The problem with going to Collectormania on a Sunday is that you're pretty much guaranteed to find a huge chunk of the cool stuff is already gone. The problem with Collectormania at the CentreMK is that it's shoehorned into one area of courtyard that's way too small for this kind of event. Once you place all the star guests, there's very little room for the vendors, and I get the impression that many are no longer attending because there's not enough room for a good display.
But hey, it's free entrance. Take that into account, and you can almost forgive the annoying, barging enthusiasts, and the idiots who think it's sensible to drive a pram through crowded, narrow walkways between stalls.
And the good news is that the next one - planned for early next year - has a whole new venue - at the local football stadium. Whether they'll be on the pitch or in the corridors remains to be seen, but I'd like to give it a try. Can't be any worse than Earls Court 2.
There were a couple of stall selling TransFormers, and I managed to grab the last Animated Voyager Optimus Prime - which seems rather hard to find in my neck of the woods - for a whole £2 cheaper than Voyagers at Toys'R'Us, so I was quite chuffed. He's turned out to be a bit of a disappointment - in terms of build quality, it feels kind of like a knock-off. Bits don't fit very well, parts don't clip together as they should, things fall off... but it's still pretty cool overall. Poseable and dynamic, with plenty of character. A bit of superglue will probably fix my biggest concerns.
I passed on Premium Series movie Bumblebee because they seem to have used matte paint. Anyone who's seen the movie would know that seriously shiny gloss was in order. Battle-damaged Arcee piqued my interest for a few moments, but I decided to pass... Though I almost regret that now, as I really like the mold.
So other than Optimus, all I got for myself was a couple of new t-shirts from the almost omnipresent Retro GT - a new design of 'Health Food' and a cool scanline effect Space Invader.
Although I've already got birthday and Christmas presents for my mother this year, I couldn't help but pick up another of the dragons in ex-Enchantica artist Andrew Bill's new line, Bookwyrms - Black Beauty certainly lives up to its name.
After we'd tired of the show - and having cleaned out the American foodstuffs shop for everything that tickled out fancy - some general retail therapy ensued as we wandered around the CentreMK to make the most of the visit.
It's actually quite a nice shopping centre - like Brent Cross, but (mainly) on one level only, and rather less chavvy. That said, my companion did point out several people with very dubious dress sense, and they weren't even in costume for Collectormania. On that subject, one passer-by (dressed in vest, slack trousers and miscellaneous tattoos) commented that she didn't understand why people dressed up for that sort of thing: "It's just pathetic". Right.
On the way back, we took the scenic route, just for fun, and visited a pub my companion hadn't been to for many years, then drove back to London via Leighton Buzzard. Quite a pleasant journey, on what had turned out to be a really lovely day. Mornings are getting chillier - my windows were steamed up again today - but the days have been bright and clear.
Shame it's getting dark so quickly now.
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