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My Saturday


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good points-met froch,gazza,Beardsley.

drove down so didn't get soaked waiting for buses,trains

 

bad points- getting a bit crowded now,like a cow shed!!

hygiene matters

PEOPLE WANTING 1001 GLOVES AND SHORTS SIGNED,WHAT CHANCE HAVE THE REST OF US GOT?????

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I quite like the concourse (mainly because it's open air and you can breathe - I get so horribly hot and sweaty in most event locations), although I agree that closing off that area where Kenny Baker usually signs and reducing the walkway outside to that narrow space was a major mistake. Also, yes, most of the chairs on the upper row of the stadium, which are usually accessible, were closed off as well, which was a shame. Those chairs are very handy for a quick sit down and rest. (I notice a comment that suggests that this was perhaps all outside SM's control?)

 

I didn't dare venture into the dealer area in the outside tent on the Saturday as it was heaving despite the bad weather, although it was fine on the Sunday.

 

Hygiene issues happen at all events, unfortunately. Some people just don't understand the concept of deodorant (or haven't planned for potential Deodorant Fail once they arrive).

 

Major BOO to the dealer who apparently went in and snaffled practically all the William Sadler Star Trek DS9 photos in the morning, meaning a substantial interval of time where attendees couldn't get one to be signed (yesss, it's always a risk and one should take one's own prints to be guaranteed signage, but that was a major role IMHO, so I think most of us were justified in expecting them to be there). However, big YAY to the crew member who bent over backwards to get replacements printed and proactively kept people like me updated on the current situation whenever she ran into us, bless her (the replacement photos were available well before I expected them, which was even better).

 

I did like the photoshoot areas being situated above the main concourse - very spacious and no queues contributing to bottlenecks there, at least, and plenty of facilities so one can go for a quick pre-photo preen...

 

While it was weird not seeing as many guests as I have done in recent years, I was actually grateful for the smaller number of guests this year as I really have to be counting the pennies this time, and I was also lucky to have the photoshoot schedule work for me in such a way as to allow me lie-ins on both days (something I really needed) and plenty of chances to get most of my autos on the Saturday so I could leave circa 2pm on Sunday (which has NEVER happened before). All in all, a very relaxed and enjoyable event for me.

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Arrived around 10:30 Sunday, thankfully it was pretty quiet as the concourse was full of bottlenecks etc, I thought the whole idea of being at the stadium was to use the big room downstairs like last year. I'm a big fan of having the event in Milton Keynes but bearing in mind previous issues on temperature etc, and it seeming that the main reason for cancelling one of the two MK events is late notification of football fixtures WHY HOLD THE EVENTS AT THIS VENUE ???? Unless Showmasters get the stadium for free why not look at alternative venues in MK.

 

The three guests I met were great Steven Williams, Costas Mandylor and Chad Coleman, all happy to chat for a minute or two and pose for a picture.

 

As always a big thank you to Showmasters for making it possible to meet these USA based actors.

Edited by mulderandmonkeys
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Ahhh, where to start... Well my Friend and I set off from Southend later than we usually do as we weren't gonna pay £5, we managed to find a parking space then (in the frickin rain) made our way to gate 5 (was very nice to see a Royal appreciator bowing majestically at me as we passed each other that was so nice :))

 

Once in we made our way around the concourse to get our bearings and get an idea of where each guest was etc, we met up with good Friends and chilled out/geeked out then on we went to meet Steve Williams, we got our stuff all ready got to the table and there he was, smiling away and so chatty and exceedingly down to Earth - I have nothing but wonderful things to say about this wonderful guest an this lovely guy was worth going to just to meet him - in my opinion he was a headlining guest and the time he spent with us just made it so worth it. And this easily is up there as one of the best meets with a guest/or indeed famous person ever - was great to see he was more than fine with doing table pics and this I'm really happy with because that just added to such a wonderful experience :)

 

Having met Steven we did a few more circuits of the concourse and met up with another lovely good Friend - shes awesome and dare I say a wonderful crew member ;)

 

After seeing some rather amazing cosplayers we then went out into the tent that was erected where the stockists were, my goodness was it muggy in there - too stuffy for me so I waited just outside the doors in the fresh air for my Friend then it was orf to meet up with good Friends who had gone to see William Sadler......

