How's everyone's weekend going?

[Faerie Tanith]

Obligatory lament about how dead the forum is these days...

How's everyone finding the con? I'm back from my one day there (considered doing Sunday too but decided not to) and it was a good one yet again. Still very bitter and upset over Olivia Cooke's last second cancellation, and it did knock a lot of my enthusiasm for the event, but I still made the most of it with the other House of the Dragon guests and got some good merch. I found today a lot quieter than most Saturdays though. LFCC doesn't feel as grand as it used to somehow.

[yellowmarlin]

I’m only doing tomorrow. Hoping to meet Clark Gregg, Mike Colter and Lochlyn Munro. I see they all attended today, so that’s encouraging.

Edited July 9, 2023 by yellowmarlin
Typo

[Faerie Tanith]

Honestly I'm relieved I chose not to go tomorrow as well because the only person I would have wanted to meet is Eve Best and she's cancelled too 

[dodge15]

I keep thinking that I've missed something with how quiet the forum is, I even (naively) kept the forum tab open on my phone when I arrived this morning expecting lots of activity of people excited or reporting who they'd seen arrive like years gone by. What happened? Was it covid? Has interest just dwindled? There used to be like 10 regular mods all frequently commenting and helping but no more.

Anyway, I made the decision to get a 3 hour train each way on my own for the first time to visit this weekend, the guest list wasn't amazing, even less so with all the cancellations but I managed to get 6 hours out of it, spent a fortune on stalls, met Danny Trejo and Lochlyn Munro (had to meet someone in the end) and had quite a few chats with other con-goers. Overall quite good but nothing on the past shows.

I think today was my last event to be fair

[MVronsky78]

Same as everyone else, It's a shame the forum has died, I can't quite figure out why that is, but this year the guest list seemed to die with it.  Unless you like '80s action stars (and of course many do), it really was slim pickings.  For a Summer Con, this was definitely the weakest summer event since I started going in 2011 - however, that is exacerbated by the amazing line-ups we had from 2015-2019.  Like Faerie, I was pretty much only going for Olivia Cooke so that was a blow when she cancelled on Friday evening (you can't blame SM for this, clearly the House of the Dragons guests were all delayed by filming, 3 have dropped out last minute)

Out of desperation I met the 2 Stranger Things guests, Temeura Morrison (nice guy, but ouch the price) and I had a photo with Jessica Henwick.  On Saturdays in the past I would have met 12 quality guests.

In normal circumstances I wouldn't have met any of the people I did today, lovely as they are, but I felt I had to make some sort of day of it - though I did attend 4 talks to pass the time, some were good, some not so good.  We can only hope they are able to build back up to that kind of level again.  I'm getting on now but would still go dependent on the guest list, but to be honest had I known in advance that Olivia Cooke had cancelled, I would have stayed at home this weekend!

[Faerie Tanith]

I've heard a lot of people say that they've gone from a huge amount of meets over the weekend to barely any lately. Myself included. I met 6 guests this time and they were mostly made up of people I decided to see last minute just because I could, and that 6 is a huge number compared to the slim pickings from the last few years. At my busiest I was getting in 15 or so guests over a weekend. 

[yellowmarlin]

16 hours ago, yellowmarlin said:

I’m only doing tomorrow. Hoping to meet Clark Gregg, Mike Colter and Lochlyn Munro. I see they all attended today, so that’s encouraging.

As MV and FT have said, I’m meeting fewer guests now than I did pre-Covid. Only 3 this time (all this morning before 11) and none in the spring, when I spend £40 on a Lego minifig just to justify the entry fee.

All three today were lovely; it was great to finally meet Clark Gregg, I couldn’t believe that Mike Colter was open queue, and Lochlyn Munro has an anecdote for every eventuality. 

[Mfahey79]

I only came as my hotel was non refundable. Otherwise I was tempted to not come this year.

Friday was really quiet, managed to get all the autographs i needed by lunchtime, and that included Temuera Morrison on a virtual ticket. 

Although a little perplexed they didnt have all the ewok actors in one place, rather than half upstairs half downstairs.

Saturday must be the first time I've not come away with any autographs, just had a wander round the stalls. And was back at my hotel by lunchtime

Today, I was just here to get Adrian Rawlins autograph before heading home. He had a fairly long que.

