Opinions on the day Sat

[homerj]

All in all a great day, had all 5 autos I went for and 14 photoshoots. Michelle Ryans shoot was a bit late but managed to get there just about.

Ive just been on the Facebook page and read the many complaints about the show and I have to say most of these complaints are attendees faults and not the company. Other attendees pushing each other out of the way, jumping queues, fighting over VQ tickets. I read one that complained he couldn't get a guests auto after turning up at 11. Those of us veterans know that if you really want to meet someone then get there early. Another favourite was someone complaining because he couldn't have a chat with the guests at the desk - come on! If we all did that, there would be complaints.

 

 

Like I said - a large percentage of people had a great time. I agree there was an issue over batch numbers for photos and this was sorted straight away after it was pointed out to them.

[Brasco]

This was my first big con and it pretty much went as expected. I planned my day as best I could, my number one priority was Danny Glover. I had his photo first thing, he was an absolute delight.

I got a VQ for him and eventually got an auto at about 3.45. By this point he was clearly tired and not as chatty as first thing, but he was still very polite. I would expect anyone to be this way as it's a long day.

Having read up on previous experiences at the big 2 I was more than prepared to stand in queues all day for the ones I wanted. It went from one extreme to the other, I missed the Christopher Lambert talk to wait for Danny Glover, but I also got Kristanna Loken, Austin Amellio and Emily Kinney in about 5mins all in. 

My photo clashes probably worked out in my favour as everything was so close together it actually freed up time for autos. There were only 2 I didn't get, but they weren't must haves. Still 6 photos and about a dozen autos later, I'd definitely consider next year line-up dependant. 

[extremeladders]

This was our first of three big conventions this year but we have been attending LFCC for about five years now. I know that if I really want an autograph from a certain guest I either buy a diamond pass (if they have one) or I arrive as early as possible! I know there was some mistakes with the Robert England auto queue but human error happens, it's sad that so many people were disappointed but there was no way he would have got through everyone anyway. I personally enjoyed my time at this event and felt it was run well, my husband had three late afternoon shoots which all ran a bit late but the staff running them were fantastic. Particularly the Scottish guy in the red shirt in photo area B, very loud!  the only thing I found a bit odd was the entrance queue, we queued inside and when it opened we were taken back outside and into another entrance! That just seemed a bit odd! 

Edited June 3, 2018 by extremeladders
Clicked send before finished

[Brasco]

27 minutes ago, extremeladders said:

the only thing I found a bit odd was the entrance queue, we queued inside and when it opened we were taken back outside and into another entrance! That just seemed a bit odd! 

Yeah it was, it did give us a bit of a laugh, I was half expecting some kind of Men In Black flash of light as we stepped back outside and for 9hrs to be unaccounted for lol

[VanXant]

it was ok. signage on the NEC itself was lacking, got early and there was nothing on the carpark signs as my email had said, finally found the hall ok though.

bit odd that Danny Glover didn't have a VQ system until later on, not sure why SM didn't think he would need one. his handler told me he didn't have one then when i went back 20 mins later they were handing them out, fortunately i still got a reasonably low number.

venders were the usual load of overpriced tat, seems very little genuine memorabilia these days, it's 5 stalls of pokemon, 2 of sugary cakes and 12 of vinyl bobblehead-looking things.

room was pretty good, fairly spaced out and the temp was decent.

SM staff doing their usual idiotically persistant "move up move up" litany - do you all not have eyes? do you not see the people in the area already that might appreciate a little breathing space? do you not understand the concept of people maybe not liking strangers squashing up to them for no good reason - especially later in the day when they're likely sweaty and smelly? do you not grasp the fact that squashing up together makes it harder to get bags open at the time to get your items out? or risks an item getting bent or crumpled by someone bumping into you or catching you with their bag as they move, etc etc? do you think me moving 3" closer to the person in front is going to make things go faster? you're not enhancing anyone's convention experience or making things even remotely more efficient with your persistent whining, so either give it a rest or have the common sense to set up some snake-like barriers or something.