 

Being a Trek fan that was who my two Friends had queued up to go and meet him for, and the look of disappointment in their faces when they came out after seeing him was nothing short of crestfallen and the reason why this convention was almost a bad experience? Because some flipping dealer had got in early and greedily nabbed ALL the Star Trek pictures (clearly not caring about the Fans) my Friend wasn't at all happy about this, in fact they were #Fuming over this and rightly so, this is something that needs to be addressed in future - it was the same last year when people who had travelled from all over (the World) had come to see Stan Lee #REALFANS who were genuinely excited to see him, but because of the greedy dealers who probably couldn't care less who Stan Lee was they just got like a billion things signed and saw the #REALFANS miss out.

 

And this is precisely what happened with William Sadler, all his Trek photos were taken by a dealer leaving my Friends visibly upset by this, for me, thats the worst thing in the world - I don't like seeing those whom I care about being upset and this was exactly what happened - the very VERY lovely crew member went off with the last sample Trek pic to see if any more Trek photos were going to be printed off - came back with the news that they weren't and out of the goodness of her Heart gave the Trek pic to my Friend to get signed - what an amazing crew member to have done that. Bravo :)

 

Could there in future be some kind of cut off point for dealers? So that this sort of thing doesn't happen again? Its just not very nice for the #RealFans who miss out because of the dealers.

 

A bit later on my Friend had gone back to the car and so I went around the concourse in a leisurely fashion and very much enjoying the sights and sounds.

 

Went to see the very lovely Anthony Carrigan, such a very decent and down to earth chap who was very nice when signing my Gotham pic, I told him how HUGE Gotham is over here and what a nice guy he was :)

 

And now onto the bottleneck situation that went on near the cosplay area which saw that walkway closed, for the most part (from my own experience) people were typically British about the whole thing and allowed others through from both ways, but thats rather a narrow walkway and at one point in the day we were behind this lady in a wheelchair, my goodness did she have problems getting past other people in fact at one point this lady in the wheelchair was two inches away from careening down the steps (fortunately that didn't happen but thats just how close she was) a bit later on in the day the haphazard way the barrier was placed almost saw me going head over posterior.

 

Saturday was a very interesting day - a lot of fun to boot, back in the day we used to come to these events to meet Guests and have a wonderful time doing so but because of all the lovely, decent, wonderful people I've met over the years and become very much acquainted with its now a place to come and see and catch up with Friends (first) and geek out with, then meet lovely Guests.

 

All in all Saturday (apart from the William Sadler lack of Star Trek picss and the bottleneck situation) was a terrific day and has cemented indelible happy memories :)

 

P.S. A big hi to the Royal Fan who pointed themselves out to me just before I got to the carpark - I'm glad you like my posts on here :)

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The Good and the Bad

 

The Good

Great to meet up and chat with friends and have to say all the guests I met, both sports (Brooking, Barnes, Beardsley, Vaughan and Selby) and film/tv (Williams, Sadler, Mandylor, Adams, Dowling, Hope, Van Sittart, Hagon, Carrigan) were great, very friendly and chatty, all good experiences. Early bird seemed to work well, clear queue lines, made it easier to get VQ and photo tickets on arrival without massive queues. Photoshoots worked well, it is a joy to have them properly organised and the ability to pick up your photo straight away, unlike other some other shows, staff were friendly and helpful.

 

The Bad

It was easy to miss things on the concourse, completely missed William Sadler's signing area on my first circuit to pick up a VQ, a lot of dealers tucked away in a big tent which was struggling in many areas to keep the rain out, got very hot and stuffy in there. Also missed the photoshoot areas on my first circuit as well. The space on the concourse, particularly near the Cosplay area, this was an accident waiting to happen, noticed a number of people tripping there over the legs on the barriers, as people were so crowded and tightly packed in that area they couldn't see the barrier legs sticking out. Have to agree with others as well in terms of attendees in wheelchairs this was very tricky for them to navigate and through no fault of their own they became an obstacle in this area for the fluid flow of people. Fortunately most people are very patient, but I don't think it is fair to have an area like this where it is effectively making the wheelchair attendee an obstacle for people to get by.

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You'll have to send me that pic sometime :) very sorry I couldn't stop and have a proper chat, I was with people and the concourse was so packed it was difficult to really stop for long.

