The more times I go to things like Collectormania London (which took place this weekend just gone at London's Olympia 2 venue) the more I realize I'm not at the level of geekdom I thought. And this pleases me.
I don't do Cosplay. I have yet to dress up like Wonder Woman. And I have yet suppressed the urge to walk up to an increasingly pissed off looking Michael Biehn dressed as Arnie circa Terminator 2 and start shouting at him. These are all things we saw at Collectormania London.
My mission with these things is always straight forward. Get in, get my stuff signed, let the actors know how much I respect their work and get the hell out. But sadly this isn't always the way.
This time I was going to meet Carl Weathers, Cary Elwes and Michael Biehn and as soon as we arrived at the venue my flatmate Wayne and I grabbed tickets for all three. How it goes is you are given a numbered ticket and you check back every now and then to see if they are serving the correct number yet. For example I had number 195 for Carl Weathers and they were serving 1-100 when I got the ticket.
We had a wander round the hall first and saw quite a few people - some great guests this time around. There was prolific character actor Marshall Bell, Buffy star Mercedes McNab, the usual assortment of Star Wars guests who make their living at these events, and some real nobodies out of The Matrix , and kids who had one line of dialogue in Harry Potter.
After a while Carl Weathers was ready for us, so we met him. Sadly we were not allowed to have 'posed photographs' meaning the only photos you could take was during him signing. But worry not, he signed my Rocky boxset, I shook his hand and it was an amazing moment.
Next up was Cary Elwes, apparently doing his first European convention appearance. He also had the 'No Posed Photographs' sign above him but none of that mattered as he was one of the nicest guys I've met at these things. Asking how I was, thanking me for coming, it's little things like that which make the whole experience that more personal. And he also noticed Wayne had taken a less than satisfactory photo so he allowed him to take another one - this time with me in it! Take that sign! Top bloke.
Our tickets for Michael Biehn unfortunately were 273 and 274 respectively and he had spent the best part of 90 minutes on 1-70 and time was a factor for us. Thankfully we found our friend John who in turn is friends with someone who runs one of the DVD stands there and got a pass so we could jump the queue!
I can't blame him at all for this but I don't think Michael Biehn wanted to be there. We couldn't decide if he was hungover, ill or just in a bad mood but having a camera thrust in your face by a balding, middle aged virgin can't help. The sheer rudeness of that guy, and many others like them is just amazing. When I want a photo with someone in this situation I politely ask and am in the photo too. Guys like this walk up with a expensive camera, don't ask anything and just shove it in their face. But he seemed nice enough managed to get a smile and a handshake out of the guy.
We left not long after that, but not before noticing the guy who played Mayor Goldie Wilson in the Back To The Future films has not aged a day, and also almost being evacuated because the Pizza Hut next door was on fire.
All in all it was a good day out. Well I say day, but you can only really walk around once or twice once you've met who you want to mainly due to the cringey embarrassment caused from people dressed like Stormtroopers, Judge Dredd, a little person dressed as Yoda...hell I went to the toilets in there (note to self: never again) and took a leak next to a guy dressed as a Ghostbuster.
I just like to get my films signed where I can, and it's always a good story to tell people how you met soandso but some of these attendees give movie fans a bad name (and jeez are they aggressive, I got shoved out of the way 2 or 3 times by people trying to look at things - maybe they lack the necessary social skills from living in their parents basements for so long).
Anyway, before I even start talking about the Anime and Cosplay lot (Urgh) I shall sign off and link you to some photos we got. Enjoy.
2 comments:
awsome youve met so many people now! sounds like u had a great time =)
You're right, Michael Biehn doesn't look very happy to be there AT ALL, but sounds like you had a great day regardless - even if it sounds mightly like Norwich Sci Fi Festival multiplied *gulp* lol
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