convenient for me with my sword prop strapped to my back! I was worried I would hit people with it while trying to get through.

On a better note, I got to meet up with some very good friends of mine, took some photos with some amazing cosplayers, and got to meet five guests. Also picked up some great jewellery, coasters, posters and various other bits of stall merch. Very long and exhausting day, but well worth it!

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Well, What a nice day for me too... Buses on time, Picked up in the right places. Managed to get through my 30 photo shoots booked for today, So spent all my time going from A to B. Photo shoot crew were a real great help. The guy on A was fantastic making sure I never missed my shoots. Thanks mate.

 

Guests were great, It was great to meet so many sport stars. My only moan for today was why was there no Time table of the shoots on the Photo shoot floor... There was so much room up there you could of plastered them everywhere...

 

See ya all tomorrow for another lunatic day.. :smile:

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Visited Collectormania 23 with my wife for a fun afternoon of wandering around the event. Shame the main hall was double-booked on this occasion though (at least, this was what I heard whilst there today).

 

The marquee where the stalls were was pretty jampacked most of the time - but I managed to get around there a bit later when it was a bit quieter. Some interesting stalls there too with new items this time which had not been seen before. Was tempted on a few items but ended up leaving empty-handed - no fault to any of the stalls or Showmasters though.

 

The weather was a bit rainy, but this was as the forecasts described.

 

I would agree with other posters on this thread about the pinch point next to the cosplay stage. Don't get me wrong, the cosplay stage did look good (we saw the Aragorn/LOTR cosplayer show himself off as we were walking past) but the very small passageway to get through was not good. It seemed silly to have the doors locked of the original walkway though :(

 

To summarise, we'll certainly be back for future Collectormania events in due course. Personally I have been to most of these since Collectormania #2, when the Dutch acting legend, Rutger Hauer, was there in person to sign autographs. Would love to see him back at some point in the near future too.

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Okay, what I heard at the event-- as I was leaving, my mother's boyfriend was outside having a cigarette and was talking to a crew member-- he mentioned that there will in fact be another event in November. Of course we've been lead to believe that CMK will only be a once-a-year thing from now on, but this is what we were told by a staff member at the event itself. Is this true?

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Okay, what I heard at the event-- as I was leaving, my mother's boyfriend was outside having a cigarette and was talking to a crew member-- he mentioned that there will in fact be another event in November. Of course we've been lead to believe that CMK will only be a once-a-year thing from now on, but this is what we were told by a staff member at the event itself. Is this true?

 

I haven't spoken to the office since Friday, but this is most certainly the first thing I hear. If anything changed this was a very recent development I have not been made aware of. Maybe a big guest became available, we had dates appearing/changing on occasion because of guest availability.

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I'm taking all of this with a pinch of salt. You never know. Still, it's a glimmer of hope, I suppose? Either way-- if there is a November one, yay, only five more months. If there isn't, oh well, we've got a whole year to prepare for the next one which means hopefully more stuff.

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