didn't quite get the in having us all snake up in the building then get let outside and back in through a different door, why not just make a gap at the end we could file through?

the guests i met were great, Danny and Christophe especially, and Kristanna was just sweet :-)

 

[Dent_1]

15 minutes ago, VanXant said:

it was ok. signage on the NEC itself was lacking, got early and there was nothing on the carpark signs as my email had said, finally found the hall ok though.

bit odd that Danny Glover didn't have a VQ system until later on, not sure why SM didn't think he would need one. his handler told me he didn't have one then when i went back 20 mins later they were handing them out, fortunately i still got a reasonably low number.

venders were the usual load of overpriced tat, seems very little genuine memorabilia these days, it's 5 stalls of pokemon, 2 of sugary cakes and 12 of vinyl bobblehead-looking things.

room was pretty good, fairly spaced out and the temp was decent.

SM staff doing their usual idiotically persistant "move up move up" litany - do you all not have eyes? do you not see the people in the area already that might appreciate a little breathing space? do you not understand the concept of people maybe not liking strangers squashing up to them for no good reason - especially later in the day when they're likely sweaty and smelly? do you not grasp the fact that squashing up together makes it harder to get bags open at the time to get your items out? or risks an item getting bent or crumpled by someone bumping into you or catching you with their bag as they move, etc etc? do you think me moving 3" closer to the person in front is going to make things go faster? you're not enhancing anyone's convention experience or making things even remotely more efficient with your persistent whining, so either give it a rest or have the common sense to set up some snake-like barriers or something.

didn't quite get the in having us all snake up in the building then get let outside and back in through a different door, why not just make a gap at the end we could file through?

the guests i met were great, Danny and Christophe especially, and Kristanna was just sweet :-)

 

Man don't get me started on people invading my personal space. It might be more tolerable if people had a better grasp of personal hygiene, but many don't.

Thank you for making the point.

[charlesberg]

did anyone do that autograph authenticity thing? 

[BarcaScot]

I did the Saturday - been to London a good few times but this was my first one at NEC - and overall it was a really good day.  Just a couple of things let the show down slightly although with events of this size, there are always things that are going to go wrong.  As mentioned above, the queuing outside to then go inside, back outside and then in again was bizarre especially when not many people had their hand stamped to eventually get in.  Also the inside queuing area meant about one third of the hall was blocked off for the rest of the day which was wasted space, although I get with the NEC 'corridors' and the bus/taxi stops outside needing to be kept clear, there was probably no alternative.

The only other issue which was causing a problem (that I saw) was the VQ tickets for Danny Glover.  I got in for 9am and there was no VQ needed (apparently), came back about an hour later and one was in operation albeit tickets 1-150 were allowed in the queue, which was just about everyone.  Danny was a lovely guy and chatting to everyone, meaning the queue only ever went up in size, and frankly the guy manning it lost control.  He took tickets off everyone when they joined the queue and when you had to leave an hour later to go to a photoshoot, you had to fight to get them back.  A different crew member then told us to go away and come back in half an hour as we were causing a fire hazard and they needed the queue to go down, only to come back and find the queue was longer still and that second crew member was nowhere to be seen, aka be prepared to wait a long time.  I don't envy the crew at these events and pretty much every one of them is polite and super helpful, plus controlling a mob getting more and more angry is a thankless task.  I just feel that one thing got mis-managed, at the risk of being slightly negative (sorry SM).

Aside from those issues, no complaints from me.  Got to meet some lovely people - celebrities (one of which is a personal hero), crew members and other con-goers - and plenty of stalls and food availability, plus more room to move about than LFCC since it was quieter and less manic.  So overall, thanks Showmasters for another really good day out

[Hanklily]