This is also the first year I've not booked any photoshoots.

But overall the show was quieter and hardly any activities or things to see. Wasnt there supposed to have been a Star Wars ship exhibit. If it was there I couldn't find it

 

[Mfahey79]

15 minutes ago, yellowmarlin said:

As MV and FT have said, I’m meeting fewer guests now than I did pre-Covid. Only 3 this time (all this morning before 11) and none in the spring, when I spend £40 on a Lego minifig just to justify the entry fee.

All three today were lovely; it was great to finally meet Clark Gregg, I couldn’t believe that Mike Colter was open queue, and Lochlyn Munro has an anecdote for every eventuality. 

I only went to meet the ewok actors, as if I didnt my meet list would have been 4 or 5

[Faerie Tanith]

Really quite sad and perplexing that so many long-time attendees are feeling this way :/ 

[Sebster118]

I’m here all 3 days.

Friday was quiet. I only got one autograph, and a friend got Temuera Morrison’s autograph by lunchtime that he decided to go to a cinema in the afternoon.

Yesterday was busy and my friend decided to settle for half the autographs he planned to get before taking the coach back home, while I had some company with some fellow cosplayers before having a photoshoot with Matt Smith.

Today, I’ve only been to Sylvester McCoy’s talk, and waiting for his costume photoshoot.

[LadyDeTemps]

Well I did Friday and Saturday. Definitely felt quieter more like lfcc spring. But it was quite nice as I was able to get round stalls and get the autograph I wanted.

Thanks to train delays I thought I had missed opportunity to get a vq for Amanda Tapping on Friday but managed to walk straight up and no wait. She was really lovely. 

There was a nice selection of stalls I actually bought stuff this time as it wasn't wall to wall celeb prints and funko pops.

Got my photo on Saturday with Amanda and the talk was good. 

Moving around on Saturday was a lot easier than normal there was even some spots to sit on the floor left when I stopped for lunch. 

 

[LSM]

This is the first Summer LFCC that I've not attended in over 10 years as the guest list didn't appeal to me personally. That said, had there not been any cancellations I'd have only had 2 names as opposed the 10+ names of years gone by.

Funny I've been talking to friends about this as we're all in the position that we only want to get the odd name here and there now.

Perhaps it's just an age thing. A lot of the guests that get booked are for shows I simply don't watch, and it's designed for a new generation of convention goers. Whether or not they will spend the same amount of money like the previous generation only time will tell but it is interesting to read that it appeared to a quieter summer show from years gone by.

I think the generational thing may also reflect in this fan forums decline. I dare say it's easier and more convenient for people to do things on social media platforms now as opposed to logging into fan forums.

I maybe wrong on all of the above and apologies for my ramblings, just thought I'd throw my two cents in for what it's worth. I certainty hope that SM do improve as I've not been to the last few major shows and that's a shame as I really used to like the experience.

[BasG]

I had an absolute blast yesterday at my first LFFC since 2016, when Dolph Lundgren and Rutger Hauer were my main guests. Chuck Norris, Cynthia Rothrock and Scott Adkins are names I thought I'd never see at a Showmasters event. When Chuck was announced I knew I had to travel to London. I travelled down to London from Glasgow on the overnight Megabus because accommodation was so expensive on the Saturday night (a gruelling trip with a two-hour delay but so worth it!) and will travel back by train to Scotland this afternoon. I have to say that I was lucky that none of the cancellations were big names for me. All six guests I met (photo shoots and autographs) were fantastic. I appreciate that many of the more 'traditional' SM fandoms were perhaps ot served as well as in previous years but this edition was right up my street.

[Wrong Name]

I think there are two reasons why this forum is dead these days. Of course, covid is one as that caused some controversial decisions by some companies that put people off, but I also think the loss of the well known mods on here had a big impact as well. 

[yellowmarlin]

3 hours ago, LSM said:

This is the first Summer LFCC that I've not attended in over 10 years as the guest list didn't appeal to me personally. That said, had there not been any cancellations I'd have only had 2 names as opposed the 10+ names of years gone by.

Funny I've been talking to friends about this as we're all in the position that we only want to get the odd name here and there now.

