I actually booked in advance, meaning early entry, so my partner-in-crime was up at the crack of dawn to drive round to pick me up, then get us both to Birmingham as close to the 9am opening as possible. We made excellent time, despite a brief stop for petrol and another 'service' break en route, arriving somewhere in the region of 9.30am.
Yet again, I am amazed by the difference in organisation between Memorabilia and the London Expo but, rest assured, I shall do a full compare-and-contrast at the end of May, following the next London show. Both use PDF tickets, which are printed out and waved in front of barcode readers at the entrance. Getting into Memorabilia was a breeze... but then, isn't it always?
At first glance, it looked like a small show - typical for spring, I guess - but a quick spin around the outside of the hall revealed that the whole thing was being used, but the stuff up the back was all low-lying, very much obscured by the big, brash stalls that occupied the bulk of the space.
And, wow, what a selection. Detailed breakdown of my haul in a moment, but the first stall that caught my attention had stacks of TRON Legacy stuff - literally stacks of it: one of the guys operating the stall said they'd picked it all up at a "cheaper-than-wholesale" price, and other vendors had bought up a chunk of their stock to supplement what they'd brought themselves. Of course, when this stall is selling an average of about £10 cheaper than high street, you'd have to be pretty bonkers to buy from someone who's adding anywhere between £5 and £10 to the average high street price.
For example, I picked up the smaller-sized Kevin Flynn Lightcycle for £5 - a whole £10 off normal price. The larger, updated Lightcycle (pull-back motor, electronic lights and sounds, two ramps!) weighed in at £8 (another £10 saving), and the super-deluxe, part die-cast Sam Flynn Identity Disc (electronic lights and sounds) was a mere £10 (bringing my total saving on my first purchase of the day to £30!).
The guy I spoke to had kept some of the stock for himself - wisely, as I remember the merchandise from the first film all but disappearing, and fetching hefty sums on eBay - and was pleased to have sold so much to other vendors, but distinctly unhappy about their markups. Even so, he expected to have sold out completely by the end of the show. I was offered the Recognizer set, with the small (die cast? can't remember) vehicle models but, despite its amusing lights and sounds (on what's effectively just a carry-case!), I passed. It's way too bulky, and there were other things on my shopping list.
So... What else did I get? Feast your eyes...
As part of the entrance package, there's the Voltron Collection One DVD set - absolutely free. The other DVDs are the Claymore boxed set (which I tried to find at Forbidden Planet recently, and have so far only found online for about £30+), Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimetres Per Second (which I forgot to look for last time I was in Uxbridge) and Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (the first movie remixed, not a new edition of Innocence, since I had the original movie on VHS but hadn't yet 'upgraded' to the DVD release). How much did this little lot set me back? A mere £11
Yes, you read that right. Eleven pounds.
Manga Entertainment were pushing a chunk of their catalogue - old and new - very aggressively (well, tiny stall but very compelling prices), the new DVDs were £5 (yes, the Claymore boxed set was £5 - £10 less than one volume if bought separately) and GitS2.0 was one quid. I think this was my second proper stop of the show, and I was already making out like a bandit in terms of savings. Seriously, I expected them to tell me the price labels were a mistake... or to just send Security after me when I walked off with eight DVDs after handing over only £11.
Of course, this all came to an end when I started picking up TransFormers... Prices averaged £15 for a Deluxe, so I tried to only pick up the things I don't expect to see in the shops for a while. I did see one Animated Rodimus... for £25. I could have bought him... part of me regrets not doing so... but, however rare he may be, I object to paying £25 for what should have been a mass release, and I'm not that keen on the mold anyway. Arcee might have been different, but I didn't see her.
I picked up the one and only Hunt for the Decepticons Highbrow I saw - an awesome-looking plane that becomes a very... unique robot. Generations/War For Cyberton Soundwave was a no-brainer... though I must confess I find his alternate mode - a wheeled vehicle, for crying out loud - rather unimaginative. It's Soundwave, though, so I'm inclined to forgive. For the Autobots (whose shelves I've only just rearranged, so I'll be sorting them out all over again soon) I picked up Kup and Wreck Gar, so I may put together a shelf of TF Animated Movie characters, apart from my general Classics shelf, allowing me to give more prominence to the Parallax/Ultra Magnus upgrade set and Warbot Defender... and I may add in the G1 coloured live action movie Arcee, just to round it out, since I have no intention of purchasing any of the roundly terrible third party versions of her. The Decepticons are to be supplemented by Scourge (I still sincerely doubt I'll bother getting Classics Galvatron - there are way too many TankFormers, and I have no wish to encourage them), Skullgrin (Straxus/Darkmount is a cool model, and this G1 Pretender homage is a decent reuse of that mold) and Dirge (while I have the BotCon version from a couple of years ago, he's just a repaint of Ramjet).
What did I pass on? Well, aside from the overpriced Animated Rodimus, I decided to hold fire on Wheeljack (love the Tracks mold, but with my Autobots shelf pretty full right now, I can afford to wait) and Thunderwing (another Pretenders homage, but it looks a bit crappy, and I'm not so much of a fanboy that the character - big in the comics - held any significant appeal) and Perceptor (which I may reconsider, since he was quite prominent in the animated movie, but I'm not too fussed about a weird looking half-track that turns into a too-strong homage to the G1 robot).
There were also things like the Targetroids, which look pretty cool and have met with decent reviews, Masterpiece Rodimus Prime (probably just outside my price range, and I'm not madly keen on it anyway - would prefer the Protector upgrade set for Classics Rodimus), the USB adaptor Device Label Blaster, and probably several other bits and bobs that didn't quite tickle my fancy far enough.
All in all, the show was pretty awesome. Amazing, considering the winter shows are generally the best. Guest-wise, there wasn't much of particular interest... Russell Tovey and Sinead Keenan were there to represent Being Human (half hour panel in the afternoon, plus spending lots of time signing autographs and being filmed on camcorders and phones), Dirk Benedict from The A-Team and the original Battlestar Galactica and the remaining cast of 'Allo 'Allo were the Retro TV contingent, and the whole sports area was easily bypassed. I did almost walk into Warwick Davis as he wandered the floor before taking to his booth, but that's the closest I came to any of the stars.
The only other purchase I made at the show was a couple of the closeout T-shirts from Genki Gear, who are preparing to unleash their new range in a couple of months.
We were there for about two hours, all told, and it was a very satisfying experience, though I did feel a nagging pang of guilt that I hadn't found anything to be used as presents in upcoming birthdays... Plenty of time for most, though... I hope. I may spend the next few days remembering things I should have gone back for, but it was good to be in and out before the crowds took over.
On the way back, we stopped off in Stratford, having lunch with a friend of my companion and taking a wander round the marina (picking up icecreams along the way) and visiting a shop that specialises in remaindered books, in which I bought one of those poseable wooden artists' models for a mere £3. I've been after one for years, but either can't find them when I look, find them too expensive, or only see them when I'm not in a position to buy one.
I ended the day with almost £100 still in my pocket which is pretty much unheard of when I've actually bought stuff at a show. Granted, I did pass on a few things I needn't have... but there's still the London Expo to come, and I don't know how much interesting new stuff will be there...