I had a great two days, met kristanna after years of trying.. she didn’t disappoint. Danny Glover was lovely, they all were, valene Kane was beyond nice! I had two issues, victor meldrew queue was not called in batch order and although I did not go gold this year I made sure I was batch one for all photo shoots but somehow was behind batch 3 photoshoots and was told to join the back of the line, ok...... my other issue was sorted on the Sunday by a lovely gentleman in a red Showmasters tee!, thank u sir!!! My son got John Wesley shipp photoshoot on the Saturday and as John was in different photo area to my shoot at the time, he queued and got pic himself, he is 12, the photo was poorest quality I have seen in 5 years of Showmasters events and 6 years of conventions on a whole, u could not see their faces. I marched over and johns photoshoots had finished, I went and complained to a lady in a blue tee and was asked, what do you want out of a photo? Ummmm to see my sons face! Nothing I can do! Undeterred I took it with me on the Sunday and the kind gentleman in red agreed with me! S**t that’s horrible were his words! He promptly took my boy to the front of johns line and got a perfect pic, he ripped the other one up thankfully lol.. my son and I had 32 photoshoots between us and got all our desired autographs over the two days of my personal favourite event. Cannot wait until my 5th collectormania  event in 2019. Xxx

[natedammit]

8 minutes ago, Hanklily said:

my other issue was sorted on the Sunday by a lovely gentleman in a red Showmasters tee!,

Yeah, the blue shirts have rather limited powers. If you have an issue they can't help with, always hunt down a red shirt.

[andrewrolar]

My first con in many a year if ever,  that I've got all autos planned.

 

Even got Michael Owen's,  right at the death , although there was almost a time I gave up trying, as he was never there

[jakeblue]

20 hours ago, VanXant said:

it was ok. signage on the NEC itself was lacking, got early and there was nothing on the carpark signs as my email had said, finally found the hall ok though.

bit odd that Danny Glover didn't have a VQ system until later on, not sure why SM didn't think he would need one. his handler told me he didn't have one then when i went back 20 mins later they were handing them out, fortunately i still got a reasonably low number.

venders were the usual load of overpriced tat, seems very little genuine memorabilia these days, it's 5 stalls of pokemon, 2 of sugary cakes and 12 of vinyl bobblehead-looking things.

room was pretty good, fairly spaced out and the temp was decent.

SM staff doing their usual idiotically persistant "move up move up" litany - do you all not have eyes? do you not see the people in the area already that might appreciate a little breathing space? do you not understand the concept of people maybe not liking strangers squashing up to them for no good reason - especially later in the day when they're likely sweaty and smelly? do you not grasp the fact that squashing up together makes it harder to get bags open at the time to get your items out? or risks an item getting bent or crumpled by someone bumping into you or catching you with their bag as they move, etc etc? do you think me moving 3" closer to the person in front is going to make things go faster? you're not enhancing anyone's convention experience or making things even remotely more efficient with your persistent whining, so either give it a rest or have the common sense to set up some snake-like barriers or something.

didn't quite get the in having us all snake up in the building then get let outside and back in through a different door, why not just make a gap at the end we could file through?

the guests i met were great, Danny and Christophe especially, and Kristanna was just sweet :-)

 

They did have a gap at the end last year.

The biggest issue for me on Sunday was the lack of control over queuing for photoshoots as ive mentioned elsewhere.

[Hanklily]

1 hour ago, natedammit said:

Yeah, the blue shirts have rather limited powers. If you have an issue they can't help with, always hunt down a red shirt.

And kristanna did not cancel, Nate! Lol  so happy x

[BasG]

I had a great weekend, I got 19 autographs, did 7 photo shoots and went to 7 talks so it was a fairly busy one. I had a great time and I think this was one of my best cons.

On Saturday I arrived at the NEC at 9am. I was not able to get there any sooner as I was flying from Glasgow but not a bad time considering I was going to be there for the two days. My first priority was Adrian Emondonson as I knew he would be busy and he was only there on Saturday. I got number 197 which I was reasonably happy with and I got Adrian's autograph without any problems. Christophe Lamberts and Danny Glover were my headliners but I was not able to get their autographs on the Saturday so I made sure I joined the queue outside at 8am on the Sunday. I managed to get VT ticket number 9 for Christopher Lambert and then joined the Danny Glover queue. I got both autographs by 10am so from then on I could relax and enjoy myself .