 

I hope you liked it :) You don't have to apologise, I fully understand, noticed you were with Friends and didn't want to impose just saw you amidst all the hustle and bustle wanted to say a quick hi and get a quick pic :) Hopefully I'll see you at LFCC (I'm considering another cosplay which I think you may like ;)

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The Good

 

I got all the autographs I wanted in the morning, and when I was in costume lots of punters and guests wanted their photo taken with me.

 

The Bad the concourse was not a nice place to be more space is needed for the event to grow

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I had a great time, but I must ask. Why on earth was it all on the concourse and in that tent :headscratch:

 

Last year the hall we had been waiting for years to use was finally finished and it was very useful. Ideal whatever the weather.

 

The concourse is just a wind trap, colder than it is outside. The partitions helped, but still not good. The weather was good in the days leading to the event, but it can't be predicted so it would be preferable to hold it indoors. Even the smaller indoor area was closed. Why was this? Surely the venue had enough notice.

 

I did enjoy myself but the venue's problems seem to persist.

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I had a great time, but I must ask. Why on earth was it all on the concourse and in that tent :headscratch:

 

Last year the hall we had been waiting for years to use was finally finished and it was very useful. Ideal whatever the weather.

 

The concourse is just a wind trap, colder than it is outside. The partitions helped, but still not good. The weather was good in the days leading to the event, but it can't be predicted so it would be preferable to hold it indoors. Even the smaller indoor area was closed. Why was this? Surely the venue had enough notice.

 

I did enjoy myself but the venue's problems seem to persist.

I wasn't at the show myself but I believe that there was some sort of double booking, I'm sure that the issues that have been raised on here will be addressed in due course.

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SM need to get Costas Mandylor back for another event, because I had intended to talk to him about the various Saw movies and fangirl about reverse bear traps and ask him questions about Hoffman and instead he said "hello baby" and I turned into a giggly woozy mess.

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Good points:-

 

All the guests that I met we pleasant and seemed genuinely happy to be there. All the film/t.v. people were happy to have photos taken at the table with no fuss. It was great to meet Anthony Carrigan, Samuel Anderson, Nick Blood, Alexandra Dowling and Christine Adams amongst others

The crew as always were helpful and friendly barring one member who was a little too sharp for my liking.

The cos-players were amazing they had really pulled out all the stops this year. The 10ft Skeleton was fantastic as was the lady dressed as the blue haired fairy (sorry not sure of the character they were representing), Obi Wan and Tony Stark look-alikes. They were also many more that deserve credit.

 

Bad points:-

The sellers tent was awful. It was crowded with people struggling to get past each other and because of the rain the floor was wet making it feel even worse.

The area around the cos-play stage was crowded and the path through was bottle necked with people trying to get both ways at the same time.

The sports people were really disappointing with the entire lot not allowing posed photos. I can understand that if they are busy they may not be able to be accommodating but half of them had nobody in their queue and were just signing spare photographs. They were in a bright enough area so people wouldn't have needed flash on their cameras therefore no chance of headaches. Most looked completely dis-interested in the whole event.

Having said early about the cos-players being great which the majority were, there was a few who seemed not very happy at people looking at them. There were a few who gave dirty looks if you glanced in their direction. No dis-respect to them but if you are going to dress up and you look different to everyone else in a crowd people are going to notice you.

 

My only other comment would be some of the guests on the row of several signers at times seemed busier than some that were separate from the rest. This did at time lead to queues forming making it difficult for people trying to get around them.

 

Having said all that I really enjoyed this years Collectormania and look forward to the next one!!

Edited by Blue Box Type 40
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I am already desperately anticipating the start of the Collectormania 24 forum. It's a little bit sad how these events are (quite literally) the only things I look forward to and get excited about all year round... probably not cool for a 20 year old to be admitting that. :blush:

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The Good: Getting a chance to cosplay with my wife and daughter was great and there were a lot of supportive remarks. Picking up a comic I had been after for ages was another high-point. There were so many people who, despite the heat, were being polite and seemed honestly happy to see cosplayers and especially child cosplayers.

 

The Bad: The heat and the humidity, not to mention the smell of people affected by the heat and humidity, were an issue. It was almost made worse by the fact that there were so many open areas where you suddenly got cold. And the press of people was not easy for someone carrying a sword and shield, especially the number of rude people who would force their way past you and push children out of their way; I have no idea how that Jupiter Ascending cosplayer got through the weekend with her impressive costume.