Perhaps it's just an age thing. A lot of the guests that get booked are for shows I simply don't watch, and it's designed for a new generation of convention goers. Whether or not they will spend the same amount of money like the previous generation only time will tell but it is interesting to read that it appeared to a quieter summer show from years gone by.

I think the generational thing may also reflect in this fan forums decline. I dare say it's easier and more convenient for people to do things on social media platforms now as opposed to logging into fan forums.

I maybe wrong on all of the above and apologies for my ramblings, just thought I'd throw my two cents in for what it's worth. I certainty hope that SM do improve as I've not been to the last few major shows and that's a shame as I really used to like the experience.

I can’t disagree with any of this. It sums it up very well, I think.

[natedammit]

3 hours ago, Wrong Name said:

I think there are two reasons why this forum is dead these days. Of course, covid is one as that caused some controversial decisions by some companies that put people off, but I also think the loss of the well known mods on here had a big impact as well. 

I blame you. 

[Wrong Name]

31 minutes ago, natedammit said:

I blame you. 

I knew you would.

[scifisteve]

I blame Twitter, that and the cost of living, 

 

[natedammit]

1 hour ago, Wrong Name said:

I knew you would.

I should explain. Everybody likes you, because you're great, so when you started posting less loads of people thought "well, what's the point if Wrong Name isn't here?" You're an influencer. Those that remained were left with me and that just drove the rest off. 

[Mfahey79]

This must have been the first time we didnt even have a general chat forum in the build up

[Mfahey79]

It was strange today going back to work, normally I'm buzzing about who I met, even my boss asked to see photos to see if he recognised anyone. He was very surprised when I said I had no photos with anyone.

I'll still book next year off to attend, but might not book tickets until closer the show

[wjbleming]

Guest list for me and bro was down this year as well. Had 6 on our list when that would’ve been closer to 20 pre COVID, but we spread it across all 3 days of the con and had time to dander round London in our spare time, which I can’t complain about either, as we could pass the time with Niantic’s location based games.

Friday just had 1 guest: Amanda Tapping, who was really sweet! Managed to get her autograph and photoshoot done on Friday and was heading on by 2.30, 3pm.

Saturday was the long day, as we were there shortly after 9 for VQ tickets and had 4 guests to meet: Clark Gregg, Ian De Caestecker, Mike Coulter and Jessica Henwick. Clark and Jessica were very quiet when getting their autographs but a bit more lively doing the photoshoots (pleased with my thumbs up Henwick photoshoot!) and Mike Coulter and Ian De Caestecker we’re talkative during their autograph sessions, a bit of humour from Mike and Ian asked where I was from (and connected the dots when the brother met him, who was 2 behind me thanks to a dealer bunking the queue)

Sunday left us with 1 last guest, Adrian Rawlings, who I knew as James Potter from the HP movies. He was talkative during the autograph, and after a quick chat about getting old got his auto. Was finished with Sunday by around 11, 11.30 after Adrian’s photoshoot, and that left us to do some Pokémon Go that afternoon and some Ingress that evening. (Didn’t get back to the hotel till about 8pm after about 12 miles walking that day. Geez, I was wrecked!

It’s a shame it was quieter this year, but at the same time, as someone who’s not in London much, I didn’t mind the chance to view London a bit more, even if it was through the eyes of an AR gamer.

[Faerie Tanith]

3 hours ago, Mfahey79 said:

This must have been the first time we didnt even have a general chat forum in the build up

I didn't even notice that. Definitely going to have to make one for next time! I'll revive this forum in any way I can so help me GOD.

3 hours ago, wjbleming said:

It’s a shame it was quieter this year, but at the same time, as someone who’s not in London much, I didn’t mind the chance to view London a bit more, even if it was through the eyes of an AR gamer.

Hell even while wandering around the stalls on saturday I was spinning Olympia's pokestops just to kill some time.

[wjbleming]

1 minute ago, Faerie Tanith said:

Hell even while wandering around the stalls on saturday I was spinning Olympia's pokestops just to kill some time.

Likewise! lol. Took the Olympia West gym a few times (as it was closer than the Recharge Point) but insta kicks are always a thing during comic con. lol

(And of course the brother gets a shiny whilst at comic con… )