I feel sorry for the people who missed out on Robert Englund but I am also a bit puzzled why he is all of a sudden so extremely popular? I have always been a big NOES fans and Robert was the first convention I guest I met in Glasgow in 2007 (my profile photo) and I remember how excited I was. Robert has always been popular but I never had any problems meeting him. I must have met Robert at least 3 times and in addition to that I have been to many other conventions Roberts attended but I chose not to meet him. Only so many Freddy autographs I need (and can afford). Whenever I used to get a pic signed by Amanda Wyss, Mark Patton etc. I always wanted Robert to sign it as well when his autographs were £15 and then £20 but at £35 he has become a little too expensive for that in my opninion. I know he is a slow signer because he likes a chat but he must have been the most popular guest in Birmingham even though Freddy vs. Jason was released 15 years ago and he has not been in any mainstream boxoffice hit since then? I saw someone on Facebook complaining that they missed out on a 'once in a lifetime opportunity' to meet Robert. Surely it is likely you will have another chance to meet him fairly soon? Have so many people only recently become aware of conventions? Whatever the reason I hope not too many people were put off by any bad experiences and learned a few con lessons: be there early and make sure you go on the Sunday as well if possible as it usually just that bit quieter and in my experience Showmasters on Sundays always try (and more often that not succeed) to resolve any issues that occurred on Saturdays.

[VanXant]

3 hours ago, Hanklily said:

I complained to a lady in a blue tee and was asked, what do you want out of a photo?

absolutely reprehensible that SM staff STILL have this atttitude. i remember the same attitude from London a few years ago when the "professional" photographer was unable to get pics in focus. seems nothing's changed and once they have the money the concern goes out the window?

[GreenArrow2046]

Met everyone I wanted to, I attend Showmasters events regularly so I know how it all works, All the guests I met were brilliant but I think my favourite has to be between Danny Glover and John Wesley Shipp, both great guests who were kind and talking away, I also want to give a shoutout to the guy at photo area C who got me through my lochlyn Munro photo shoot quicker as it clashed with my John Wesley Shipp one, all in all had a great day on Saturday, looking forward to next year Showmasters 

[cptpugwash]

only went saturday, the only thing i did not manage was christopher lambert auto, had #154 which was reached at 15:30 but he was away then did 2 photoshoots, by 17:15 he still was not back, so i left without as i had to leave.

[CosmicAvatar]

I thought the pre-loading queue was handled better this year - I felt a bit sorry for Giles and his unwinding tape (especially when some wags tried to play with it), but it felt fairer to me to tape up the lines as attendees arrived to fill them rather than have the lines all ready and loads of people just walk straight across them to join the back of the queue and potentially get ahead of those who'd patiently walked through the entire serpentine.

 

VQTs and queues were a bit out of control at times on the Saturday (especially with some popular guests very close to each other - the heat didn't help), but we managed OK (I didn't have much going on so was happy to go with the flow so long as I could escape to the fresh air from time to time).    Was there only briefly on Sunday to get a Sunday-only guest auto, but that was incredibly fast.  All my guests were lovely (as were the crew members I encountered), so I had a pretty good experience personally.

[posey1234]

On 03/06/2018 at 1:54 PM, homerj said:

All in all a great day, had all 5 autos I went for and 14 photoshoots. Michelle Ryans shoot was a bit late but managed to get there just about.

Ive just been on the Facebook page and read the many complaints about the show and I have to say most of these complaints are attendees faults and not the company. Other attendees pushing each other out of the way, jumping queues, fighting over VQ tickets. I read one that complained he couldn't get a guests auto after turning up at 11. Those of us veterans know that if you really want to meet someone then get there early. Another favourite was someone complaining because he couldn't have a chat with the guests at the desk - come on! If we all did that, there would be complaints.

 

 

Like I said - a large percentage of people had a great time. I agree there was an issue over batch numbers for photos and this was sorted straight away after it was pointed out to them.