 

I am already desperately anticipating the start of the Collectormania 24 forum. It's a little bit sad how these events are (quite literally) the only things I look forward to and get excited about all year round... probably not cool for a 20 year old to be admitting that. :blush:

Hey, I'm a little more than 20 and I'm still getting excited about CMMK 24 already. If it happens in November, expect me to be even more excited.

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The Good: Getting a chance to cosplay with my wife and daughter was great and there were a lot of supportive remarks. Picking up a comic I had been after for ages was another high-point. There were so many people who, despite the heat, were being polite and seemed honestly happy to see cosplayers and especially child cosplayers.

 

The Bad: The heat and the humidity, not to mention the smell of people affected by the heat and humidity, were an issue. It was almost made worse by the fact that there were so many open areas where you suddenly got cold. And the press of people was not easy for someone carrying a sword and shield, especially the number of rude people who would force their way past you and push children out of their way; I have no idea how that Jupiter Ascending cosplayer got through the weekend with her impressive costume.

 

I am already desperately anticipating the start of the Collectormania 24 forum. It's a little bit sad how these events are (quite literally) the only things I look forward to and get excited about all year round... probably not cool for a 20 year old to be admitting that. :blush:

Hey, I'm a little more than 20 and I'm still getting excited about CMMK 24 already. If it happens in November, expect me to be even more excited.

1) I am desperately happy and excited to see you here.

2) I still don't know when the next CMK is happening. Forum says next year, staff member at the venue said this November. But when it does, expect to see me fangirling once again.

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I WAS the last Saturday in Milton Keynes. I'M DRIVEN WITH THE BUS FROM GERMANY TO LONDON. WHEN WE ARRIVED IN CALAIS GOODS, we had to wait longer 25 minutes, because you have a Taiwanese not enter LET WANTED. It was felt, YOU WOULD stay there. When she finally WITH WAS, missed catching the ferry UM 2 minutes and had an hour on the nights FERRY WAIT. WHEN WE ARRIVED IN LONDON GOODS, it took due to construction almost 45 minutes to get from the tower TO WESTMINSTER STATION TO COME. In the stations there was a chaos. I needed SNAKES FOR 30 MINUTES TO MY day ticket to get. There was no switch but ONLY MACHINES. I drove from London Euston to Milton Keynes BY TRAIN and from there by bus to the MK STADIUM. I was pretty irritated. THE WAY to the stands were much too long and too narrow. I did not know where THERE HAD. Could not immediately see where the photoshoot TICKETS PURCHASED MUST. Then you had to FAR WALKING AROUND photographer to come and then also up through the corridor, something very poorly marked WAR. SINCE I WAS too late, but still some photos MAKE LET WANTED, BAT DO I STAND AT THE SPORTSMAN a photo with MY PRIVATE camera make let MAY. If I had paid for. SHOWMASTERS DENIED ME. That might have 10 SECONDS lasted. I think that MAN with such problems SOMEONE SHOULD a helping hand. I am now on 30 CONVENTIONS BEEN. DA THERE WAS with something never had problems. I had a hard ride behind me and could only 3 photos do, although I 10 ever wanted. The toilets were dirty and the location was for A CONVENTION TOTALLY inappropriate. I think that CONVENTIONS IN ENGLAND ALWAYS SHOULD TAKE PLACE IN LONDON. EVERYONE FROM EUROPE CAN THERE SUPER BY PLANE, BUS OR TRAIN go. IT IS the quickest and the cheapest source.

YOU also wants to GET visitors from other countries and you want to get close for the trip SO little money as possible to spend. One can THEN IN autographs and PHOTOSHOOTS mating. I am often in London and hope Anthony Joshua, Geoff Hurst and Paul Gascoine THERE WILL GET THERE.

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I think that CONVENTIONS IN ENGLAND ALWAYS SHOULD TAKE PLACE IN LONDON. EVERYONE FROM EUROPE CAN THERE SUPER BY PLANE, BUS OR TRAIN go. IT IS the quickest and the cheapest source.

YOU also wants to GET visitors from other countries and you want to get close for the trip SO little money as possible to spend. One can THEN IN autographs and PHOTOSHOOTS mating. I am often in London and hope Anthony Joshua, Geoff Hurst and Paul Gascoine THERE WILL GET THERE.