Thats what i said on another thread i feel sorry for the crew in robert englund and danny glovees queue they had people shouting in there face and my kids saw it good way to scare kids the crew tried there best i thought they done well tbh

[natedammit]

3 hours ago, VanXant said:

absolutely reprehensible that SM staff STILL have this atttitude. i remember the same attitude from London a few years ago when the "professional" photographer was unable to get pics in focus. seems nothing's changed and once they have the money the concern goes out the window?

The blue shirts aren't staff, they are volunteers. They give up their time to try and make the con run smoothly, and without them we wouldn't have a show at all. In this situation Hank did the right thing, and a red shirt solved his problem.

[Queen_Sindel]

What Mr Bear said. Actually the Red Shirts - aka Pit Bosses - are volunteers too.

But a volunteer in a blue shirt can't simply take certain decisions like "this photo is out of focus, you can go through again". You need a Pit Boss for that, or Organisers Booth.

We have been repeating this for years, but apparently still not often enough.

[Jabberwocky50]

Very enjoyable day although a little hectic back and forth between photo shoots (13 in total I had for Saturday).  As an Arsenal fan chatting to the players from the 71 double winning team was amazing.  Also loved talking to Matt Zimmerman and Shane Rimmer who were both such  a joy to converse with .    

Had a major photo clash at the end of the day with Mark Williams & Valerie Leon. Having done Mark in "A"  I had to rush back to B fearing I missed her.  As I left  "A" who was there directly in front of me  but Valerie who had gone to the wrong  booth so ended up having a gently walk back to the right booth chatting with her along the way.  What a lovely lady.

[OurDek]

We arrived on Sunday dead on 9.00am, went inside the side room to get the bag check and hand stamp with the tickets scanned and then followed the guy rolling up his tape outside where we entered through the main entrance.   Rather a strange way of doing things, last year we were allowed straight out of the scanning area into the hall which was the same as this year.   First in the queue for Mark Williams, then Valene Kane, Beau & Dolly Gadson and Christopher Fairbank.   Autos done so off around the dealer room where it was the now-usual layout of Funko - Funko -  Lego -  T-Shirts -  Funko - artist - proper vintage merchandise - Funko.   I know the things are popular but when a large number of stalls have the same item at the same price it gets a bit ridiculous.   For those of us who've been in since the beginning (CM2) we miss the chance to find proper rare memorabilia.   It's actually getting harder to spend money at these events outside of the autographs.   Because I deal in film & TV memorabilia I used to be able to come to an event with a high 3 figure to low 4 figure budget and spend the lot, trading with a large number of dealers and coming away with a great deal of stuff to pass on.   I now have four semi-regular dealers at these events and rarely find anything else worthwhile.

Overall  a great morning out because we'd done it all by 11.30.   Collectormania is finding its feet again but it isn't a patch on the old Centre MK days.   Still better than the competition by far though!

[Daniel_Baker]

I was queuing for Bella on Saturday for quite a while before someone decided to let me jump to the front, I don't mind queuing but my wheelchair ends up causing an obstacle for everyone else, also some people cutting through the queues bashing into my chair and the medical equipment on the back (which helps me breathe) was not pleasant, they really need to jump chairs and scooters near the front straight away for practical reasons.  Similar happened with the Christopher Lambert group photo on the Sunday, winding between tape lines was fun.

Great experience again other than that and the new extra help system seemed to work well, thanks SM.

[andrewrolar]

11 hours ago, Jabberwocky50 said:

Very enjoyable day although a little hectic back and forth between photo shoots (13 in total I had for Saturday).  As an Arsenal fan chatting to the players from the 71 double winning team was amazing.  Also loved talking to Matt Zimmerman and Shane Rimmer who were both such  a joy to converse with .    

Had a major photo clash at the end of the day with Mark Williams & Valerie Leon. Having done Mark in "A"  I had to rush back to B fearing I missed her.  As I left  "A" who was there directly in front of me  but Valerie who had gone to the wrong  booth so ended up having a gently walk back to the right booth chatting with her along the way.  What a lovely lady.

She is indeed a lovely lady, as are all of her generation of "Carry on" actresses I've met (Madeline Smith,Angela Douglas, Jacki Piper)