I'm going to disagree with you here. If they only host them in London, then it is possible there would only be the 2 per year at risk of overdoing them in the one location. By spreading them across the country, you are able to host more per year.

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First, all caps is considered shouting. Please stop doing that. I get it you're upset, but there's no need for that. :smile:

 

tompain is totally right. London is a good venue for us overseas travelers, but it can only handle a certain amount of events. (We've been through that a couple of times before in several threads.)

 

You can pre-buy your travel tickets online if you don't want to use the machines. If traveling in London you could look into getting an Oyster card. I find London ticket machines much less confusing than the ones by Deutsche Bahn by the way. :lol: And Germany often enough doesn't even offer buying tickets from a human anymore. The UK at least has limited capacities for that.

 

Also I am not sure what SM could do about your travel issues? Really sorry to hear about that ferry chaos, but that would have happened too if London was your final destination. London traffic is always mental. You'd be facing that if the event was in London too.

 

If you had problems on the day the solution is to ask crew, the nice guys in the blue shirts. They would have been happy to help you find things.

 

Photos in line will be stopped when crowd when crowds get too long. That's the most common reason. You say it only takes 10 seconds. But it's 10 seconds for you, 10 seconds for the next person... and that is if the camera is working, which often enough never happens. Within a handful of people we're easily at several minutes delay. Most conventions in Germany have a strict ban of all photography in the autograph sessions, no matter how quiet it is or not. Showmasters has no general ban. That's the best solution that can be offered. How would you like it if you arrive late due to more travel issues and then found out you couldn't see the guest you like cause the line was around the stadium?

 

The event had multiple issues with the venue, I am sure those will be raised with the venue if that hasn't happened already.

 

I'm going to repeat in German cause I think that is easier for Schlangomat.

 

Und das Ganze nochmal auf Deutsch:

 

Erst mal, bitte schreib nicht nur in Großbuchstaben. Schreien ist unnötig.

 

tompain hat schon recht. London verträgt nun mal nur eine gewisse Anzahl an Events. Milton Keynes war nun mal der Platz wo Showmasters Events ihren Anfang genommen haben. Ich weiß nicht ob Du die Vorgeschichte kennst, vorher waren die Shows sogar in einem Einkaufszentrum. Da hättest Du mal Enge und Chaos erleben können. ;)

 

Ich verstehe jetzt auch nicht ganz was London mit dem Foto-Verbot zu tun hat. Die meisten Conventions haben sogar ein generelles Verbot von Fotos in der Autogrammstunde. Das gibt's bei Showmasters nicht. Fotos werden (neben Wünschen von Gästen und Agenten) nur gestoppt wenn die Schlangen zu lang werden. Auch wenn Du sagst "es dauert doch nur Sekunden", die dauert es dann aber bei jedem. Du glaubst gar nicht, wie schnell sich das summiert. Es wäre auch nicht schön wenn Jemand Anreiseprobleme hat und dann nach einem Horrortrip den Gast gar nicht sieht weil die Schlangen viel zu lang sind, oder?

 

Dass Du Anreiseprobleme hattest tut mir wirklich leid. Aber die ganze Geschichte mit der Fähre wäre Dir auch mit Ziel London passiert. Gleiches mit dem Verkehr innerhalb von London. Dass kaum noch Schalter offen sind ist auch normal, in Deutschland haben wir ja teilweise nicht mal mehr Schalter. Die Ticket-Maschinen sind auch wirklich gar nicht so verwirrend. Hast Du es denn mal probiert da ein Ticket zu kaufen? Einige neuere Maschinen bieten sogar Bedienung in Deutsch an. Sonst google mal "London Oyster Card". Die kann man mit Guthaben kaufen, da wärst Du zumindest fürs Erste das Ticket-Problem eh los.

 

Dass es im Stadion einige Probleme gab (darunter eben eine Doppelbuchung wegen der die Halle nicht zur Verfügung stand) ist leider bekannt und wurde/wird bei einer Nachbesprechung mit der Halle behandelt. Ich bin mir sicher, dass es da Konsequenzen in irgendeiner Form geben wird.

 

Wenn Du Probleme mit der Orientierung hast dann kannst Du jederzeit die Crew ansprechen. Die zeigen Dir gerne wo Du hin musst. Falls sie es nicht wissen dann können sie Dir normalerweise wenigstens sagen wer's weiß.

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